a lost boy

chapter 1

WEDGIE” I yell, while picking up my son by the back of his briefs.

“Daddy” he said, giggling in the air, reaching behind for my grip.

I put him down after a minute or two, and let him put everything back in its place. When he’s done I kiss him on the forehead, pick him up, and put him on my shoulders and make our way to the kitchen.

“MOMMY, MOMMY, LOOK, LOOK” he squealed, as he let go of my chin and fell backwards, and hung upside down, due to me holding onto his small feet.

“I AM A ACO-RO-BAT” He squeeked, holding his shirt down.

“Wow bubby,” she said, putting down the knife. She walked over to us and bent down to where his head was and kissed him a bunch on the face, while holding his cheeks with her hands. He giggles while trying to push her away. When she’s done He reaches up and barely grabs my shirt color and pulls himself up.

“Are you ready for the trip tomorrow?” I ask him, putting him down

“What trip?” he asked, readjusting his balance.

“Me and mommy want to take you camping tomorrow, with maw-maw and pap-pap”

He audibly gasped, jumped up and hugged me, and soon ran over and hugged his mom while squealing with joy.

“I love camping!!” he yelled

“I know bub, we will go tomorrow when we get everything put together”

I leaned down and kissed him on the head.

”But you have to get ready for bed….Or……the forest monster will get you” I said, chasing after him.

 We ran through the living room, up the stairs and made it to the door of the bathroom before I picked him up and laid him on the ground and shoved my face into his belly, as if I were the monster eating him.

“Daddy Stoooop!” He said laughing. I grabbed him by the armpits and hoisted him up to my chest, kissed him on the nose, rested him on my left arm so that his legs were on both my stomach and my back. I opened the door to the bathroom, set jack down and followed him in.

“Lets brush your teeth bud” I said, closing the door behind us. He runs over to the sink stepping on the step stool we have there for him. I walked over and put some toothpaste on his toothbrush and started brushing his teeth for him, then handing the toothbrush to him.

A few minutes later we walk out of the bathroom, and make our way to his room, where his mom was waiting. We walk in his hand in mine and make it to the bed, before he falls, and stops moving.

“Jack, Jack, bubba can you hear me?” I said while holding his head off of the floor. 

“Jack?”

He starts to slowly open his eyes. Gripping my hand slightly, while I pull him upwards into a sitting position, with his hand in mine, and the other in his mothers.

“Are you ok buddy” Ana asks. 

He climbs up into his bed, gets under his blanket, and faces the opposite direction of us.

“We love you jack” we said kissing a part of his head

As me and Ana started to fall asleep I set an alarm for 8:00am.

And we both fell asleep.

I hear the ringing of my alarm going off, I reach over to turn it off, but hit snooze instead. I walk over to the bathroom, brush my teeth, clean my face, and fix my bed head.

I make my way to Jack’s room and open the door, just to find a messy but empty bed. I throw his pillow back onto his bed and head downstairs to be greeted by a cracked front door. 

I ran the rest of the way downstairs to check outside and find nothing. I closed the door and walked slowly around the house and here my alarm go off again. I ignored it and grabbed the house phone and called the police.

Two hours of anxious searching and consistent thoughts spinning through my head later, I found myself sitting on the kitchen floor, wishing I was able to prevent this, wishing I could find him myself. Wishing it was me instead.