Little Boy Lost

We went to "Kindagym" at the Trout Lake Community centre today.

It's a fun thing for the kids to do, huge room, well, gymnasium, I guess. Not familiar with gyms really, so I guess they're all big rooms. Anyway, big room with lots of cool toys. Backyard kind of toys, large things, made of plastic, multi-coloured, cool stuff if you're less than 3 feet tall.

Tanner had made a beeline for the "castle". Not a multi-coloured castle, a grey one, but made of plastic nonetheless. There's a door and a slide and a turret and everything.

He was having a great time and I was just talking with another dad, when I looked down.

There he was, bottom lip wobbling, but not really crying, looking up at me and the other dad.

"What's the matter pal?" I asked

He garbled something that was totally incoherent.

Josh (the other dad) said ""what's up buddy?"

This was obviously a more recognizable question and not spoken in a foreign language because the response came back.

" I, I, I can't find my mum"

Now that he had said it out loud there were tears.

You have to bear in mind, that in a room where there are 20 or so adults and he's talking to the only 2 fellas, Finding his mum was a daunting task for me and Josh.

Even a 3 year old knows that you're not supposed to talk to strangers. But do 3 year olds know what "strange" means?

The look on his face when I ventured my next question told me he hadn't, but he did now.

"What does she look like?

The look said "ah, this is what they mean by strange. That dude's 285lbs, talks funny, and asks stupid questions. That has to be "strange" "

I wasn't sure if he was listening so I had made another attempt.

"Can you see her?" I asked gesturing around the room from my 6' 2" vantage point.

There was a plastic castle obscuring his view.

He'd stopped sobbing at least. Totally bewildered by the stupid questions, I guess.

I have to say that it is quite awkward trying to talk to a kid you don't know. I thought about rushing over and scooping up Tanner in an attempt to say "Look, it's okay, I'm a dad, I'm not strange" but I didn't. I just asked the same stupid question again.

"What does she look like"

No answer. I wanted to ask "what is she wearing? Is she Blonde? Brunette? Redhead? Is she fat? Thin? Is she cute?

I asked again "what does she look like?

No sooner had the words left my mouth when the quizzical look fell away from his face

"she, she, she, looks, she looks, she looks like my mum."

"Of course she does" I said

It was at this point Josh took over, picked him up and started walking towards the woman who was obviously looking for her child.