Rarely though do we come into contact with lost children...but yesterday it happened to us.
We were taking a nice quiet walk around the neighborhood, but something was different this time.
I see 2 children running down the block, and as they get closer, I see they are not playing, but running scared.
The taller, older girl is ahead of a smaller boy.
As the girl is within speaking distance, her whole face breaks into tears and she starts sobbing loudly.
Not knowing if they were in some imminent danger, I asked quickly what was wrong and were they in danger.
By now the little boy has caught up with his sister and they--taking turns--saying they are lost.
We start asking more questions.
Are you from around here? No, they are visiting from NY.
What is the address of where they are staying? Don't know.
What the name of the people they are staying at? Don't know.
Where are their parents? Don't know--they told them to go out and run around the (strange) neighborhood.
How old are they? The girl is 7 and the boy is just 4.
We told these 2 little kids not to worry that we would help them find their way back and that we wouldn't leave them until we did.
Immediately, we headed back from where they had come from to backtrack and find their parents.
The boy and girl took turns running ahead, crying, afraid they were not going to find the house they came from and saying the streets here are so curvy unlike the square blocks where they are from in NY.
As we kept going around, I started to get leg pain, as I am still on a cane myself from recent surgery, and we were rushing to find their home in the midday Summer sun.
We made it down a long block, looking this way and that with the kids--turned the corner...then again the same thing...down another block...although we try to calm them, as we kept going, the kids get more panicky that they were just completely lost.
Finally, thank G-d, a lady in the distance...the kids start running...they recognize her immediately...it's their mother.
The lady sees us behind them bringing them home to her...she picks up the little girl who makes it to her first...so glad to have her kids back.
She waves to us...a quick sort of thanks--and turns and walks away.
That was it...she didn't say a word and was gone before we even caught up.
The kids were really sweet--they were also fortunate--and I hope they are okay and never have to experience anything like that again.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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