Lost & Found

We made a quick trip to Walmart before preschool. I needed to get a few things for Morgan's teacher appreciation gift. At the end of the candy aisle, Zane started begging for a 10lb (okay maybe not, but it was BIG) bag of assorted candy. He even promised to share them with Morgan. My answer was still no.  I told him I had one more thing on my list and then we would pay. "Come this way," I said and turned to walk down the aisle.

Part way down, I turned to see if Zane was following. He was gone. I went back and look both directions. I looked on the nearby aisles. How could he just disappear in 15 seconds? After a few minutes, that felt like hours, retracing our steps I still could not find him.

I went to customer service and asked if she could help me find my son. She asked for his name and then announced it over the intercom. I looked at her puzzled and said, "He's five. He won't know what that means, if he even heard it." I tried to be nice but I think it came out kinda mean.

I stood there for a few seconds and watched some grungy looking truck drivers coming and going. Then panic started to set in. We were so close to the front door when he vanished. Someone could have taken him. Now it had been 8 minutes since I last saw him. I couldn't just stand there and hope he heard his name.

I started searching again. I looked under clothes racks and was about to start screaming his name. I saw another associate and asked for help again. This time she asked what he was wearing and called a Code Adam. THANK YOU!

It only took about 30 seconds and another associate had found him. I almost burst into tears when  she brought him to me with his tear stained cheeks. I hugged him tight! I thanked the ladies for their help and we went to pay.