Little Boy Lost

Today, I was driving home with a carload of dogs (one of of whom barks aggressively at the slightest provocation…) when I noticed, in a neighborhood adjacent to a busy street, a little boy running, way too young to be out on his own. Maybe two or three years old? He was confusedly running toward the busy intersection. I Instinctively scanned in lookout for the nearest outdoor neighbor, and discovered someone out front, a couple houses away, polishing his car. I asked him if his child was out roaming. He said, ‘No,’ and before I had a chance to say anything more, and only simply pointed (with my dog barking aggressively), he was in hot pursuit toward this lost child.

As I circled back around, he had stopped the child, right at the busy intersection. I tried to communicate with him, but my aggressive dog was barking crazily, as usual, deafening any sounds I attempted to make. I gave this man thumbs up and pointed the direction from which the child had been running. I then drove around the block and happened upon a man looking around anxiously. I asked him if he was missing someone, and he said, ‘Yes!’

I pointed him to the corner where I had originally seen the little boy, then drove around the block again, where I saw the car-polishing man, standing next to the child, calling on the phone. The child was crying, this man trying to console him… I pulled over and let them know that his person was looking for him, just ahead. This man walked the crying child to the corner, toward ehich I presume was his dad, and I watched as the two lovingly reunited, with a scratch on the head.

I keep thinking about this man who so quickly sprung into intuitive action, to help this little boy, and it makes me feel happy to have seen such a thing.

(The attached video was a ballad about a similar thing; ‘Little Boy Lost’ popped into my head as I was reflecting on what just happened, and when I googled it, this video popped up. Eerily, the boy in the video was quite similar to the lost boy I encountered today…)