Close Call

I was the child that almost disappeared

I’ve had a number of close calls in my lifetime.

I’ve had close calls before I was even born, according to my mother. But the earliest one I remember was when I was about 4 years old. So much could have gone wrong that day.

I was a quiet child with a rich inner world, a look-alike of Marsha Brady on the Brady Bunch with my long, straight, strawberry blonde hair. I am the oldest of two daughters. We lived in sunny southern California in a little box rancher until I was 8 years old. We had bird-of-paradise flowers in front of our house. There was an empty field across the street that the carnival would visit once a year. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Looking back, it was amazing I survived my childhood. I had a number of close calls that should have rendered me obsolete. And one afternoon, I could have easily disappeared…

I grew up in a time when children played outside freely without supervision. I loved being outside, exploring. I was only about 4 at the time, and I was outside on another sunny day playing in my backyard, exploring every crevice and imaging stories in my head. Sometimes I would play with an older girl that lived behind us in a duplex. That day, she wasn’t there. Maybe she was at school.

Fast Food Sandwich

Early in the afternoon, I got hungry. I wanted an Arby’s sandwich. I knew if I went in and asked my mother, she would probably say ‘no’, and make me something to eat. I really wanted that sandwich. There was an Arby’s a mile up the road, and I knew how to get to it. Even then I was excellent at remembering where everything in my world was located and how to get to places. So, I decided I was going to go get one.

I didn’t want to walk all that way, so I grabbed my little red tricycle, and off I rode down the street.

Two blocks away, I came to a major 2 lane road. A main artery through the town and it was always busy. I knew to take a left, and started peddling down the shoulder. Cars whizzed by quickly, but I paid no mind, my thoughts were on getting an Arby’s roast beef sandwich.

I had no concept of money back then; I thought I could just go and ask, and they just gave you what you wanted. Why would mom say ‘no’ to that? I could see the Arby’s in the distance and I was aiming straight for it. Cars whizzing by so close…

The Strangers

With only a quarter of a mile to go, my journey got interrupted when a white Impala pulled onto the shoulder in front of me. I stopped for a moment, wondering what was going on. A man and a woman got out of the car and approached me.

“Where’s your mommy, sweetie?”, asked the woman. “What’s your name?” I just looked at them, not knowing if I should talk to strangers. The woman squatted down to my level, repeating her questions.

We heard hysterical screaming in the distance. I turned to look behind me, and saw my mother running down the shoulder and waving one arm, my baby sister held with her other arm, propped on her hip, screaming my name. She ran up to us and grabbed me, breathing hard from running and crying.

The adults sorted it all out, the couple verifying this was my mother. I must have done something bad, judging from my mother’s behavior. The couple got back into their car and drove off, and my very upset mother held my tricycle handle tightly while we walked back up the road to home, me just sitting on the seat, knowing I was in trouble.

My guardian angel was very busy that afternoon; so many things could have gone bad for me. So many ‘what if’s’. What if that particular couple hadn’t stopped to attend to me when they did? What if someone else with bad intentions had stopped instead? Did the cars passing me by not see me, a preschooler so close to the road?

In the end, after a stern lecture about how I was never to run off again and how I had scared my mother to death, I sat down to my peanut butter and jelly sandwich; my mother relieved that I was safely at home.