Twins’ 1st day of school - Lost!
The First Day of First Grade
Megan & Michelle Freeman
9-1-05
The minds and bodies of the 6 young ones living in our home were not yet adjusted to school hours. The 3 youngest all missed the bus. Oh well, I thought, we’ll do better tomorrow. Little did I know the bus drama of the day had only just begun.
2:30 I’m waiting for Rebecca to arrive from middle school. No Rebecca. Where could she be? She’s a half hour late! I call the bus company. They suggest I call her friends. That’s silly. She wouldn’t have gone elsewhere without at least calling my cell phone! Uh, wrong. Remember? C’mon, Carol, you’ve done 12 year olds before. Nothing new here. She had taken her friend Melissa’s bus to her house and hadn’t thought to connect with me on where she was! Well, at least she was safe and sound.
3:15 I await the twins’ bus. I wanted to be there to meet them, so they’d be sure to find their way home. We just moved to this neighborhood 3 months ago.
3:18 The twins’ teacher gives me a courtesy call to let me know the twins had enjoyed their first day of school. So nice to hear. Did they get on the bus okay? Yes, I put them on myself, she assured me.
3:20 The bus stops, kids get off, and the bus starts to pull away. Wait!!! I hop onto the bus. Where are my twins???!!! Blank stares all around. Has anyone seen identical blonde girls wearing matching Cutie Pie shirts? At last, one young boy ventured that he thinks he might have seen blonde kids get off on Stop #2. Great. This is Stop # 9. That’s a long time ago! I sit down on the bus and we head off to Stop #2. Lord, where are my little girls??? Please, please help me find them!
On Virginia Street, I look way down to my right. Nothing. I get off the bus, walk around the front, and look way down to the left. Squinting my eyes, I think I can barely make out a little pink and white speck way down at the curve in the road. They are too far away to hear my voice. Am I ever glad I know how to whistle like a referee! Yes, the dots are moving! It’s them!! (See photo – the road & its bend at the end – they were way down there, just specks!)
We are 7 blocks from home. They had been heading in exactly the opposite direction of our house. They were just about to turn the bend in the road and disappear out of sight! … They had tears in their eyes. They said they had cried. Poor dears! What a sweet walk home that was, my hands intertwined with each of their little hands.
I’m so grateful to that little boy who ever so faintly had taken note where two little blonde girls may have disembarked. I’m so grateful to Mrs. Ringer, their teacher, who had called me just minutes earlier to let me know how the twins’ first day of school had gone. I’m so grateful I thought to ask her if they had gotten on the bus. If we hadn’t talked, I would have simply thought they missed the bus when they didn’t disembark. I wouldn’t have searched for them in our neighborhood, but would have headed off to their school, 12 minutes away, only to realize eventually that they weren’t there either. How long would they have been alone wandering before I realized I needed to return to our neighborhood to lo
ok for them? I had mistakenly thought the bus driver would have had a list of students and their corresponding bus stops provided for them to check, especially as little ones got off. I had thought the girls would have naturally looked out the window for me first before getting off the bus. I thought they would have recognized our corner. I thought wrong.
Thank you Lord for watching over my beloved little ones, especially when I’m not tracking right.