The Loss of a Child

Wilson!” she cried.  “Wilson!  Where are you?”

It was 3:56pm on a Wednesday afternoon. 

“Wilson!”

Wilson’s mother had waited at the bus stop like she does every day.  When the bus arrived at 3:37pm, all the children hopped off, playing and yelling goodbye’s to each other.  Wilson was not there.  “Wait…” she called to the bus driver.  “Where is Wilson?”  After calling out to the 3 remaining children and looking under seats, she turned back to Wilson’s mother and shrugged.  Then left to get to the next stop.  Wilson’s mother had grabbed her cell phone and called the school to ask if he missed the bus as she began to follow his friends to inquire of them as well.

No one had seen him.  How was this possible?  Where could Wilson be?  And why did no one seem to mind that he was gone?  The friends were as ambivalent as the bus driver.  After racing home and checking the house, just in case, Wilson’s mother asked a neighbor to keep an eye out for him to be walking home and drove to the school.

“Wilson?” she was calling at the playground.  After not seeing Wilson on a walking route, she went inside and talked to the office staff in person who all said they hadn’t seen him.  So she checked his classroom, knocked on bathroom doors, and checked the library, cafeteria, and auditorium, before heading outside again.

“Wilson!  Where are you?!?” she cried, desperate.  She checked in with the neighbor who hadn’t seen him and then she called a few of Wilson’s friends’ homes.  No one had seen him at all.  No one seemed to be concerned that a seven-year-old boy didn’t get on the bus.  So it was time to call the police.

As she drove home slowly, she gave a very detailed description of Wilson to the police dispatcher on the phone.  She was crying.  She was looking everywhere as she drove.  Where could he be?  She was completely distraught.

Police officers arrived at her house shortly after she returned home.  She told them every step she’d taken since the bus arrived at the stop.  In a state of utter panic, Wilson’s mother called his grandparents to tell them that he had disappeared.