My Buddy lives here…When Jacob disappears

August 2001

Even though we have only been in this neighborhood for about 6 months, Jacob knows every kid in the neighborhood. He has a constant problem with not telling us where he is going and is notorious for being somewhere new when we go to find him. When he was smaller, I would check every half hour or so. But the daily grind of checking for him gave way to a more practical approach.

I bought a watch with an alarm so that he would know to come home when the alarm went off. Unfortunately, he just had his friends turn off the alarm and continued playing. Therefore, the task continues to try to get him to report in with some regularity. This is not a defiance issue – he just is friends with everyone and goes off to play with another friend when the first has gone in for the night. I have been blessed with other neighborhood mothers who are patient with him and remind him to check in.

Usually I can find him among the scores of children on the two streets around us, but one night, I couldn't find him among any of those kids. Their reports that he had been seen riding hours ago in the direction away from the house only increased my fears.

After driving through the neighborhood looking for him for over an hour, I went to the next neighborhood over. A road that runs through both neighborhoods and is not busy attaches it - but I don't know anyone in that area. It was only a few moments before I saw his bike strewn in a front yard. I knocked on the door - but there was no answer. I called out for him, but got no response. Finally, I ran into the owner of the house. He was a big man with an oxygen tank. He said he had a couple of boys and that Jake came over there to play with his son. By the dad's report, Jake had been there for about an hour, and he had been there before. I gave him my number so that he could call if Jake came over again. Jake didn't get why it was a problem to be SO far from the house and not check in. "I knew it was okay mom, my buddy lives here!"