A Lost Claude

This past Saturday, I spent my time in what has become the typical way (at least in late summer/early fall) by working the concession stand during game day for the Mechanicsburg Midget Football Assn. My son had played at 9 a.m. (though we had been there since 8) and I was now working the concession stand for my own volunteer hours between 12 and 2 p.m. It was pouring down rain, extremely hot, and more humid than I had experienced all summer. I had begun de-layering about halfway through my shift to avoid sweating all over the place.

About that time, a little boy approaches the shed, looks at me with tear-filled eyes that resembled brown puddles of fright and innocence, and says simply, "I'm lost." Well, break my heart. Geez. So, I bring him into the shed and out of the rain to figure out how to get this kid where he needed to go. The game day coordinator and I questioned him briefly to get some idea where to start. Here's how it went:

What's your name, dear?
Claude

How about your last name?
It starts with a 'B'

Who did you come with today?
*shrugs shoulders*

Do you have a brother playing today? How old is he?
Yeah, he's 13. I'm 6.

What's your brother's name?
Je'Von and Craig

You have 2 brothers?
Yeah

Where do you live?
Harrisburg

Okay. This was about all we were going to get out of him. Our goal was to at least find out something about his brother who was playing because we have rosters that list the parents and telephone numbers, which would lead us to where this little guy belonged. Since he said he was from Harrisburg, however, and we happened to be playing Harrisburg teams that day, we brought over one of the Harrisburg coaches to help us out. While the coach looked utterly confused, an elderly woman from their side who happened to be at the concession stand at that moment said, "Oh, Je'Von. I think I know who their grandmother is. She's sitting right beside 'so and so'. I bet that's where he needs to be.

Well...I wasn't going to just send him over. So, I said, "When his parents come looking for him, tell them he's at the concession stand. He'll be in our care until then." So, I set the little guy up in a chair and gave him some chocolate. He was content as can be for about a half hour until someone bothered to come looking for him. And guess what? He was from our side. No wonder the Harrisburg coach had no idea who he was. As for that elderly woman on the Harrisburg side? I can only guess. But it turns out that he actually does live in Harrisburg. Talk about confusing. But shame on those parents for letting him out of their sight for that long. I'll admit that my kids play all along that field to entertain themselves while their brother's playing football. But they are always in my line of sight or someone else's that might be watching them for me while I work the concession stand. I wonder if they would let that happen again if they had seen the look on that child's face when he had realized he was lost. I never want my kids to experience that.