A day to remember

“Jennie, wherever you are, if you can hear us please report to the office near the merry-go-round.” You all must have heard such an announcement at least once in your life. It is common for children to stray away from their parents in crowded places following which there would be such an announcement and the either the child finds their way or some adult leads the child to their parents. But if you are an ultra legend like me, you may not be present there at all and may be not just your parents but all people present there start searching for you.

The story starts when I was about five. There was a big carnival fair going on near my school. As a five year old, I was of course crazily attracted towards it. Every day I would try to persuade my mom to take me there but she would give some excuse and delay it. After incessant crying and pleading, my mom decided on a date on which both my parents will take me to the fair, but that date was 2 weeks later and everyone knows how impatient a 5 year old tends to be. The thought of sneaking there with my friends crossed my mind of course, but my mom had already warned me against it and at that age nothing terrified me more than my mother’s strict face. 

So, like a good girl I waited 2 weeks for the D-day, which also happened to be the last day before summer vacation. The day arrived and like every other day I went through my classes at school although the only thing I could think about was the carnival. My parents were to meet me at my school gate after classes were over. The bell indicating the end of the last class is always exciting, but that day the excitement was on a different level. I ran out after the bell rang but my parents were a little late. That day it was very crowded; apparently most parents made the same decision of visiting the carnival on that day. Parents of few of my friends offered to take me to the carnival, but as I said, I was terrified of my mom and hence graciously declined. Now, this was a time when people didn’t have mobile phones. There were landlines at homes and paid booths, so for making a call one actually had to go in search of a booth. 

My house was a mere 10 minute walk from the school. It would have been perfectly logical to walk in the direction of my house because surely I would have met my parents on the way. Over the years I thought back to the day many times but I could never quite grasp the logic of my next move. May be it was because my mom told me many stories about children getting kidnapped while walking alone from school. So, I pulled an ultra legend move. I boarded a random school bus, which I had no idea about where it was headed. There was not even a single student of our class in that bus, hence I knew no one. I just took a corner seat towards the back of the bus and comfortably waited for the bus to take me home.

My parents reached my school gate and of course didn’t find me there. They searched the school premises for about half an hour. The next logical move for them was of course searching the carnival grounds because any normal impatient child would go there. They obviously didn’t know their ultra legend daughter well. They did whatever they could to search me. They made the announcement multiple times. They showed my photo to the people present to see if anyone had seen me. Even the organizers at the carnival started helping my parents. My friends and their parents who had visited the carnival also started to search for me. Before long the whole carnival became a huge manhunt for me. So what was the lead character aka me doing during this time?

I was comfortably sitting in the school bus which was now empty after dropping all the kids. I knew I messed up as soon as the bus started because it took a route that I had never seen before. But I was a very shy child and did not like to talk to strangers unless absolutely necessary. So, I just decided to sit there and see what happens because who knows may be the bus would take a route that would lead somewhere near my home and I could simply get down. Now I had no idea where the bus was going but I remained positive. After a moment I realized that the bus driver may not even know that I am on the bus because I was in the corner seat towards the end of the bus and also too tiny to be seen in the rearview mirror. The thought of spending night at some secluded bus depot freaked me out. Now I needed a plan to go up and talk to the driver. I just couldn’t walk up to him and say I am lost because he has been driving for almost 30-45 minutes now and it can’t be that I just realized that I was lost. I thought long and hard and ultimately went up to him and asked innocently, “How long before we reach my house, uncle?” He was honestly shocked to see a child on the bus and said, “Why didn’t you get off with the others?” once again completely innocently I said, “But my house wasn’t there.” 

That day my faith in humanity was restored. He asked me my address and drove me home. I offered to get down from the bus as soon as I saw the familiar neighborhood but he kept driving and stopped right in front of our building. He waited until I entered inside and only then he left. I walked up the stairs to my floor and to our apartment and lo and behold, it was locked. My parents and the whole carnival was busy searching for me on the carnival grounds and the surrounding places. 

I waited for some time in front of the apartment after which a neighbor saw me, still in school uniform after like an hour after school and door locked and assumed that my parents were out. So she took me to her house, offered me food and told me to sit comfortably. 

So while I was totally comfortable in our neighbor’s house, my parents and some two hundred people were losing their mind regarding my whereabouts. My dad even made 2-3 trips back and forth from the carnival to our apartment to see if I was there. And let me tell you, my dad is also an ultra legend. He came so many times to search for me but never thought of asking the neighbors if they had seen me. Maybe it was the worry or maybe he didn’t want to involve the neighbors just yet. Who knows? Bottom line is it just wasn’t their day.

So after like 3 hours my parents decided to go to the police. But before that my mom suggested to check the apartment one last time, and may be ask the neighbors to go to the police together if I wasn’t there. My mom stayed back to continue searching. This time he came to the apartment and of course I wasn’t there, so as he came to the neighbors to ask for help, he found me, comfortably sitting on the sofa and watching television. 

You would think he must have scolded me so much for making them worry, but his first emotion was relief and hence I took the opportunity to scold him for coming back so late. Then he told me all that happened in short. I told him everything in utmost details. We went to the carnival together to fetch mom. Mom was literally crying and as I told I was terrified of mom, so I expected mom to scold me and may be even start beating me for making her worry but she too was overjoyed and hugged me and kissed me. All in all it was a sweet reunion.

For the first time an announcement was made “The five year old Jennie you all had been searching for had been found, so please enjoy the carnival.” We decided to stay at the carnival for some time but when every few minutes a stranger came up to us and exclaimed, “Oh! You found your daughter; where was she?” it got really uncomfortable trying to explain everyone the full details. So we went back home.

The thought of losing their only child must have taken a huge toll on my parents as my mom wasn’t strict about anything for like 15 days, before she went back to normal. My dad too fulfilled anything I wished for, however mundane, for a really long time. It was really a day to remember.