Hair still not grey, oddly

[ailbhe]

Emer was asleep on my bed in the front room. I was sitting up. Mum was in the kitchen making tea. Linnea was playing in the hall. I dozed off, woke when Mum brought the tea, and she asked "Where's Linnea?"

First she checked immediately outside the front door. Nothing. She checked upstairs. Nothing. She checked downstairs, and then she went to run around the block while I started trying to think of people to phone other than the police. I phoned one friend, standing on the doorstep calling and screaming Linnea's name, got an answering machine, and decided to phone the police as soon as I'd checked upstairs again.

She was lying very very still and very very flat under the duvet on Mum's bed. Very, very still and very, very flat.

I touched her to prove she was there, and she giggled. Then I sat down on the floor a little way away and tried to call Mum; luckily, she came home wihout my needing to remember how to operate the phone, so it was ok.

I cried. I cried and cried and cried and cried. Mum may have too; I don't know. Linnea giggled. She did give me a cuddle but I don't think she understands that this was serious.

It could be worse; Mum's comparable experience culminated in finding her baby safely strapped in the buggy. Upside down. In the long grass at the top of a sheer cliff.

Comments

[gmh.livejournal.com]

I did a good one when I was about four; went out and slept in my sleeping bag behind an eight-foot wall at the bottom of the garden.

Leaving:

a) the lights on downstairs.
b) some of the furniture overturned.
c) the front door open.
d) the pilot light on the gas cooker blown out.

Needless to say, I was not entirely popular when found. I'd also managed to wreck a book on Michaelangelo by taking it with me and sleeping on it.

In my defence, I had been having some pretty nasty nightmares (about house fires, hence the pilot light); I can still remember them in vivid detail nearly 30 years later.

[ailbhe]

I remember this story. *shudder*.

Ahh

[velcro-kitten.livejournal.com]

that explains the call.

Glad you found her!

Re: Ahh

[ailbhe]

I didn't realise I'd called you. Perhaps I did just as I found her, or something.

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

Oh god, how heartstopping. I remember a friend's parents having the police out looking for her small sister one evening before they found her asleep in the laundry cupboard.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

gah!

i'm glad you found her and she's okay.

[k425.livejournal.com]

Oh, you poor thing. I'm glad she was 'only' hiding.

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

In an analytical way, you may want to consider if perhaps Linnea knew what reaction she would get from you. She may not be empathic to that reaction, and may be curious about it, because it is such a strong reaction. This curiosity may lead her to continue to seek out that reaction from you.

[ailbhe]

My reaction is calmer each time it happens, I suppose... *shudder*

[griffen.livejournal.com]

I am not sure I ever did this to my parents, but I do vividly remember one time that my youngest brother, who was then about six, expressed a desire to sleep all night in the car one evening while my father was at his church choir rehearsal and my mom was home alone with the three of us. After being told no, he disappeared. It turns out he had decided to see if he could fit into his toybox, and after he curled up in there with a blanket and pillow and nodded off, the lid closed on him.

Of course, he hadn't told anyone he was going to do this (when asked later why he hadn't, he said "Well, you said no before, so I wasn't going to ask because you might say no again"). My mother was absolutely frantic... fortunately, it wasn't a locking toy box. I opened it after about fifteen minutes of the sort of tearing search you described, and there was Matt, comfy as can be.

My mom was a wreck, and understandably so. But that's kids for you.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I hope it wasn't the old-fashioned kind of toybox where kids inside can't breathe. :/ Modern commercial ones don't seal, and modern homemade ones should be well ventilated.

Once, during one of the MANY times my mom made me take my sister with me (and, this time, a friend) out on forays into the woods, we got sick of her slowing us down, and ditched her, figuring we'd come back to where we left her, then take her home.

When we got back, she was gone. In a gentle panic, we walked home, hoping she'd be there. She wasn't. Fortunatley, she'd wandered out of the woods near a friend's house, went there. They phoned mom.

That was one of the small handful of times I remember being very seriously punished -- hairbrush and grounding, if I recall correctly -- as a young child.

[helenprev.livejournal.com]

Oh my word.

*Hugs lots and lots and lots*

[rpdom.livejournal.com]

Oh my!

I'm glad all turned out ok, Linnea is a little minx.

*hugs*

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Gosh. Oof. Eek. Scary. Very, very glad she was found safe.

More hugs.

[ailbhe]

I was mildly shaken by the windowsill incident. This was terrifying.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

:-( :-( :-(

:-( :-( :-( :-(



:-(

[zinecure.livejournal.com]

I am glad she was just hiding. Children have a strange sense of humor when it comes to stuff like that.

When I was 3, there use to be this clown that walked around and sold balloons at the mall....well...I wandered off after him.....mom turned around and I was gone, in a nano second.

So hugs, I am glad she is okay;)

[barakta]

Meep! I am glad she was only hiding, but ERK! I am so glad your mum is with you.

[ailbhe]

I'd have called the police much sooner otherwise. As it was I didn't call them at all.

Her story is worse.

[barakta]

Indeed, but she knows exactly how you feel and sounds like she knows the exact right things to say/do or not say/do during and afterwards.

[ailbhe]

She always does know. My mother is the greatest.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Who was the baby safely strapped in the buggy, upside down, in the long grass at the top of a sheer cliff? You, or one of your siblings?

*patpat* for lack of anything helpful to say.

[ailbhe]

My elder sister, number three daughter. she's nine years older than I.

[scarlett-heartt.livejournal.com]

Oh you poor thing! I would have cried and cried too. BIG HUG. I am glad she was safe and sound.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I'm glad Linnea wasn't upside down at the top of a cliff, and I'm sorry her games are so scary for you. I wish she could understand why she shouldn't play that one. :(