Thursday, June 7, 2012

Some days, drama finds you

Today. A drama in three parts.

Part I: Morning
Yesterday I asked a client a question outside of my jurisdiction. Should have known better, but to me, the opportunity to help a customer (and I work in benefits, so we're talking about life, death, health, and money) overshadows self-preservation. I've always been that way; always will be. Client didn't seem to care; got chucked under the bus by a coworker and reprimanded by my supervisor. Sucks.


Part II: Early Evening
After dinner, husband and I took LG to a playground in a park. When we got there, there were four or five families there. As we played, families started leaving, until it was just the three of us, a dad and his son (~3 years old), and a little boy (~5 years old).

I don't know how to best explain this little boy. It's like he just appeared on the playground and started interacting with the young boys and the adults as if we were family friends or neighbors. It quickly became obvious that this little boy was in need of some quality attention and care from an adult. I was under a playscape trying to play peek-a-boo with LG, and the boy came up beside me, quite close in fact, and started telling me that I was in his pop stand. He then followed the Other Dad and his son to different playscape; Other Dad was helping his son climb up to a slide, and the boy nonchalantly slid in after the son for help getting up to the slide as well. It was like this little boy just needed to sit on someone's lap, or be hugged, or just be listened to.

AD, LG and I walked over by a lake and were ready to start heading home. We needed to walk past the playground to get to the car; AD and I felt uncomfortable about the little boy. It was getting late. Where were his parents? At the playground, we talked with Other Dad, and all three of us adults asked the little boy where his parents were. We got three different answers: 1) my dad lives over there (points to lake), 2) I sleep under there (points to playscape) and 3) my dad's in a car over there. There was a man sitting in one of the cars in the parking lot; we adults considered going over and talking to him, but what if he told us he was the boy's dad but wasn't and then took him after we left? We asked the boy to go check in with his dad, and he said his daddy didn't want him. After a few more minutes standing around, I volunteered to check with the man in the car, and as I approach the man gets out of his car. I ask him if the boy is his and he says yes, that it's time for them to get going, and can I tell the boy? I tell the little boy to go to his dad, but he still doesn't want to go. 

At that point, AD, LG and I left. And I called the police. Everything was probably legit, but something about the situation just seemed weird. It's probably overstepping my bounds (again... see Part I), but I just can't bear to think of anything bad happening to that little boy. At the very least, it'll teach the man (dad?) to at least sit with the boy (son?) while he plays.


Well, it's getting late, so I'm breaking for intermission.

After the break, please find your seat for the third and final Part of the drama: "You Can't Pacify Crazy."

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