The Longest 15 Minutes of my Life

So Jimmy had an adventure yesterday.  We were at Manassas Mall with my mom yesterday.  I had taken Jacob into the Toys R Us Express so he could spend a gift card from his birthday.  My mom had taken Jimmy in the stroller to Macy's.  Shortly after I walked in the store, I get a panicked phone call from my mom.  Jimmy's out of the stroller and she thought she saw him headed for an exit.  I run up to a cashier and ask her to call 911 and mall security, explaining the situation and his disability.  I get a few customers to watch the parking lot exits until store security catches up to me.  Then I get on the phone with 911.

First stroke of brilliant luck for me in that the 911 operator has an autistic older brother.  She doesn't have to pepper me with too many questions about the disability and I don't have to waste time explaining,  She gets it.  The understands the seriousness of this and dispatches ten units with a K9.  One finds me, the other finds my mom since we have fanned out (Jacob was being babysat at the cash wrap, on his best behavior since he was scared too.)

They are getting the information while everyone is searching, including the Macy's employees, who ran out of the store like it was on fire on Black Friday to look for my kid with the masses. Within three minute of the police arriving, it is a Macy's employee who brings him back to the store from the Food Court, where he had gone to play on the equipment.  It's not a mall I go to regular, but he knows it well from going there with E all the time.  He knew where he wanted to be, even if I didn't know where to find him.

Something in my head told me that it was unlikely he left the mall.  And he won't go off with someone.  But I was terrified he might go out those doors to the parking lot or the road.  And that I wouldn't see him again, at least not alive.  I cannot explain the emotional response.  Nearly 24 hours later and I am not doing well, still shaking, still anxious, even though I got the best of endings.  It's going to be a while before I am okay again.

We have a call into the Prince William County Sheriff's Office to get him a Lifesaver bracelet.  Yes, I am lojacking my kid.  Most jurisdictions see a 100% recovery rate with it.  I hope to never need it again, but I want it there just in case after yesterday.

I don't have the words to express my gratitude to the Manassas Macy's, that 911 operator, and the responding officers.  They brought my child back to me, a child who can't ask for help or even say he is lost or often his own name.  No miracles for Christmas here, I think that card has been played.