Story with a Happy Ending

It started just like the real life TV shows, in which a child disappears and frantic family members look everywhere for him. Weeping relatives beg for his return and deputies hitch up belts heavy with walkie-talkies.

But this story ends happily, and amazingly quickly.

We had stopped in at Five Guys burger place on Ga. Highway 54 west for Dave’s burger fix. This was never my favorite place, but sometimes you have to cut husbands a little slack.

Besides, the guy who took our order was so sweet, tall and patient.

I embarrass Dave in restaurants because I usually request a change on some menu item. This time, I was questioning what the menu on the wall meant by “vegetarian,” and Dave was about to drag me away, but the tall Guy intervened.

I’ve ordered “vegetarian” in places like this, and it usually meant one of those awful thin packets of gray soy. Some places do it better, and that’s what this Guy was offering me. He’d make a deluxe burger and then delete the meat. Since their deluxe burger contains a stack of thick sautéed onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes, it makes one delicious vegetarian sandwich.

We waited a little while for our order, and I think we were only just beginning to eat when the door slammed open and a distraught woman came in, shouting over the restaurant clatter: “Have you seen a little boy?” She didn’t waste time describing him further, because she knew her son would have been noticed.

She turned and flew back to the street, a sweater fluttering behind her as though propelling her. I sat frozen, my mouth full of food. The tall young server moved, fast. I think he threw off his work jacket and it seemed as though he jumped the counter, but that’s probably because I “wanted” to see a scenario like that.

At least five men (Guys?) left their seats and took different routes out to the street.

Dave was one of them. He moved so quickly that when we talked about it later, I couldn’t remember seeing him go. He had taken the up-hill end of the street to spread the search.

“What was that about?” I asked, when he sauntered back in.

“She lost her little boy,” he said, resuming his lunch. “They found him wandering around in one of the electronic stores, and steered him back to his mom.”

The other men also returned to Five Guys and their now-cold burgers. “He just wanted to look around,” Dave added.

“No histrionics from either one of them,” I said. “Did you ever think: Until that little boy was in her arms, she was just as terrified as if he were gone indeed.”

We finished our lunch and headed for the street. Although it had been at least 15 minutes since the 5-year-old had been lost and found, his mom was still standing near her car and thanking people for their well wishes. She turned to me and said, “Matthew, thank the lady for coming to speak to you. C’mon, sit up.”

And with a little coaxing, her boy sat up in the car and shook hands. His face was red and sweaty, but he did not appear to be afraid. His mom filled in the question marks. They were from out of town, from Kansas, in fact, attending a Brain Balancing conference of some sort here in Peachtree City. I’ve heard just a little about this process and associate it with autism.

“People have been so nice here,” she said. “They don’t just nod their heads; they hug you. They’d never do that at home. I wish I could tell them how much that means when you’re a stranger in a strange land.”

“Maybe I can,” I said.

And I just did.