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Kimmie stood paralyzed in the entrance to the daycare.
Pip ... lost?
It didn’t make sense. The concept was too complicated for her brain to register or compute.
He couldn’t be lost. He was playing a game. That’s what this was. Of course, he was the only kid in preschool who never caught on to hide-and-seek, but maybe he’d finally figured it out and wanted to prove how well he could do it.
“Pip!” Kimmie called out, her voice infused with false cheer.
The children stared at her from their seats in the reading circle.
“Maybe we should do the books later,” Jade suggested, and Kimmie couldn’t figure out why her co-worker was worried about story time when her brother was missing.
“Pip!” Kimmie hurried to the nap room, retracing the steps Jade must have made just a few minutes earlier. “Pip?”
Her voice was shaky. Uncertain. So were her tentative steps. Was she worried that she’d trip over her brother if she weren’t careful? He wasn’t that tiny. He couldn’t have turned invisible.
“Pip!” She tried not to sound irritated. Wasn’t that some sort of dog-training rule? She couldn’t remember where she’d heard it. If your dog takes off, don’t sound angry or he’ll be scared to come back to you. She forced herself to smile. Made her voice higher than natural. “Pip?”
Nothing.
Back to the bathrooms, running now. What if Jade left out the cleaning supplies, and her brother got into them? She flung open the door. No Pip.
She ran back outside, onto the playground then past the daycare fence. Searching everywhere, racing through the parking lots, haphazardly running up the side street. He wouldn’t have come all the way out here, would he? And why hadn’t she seen him? Was she so busy drinking her coffee she stopped paying attention? Or had she gotten complacent, convinced he would never voluntarily move away from his box of cars? Was she just as guilty as Chuck, who thought that since Pip didn’t talk he was incapable of making decisions for himself? Of having an opinion?
Where could he have gone?
She was sprinting now but halted at a stop sign on top of the hill. There was no way Pip was all the way out here. Not without his coat. Not without her. He was scared of just about everything.
Including being alone.
She spun around. She had to find him.
Racing downhill was harder than running up, when the rush of adrenaline helped her defy gravity. Her early sprint had been fueled by the hope that she might find her brother and catch up to him. But she couldn’t dawdle now. She had to keep looking. Couldn’t slow down.
She pictured him lost and alone, wandering alongside the Glenn Highway. Maybe he’d gotten hurt and freaked out. Maybe he ran into the woods behind the daycare, scared and bleeding. Or worse, what if someone grabbed him? She would have heard if someone came into the daycare, but what if Pip wandered off and was at this moment in the back seat with some predator ...
She wanted to throw up. Emptying her stomach would at least make more room for her stinging lungs and racing heart. She hurried back toward the daycare, praying Jade had found him. Something was wrong. Something in the parking lot.
A trooper’s car? What did that mean? Had Jade called the dispatcher to report a missing child? Or what if it was even worse? What if Pip had tried to cross the Glenn? What if he’d been hit by a car? What if ...
“Don’t you work here?” asked a tall man in his crisp, blue trooper uniform.
She knew that voice, but she was so distraught she had a hard time placing it.
He stretched out his hand. “Taylor Tanner. Nice to see you again.”
Warmth rushed through her as his palm touched hers, loosening her voice. “I’m so glad you came. I don’t know what happened. He was with the cars all morning ...”
He stared at her quizzically, and she realized she was about to start crying. It was too much. Couldn’t God see that? Too much. First her mom’s death, then Pip getting lost, now this trooper looking at her with so much compassion and empathy.
“Kimmie! Is that you?” Jade called from the open doorway. “Come on in. We found him.”
Breath rushed back into her lungs, and she was too relieved to acknowledge the trooper’s questioning expression. She ran past him and into the daycare. Falling onto her knees at the sight of Pip, she wrapped her arms around her brother, burying her face into his dinosaur T-shirt.
“He crawled into the dollhouse,” Jade explained. “Poor thing must be exhausted. I found him in there taking a nap.”
Pip looked at Kimmie. It was rare that she could be entirely sure what he was thinking or feeling, but if she had to guess, right now she’d say he looked scared. “It’s okay,” she told him. “I’m just glad you’re safe.”
She studied his face. What was he looking at? She glanced over her shoulder.
“Oh, right.” She stood and faced the trooper. “Thanks for stopping by. I guess we’ve got everything under control. I’m so sorry we bothered you.”
His gentle smile spoke of both bemusement and curiosity.
“Trooper Taylor’s come here to talk to the kids about stranger safety. Remember?” Jade was staring at Kimmie as if those words should make an ounce of sense. “We talked about it at our last ...” She stopped herself. “Oh, right. You weren’t there. You mean I didn’t mention it to you this morning?”
Kimmie shook her head.
“Well, that’s what’s on the schedule for today. Kids,” Jade called out, “I want you to grab your magic squares one last time, and we’re all going to listen to Trooper Taylor. He’s come all the way over here today to talk to us about staying safe, so I know you’re all going to put on your listening ears and give him your full attention, right?”
Kimmie was glad for the commotion to get Taylor’s focus off of her. She was glad that Jade was here to take charge and tell the children what to do. More than anything, she was glad to have her brother here, safe and sound. He’d never played near that big dollhouse before. Maybe it was a good sign. Maybe it was a positive step forward in his development if he was starting to show interest in something other than his cars.
The kids were staring at Taylor with rapt attention, and Kimmie realized they were quieter and more disciplined than she’d ever seen them. Even Pip had grabbed his carpet square and was sitting down quietly with the others.
Kimmie pulled one of the rocking chairs behind the semi-circle of kids and sank down into it. With the trooper maintaining the children’s entire focus, maybe Kimmie could take the next few minutes to decompress.
Maybe she could finally relax.