My Little Hero

I was in the shower when Zane barged in. I knew it was Zane because suddenly the room was louder than normal.

"MOM!!!"  He shouted.

"WHAT??!!" My heart was racing at the sudden interruption. "WHAT IS IT?"  Larry was outside mowing the grass, and I thought something had happened involving lopped off limbs and lots of spurting blood.  Yes, I am one of those mothers. 

"mmmmmmmmm,"  Zane said, suddenly deciding to speak in a normal tone of voice.

"WHAT?" I succinctly indicated that he should repeat himself.

"IT SAYS CHILD ABDUCTION EMERGENCY!!!!

Dammit. Zane has his own tablet, and it is connected to Larry's account, so we can monitor what the boy tries to download.  Both of us are set up to receive emergency messages, such as tornadoes, flooding, and Amber Alerts. Zane can see those.  My mind raced. How to explain this to a seven year old mind, that there are people in the world who do horrible things to children? How do I explain that without actually saying it out loud, which makes it more real?

"Zane that means that someone stole a child, and they want you to be on the lookout for them so they can be returned to their parents."

I went for the simplest explanation I could come up with, and Zane seemed to be satisfied, as he slammed the door on his way out.   I finished my shower in relative peace, only to have the door burst open on me as I was drying off.  Zane stood in the doorway, his face solemn.

" I did not see them out front!"

It took me a minute to realize that my son had run out in the front yard to look for this poor child. My little heart swelled up with pride that he would want to help.   I took a moment to get a little teary about that, then got it together, got dressed, and got my phone.

Zane and I looked at the Amber Alert together.  I explained that reading the alert would help him to know more about what was happening, if he really wanted to help.  We read that the child was taken from another city that was not near to us, and then I explained how he could look for the license plate of the car just in case the driver showed up here.