Yesterday evening was a horrifying rollercoaster-ride. I took the boys to a little-league game at Groff Park. Groff Park lies along the Fort River in Amherst and is the trailhead for the Misty Bottom trail that runs north along the river. I stayed down by the playground to watch Daniel while Charlie played baseball. There were many more children than usual because the Spring Street preschool was having a picnic. For an hour, Daniel played happily while I sat and watched, mostly. I took a couple of minutes to write a haiku on my Tungsten and when I looked up, I couldn't spot Daniel. I got up and took a turn through the playground and still couldn't find him. I scanned the ball field to see if he was visiting Charlie then studied the picnic area to see if he was down there. Another parent noticed me and asked if someone was missing. He asked if he could go check the other, more distant ball fields. I walked along the river. More and more friends and acquaintances joined the search until the whole area had been scoured. Once Charlie heard, he sprinted away from the game and went to check the trail. After half-an-hour of searching, a man introduced himself to me as a detective and suggested that he inform the police on his cell-phone. Distraught, I walked over to the parking lot to meet the squad car and file a report. Just before it arrived, I turned to see Charlie walking across the playground holding hands with Daniel! Charlie had found him on the trail! It turned out he had followed one of the parents of another child on Charlie's ball team who had gone walking with her daughter. She came up later to express regret for not making sure Daniel had told me he was leaving and causing such a panic. My feelings were too disordered to say anything -- I could only nod. I took Daniel over to the police officers so he could tell them that he was OK. A police officer gently chastized him for going off without telling a parent. Daniel explained that he had just been going to get some exercise. "I went a long ways, too," he said. "My knees are really tired!"
This morning I went in to see Daniel while he was still in bed.
"I sure am glad to see you," I told him. "Yesterday, I was beginning to think you were all gone and I'd have to go to the store and buy a new Daniel."
I feel pretty lucky today.
This afternoon I went to the library to get some books and then attended Lucy's Esperanto group meeting. Among other things, I picked up a copy of A People's History of the United States. So far it's pretty depressing. I also got a book about Buddhism in the West -- I think it's called One Dharma. In the introduction, the author describes wrestling with whether enlightenment is realization that transcends awareness or if it is awareness. Now that sounds like the kind of argument I can really sink my teeth into.
Due to the rain, we didn't go to the garden where the Esperantists usually meet during the summer. Instead we went to the Smith College library and met in the Browsing room. It is a grand room with dark panelling, elegant portraiture, comfortable chairs, and heavy furniture -- a great place for an Esperanto meeting. We got booted around 5pm and ended up finishing the meeting in a lobby near the restrooms. Oh well. I found that Smith has a wireless network in the library, but it's locked down -- you have to have a Smith College account to use it. For the meeting, we took turns reading from a Trevor Steele book La fotoalbumo. It contains a series of brief fictional sketches about a family in Australia. Some of use would try to explain passages in Esperanto while others translated into English. Good practice at all levels for listening, speaking, and vocabulary.