If you have more than one child, you realize they are all different with different needs. Well, my daughters taught me this.  At the time, it wasn’t funny, but years later I can look back on it and laugh. My daughter was about six years old, a time when kids enjoyed spending the night over a friends’ house. I didn’t always let her spend the night with friends, but this night, I decided to let her go. I made sure the parents were home, and that I could reach them in case of an emergency.

Anyway, my house phone rang about midnight. Phone calls this late can be really scary. I wondered if it was my Mom telling me someone was ill, or worse yet, someone had died. I was almost afraid to answer the phone since it was so late.

“Hello?” I said with both fear and guarded anticipation.

“Mom? It’s me”, my daughter whispered in a soft, fearful voice.

Now I was really starting to get concerned. “What’s wrong? Are you ok?”, I asked concerned.

“Can you come and get me?”, she asked.

“What’s going on?” I couldn’t imagine why she needed me to come get her now. Why couldn’t it wait until the morning?

“It’s not safe here. I want to go home.”

Well I didn’t expect that comment, but I couldn’t ignore my daughter. She sounded scared which concerned me. I asked my daughter why she thought it wasn’t safe, and she kept saying please come get me, and that she would tell me when she got home. All the mystery made me even more worried!  I knew I needed to protect my child so I asked to speak to her Friend’s Mom.  My daughter told me she was not near her.  This was my signal to leave as soon as possible to go save my daughter!

I rushed to get dressed, and drove to the house.  Fortunately, the house was in the neighborhood, just a couple blocks up the road.  When I arrived, I rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer.

“Hello, I’m so sorry to wake you,” as I watched a very sleepy Mom trying to figure out why I was at her door.

“Hey Deb, is something wrong?  Come on in.”

I walked across the threshold into my friend’s home. “I’m sorry but my daughter called and said she wanted to come home.  I don’t think she’s feeling well.”

I looked around and noticed my daughter was peering around the corner, already dressed with her bags in her hand.  She was ready to go!

“Let me go get her.  I didn’t realize she wasn’t feeling well”.  As the Mom turned, my daughter quietly came from around the corner in full dress ready to go.  She didn’t utter a word.  It was as if she was being released from captivity.

“Again, I’m sorry for the late intrusion.  I’ll call you later today and let you know how she is doing.”  I reached for my daugher’s arms to comfort her when I noticed she was halfway to my car!  “Bye! Talk to you soon”, I waved as I rushed to the car to let my daughter in.

It was as if my daughter was under a spell.  Her arms held her bags tightly.  Her body was tense and motionless.  I put the back of my hand across her forehead to see if she had a temperature.  She felt normal, so I started the car and headed home.

When we arrived, my daughter scurried out of the car and ran to the door waiting impatiently for me to open it.  I responded by quickly coming to my daughter’s side and opening the door to our home.  She rushed in and went to her room, quickly yet gently closing the door behind her.

“Are you ok?”  I asked trying to hold back all the other questions I wanted so desperately to ask.

“Can we talk in the morning?  I just want to go to sleep.  I’m tired.  Thanks for coming to get me.  Love you!”

I took my concern and my questions to my bedroom and tried my best to fall back asleep.

I could see the sun shinning through my bedroom window as I gradually awakened. When I opened my eyes, my daughter was in my bedroom looking down at me with a smile.

“Are you feeling better?” I asked looking hopeful.  “Please tell me what happened last night.  I could barely go to sleep worrying about it.”

My daughter took a deep breadth while gaining enough courage to tell me what happened.  She lifted her head and looked directly into my eyes.

“Thanks so much for coming to get me.  Casey and I were about to go to bed when her brother knocked on the bedroom door.  Jason came in and said there were flying worms in the house!  I was so scared!  Mom, I can’t stay in a house with flying worms!”

I did my best to hold back the laughter!  I suppose I would be afraid of flying worms too!!

Between The Dashes