Not All Who Wander Are Lost
Today I was driving Dan home on a busy street and saw a child that we know from school riding his bike on the road. This child also has Autism, and was obviously wandering away from home into a dangerous road setting. There were cars backed up for three blocks to avoid him but no one out of their car yet. I pulled a U-turn, parked, ran him down. The only other person who stopped out of the 10 or so cars passing, watching and yelling at this kid was another mom from the same school. We got to him about the same time, locked eyes and immediately thought the same thing. "Oh my gosh, this could have been mine." I put him in my car. "Hi Dan!" he said, and Dan waved back. (Which for those two is pretty impressive communication so there's a silver lining for the day.) Among the little posse of 3rd grade girls in swimsuits in the other mom's car, one piped up that she thought she knew where the Wanderer's house was. ("Hey that's Dan! He goes to ou...