Escape.

When your phone rings and the identi-call tells you it's your child's school, there is always a pang of worry. Usually it's just to say that they have become unwell during the day and need to be fetched early, or perhaps they have lice and they need to be "dealt with". I suppose it could be that they have fallen and need stitches or have broken a limb, that would probably be a worst-case scenario kind of phone call.

But today when my phone rang it was none of those things.

Niave has been off school for 2 days with a bad cough and went back today so I thought that the school was calling to tell me that she wasn't feeling well or was coughing a lot BUT no, they were calling to tell me that although Niave was fine and in their possession, she had in fact climbed over a fence (a high fence topped with barbed wire) and disappeared.

She had apparently liked the idea of going to play at her friends house and so the 2 of them carried a ladder to a place where there was a tiny gap in the barbed wire hidden behind some bamboo plants. They had then climbed over into the grounds of Greenfield (Abigail's school) which is on the other side of the fence.

Now this is when a set of 3 circumstances conspired against us, the back gate of Greenfield had a broken lock and so they were able to get out and walk down the driveway that leads to the road. The gate at the end of the driveway had a broken motor and so was not closed and the security guard who usually sits there was showing somebody around the premises so they just waltzed freely out into the big, wide, scary world.

They walked along, apparently hand in hand, crossed a road and were found quite a way down the road. (For those of you who know where Barkly house is, they were almost at St. Lukes Hospice.)

They had the teachers at her school and Greenfield in an absolute state searching everywhere and Niaves teacher was in tears.

Fortunately they were found unharmed but the list of possible disasters is long and rather frightening: death and abduction being right at the top.

While I went about the afternoon doing things like cook the supper, supervise homework etc. I pondered the events of the morning and wondered what had made her do such a dangerous thing and then I realised that it runs in the family and she is only following in the footsteps of her uncle who 39 years ago left home 3 days before his 3rd birthday to catch a train to fetch his new bicycle! My mother found him at the station!

So, all's well that ends well but it is a wake-up call for everyone who is in charge of children whether they be your own or somebody else's, sometimes small children have big plans and they are much more resourceful than we think. I once heard of a little boy who drowned in his own swimming pool because he propped a plank up against the fence and climbed over. Even though his parents thought they'd taken enough precautions to keep him from drowning.

By the time I got to school to fetch her I'd had a little time to calm down and when I saw her my first thought was "She kept her warm top on the whole day"!! So she can listen and she did listen to that instruction that I gave her this morning.
I am so thankful that she came to no harm and I pray that she will have learnt a very important life lesson today and have enough sense not to do it again.