Boys will be Boys

I called Bill again at 7pm, yesterday when I was leaving work and asked if Y went to acrobatics.  He told me no, the kids had come home less than an hour ago and picked up Goofy for a walk.  When I arrived home a little after 7:30, there was no strange car in the driveway, no Goofy and no Y!  Bill said they had been gone for almost 90 minutes, so I called Y and asked where he was.  He told me he was with Goofy.  Literal little stinker.  He said they would be home soon.

So, thinking that Y and or Y and C were walking Goofy, I waited outside on the swing and read the mail.  Twenty minutes later, still no sign of them.  So, I called Y again and asked where he was.  He said they were at a friend of C's house.  I asked him to put C on the phone; then I asked C where this friends house was.  He told me it was in a subdivision near ours, and that his brother had dropped them off.  I told him Y needed to be home soon, it was after 8pm and it was about to get dark.  He said they would come home right now.

Another 20 minutes pass, and still no kids and no dogs.  I called Y again.  This time C picked up the phone and told me they were near Kroger.

WHATTTT!!!!!

Near Kroger?  As in near the intersection of FM1488 and Honea-Egypt?  Are you walking?  "Yes."  In the dark?  "Yes."  I asked if they had passed the cheer place yet, and he said no.  I told them to wait at the cheer place and I would come to pick them up.  Five minutes later I pulled up to a very exhausted Goofy, Y and C.  They hopped in the car and I told them how dangerous it was to be walking down that road at dusk.  "Even if you can see the cars, they can't see you!"  There are no sidewalks and there is a constant stream of vehicles exceeding the 35mph speed limit on that road.  Just last month there were over 150 tickets written for speeding on that road alone (info supplied by home owner's association last week).

I told the boys we were taking Goofy home.  As we pulled into the driveway five minutes later, I asked C if he wanted me to take him home or were his parents coming here to pick him up?  At that point it was 8:45pm, I was tired, annoyed and ready to go to bed because I have a 7am shift today.  He said he would contact them and see.  A few minutes later C asked if I could take him back to the house they had left and his brother would pick him up there later.  I said, OK, let me know when you want to go.  Both boys were hungry and thirsty so they had drinks and mac and cheese before we left.

As C gave me directions back to the other house, I realized they were over 3.5 miles from home when they began walking.  They had walked almost 1.5 miles when I picked them up.  And they had crossed FM1488 - ON FOOT!  At DUSK! ( A five lane road with 50 mph speed limit.)  C said it took a very long time to wait for the walk light to come on at the crosswalk, and then it very quickly began blinking, so they had to run across the road.  At least they were smart enough not to jay-walk.

Okay, so after I recovered from my mini-heart attack, I told them to make sure they asked for a ride next time.  I was under the impression that they were in another section of the community that was on our side of FM 1488, and that C's brother was going to drive them back to our house.

We'll have a little discussion about safety tonight.

Natalie

TX