“I’m sure.” His voice sounded smaller. Maybe he was tired. With school and then going from store to store to find the perfect ties, he’d had a long day.
“All right, big man. I’m going to the front to grab a bag so we can take this home. You might want it later.”
I slid out of the booth, went to the counter, and asked for a to-go bag. The teenager behind the register scowled at me in annoyance and made me wait before handing over a paper sack. Her stank attitude couldn’t affect my good mood,though.
“Thank you,” I said with a smile.
I headed back to the table, but when I saw the booth was empty, I stopped short.
I scanned the restaurant. “Noah?” I called out to no one in particular.
Maybe he had gone to the bathroom. This McDonald’s was one of the few that still had an indoor playground. Maybe he had gone in there to play.
First, I checked the playground but only saw a couple of kids I didn’t recognize climbing through the tunnels. Unease built in my body. I walked briskly to the bathroom and pushed open the door.
“Noah? Are you in here?”
The empty bathroom echoed my voice back to me, and my stomach dropped. I was starting to freak out.
“Noah!” I yelled his name, and some of the customers stared at me.
I checked the empty booths. A woman sitting with two toddlers eyed me as if I were a lunatic.
“Have you seen a little Black boy? He’s seven years old, wearing khaki pants and a white shirt?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I haven’t seen him.”
I asked the couple sitting by the window, but they hadn’t seen him either.
Did no one pay attention to their surroundings anymore?
Where the hell could he be?
I pushed through the front doors into the parking lot and listened to the roar of traffic going by as my heart hammered my ribs. My eyes flitted back and forth.
“Noah!” I bellowed.
A white sedan cruised by on its way to the drive-through. The parking lot itself was filled with vehicles, all places for a small boy tohide.
“Noah!”
Had someone snatched him while my back was turned?
My hand shook as I removed my phone from my pocket. I needed help, and the first person who came to mind was Julia. Then I saw a flash of white running along the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road, his little legs pumping as fast as they could carry him.
Noah! How did he get over there without getting run over by a car?
Terror froze me for a moment, and then I was sprinting across the parking lot. I barely registered the Toyota that honked at me as I dodged in front of it. I ran into traffic, lifting a hand toward a pickup truck barreling toward me. The driver slammed the brakes and jolted to a halt. He leaned on his horn, yelling and cursing, but I didn’t hear a word.
I raced across another lane of traffic, grateful for the vehicles that slowed when they saw me. As my foot hit the sidewalk, I yelled, “Noah!”
He kept running, but his short legs were no match for my longer ones. Within seconds, I reached him and grabbed him by the shoulders.
“Hey!” I forcefully swung him around to face me. “What the hell is wrong with you? What were you thinking?” I demanded, harshly and loudly. “You don’t just run off like that. Do you have any idea how scared I was? You could’ve been hit by a car. You could’ve?—”
Noah was crying. Sobbing. His whole body was shaking. Tears streamed down his face.
“What’s wrong? Talk to me, buddy.”
