By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
It was the last 30 minutes of our working day the other week. It was 5.30 p.m. and me (with my wife) go off at 6:00. But our 16 year old son did not yet arrive at the office from school. We go home together because we live in the next town.
About two days prior he had been cutting classes. At one time he did not go to school at all. He wanted to transfer from his Korean school to anywhere. He even said he did not like to attend school anymore. We tried to convince him to go through the second grading first as the other schools he could transfer to had already finished the 2nd grading. His second grading tests will be on the 2nd week of January.
We were wondering what was going wrong in his school. So we asked if he was being bullied. He said no, he just hated his Korean classmates. When his mom went to ask his teachers what was happening, they had not seen anything although they were aware of some Koreans who were very unruly.
As far as we knew, he had no problems with his academics. Even if he failed, that would not be a problem. As I said last time, he might even learn more from failing that would equip him to deal with life later.
It was already 5.30 and he did not arrive at the office. The past days, even if he had cut classes he came for the trip home. We sent his cousin to his school which is just nearby and he found out he did not go to school. And he left his cellphone so we could not contact him.
The minutes ticked as we wondered about how to contact him. Did he have friends who could have inveigled him to try some illegal drugs. That made me tense having seen addicts who became imbeciles and had to be taken care of by their parents. Others went crazy walking around the city like zombies who never took a bath and never changed their clothes, their stares blank to nowhere.
As these things played out in my mind, the minutes ticked by.
I then tried some computer games wishing he would barge in any minute. The past days I kept my cool so as not to scare him from coming to the office or from going home. Now it was happening. I was getting more and more tense by the minute.
A recent rumor also hit my mind. A kid was kidnapped in the city by a group in a van but somehow managed to escape to tell the tale. His kidnappers even marked parts of his abdomen where they would extract his kidneys and other organs to be sold to rich patients waiting for organ donors.
I tried to hope our only kid was still OK. We just had to find him.
It was almost dark. It was already 6:00 p.m. and no sign of him.
My wife said, let us go home and see if he went home by himself. My in-laws were apprised of the situation and so they started preparing to go out and join the search if it came to that. They were told, just be ready and we will call when we get home.
To go home, we had to cross the city and there were kids walking on the sidewalks going home in their school uniforms—white shirts and dark pants. Everytime I would slow down to take a closer look as the male kids looked like my kid. Or that was what I wanted to see.
We had to gas up in preparation for an all night search. The first thing I though was to go to friends In the media, particularly the broadcaster so we could send the message for him to go home. It will take time to go around the radio and TV stations. Then the matter would have to be reported to the police. I hoped we get to him before any kidnapper for internal organs could ge their hands on him.
My in-laws could take charge of going around hospitals just in case he got hurt and was brought to any of them.
As I was about to exit the gas station, a young father clasping a baby on his chest was slowly crossing my way. All babies look so good with their pure innocence and nice smell, and I patiently waited for the father to slowly cross. Normally, I would have muttered, “stupid father not taking precautions to keep his surely lovable baby safe from careless drivers.” But I was so kind that night. “If had to lose my only son, other fathers should not lose their kids.”
On that 20 kilometer drive towards home, not much was said between me and my wife. We were individually in deep thought.
As we entered our driveway I was preparing myself, “is he here?”
Since he had no keys, he was playing with the dogs in darkness in the porch.
When my wife called my in-laws, they already had their vehicle warmed up for a long search.
The kid had been going to school since.**
