Vacation Day Interruption
Lunchtime, Tuesday, November 11th 2014
It was Veterans Day, November 11th 2014, the fourth day of a long weekend. My nine-year-old son, Bryson, was happy to have a friend over.
We were in the van headed to Chuck E. Cheese, where they would get to play and I would get to read. My 16-year-old son, Devon, was on a Scout campout in Joshua Tree, California and my 14-year-old son, Carson, was home getting ready to go out with a friend.
My cell phone rang. My husband, Rob, was calling. I am so glad I answered it.
He sounded breathless as he asked, “Are you home? Can you find my passport?”
I didn’t understand. “No, I am not home, but I could go back. Why do you need your passport?”
“Devon is in Mexico and I need to go get him.”
“WHAT?! He is on a campout in Joshua Tree. How did he get to Mexico?”
“I don’t know. All I know is I got a call from the Mexican Police saying they were with Devon and they needed me to come get him.”
The light turned green, but I felt frozen. “I thought he was in Joshua Tree. Are you sure it was really him?”
Rob replied, “I was thinking it was not real either so I asked to talk with him, but it didn’t sound like Devon. I said, ‘This isn’t Devon,’ and was going to hang up. But he said, ‘Dad it is really me!’ So, I asked him to prove it by telling me where we had gone last weekend. He said, ‘Grandma’s house and she put root beer in the pot roast!’ That’s when I knew it was him.”
My heart sank. I was so confused at how Devon could be in Mexico.
Rob took a deep breath and asked, “Can you grab my passport and go online and get Mexican car insurance?”
By this point in the conversation I had turned the van around and was driving back home. My mind immediately went back to the strange experience I’d had that morning.