Lost

Lost

It was a nice sunny day, yes I mean I know it was thick snow on the ground, but the sun was shining. So we thought well why not, let's get out for a family walk. We picked Fairholmes as we knew it had a cafe, and the paths are well marked.

We arrived about 10, needed to be there fairly early as you don’t get an awful lot of sunlight at this time of year. It was busy, really crowded. We were pretty surprised, there were all the normal cars parked out on the road, as their owners are too tight to pay for parking, I mean it's only a couple of quid, mind you shouldn’t complain meant we could find a space.

So we got ourselves sorted out, rucksacks on, boots tightened. Hubby sorted out his bike, oh didn’t I say he was going for a ride, just me and the kids walking, often that way. Then after the obligatory trip to the toilets we set off towards the reservoir, down through the woods, it was busy there, a lot of people just walk a little way then turn back when the paths start getting icey. Well I don’t know if you know the reservoir, in front of the wall is a large flat field area, but the path goes along almost parallel with the wall before swinging round through the trees and coming back to the steps. Anyway that grassy area was all messy from kids with sledges and snowball fits, looked a bit soggy in places so we were walking around the path. Henry asked if he could walk across the field, so I said yes of course, meet us at the steps, but he was gone. So the girls and I walked round the path, before turning left down towards the wall. When we got to the steps and he wasn’t there, well that's when we got a little worried. We checked up the steps, on the paths at different levels, a bit more worried, but thought he might have set off along the path, not overly worried as it was still pretty busy, plenty of people around, and a bit more of a concern dogs, lots of dogs mainly off the lead. No, I don’t think I said, Henry is dogphobic, is that the word, probably not, but he is scared of dogs. He has run across the road before to get away from them, so ‘m sure you can imagine I was getting a bit worried now. So anyway I had walked along the reservoir along the planned walk, Henry had seen the map and the route I was planning so thought he might have gone that way thinking we had got there first. Rosie meanwhile was checking the other small paths, and Se was stood by the steps that we had tod him to meet us by. Well after what seemed like a long time, but was probably only about 30 minutes, I realised that I could see a good way along the reservoir side path and could not see him, so he obviously wasn’t up there. I turned back, hoping to find him stood at the steps with his sisters.

Getting back to the steps I found Sue alone, looking cold, she feels the cold badly does Sue, but to be honest the temperature did seem to be dropping, the wids was certainly getting up a bit. The wind always makes it feel colder doesn’t it. Rosie appeared then through the bushes, she had decided to check inside the Rhodderendrus just in case he was hiding, she had seen the dogs too and thought might be scarred. But she was alone, so where was he. Could he still be down on the field area, surely we couldn’t have walked straight past him. So we checked, but no, he wasn’t.

Leaving the girls near the steps I walked back round to the carpark, I really expected to find him sat by the car, but when I got there he wasn’t there . I stood there for a minute, getting really panicky now, then I realised of course this is Henry he would be in the visitor centre, he had already asked to go in, but I had said no after the walk. So I walked back over, peered through the windows, but no sign, maybe he was in the toilets, so I waited outside for a while. But no sign of him, I managed to get through to Sue on the phone, no sign there either. Well he had been gone over an hour now, the temperature was definitely dropping, and he was still missing. What could I do, all that training just goes when it's your child, I could feel the panic taking hold, I looked around at all the families, where was Henry.

I walked into the visitor centre and asked the chap at the counter who I would report a missing child to, he said he could take that report. So I explained. I have lost my son, he is 12, yes I know 12 isn’t really a young child, but you see Henry has Autism, so doesn’t see the world others do. The man was very understanding, he got the ranger, and I gave him all Henry’s details. Yes he was just 12, his birthday just two weeks ago, He is used to being outdoors, and he has the right gear on, yes decent walking boots, a good coat. They radioed their colleagues and all were looking out for him. I phoned the girls again, still no sign. I tried phoning Andy, my husband, but no answer he probably had no signal. Time seemed to slow down even more now. Rangers were out looking for him in a Landrover, a call had gone through to Mountain Rescue.

Rosie phoned, had they found him, no she was worried about Sue, Sue was getting cold, Sue is diabetic, hadn’t eaten for a while. So I told the girls to come back, I would walk down and meet them. Getting a cup of tea for Sue I set off down the path, it seemed so far now, so much longer than it had. I watched all the families playing happily in the snow, where was Henry. What if Henry had gone up onto the moors. Sue was cold, so we got her back to the visitor centre, Rosie got her something to eat, but still no sign of Henry. I wondered how long it was now.

Mountain Rescue were here now, talking about getting a helicopter out. Was it, no it couldn’t be, there was Henry walking back round the path from the reservoir. I ran to him, left the girls to explain. He was fine, warm not hurt. He was fine.

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I walked across the field area, then I couldn’t see mum, so I walked up the steps but couldn’t find her anywhere. So I thought I had gone the wrong way, So I walked back to the path that she was on, I couldn’t see them so I walked along in the direction they were going and I just kept walking, it's a bendy path and I thought they must be round the next bend. I kept walking, it's a nice path, nobody else on the path. I just kept walking, I got a bit annoyed as I thought they had left me. So I ran for a bit, I’m a good runner, my dad says so, I can run faster than him. So I walked and ran till I hit the road block, well it's not a rod block really. It's where the snow got really thick, looks like an avalanche or something. Well that's when I thought my mum wouldn’t have gone past that, and I couldn’t see any footprints so I decided to walk back. I was hungry anyway so thought I might get some chips.

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