The Lost Boy

By Laura Yates on Apr 12, 09 10:32 PM

After coming out of the Dr Who Exhibition, we went into the main part of the Coventry Transport Museum. Now, I'm not into cars or anything like that, but still had a good time wandering through the historical streets, complete with authentic smells and sounds.

When we're out and about it's not unusual for The Boy to run on ahead, but he never goes out of eyeshot and I always know where he is. That was why, when I hadn't seen him for about five minutes I started to think that something was wrong. We carried on walking along the model streets and still he didn't emerge.

"Don't worry. There's no where for him to go, he'll be just round the corner." The Other Half assured me. But with every corner we turned there was still no sign of him. The full length of the transport museum is extensive - so we'd been walking at quite a pace for about fifteen minutes and we still hadn't seen him. It was just getting to the point where I was going to speak to one of the museum staff when a voice called over the PA system:

"Would the parents of a nine year old boy, wearing blue jeans and T.Shirt, please come to the reception desk.."

Oh no.

I felt the embarrassment spread red over my face. I was sure every person in the place was rolling their eyes at how someone could be so irresponsible as to lose a child.

The staff may as well have announced over the PA system "Would the incompetent parents of this poor, mistreated young boy please present yourselves to reception, so that you can be revealed as the negligent monsters that you are."

I dashed to reception and sure enough, there was The Boy, patiently waiting for me to arrive. Come on boy, I said, as the receptionist let him out from behind the desk. Just as we were walking away there was another announcement: "Would the parents of a ten year old boy, wearing blue jeans and a white top please make yourself known at reception.."

Of course I felt sorry for the poor lost child, but there was a small part of me that felt a little better knowing that I wasn't the only parent in the building incapable of looking after her child.

In fact, before we left that day, it took two further calls to get the other lost lad collected, and there was another call with regard to a lost girl. This leads me to believe that Cov Transport Museum, with its winding dark old-fashioned streets must be a place where it's quite easy to lose children. So bear that in mind if you go there - get them to wear bright clothes and be aware of what to do if they are lost.