Home Alone

I was a having a great day off.  Just a lazy day.

My cell phone rang and it was my friend’s seven-year-old son.

“Hi,” he whispered in the phone.

“Hey buddy, what’s up?”  I replied.

He began softly crying and sniffling.

“I am home alone.  And I am hungry.”

“Home alone?”  I exclaimed.

I rushed to his rescue.

Picked him up and took him to dinner.

He begged me to bring him back home by 9PM, because that’s when his mother calls him to check on him.

I couldn’t let myself leave him there for the rest of the night, especially after I found out that she leaves him like this every other day.

He told me how scared he was every night to be alone in their big house, but he said he understands that they need the money and his mom has to work.

How does a seven-year-old know this or even understand this?!

Every night he is alone I now have him call me and I come over and stay with him right up until his mother gets home. 

I leave about 15 minutes before she gets home.  I sit outside in my car like a stalker and make sure that she actually gets there.

When I can’t, I have my friends help out.

I hate this economy.  And I hate what did to the most vulnerable part of our population, - children…