Believing Is Seeing

I watched the boy shuffling along the sidewalk. His eyes were on his phone, and he had air pods in his ears. I glanced ahead at the line of brake lights before me. Traffic was still waiting on the red to go green. Looking back at the kid, I saw a shop door open behind him, and a masked man came out. I blinked, wondering if I were seeing things, but the man was definitely there. He grabbed the boy, covered his mouth, and carried him back into the shop.

I was stunned. I scanned the area and tried to determine if anyone else had seen what I did. Other pedestrians seemed to go about their business. The other drivers I could see wore the blank-faces of those navigating the evening rush hour. There were no indications anyone else had seen anything. I felt panic rising into my chest and squeezing my throat. Frantically now I tried to signal the cars around me, pointing at the shop and screaming, "Did you see that? Did you see the boy?"

No one reacted with a sympathetic response. I felt unseen and ignored. I fumbled for my phone and managed to unlock it and dial 911. I opened my car door and swung a leg out, wondering why an operator hadn't picked up yet. Before I could pull myself out of the car, horns started honking behind me. The light had turned green, and traffic was moving on.

My mind froze. I didn't know what to do. Auto-pilot took over. I closed the door and drove forward through the intersection. After a minute, I looked at the phone and noticed I never hit "Call." Had I really seen anything, though? What would I say to 911? No one else seemed to care. Or maybe nothing had even happened. That must be it. There must have been some contextual clue I missed. Something to explain what I saw.

Replaying the scene in my head, I thought perhaps it was simply a prank. Wasn't that the masked man laughing? I couldn't see his face obviously, but maybe a hitch in his shoulders there was a clue. And the boy was clearly not struggling. Maybe he was expecting the prank? I put the phone back in my pocket. No, there wasn't anything to report. I didn't want to look like a fool. I also needed to get home. It had been a long day.

As I approached the next traffic light, I had to come to a stop. A police car with sirens going entered the intersection from the right, and turned left. By the time he was through, the light was red. "Darn," I said aloud. "Just what I needed. I can't catch a break."