The day before yesterday, after I had finished taking my balloon shot on the beach, I was standing on the soft sand at the base of the steps that lead up the bank to where I had parked my trike, packing my camera gear away properly, when I could hear a child's voice in the distance.
I could hear him asking his mother "what is the red thing near that lady over there?" and they discussed it as they got closer to me. Their voices were carrying across the flats on the breeze.
They were walking across the flats at low tide and had come quite a distance, so as they got closer, I decided to give the balloon to the boy, who was about 6 yrs of age.
I walked back down the steps towards them and asked him if he would like the balloon and he responded very enthusiastically with a big "YES PLEASE". So I handed him the balloon and walked back up the steps.
He and his mum followed me, and as he reached the top of the stairs, the balloon touched something sharp on the rails and with a loud bang, exploded into nothingness!
His little face dropped, but luckily I had a bag of balloons in my camera bag, so, much to his joy, I told him it was ok and that I could fix it.
At that point his mother said "I have to take the dog and put him in the yard before another dog comes along. I'll be back in a minute." Off she walked to a house, not too far from us, and disappeared into the back yard.
It was a holiday rental, so they weren't locals and were obviously holidaying here.
Meanwhile I blew up the new balloon and tied it to the string for the boy and soon his mum came back out to join us. They both thanked me with big smiles and headed back into the house.
She would have been gone for about 5 minutes and as I left, I thought how trusting she was to leave her young son alone with me, a complete stranger, in a strange town, for 5 long minutes.
Recently, among friends, I have had long, intense conversations about childhoods and experiences that damaged our psyche. Some have been hurt by trusted family members or friends, others abused by complete strangers, but the numbers are significant and the circumstances often surprising.
A predator or child abuser needs very little time to cause lasting damage to an innocent child. For a parent who has never experienced such horror, either directly, or indirectly, it probably seems really stupid to suggest that they watch their child for every waking moment and to not trust strangers alone with them either .. but for those of us who have experienced it, both directly AND indirectly, it just seems inexplicable that any parent would take that risk.
Tempting though it was to offer that woman some words of warning, what it really comes down to, is that it's nice that some people feel safe enough and comfortable enough to not worry about that kind of thing and can simply enjoy the kindness of strangers without suspicion.
How nice that must be.
Nite all.
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