Scary Night

Yesterday evening we went to Town for supper and the concert in the park. Daughter was planning to meet some of her friends, including Nice Guy. We arrived at the park and I took my seat in my lawn chair while she went off in search of friends. It was a much smaller crowd than usual, as it was the community concert band that was playing rather than a band they'd hired that played hit music.

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As the evening progressed, I realized Daughter had not stopped by or called me, which was unusual. Then I realized that Best Friend Mommy was over to the side with her baby and Daughter hadn't come by to see her. I got up and wandered over to the restrooms, scanning the crowd as I went. I didn't see Daughter or her friends. I began to wonder if she'd gone off with Nice Guy again. I called her cell phone to check on her. She didn't answer. She often doesn't answer the first time I call. Sometimes she leaves it on vibrate and doesn't hear it. I called again. She still didn't answer. It occasionally takes her a few calls to hear my call, but she always answers or calls me back. I called again. My call went straight to voice mail. Okay, maybe she was trying to call me at the same time. But my phone didn't ring, and repeated calls went straight to voice mail.

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I got up and walked around, looking for her, my mind racing. Had she gone off with Nice Guy? Had he made her turn off her phone? Where could they have gone? I didn't have his cell phone number, and the other friends she was talking about meeting didn't have cell phones. How long should I wait before I called the police? What kind of car did Nice Guy drive? Would his mother be home? Did I have his mother's phone number in my cell phone? Would Daughter call me eventually? Should I go home and wait for her to call? What if he'd decided to take her someplace and keep her until the court house was open and they could get married? What if he was raping her? What if they'd been in an accident? Who could I call to help me figure things out?

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Then I saw her. She was over in a completely different area of the park, alone. Her story was she didn't know I was trying to call her because she was talking on the phone to friends. Her phone had shut down because the battery was dead. I told her she had to stay with me since her cell phone was dead and I wouldn't be able to reach her. She got mad and refused. We came home with her in the backseat alternating between yelling about how unreasonable I was being and hitting herself with her fists.

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Once we plugged her cell phone into the charger I was able to confirm that she had two missed calls from me. Eventually, she acknowledged she'd ignored my calls. I told her how worried I had been. She showed remorse and felt guilty. I'm glad she was just being a brat, but am reluctant to give her any freedom when she pulls things like that. She doesn't keep her cell phone charged, and I told her she has to find a place for the charger, and put her cell phone on it every day.

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She didn't acknowledge that she'd ignored my calls until bedtime. I told her if she ever pulled a stunt like that again she'd be grounded for life. She informed me that was impossible. There will be another conversation about that today, and there will be consequences, I just have to decide what they will be. For now, I'm grateful that she was just being a brat and ignoring my calls.