We were at the Juneteenth festival—music, food trucks, kids running wild, the whole neighborhood packed into the streets.
I’d only looked away for a second to pay for a funnel cake, but when I turned back, my nephew Zavi was gone.
Panic hit me like a wave. I dropped everything and started shouting his name, checking every bounce house, every face in the crowd.
I was two seconds from calling 911 when I spotted him—curled up, dead asleep, in a police officer’s arms.
The officer was standing off to the side, calm like this wasn’t even the first time something like this had happened.
He gave me a little nod when I rushed up, breathless and shaking. Said Zavi wandered off near the snow cone truck and got tired. “Didn’t want to leave him alone,” he said, like it was nothing.
I thanked him, took Zavi back, and tried to brush it off. But I noticed people whispering behind me, phones out.
Some were smiling, but others weren’t. One woman near the food stand shook her head and muttered, “Must be nice to get that kind of response.”
At first I didn’t get it. Then it clicked.
