An Army of Angels

I was hoping to have another humorous "Conversations in the Quad" post from school this week, but no such luck.

However I did witness an absolutely astounding (and disturbing) occurrence that I wanted to share.

Our college is situated in the middle of downtown in a fairly large city. It's a small campus and consists of two buildings that are adjoined by a long hallway (or breezeway). One side opens up onto the "quad" which abuts a parking lot and the back-side of other businesses. The other sides opens onto a busy street. There are tables and chairs in the hallway for studying or hanging out.

Yesterday morning I was sitting at one of those tables inside working on my dreaded math. Since I find this subject difficult and dull, my mind was wandering yet again. I was facing the street side of the hallway and gazed outside.

Suddenly an SUV screeched to a stop in the middle of the street. A woman got out, ran forward and flung open her arms. Out of nowhere, a BABY ran into them and she scooped it up.

A man in a road construction uniform (orange vest, hard hat) came into view from the right side and snatched the baby from her. From the left side, a man with a military hair-cut joined them. Heated words were exchanged, and the construction guy handed the baby back to the woman.

By this time, I was bugging out a little bit. Maybe this was some weird child-custody argument. Maybe it was something else. Why was a baby running around in the middle of a busy city street?

I hustled my butt down to the campus police office and asked the officer on duty for help. He went outside, and I went back to my table to watch. The campus officer spoke into his walkie-talkie. Another man walked up from the left and offered the officer a baby-sized coat.

In about 10 minutes the city police showed up. They all stood around and conferred for awhile, then the city police guy, campus police guy, lady and baby got in the police car and drove away.

And as Paul Harvey would say, "Now for the rest of the story..."

After class, I went to the campus police office to see if the officer was back.

He was.

He was glad I came back because he needed to take down my information for his report.

They found the baby's mother. The baby was 18 months old. The mother had taken some "medicine" and had fallen asleep in a downtown city park.

6 blocks away.

Unfreakingbelievable.

That baby must have an army of guardian angels to have traveled that far without being hit by traffic.

If you've got a moment, say a prayer for thanks for his safety.