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They remain forever in my heart

© Mary Pantazis

School was out and it was a beautiful March day. It was nippy outside, but the sun was shining. I had the entire day to myself so off my mother in law and I went on a shopping spree.

As we drove across the state line I saw them. On the highway with a shopping cart were two lonely figures. One of them wearing a baggy jean jacket and the other one was in short sleeves.

My car sped past them and I looked into my rear view mirror disbelieving my eyes. It was them. My missing students. They had been missing for a week.

I slammed on my breaks pulling my car into the breakdown lane, placed the car in park and leaving my mother in law wondering what had happened, I jumped out of my door and began run back down the highway toward them.

When they saw me they both began to cry. I put my arms out and the three of us stood there on the highway hugging and crying.

Neither of these teenagers had showered in a week. I began to realize how badly they needed showers when I had them placed in my backseat. We left their shopping cart on the side of the road and situated their half empty bag in my trunk.

I had no idea where I was going to go with these kids. I just knew I needed to feed them and clean them up and make sure they were healthy. I called the police but neither parent had put in a missing person report on them so there was nothing the police could do until they had reached the parents.

I took them to my home. They both showered and got on clean clothes. I fed them a pizza and we sat at the table to talk. The boy, age 15 was in my class at school. I taught what at that time was called TMR or Trainable Mentally Retarded. This boy was in my class and was considered developmentally delayed. The girl was his girl friend. She was 18 and went to a program similar to mine in another town. These two had met at the Special Olympics a month earlier.

The boy began to tell me about his mother and her new boyfriend and how the boyfriend had been forcing him to sleep in the boiler room of their apartment building. The girl told of her father who didn't want her to have a 15 year old boyfriend and had told her to get out. She was after all 18.