The Pick-Up

Being home from work today I welcomed the rare chance of picking up my son at school. I take a short walk around town, stop to grab a coffee then head over to the school. I arrive at the designated pick up spot and I look at my watch, I am ten minutes early. Feeling a bit odd for sitting there on the concrete wall in front of the school by myself, I take another loop around the block. I finish my lap and approach the front entrance again, feeling more comfortable now that other parents are milling around, chatting about their day. I sit down again on the wall keeping an eye on the doors, waiting for them to burst open with screaming kids free from their teacher's grasp. I happen to notice some kids breaking out from the gym door, now I am quickly moving my eyes from door to door not knowing which one he will appear. I am playing this game of eye spy when I see some kids coming out of the gym door I recognize from my sons school photo. I picture myself as a bodyguard tracking my target and proceed to stand up and commit to the gym door as my son's exit point. I see the rest of his class exit the door and watch over the small heads for the description of my target, four foot ten, brown hair, white Knicks hoodie, orange yo-yo swinging from right hand. I am scanning the crowd, blocking out the high pitch chatter when my description appears in the doorway. I hold my ground, not wanting to show myself as he is huddling with his friends and debriefing the events of the day. I can deduct from his actions that the "goodbyes" and "see yas" have been completed, and now ready to make myself known. I keep my eyes glued to his from fifty feet away, he does not know I am there yet, he will be surprised. His head looks up from the yo-yo when he sees me standing there. His left hand goes up in a small wave and a smile appears. My left hand waves back. As he approaches he says "Hi Daddy!" I put my hand on his shoulder and reply "Hey." We both turn and part our way through the bunches of other parent- child rendezvous. A successful extraction, mission accomplished.