"St-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ppp!!!!!!!"

It was all I could say, but it was enough.

The driver of the car was a young man, and in that exuberance and impatience of youth which most of us show at one time or another, he was anxious to be out of there, out of the parking lot that was much too small for its clientele. The ten shop mini-mall is shaped like the state of Mississippi, and the parking lot fills what would be that piece of Louisiana east of New Orleans. The lot will hold only about 12 cars max and today there was a 14-passenger van and a 25-passenger tour bus which the small car’s driver had to maneuver around. So he jerked his small sedan back out of its space next to the patio where we sat, and then forward. I thought he was clear to move ahead to the gate, but he thought otherwise, paused, and the back-up lights came on as he prepared to head my direction again—in reverse. He didn’t see the boy.

We were eating at the best Italian restaurant in Lilongwe, which occupies the southern extension of that map of Mississippi which this property forms. Where that southern leg joins what would be the main body of the state, right in the angle, there are steps going up from where we were eating to the rest of the “strip mall,” the first business on the left being an Italian deli. The toddler and his mother and father of course were eating at the first outdoor table at the top of the steps. The boy, probably tired of sitting as most toddlers shortly are, escaped down the steps, and failing to get his parents attention at first move, proceeded full bore into the parking lot. Dad had his back to the parking lot, and Mother was seated to one side. Neither saw what was developing until it was too late. Dad leaped down the stairs, but he wouldn’t get there in time.

I had seen the child’s exuberant escape, distracted from the weekly comics Beth and I were reading together via internet, but I thought the car would be gone before the boy would come into danger. The driver’s decision to insure his clearance of the bus was synchronous with the boy hitting the parking lot. As the car reversed, I was out of my chair. The boy came into the car’s path, saw it coming and froze, out of the driver’s sight well below the trunk line.

I was moving when the back-up lights came on that second time, but I wasn’t going to make it, and if I had, the car would have hit us both as I crouched to scoop up the child. I threw out my hands in front of me, still in full forward tilt, and gave it my best game voice, “St-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ppp!!!!!!!” The car came to a halt, the father caught the child and scooped him into his arms, hugged him and started back up the steps. (No whipping or shaking, thank goodness.) With both adults and the child out of the way, the driver decided he already had sufficient clearance and accelerated out the gate.

The couple sitting at the table next to us said “Thank you.” Squished child does not help the appetite on the patio of even the best Italian restaurant. I thanked God the boy was ok. I guess it pays sometime to have a little ADD. Even our weaknesses, especially our weaknesses, can be used as a blessing to others to God’s praise and glory. Dd