The little boy in the road

I hope that it is okay that I go off dog-topic and recount a story from this morning.

I was picking up my dogs for my first adventure when I came to a road junction. The lights had just turned red for me and I was the first car at the traffic lights, with the perfect view of what was unfolding.

I noticed to my right, on the diagonal corner of the crossing, a little boy of between three and four years of age (basing this on the size of my own children).

Immediately something felt very strange and wrong. The little boy was completely alone and with a super quick scan in all directions I could not identify his biological parents (from his skin tone, if you are allowed to write that in 2024).

As the lights went green for the traffic on my right to advance, a van started to move, exactly at the moment that the little boy stepped into the road confused and uncertain.

I sounded my car horn, flashed my lights and pointed … luckily they had already seen the boy.

The little boy was startled and jumped backwards towards the pavement.

By no means had I been alone in recognizing the strange scene. One lady, who was cycling past, had already dismounted and started to talk calmly to the little boy. I saw that from the empty child seat on her bike she was also a mother to a little person.

Another lady at a bus stop 20 metres away was also jogging towards the confused child to help.

Upon seeing that the little boy was now safe and being cared for I decided that I should carry on with my journey, as opposed to unnecessarily crowd the scene.

I have reflected on this story throughout my day and quite how impressed I was with how many people took immediate action within seconds so as to avert potential disaster at a busy road junction.

The strength of any society is it’s ability to look after it’s members whether friends, family or strangers.

We all have a moral responsibility to act when we see that someone needs help, child, adult, animal or ecosystem.

Doggies: Kuling, Ronja, Leopold, Haraka, Ellie, Aya and Trassel