I had a stressful afternoon yesterday. It was a crazy day at work with China and Obama causing mayhem in stocks and currency markets. My stress level tripled when I received a call from a sobbing Jacob at 2pm yesterday in the office. I was shocked to get the call because he does not have a handphone and he was supposed to stay back in school for his badminton CCA. He broke down the minute he heard my voice, telling me that he wants Gong Gong to fetch him NOW and he does not want to go for badminton. He told me he is calling me from a public phone and he did not see any P1 kids at the auditorium, the venue of the CCA. He cannot stop crying and I felt so bad that I could not go and pick him up immediately as market was busy and my team, as usual, was short handed. So I asked him to wait at the clock tower for Gong Gong while I contacteded my dad to fetch him immediately.
30 mins later, I called my dad to see if he had Jacob with him. He told me he is still stuck in a Jam at Bukit Timah!! I panicked as I started imagining the risk of Jacob getting bullied by bigger boys while waiting alone at the clock tower. I called the school to ask for the form teacher to go look for him. She missed him the first time as Jacob had walked back to the canteen to call me after waiting for 30 mins. I asked him to walk back to the clock tower to wait and the form teacher finally found him there. She tried to persuade him to go for badminton but he simply refused. While I was on the phone with her, my dad arrived and Jacob was overjoyed to see him.
Later in the evening, I found out from Jacob that he actually went to the auditorium right after school. He saw some P5 kids there, got scared and went to the general office to ask for help on the venue for the badminton CCA. The staff brought him back to the same place. He must have felt intimidated by the bigger boys. He went straight to the canteen, saw someone using the public phone, waited for his turn and dialed my number. He used a $1 coin instead of 10cents! No wonder he was crying for quite a while and the line was not cut off! He admitted that he was scared being alone as none of his friends stayed back for CCA.
I related the story to a few of my colleagues and all thought I was too aggressive leaving him alone after school in the 4th week! Some of them had their maid or grandma with them after school till P3 before CCA starts while most just skip CCA in P1! I then recalled that Tessa also had Hetty with her in P1 during lunch before her ballet CCA. I felt so guilty towards Jacob. I gave him lots of hugs and kisses when I reached home. I chose to focus on the positive part of him being smart enough to call me from public phone and him being brave enough to approach the general office for help. I went to bed feeling guilty and I even dreamt about Jacob playing badminton happily in the auditorium!!!
