A man we'd never seen smiled and said, "Everyone who walks home alone, stay standing." #shorts — Transcript

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1. 0:00A man we'd never seen smiled and said,
2. 0:01"Everyone who walks home alone stay
3. 0:02standing." About half of us stood up. I
4. 0:04was one of them. I'd walked home by
5. 0:05myself since fourth grade. He had a
6. 0:06clipboard and a visitor lanyard and said
7. 0:08he was from a program called Walk Safe
8. 0:09here to update our after-school records.
9. 0:11Two teachers were out sick, so nobody
10. 0:12questioned a guest running home room.
11. 0:13"Good," he said, still smiling. "Now, if
12. 0:15someone is home when you get there, a
13. 0:16mom, a dad, anyone, go ahead and sit
14. 0:18down." Around half the standing kids
15. 0:20sat. I stayed up. My mom worked doubles
16. 0:21at the hospital and didn't get home
17. 0:23until after 9:00. It felt a little
18. 0:24personal, but I figured that was the
19. 0:25point of a safety program. "If anyone is
20. 0:27waiting for you, a babysitter, a
21. 0:28grandparent, an older brother, sit down,
22. 0:29too." Three kids more sat. Only five of
23. 0:31us were left standing and the room had
24. 0:32gone quiet in a way I couldn't explain.
25. 0:34"If you have a phone on you right now,"
26. 0:35he said, "sit down." Two kids pulled out
27. 0:37phones and sat, looking almost relieved.
28. 0:39My mom couldn't afford one for me yet.
29. 0:40Just me, a girl named Priya, and a boy
30. 0:42from the back were still up. "Sit down,"
31. 0:43he said gently, "if your walk takes you
32. 0:45down a main road, somewhere with stores
33. 0:46or streetlights." Priya and the boy sat.
34. 0:48I was the only one still standing. My
35. 0:50route cut behind the rec center, through
36. 0:51the gravel lot and the line of trees
37. 0:52where the streetlights had stopped
38. 0:53working last winter. The man looked at
39. 0:55me for a long moment. Then he wrote
40. 0:56something on his clipboard and as he
41. 0:57raised it, I saw a faded green star
42. 0:59tattooed on the inside of his wrist.
43. 1:00"Perfect," he said. "Everyone can sit
44. 1:02down now." He handed out flyers about
45. 1:03walking safely and said he'd follow up
46. 1:05with a few students individually. Then
47. 1:06home room went on like normal, but I
48. 1:08couldn't stop thinking about it. Why
49. 1:09would a safety program need to know that
50. 1:10I, specifically, walked through the dark
51. 1:12part alone with no phone to a house
52. 1:14where nobody was home? At lunch, I told
53. 1:15Otis and Reese about it. Otis said it
54. 1:17was probably just a boring district
55. 1:18survey, but Reese frowned. "He never
56. 1:19told us his name and his lanyard was
57. 1:21blank. I sat up front. I looked right at
58. 1:22it." When we came back from lunch, the
59. 1:23man was gone. Standing at the front
60. 1:25instead was a woman in a bright yellow
61. 1:26Walk Safe shirt with a real ID badge,
62. 1:28looking confused. And next to her was
63. 1:29Principal Hollis, who was not smiling.
64. 1:31"Class," he said, "I need everyone to
65. 1:32stay seated and answer some questions."
66. 1:33The woman in yellow kept repeating that
67. 1:35she was the real presenter, that her
68. 1:36session wasn't until 2:00, that she had
69. 1:37no idea who'd been in here that morning.
70. 1:39Principal Hollis had to show him exactly
71. 1:40where we'd stood during each question.
72. 1:41He wrote all of it down. When he got to
73. 1:43me alone by the window, his face
74. 1:44changed. He stepped into the hallway and
75. 1:45made a phone call with his back to us.
76. 1:4720 minutes later, I was in the office
77. 1:48with two police officers and my aunt
78. 1:50who'd left work because they couldn't
79. 1:51reach my mom. "We need you to think
80. 1:52carefully," Officer Reyes said. "Did he
81. 1:53take anything or say anything only to
82. 1:55you?" I shook my head. That's when she
83. 1:56told me. A boy two towns over had gone
84. 1:58missing walking home from school nine
85. 1:59days ago. The one thing a witness
86. 2:00remembered was a man near the school
87. 2:02that week with a clipboard asking kids
88. 2:03questions for some program. He never
89. 2:04showed up on the front camera because
90. 2:06he'd come in through the gym and his
91. 2:07badge was just a printout in a plastic
92. 2:08sleeve. He isn't a substitute or a
93. 2:10volunteer, Officer Reyes said quietly.
94. 2:11We don't have a name for him. We think
95. 2:13he moves between schools asking
96. 2:14questions until he finds the right
97. 2:15child. Something cold moved through me.
98. 2:16I closed my eyes and went back through
99. 2:18my week and that's when I remembered.
100. 2:19Two mornings ago, on the gravel path
101. 2:20behind the rec center, a gray car had
102. 2:22slowed beside me. The window was down.
103. 2:23The driver leaned over like he wanted
104. 2:24directions and his hand rested on the
105. 2:26edge of the door. On the inside of his
106. 2:27wrist there had been a small green star.
107. 2:28It was him, I said. The man with the
108. 2:30clipboard was the man in the gray car,
109. 2:31the one who slowed down next to me on
110. 2:32the path. Officer Reyes and the
111. 2:34principal looked at each other and I
112. 2:35finally understood what the questions
113. 2:36had been for. He hadn't been searching
114. 2:37for the smartest kid or the one who saw
115. 2:39something or the one who would talk.
116. 2:40Every single question had quietly
117. 2:41removed the children someone would
118. 2:43notice were gone. The ones with a parent
119. 2:44home, a phone in their pocket, a lit
120. 2:45street to walk down. Until the only one
121. 2:47left standing was the kid no one would
122. 2:48miss for hours. That was me.