Day Trip

Prologue: My phone rings. It’s 2am. It’s Yang. She’s distraught. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” she weeps. It has been seven years, so I’ll take it. But it wasn’t about that. “Kobe has been hit by a car”, she continues. Sobs. “He’s at the pet hospital and seems to be ok”. She could have led with that.

It’s Tuesday morning and I had promised Aidan I would take him to Lake Merritt so he could have a run. It is an amazing day and we feel lucky to find parking spot at Lakeshore and Brooklyn. Aidan heads out. Originally I was going to run beside or behind him but feeling my age so I decide on a coffee sipping stroll. I walk 10 minutes out. 10 minutes back. Our rented minivan side window is smashed in. A city gardening crew is working close by and one of the men asks me if that’s my van. He says he saw them and it’s a shame. I’m standing in front of the van, brain scrambled. No idea what to do. We are supposed to drive to Yosemite in an hour. I don’t have insurance to cover this. How do I file a police report? A thought starts to form. We could cover the window in plastic and seal it with duck tape. Second thought. Cardboard. Given where my brain was five minutes prior I feel like I just solved nuclear fission. Aidan is finishing his run. He’s flying. Endorphined out. He walks up to the car, sees the broken window. Confusion.

When we get back to my sister’s house I ask Sabrina to clean out the glass from the minivan. Aidan and Lydia help. I file the police report online. I call the rental car agency and file an incident report. The service agent tells me that I can swap the car at the place I rented it, which was SFO. He calls me back 10 minutes later while I was taking a three hour suppressed crap to tell me he noticed I was in Oakland and I could swap the car at the Oakland airport (huge kudos). Sabrina and I head down there, leaving the kids to pack. The rental agency people in Oakland say this happens all the time. They swap me a new minivan with full insurance.

While we are swapping the car, Yang speaks over wechat with Aidan about the incident. Aidan realizes his Oakley bag was stolen with some minor things inside (student id, lunch card, a couple hundred RMB). Yang says something like “I told you this would happen” and Aidan flips out. Major mother/son spat.

We leave on the four hour drive to Yosemite. Two hours in Aidan is freaking out that the homework he’s been working on for the last several days isn’t on his laptop anymore. We pull over. I try to find it. Can’t. Aidan is super frustrated. Which gets me frustrated (in unison, can we say codependent). We keep driving. Stop at Oakhurst for groceries and gas. I have 10 voice messages from Yang. She’s super distraught after the fight with Aidan. Says he disrespected her (which later, he agreed he did). She’s questioning motherhood. Questioning how well adjusted (or not) the kids are. I’m annoyed at the 10 voice messages and that they are having this spat now.

We arrive at our cabin around 7:30pm. It’s nice. Kids like it. Aidan comes out of his funk. We decided first night would be steak night and I prep and cook and serve. Settling down. Four more voice messages on my WeChat from Yang. Great, I think. (aside: this is really atypical Yang). I walk into a bedroom so kids won’t hear, thinking this is more about Aidan and her. It wasn’t.

Kobe, who had been staying at the pet hospital for two nights of observation had run away. He broke out of his cage in the night and when the opened up in the morning he ran past the employees. They chased him but he’s too fast and too strong, Yang said. And they are incompetent, I thought. The area Kobe was lost was unfamiliar to him and highly urban. I feared he would get hit by a car. Again. If he somehow managed the traffic the area is too vast and crowded to be easily searched. Kobe had a dog tag on with Sabrina’s phone number but there is no cell service at the cabin. I decided to tell the kids. One by one the posted Wechat moments asking people to look for Kobe. We started to try and figure out what to do. Elisa crying, coming for hugs. An hour later an older woman told one of the pet hospital workers she had spotted Kobe in her complex. Yang, who had returned home thinking Kobe might head there (unlikely given the distance and unfamiliarity) rushed to the housing complex and started looking anew. Some time later, five hours for the disappearance, Yang came across Kobe. Sitting in front of a young female college student, happy as can be. Her voice message said “your son is just like you” and it took me a beat to get it.

Joy across the cabin when the kids found out and pictures and videos shared of a healthy and happy Kobe.

Epilogue: I woke them up at 7am for a full day of hiking. Vernal falls, Mist Trail, Mirror lake.