Notes

“For God’s sake do something”. These are words you often hear, but to me it brings back memories of one fine Summer’s day when I was at the park with my friends.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, the sky was a beautiful baby blue and it was the summer holidays. I was with my good friends Kyla and David and we were heading towards the park. We were nearly at the park when we saw a young boy that looked around ten or eleven on the other side of the road. He had short, golden brown hair and was wearing a red t-shirt. He was carrying a white ball with him. He saw us and smiled. We felt bad for him as he wasn't with any friends but he seemed happy.

When we arrived at the park, Kyla, David and I started to play football. We had been playing for what felt like forever and I asked them if we could get an ice cream from the ice cream van that had just pulled up. David nodded his head and we headed over to get ice creams. Kyla noticed the boy from earlier sadly sitting on the bench on his own, looking at the ice cream van. She bought an extra ice cream and brought it over to the boy. His face lit up like a light bulb, when she handed him the ice cream. He told us his parents were both at work and he went to the park to play football because he was bored. We offered to play football with him but he said he should get home before his parents did. We waved goodbye and went back to playing football.

We only stayed about five or ten minutes after that. The sun was scorching and I could feel the heat on my back. We got tired and decided to head back to my house for some food. As we approached the small lane we saw the boy up ahead. He was leaning into a white van. It didn't look right and I got a bad feeling in my stomach. We saw the man's hand on the boy's back. Kyla started to panic and she turned to me and screamed “for God’s sake do something!”

We ran towards the van to see the boy stroking a small puppy inside the van. I peered into the van and I could not believe my eyes. The man had a knife on the dashboard. When Kyla pretended to see the boy's mother in the house opposite us, the man panicked and sped down the lane. I took my phone out and took a picture of his licence plate. The boy seemed distressed so Kyla offered to walk the boy home and he nodded his head. The boy led us to his house. There was a car in the driveway so his mother was obviously home. She invited us into her home and we explained what happened. Her face went as white as snow. She called the police and thanked us for everything we had done. The police asked me to send them the picture I had taken of the licence plate and told us they would be in touch.

This has really taught us a lesson. Always look out for one another. If we had not been there, God knows what would have happened. In the end the police tracked the van to a small shack nearby and the man was arrested.