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Post by swankivy on Mar 25, 2011 20:55:25 GMT -5
Lousy Kids
Instead of seeming worried about the welfare of two young children on their own, the stranger lady in this issue seems a lot more ticked off about them violating the building owner's space. If you'd come down some stairs and unexpectedly seen what she saw, what do you think your first concern would have been? Any idea what you might have said to them?
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Post by SHO! on Mar 25, 2011 22:43:43 GMT -5
The simplest answer is that I'd probably invite them down to my apartment for food and DVDs, then ask them about what they were doing up there, if they had someone they wanted me to call and basically try to assess the situation and how much I needed to b involved. Most likely I'd probably be a lot more concerned because of their ages but knowing me, I think that once I started to get a handle on Amanda's "deal" my curiosity would win out as much as those two guys in the store (obviously, without the kidnapping notions though).
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Post by swankivy on Mar 26, 2011 0:29:27 GMT -5
I like your answer, SHO! . . . though of course if you encountered these guys you'd have had to be in their time and offer them a crack at your VHS tapes, not your DVDs.  Food, of course, is timeless. It's very cool that you'd see kids alone and get their attention by offering them something, not trying to chew them out or punish them for being somewhere kids "shouldn't" be. Hey, if you had been there, maybe that would have been the phone call that notified the police that someone with the baby's description had been located, and you know there's a missing child record for her. . . . It's hard to predict what would actually happen in real life if a baby I was trying to help started flying around, though. Who DO you call? All of a sudden you would feel like a weirdo calling the police. |
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Post by customdesigned on Mar 26, 2011 14:47:47 GMT -5
I suspect the lady went to the roof to investigate some strange noises. I would likely not have invited them in, but would become nosy - checking on them whenever I think of it. I make it a rule not to remind anyone of something they shouldn't be doing, until I have a least one reasonable alternative to offer. I try to keep in mind that I don't know the whole situation, and a stranger might not be able to share why alternatives I suggest won't work in their case.
That said, a major symptom of addiction is hyper-rationalization. The addict is *always* a special case. Other people might have to give up alcohol/nicotine/peyote/... entirely, but not them, no siree. That is an unlikely scenario in the case of these kids, however. And they appear to be getting adequate food as well. So I would just be much nosier until I had enough clues to be able to know what was really going on. If there appeared to be immediate danger - e.g. the baby was wandering near the edge of the roof, I would be much more alarmed (not realizing the baby is in far less danger then I in this case) and probably yell and run over to retrieve her, at which point the baby might push *me* over the edge (and be unlikely to cushion the fall).
About calling the police: a co-worker had his 3 year old girl in a playpen, with the front door bolted beyond the child's reach. He went to the bathroom (common start of many childcare dramas). In those 5 minutes, she climbed out of the playpen, pushed a chair to the door, unbolted it, and toddled down the side-walk. A neighbour saw the toddler, and immediately called 911. The father came out of the john, saw the front door open, and rushed out to find her. He saw ambulances, and ran over, and there she was. They wouldn't give her back, but took her into custody. He didn't get his daughter back until 3 months and tens of thousands in lawyers bills later. That was not a friendly neighbour.
In the time frame of this story, however, I think police were more reasonable.
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Post by swankivy on Mar 26, 2011 18:36:05 GMT -5
Regarding "investigating strange noises," actually I doubt that's what's going on here, just FYI . . . I probably can't make it too clear in the context of the story because it's told from a baby's point of view, but those fire escape stairs get far less use than the elevator inside the building, and it's pretty rare that anyone would use them, but those kids are in plain sight for anyone descending the stairs. I doubt she was drawn by noise on the roof (especially since they were just sitting quietly with a book), though some things they've done at other times could have attracted attention (Melanie trying to drive those stakes into the concrete for the tent, for instance). This lady's just a passerby.
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Post by SHO! on Mar 27, 2011 5:54:10 GMT -5
I suspect the lady went to the roof to investigate some strange noises. |
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Post by SHO! on Mar 27, 2011 5:56:05 GMT -5
Regarding "investigating strange noises," actually I doubt that's what's going on here, just FYI . . . I probably can't make it too clear in the context of the story because it's told from a baby's point of view, but those fire escape stairs get far less use than the elevator inside the building, and it's pretty rare that anyone would use them, but those kids are in plain sight for anyone descending the stairs. I doubt she was drawn by noise on the roof (especially since they were just sitting quietly with a book), though some things they've done at other times could have attracted attention (Melanie trying to drive those stakes into the concrete for the tent, for instance). This lady's just a passerby.  |
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