30/06/2025
HE FELL ASLEEP IN A POLICE OFFICERâS ARMS đ´ BUT THATâS NOT WHY PEOPLE STARTED WHISPERING
We were at the Juneteenth festivalâmusic playing, food trucks everywhere, kids laughing and running through the streets. I looked away for just a second to pay for a funnel cake, and when I turned back, my nephew Zavi was gone.
Panic hit me like a wave. I dropped everything and started yelling his name, checking every bounce house, every face I passed. I was seconds away from calling 911 when I finally saw himâfast asleep in a police officerâs arms.
The officer stood off to the side, calm, like this was nothing new. When I ran over, breathless and scared, he just nodded and said Zavi had wandered off near the snow cone truck and got tired.
âDidnât want to leave him alone,â he said, like it was no big deal.
I thanked him, scooped Zavi up, and tried to move on. But then I noticed people staring. Whispering. A few had their phones out. Some were smilingâbut not all of them.
One woman near the food stand shook her head and said, âMust be nice to get that kind of response.â
At first, I didnât get it.
Then it hit me.
They werenât whispering because Zavi had fallen asleep. They were whispering because of who was holding himâ
And what it might have looked like if just one thing had been different.
Now I canât stop thinkingâŚ
Would he still be safe if he didnât look so small, so tired, so harmless? âŹď¸ Read more in Comment or Most relevant -> All comments đ
