I was coming to find you

"I was coming to find you," my eight-year-old son said as he ran down the path from his cabin. I was walking back up the path after checking on all of the little things that will keep his week at camp running smoothly. I stopped, knelt so he could sit on my knee, and replied, "I wasn't going to leave without saying goodbye." He sat down and hugged me. "I know daddy." We walked away from the cabin and began talking about all of the things that came to his mind. It no longer felt hot. The thunder in the distance didn't worry us. After all of our excuses to avoid it were gone, we walked back to the cabin, and found the other children huddled around the counselor. I was the last parent. I said an awkward goodbye in front of his cabin mates and walked back to the car. Every parent knows the drive. It is the loneliest distance you ever travel.