Darkest Hour

Our life changed dramatically last night. Sometime shortly after putting the kids to bed, Michael snuck out the door in his room and left our house. He apparently walked to Kadena and was picked up by security forces under the bridge outside Gate 2. He lied to the MPs and told them he was there because Greg had dropped him off and asked him to wait there while he went to run errands. He later changed his story and said that a friend's mom had dropped him off there, but he never did tell them how and why he truly wound up there. We had no idea he had snuck out and were sitting at home watching TV when the phone rang. It was security forces saying that they had Michael and that we needed to come down and pick him up. Only, when Greg got there, he was locked in an interagation room, read his rights, and arrested for child endangerment. He was stuck at security forces for several hours. His supervisor had to come down and sign him out. In the meantime, they had taken Michael to the hospital because he had scratches on his arms and legs (old scratches that were caused by a nasty bike crash) and he had to be checked out for signs of abuse. When security forces released Greg, they told him to go to Lester Hospital to pick up Michael. By now, it was 11:15pm (2 hours after the fatal call.) Greg called shortly after 1am to check in with me. Still no news, still not being released. Minutes after his phone call, I received a call from security forces asking for my statement of what happened. I guess it helped somewhat that Greg's story and my story matched. They said that as long as there were no signs of physical abuse, they would recommend that Michael be released. At 3:30am, I was awakened by the phone expecting it to be Greg saying they were finally coming home. This was not to be. It was one of the officers from the hospital telling me that I needed to come to the emergency room and oh, by the way, how long would it take me to get there? (I have 2 sleeping children, my husband has the wheelchair van, so I have to put Jessy in the carseat and take his stroller. Let's see, half an hour should do it??) When I got to the emergency room, the guy at the desk wouldn't even tell me if I was in the right place, just told me to have a seat and wait. After a half hour of waiting I finally called Greg's cell phone. Greg had not been told that they would not release Michael to him. An hour later, the doctor came to talk to me. He agreed that Michael's scratches are not consistent with abuse. At 5:45am, we were finally released to go home. Now, we sit and wait to find out if we will be cleared.