Imagine walking up on a 5yr old boy and his mother sitting on the street trying to entertain themselves to avoid listening to their hunger pains. Imagine that 5yr old jumping into your arms because you handed him a bag of cookies and a water. That’s exactly what we walked up on tonight. One of our first stops was to them. Gage’s mom shouted out our name and said “I love you guys! I’m so happy to see you” and that’s when Gage, the 5yr old, jumped up to hug us all. We got to chat with him, play with him and his mini super heroes and watching him chow down on snacks.
To even pretend that I know what it must be like for him and his mom would be offensive. The desperation she must feel, the terror of falling asleep, being on guard – I don’t think I could take it. I’d be absolutely bonkers. They had smiles on their faces. Astounding.
Prior to starting the night, I honestly couldn’t get a message out of me to save my life. I was blocked. What does that suggest? Pray. And so we did. In groups of 4, we got to pray out love, blessing and protection over one another. It was incredible and for the majority of the night it had seemed that it was an extra safeguard. That was until we came back around to Gage and his mom. There had been a woman with them earlier that seemed to be interviewing the mom and that was part of why we just played with Gage. This time she was doing everything in her power to calm him down. The team actually got to pray for and with them both. Shortly thereafter Gage just exploded. He burst out from his mom’s arms and went running down the Blvd., inching toward traffic.
Day 12 of a liquid fast or not, I’m obviously going to run after the kid. Dead sprints, 3 times, 90 yards at least each time. This kid is just trying to get attention – especially from someone other than his mom for a change. This was such a literal plea for love and attention. Or so I thought. Until he bit me on the shoulder 4 times. And then slapped me across the face twice. And then crapped his pants while I was holding him. Surprisingly, this isn’t my strangest story from Hollywood Blvd., but it did win the night.
There’s no reasoning with a child who is being hit with this kind of overwhelming reality in his life. I put him down and asked him to help him mom – to be good for her sake, to love her and cooperate so she could keep him safe. He had a moment where he pondered it, but instead tried to bite me again. Eventually he went back to his mom and she pretty much wrangled him into submission. Again, I can’t even process what she must be going through – let alone what his 5 year old brain is trying to make of all this. It’s heart breaking.