Oh Wheeeeeere is my Monkey???

Monkey's school calls again yesterday:
Me: Did he do better today?

Them: Well, it was a rough start since he didn't come right away.

Me: Uh, What?

Them: Well, he wasn't on the bus, so we just figured that he wasn't coming today, but you hadn't called the absent hotline so.......don't worry, the bus driver brought him back.

Me: Brought him back from WHERE?

Them: oh... uh... she just brought him in. I guess he hid between the seats for a while. He came in about a 12:45 (don't panic here everybody-school starts at 12:30, but at the time I thought it started at 12:15) so we took him right to gym. He did okay there, I gave him a Skittle for participating....

Me: Can we go back for a minute? How long was it before she realized he was still on the bus? Had she left the school?

Them: Oh, I really don't know...she has a lot of kindergarteners you know.... (yeah, Monkey's school has one afternoon Kindergarten class of 23 kids, even if they all ride his bus.....) I think there is a policy where they have to check all the seats....I guess if you need more information then you will have to call Transportation.

Me: (over the screaming inside my head) Thanks, that is really helpful. I guess I will just ask the busdriver tomorrow what happened. Even with ALL those other kindergarteners, I bet she'll notice if he gets off from now on.

P.S.- After this call, and I figured out that the timeline was 10-15 minutes, I started to feel a little better. The chances of her parking the bus and leaving it somewhere and then coming back are next to none in that time frame. I talked to the busdriver and she had started to leave the school and realized he was there, and took him back. Monkey giggled the whole time. Also, if they are going to park the bus, they have to walk to the back and engage something that says it is empty or all these alarms go off, so they check it when they park it. So, it is the thoughts of what could have been that are so terrifying for a parent. The principal is brand new this year, (and wasn't the one that made the initial call to me) and she is a little shaken by this, so she was going to call Transportation herself. She did however get to talk to Sgt. Grumpy this morning about it, I bet that was fun for her