The little blond boy who died in the car. The little blond boy who died in a hot car. The little blond boy who died in a hot car when his father allegedly forgot and left him there throughout a workday. Anyone following the story knows that several factors have surfaced that do not jive with the little boy being forgotten all day, or forgotten at all. The parents researched hot child deaths and said it was their greatest fear.

Great fears tend to make people over vigilant and leave them self-guessing themselves – think of someone with a gas stove returning home to make certain it was, indeed, turned off. Think of someone afraid of home invasion repeatedly checking locks.

Maybe a note on the steering wheel or visor? Maybe a wallpaper picture of the child on a phone or computer? Maybe an irresistible urge to run out to the parking lot to check, or a call to daycare if it were the other parent’s turn?

Their greatest fear.

I  can’t fathom the reported behavior of the parents because I cannot imagine anyone being anything but devastated beyond words, let alone reason if something like that happened. However, whether I can understand it or not, apparently the father talked about having committed a felony after pulling into the parking lot with the dead child in the car. The mother sat her husband down and asked him if he thought he had told the police too much.

I have driven with a little blond boy in my backseat during two different times of my life. I feel myself shudder and grow physically ill at the thought of opening a car door and realizing what the new reality was. I would be on my knees, sobbing, hysterical. I would probably be demanding to wake up from the nightmare.

If it were their greatest fear, I am dumbfounded they would not have taken extra precautions, and obviously what I am suggesting is the unthinkable: A little boy being purposely left to die.