The time I lost a snake, but not really

My youngest son recently had his birthday and all he asked for was a corn snake. This has been an ongoing theme with him; every birthday he asks for a new pet. Sometimes it doesn’t even need to be his birthday. Earlier this year he begged for a kitten (I was considering adopting one anyway) with the promise of “if you get me a kitten, I won’t ask for a python.” I was sold. The kid loves animals. A lot. So this year, again, his request was for a corn snake. I figured a corn snake is a relatively easy ask. I wasn’t enamored with the idea of feeding mice to a snake, but circle of life and all that. I did a lot of research and bought the enclosure and all the accoutrements needed for a snake. We decided to go to a local reptile expo to acquire said snake and found one the day before that he really liked. If you’re into the morph speak, this snake is a coral ghost sun-kissed corn snake. Absolutely beautiful. And tiny. I was not prepared for how tiny the snake was. It made his enclosure look like a mansion.
We got the snake and got him settled into his enclosure and gave him some time to decompress. Then about on day 3 of owning a snake, I hear “mom, I can’t find the snake.” I went into my son’s room and checked the enclosure; sure enough, I was not finding a snake in there. The next day, I began checking the obvious spots a baby corn snake would run and hide to, with no luck. I checked the enclosure, again, every square inch. Nothing. A week went by with no sign of the snake. I decided last night to see if I could lure him out with a heating pad. I got the heating pad in position and set it on the lowest setting. Then I thought I should place one of his hides on the heating pad as I’m sure he’d not want to be in the wide open space. I lifted the hide up, and there was Noodle the snake. Sitting in the enclosure like he’s been there the entire time. The enclosure I had searched multiple times. I have no idea where he was hiding but I knew he was going to be hungry so we fed him and left him alone to enjoy his meal.
I’m interested to see if he does this on the regular. The enclosure is pretty secure so I was surprised that he was “missing” to begin with. Owning a pet snake is going to be an adventure.