I went to the mall of America with J yesterday. It was a typical Saturday trip, gorgeous sunshine and no gigantic crowds of people. Near the end of our time we stopped in at H&M, a giant store with racks and racks of mod, modern clothing at Forever 21 prices. J and I split up, him in the mens' and I in the ladies' department.
Not five minutes into a rack of spring skirts I noticed, along with the rest of the store, a woman walking quickly around- calling out the name of a little girl. She had lost her daughter. Two, nervous, but calm store employees were looking around, and other people's suggestions of where she might be "hiding" were thrown out. As the minutes passed the woman became more and more frantic. It was a terrible, horrifying thing to watch. She kept calling her name, a smaller child glued to her hip, and pacing behind the store employee who had a phone and was calling security.
Every single woman in that store stood still. They put aside whatever they were looking for/at and stood silently, all with the same look on their faces. I kept having images in my head of kidnappings and SVU episodes, and I tried to push them out with a trip to the fitting room.
By the time I got out, they had found her.
J and I stepped out of that store, our new purchases in hand, and he said to me softly, "my mother never lost me" (and he's one of four) and I replied, "mine either."
I'm not going to say that only negligent mother's loose their children in H&M, but I'm just glad my mother never lost me. Or dad for that matter.
I do not believe we live in a world of the 1950s where children can just walk anywhere they want. I know I live in a safe city, in a safe state, in the middle of perfect Midwest, but I know things happen here and everywhere. I wish our world was safe enough for midnight walks home, and carrying an open purse, and no babysitters- but it's not. That's not to say our world is overly dangerous either. We just live in a place on the line between "it can't happen to us" to "it just did." I am thankful for seat belts, and insurance, and locks, and zippers on purses.
