Lost

I’m in the middle (well, my Kindle says I’m at 39% so not the middle) of a novel in which one of the main characters recalls a time when she was lost at a shopping mall and it sparked a memory that I’ve not yet written about.

Many years ago, in 1984 actually,  I was pregnant with my second child.  I wasn’t “very pregnant” yet but I did need to get a bigger size of clothing.  This was difficult because I would have to try on the garments to see which would fit my changing body and with a two year old, going shopping was not an easy thing, especially because I would have to try things on.  So I waited for just the right time, thinking that I might get to go shopping when I visited my mother, leaving my son with her to watch.

Then my sister-in-law, who was about 18 or 19 at the time, came to visit for a week.  Perfect!  I would take her when I went shopping and she could watch Tony for me while I tried on clothes!  So that’s what I did.  One day, we got in the car and ran out to do a whole bunch of things, including the park and lunch and shopping.   We went to K-Mart and I looked through the racks of maternity clothes, trying to find something that would fit me for a good part of my pregnancy.  All the while, my sister-in-law also shopped in the clothing department with me and Tony sat in the shopping cart like a good little boy.  I finally decided on which things I would try on and found my sister-in-law.  I told her I needed to try on some things and asked her if she would watch Tony.   She was great with Tony and she gladly agreed.  However, she said she would just take him out of the shopping cart so she wouldn’t have to push the cart around.  I asked if she was sure she wanted to do it that way and she said yes.  So out of the shopping cart came Tony and off I went into the dressing room.

It didn’t take very long for me to walk the twenty-five feet to the dressing room and get a number from the attendant.  I found a dressing room and hung the items, only about five things, complete with hangers on the back of the dressing room door.  I have a thing about dressing rooms.   I hate them.  Since I was  a child, I have hated dressing rooms and public bathrooms.  Hate.  Hate.  Hate.  So as quickly as I could, I undressed and just as I was about to put the first item on to try it, I heard an announcement come on the loud speaker:  “Attention K-Mart Shoppers.  We have a lost little boy at the Service Desk.  His name is Tony Martinez and he is 2 years old.  Will Tony’s mommy please come to the Service Desk?”

Lost little boy?  Tony?  MY Tony?  He had been out of my sight for all of four minutes and he’s lost?  As quickly as I could, I put my own clothes back on and ran out of the dressing room and headed for the Service Desk where I saw not only Tony sitting on the counter with a balloon and a big smile, but my sister-in-law standing next to him looking really, really embarrassed!  Apparently,  she went back to looking at clothes and let go of his hand and he wandered off, only to be found by one of the employees who took him to the Service Desk.  Great!  And they would not let my sister-in-law take him from the Service Desk because she was not his mommy.  I was glad that she had appeared though because at least the store employees knew that I had not left my child to wander throughout the store.  They knew I had left him with a presumably capable adult who was supposed to take care of him!

We left the store without me trying on any clothes and without buying anything.

He wasn’t embarrassed that time.  He was happy that he’d gotten a balloon and his mommy back.  Now there is another story about him getting lost in a store when he was much older;  a story that I’ll save for another day.

 

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