Self Awareness

SHORT STORY TITLE: The First Time Choosing the Lesser of Two Evils.

The cities gave holiday spirits with joyful themes, lights, and decorations during the holidays.

An eight-year-old daughter was thrilled to be outside with her mom during her favorite time of the year. It was their first time shopping at this two-story Kmart store. This kind of store was an extremely big building for a little person, and it was so packed that she lost her mom in the buying madness on the first floor.

She was initially concerned and frantically searched numerous aisles before looking at the escalator to the upstairs floor. Then suddenly, she thought missing her family was a good idea.

Joyously, she heads in the opposite direction of the escalator towards the front entrance. The door automatically opens for her to leave. Standing in front of the store, she looks around to examine the parking lot area.

‘Where should I go?’
‘I could think up a place,’ she thought.

‘How would I get there?’
‘I could use my legs and I could take the bus or ask someone for a ride if I’m tired,’ she thought.

‘How would I know if that woman or that man over there or any other strangers were a good or bad person?’
‘If I meet bad people, it would be going from a bad place to a worse place,’ she thought.

And the information she had seen on the news about missing children comes to her mind. She’s thinking the downtown streets are unsafe for an eight-year-old girl to wander alone, especially after dark.

At least with her parents she knows how to behave for her peace and get out of trouble for their kindness and that one day, she will be an eighteen-year-old adult, legally free.

At that moment, she chose not to be a runaway child.

She heads back inside to look for her mom instead.
She walks around the first floor again.
“There was a spill in Aisle 2; please be careful when walking in that aisle,” a lady’s voice said on the intercom.

So she went straight to that counter where she saw the store’s cleric, the microphone, and the intercom equipment next to where she had exited earlier.

“Hi, I lost my mom. I can’t find her. Can you tell her to come here with that?”

The cleric gasped and said, “Yes. What’s your name, and what’s your mom’s name?”

She told the cleric, who announced that this lost child would be waiting for her mom at the counter next to the front entrance.

“I’m sure she’ll come,” the cleric assured her. “I’m going to call security too.”

Her mom showed up at about the same time as the security personnel. The mom looked worried and relieved to see her daughter. The store’s personnel asked if that was her mom and if she would be fine.

“Yes. I will be fine, thank you,” the girl said.

Now, together, she went home with her mom.