K-Mart Caper
Written 9/7/1994 with revisions 7/17/2021
As a kid, I was always curious and still are to this day. Little kids have a tendency of getting lost and then becoming terrified when the realization hits that they are stranded from their company. I don’t think in my childhood they’d yet invented the child leash, though if they had I don’t know if my parents would have used it.
One day, I was in K-Mart with my mother, brother, and grandmother. My mother was tending to my brother in the dressing room which left grandma to be my supervisor.
While standing around waiting for my mom and brother to finish, I remembered seeing some jazzy bikes on the way to the dressing rooms. I decided to retrace my steps and behold their awesomeness.
Unfortunately, I could not find them so I tried going back the way I remembered getting to where I was. I was at a total loss as I went past garden tools three, four, or maybe five times. My face was starting to redden and warm and I was doing a half run, half bob looking for the dressing rooms or bikes a location that felt safe. I started screaming for my mom while also crying which made identifying a safe space nearly impossible.
Finally, my mom found me after hearing my frantic cries for help she was able to use her Nancy Drew skills to hunt down my wailing sounds. She rescued me from the evil garden tools that seemed to stalk my every choice and move. I sensed that she was embarrassed but that was not as important to me at the time as her embrace and rescue of me.
