Megan Waters
12-6-13
Lost in Walmart

I should’ve known not to take my eyes off of her. But I did, and then she was gone.
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“Keep your legs in the cart, Tessa!” I reminded my daughter for the twelfth time. Tessa reluctantly plopped herself back down into the grocery cart’s baby seat. I fought to keep the smile off my face as she attempted to scowl with her chubby cheeks. Tessa had just finished her terrible twos, and was now onto her traumatizing threes.

Thunder boomed outside as I pushed the grocery cart down the aisle, searching the walls for the items on my list. The rain pounded against the windows of Walmart, and I checked my watch again as I headed into the dairy aisle – it was 4:45 and I had to be home to cook dinner for my mother by 5. I frantically pushed my long, brown hair out of my face and walked faster. Where was the parmesan???

“Mama I wanna get down!” Tessa whined and kicked her legs. I blew my bangs out of my face in frustration and stopped the cart.

“Tessa, Mama’s in a hurry right now. Please just stay in the cart for a few more minutes.”

“Noooo!” She yelled as tears started to fill her eyes. Uh oh – I could sense a full blown meltdown coming on. “I wanna get down NOW!”

To avoid a scene that would waste more time, I hastily picked Tessa up and set her on the ground.
“Sweetie,” I said as I turned around to grab salsa off the shelves. “If you’re going to stay on the ground then you have to walk fast. Nana is coming over tonight and I need to get everything perfect for her.” Grabbing the last can off the shelves, I reached behind me and placed them into the grocery cart. Then I turned to my daughter, ready to wrestle her back into the cart, but there was no one there. I was looking at an empty aisle.
I knew that I didn’t need to panic, yet. But there were some things mothers just know. I felt it in my gut – a cold, hard pit of ice, so cold it spread throughout my body, freezing my bones and muscles until I wasn’t sure I could move anymore. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even breathe as I refused to think the unthinkable.
I opened my mouth, shattering the ice that had held me in place. “Tessa! Tessa!” I walked quickly down the dairy aisle, trying to ignore the chill from the refrigerated shelves. I raced through the produce section of Walmart, fruitlessly searching for my daughter. She was nowhere to be found.
The seconds ticked by as I ran to the checkout counter, I frantically scanned the large store for my daughter. I waved down a clerk; sweat beading on my forehead and my pulse was erratic. I must have looked like a lunatic to him. He gave me a strange look but I didn’t care. My daughter was gone.
“Please – ” I gasped. “You have to help me. My daughter is missing and I can’t find her – I only turned my back for a second and she was gone!”
Realization dawned on his face as he saw the seriousness of the situation. Quickly he spoke into a walkie-talkie thing that he had. I forced myself to stay put and not tear the store apart searching for my daughter as this clerk called his manager. The clerk was tall and thin, with short brown hair and a nametag that read John.
A minute or two later , a middle aged lady with a nametag that read Brenda ran over. “Did you say you lost your baby?”
I nodded. “I was in Aisle 12 looking at salsa when I turned around and she wasn’t there.” My hands shook as I took out my wallet in front of the clerk, John, and the manager. “Her name is Tessa – she’s 3 years old and she has curly brown hair and blue eyes” I said as I gave them the picture of Tessa I had inside my wallet. “Please you have to help! She has severe asthma and without her inhaler…” I trailed off, refusing to let myself go there. Shaking my head to clear the thoughts, I looked back to see John and the manager, Brenda, watching me.
Brenda took a deep breath. “For right now, I think it would be best if I go over the intercom and call for your daughter. We will also tell all of the employees to keep an eye out for her, and report anything that might be related to your Tessa. Is that okay?”
“Yes!” I nodded vigorously as she hurried off to the intercom, leaving me impatiently waiting with the guy, John. He gave me an unreadable look, as if he was debating something. I watched as he opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again.
“If you have something to say, say it.” I snapped. “Spit it out already!”
John’s brown eyes widened and he looked startled by my sudden outburst. “I’m sorry,” I sighed. “I just I can’t even think straight I’m so worried and she could be –”
He rubbed the back of his neck and grimaced. “I was just going to say – well you might not want to hear it, but you need to know. There was a… disappearance two days ago. A four-year old girl named Amber Hagerman was kidnapped in this area by a tall man with black hair and a gray beard, and she has yet to be found .”
“No…” I whispered, as the reality of the situation hit. Tessa was lost. She may be inside this god forsaken WalMart, or she could have been kidnapped by a malicious stranger. And wherever she was, she could be having an asthma attack, all because I wanted to impress my mom and ask her to lend me money to send Tessa to daycare , a daycare that she might never get to see.
My vision blurred and John’s face swam in and out of focus. My Tessa… I barely felt myself start to sway as my mind disconnected with my body. The harsh fluorescent lights dimmed as John rushed toward me. I was unconscious before I hit the ground.
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“She’s been unconscious for over 10 minutes…” furious whispers broke through the darkness.
“Ma’am? Ma’am, you need to wake up. Your daughter is still missing”a strained voice said above me. Tessa’s missing? My eyes flew open as all of the previous events came back to me. I sat up quickly, and looked around at the small group of people surrounding me.
“Where is she???” I stood up. “She still hasn’t been found?!” I looked around at the grave faces in WalMart uniforms, recognizing Brenda and John. Scrambling to my feet, I glared at them. “I’m going to search for my daughter, and if you won’t assist me, then I’ll call the police to help me!” I then stalked off in search of Tessa.
Slowly, the sky outside of WalMart grew darker and darker through the windows as I continued to scour the store for my daughter . I looked at my watch. 6:26 pm. There was no sign of her anywhere. I didn’t want to admit it but I was losing hope. The toys in the kids’ aisles mocked me every time I walked by them; I just wanted to break down and cry, to hide in the center of clothes racks like I used to when I was a kid – that’s it!
I raced to the section under the giant sign labeled Clothes and called for her. “Tessa! Tessa! It’s Mama! Where are you?” I pushed past racks and shelves full of clothes for what seemed like hours, but in reality was only a few minutes. I had just gotten to the end of the children’s clothes section when I gave up. Ashamed, I leaned against a wall and started to cry.
I thought it was my own sniffling that I was hearing, but after a moment I realized that it wasn’t me. There was crying coming from a circular coat rack not too far away, just audible enough for me to hear.
I walked forward slowly, scared that I would be disappointed by what I found. But when I pushed aside a group of dresses on hangers with shaking hands, I was anything but disappointed.
“Oh Tessa!!!” I sobbed as I threw my arms around the crying little girl crouched underneath the dresses. “Oh my baby, my little baby.” Tessa clung to me as I tried to look her over and make sure she was okay. “Are you okay?? Are you hurt?? What happened???” I frantically asked.
Tessa took a deep breath and looked at me, her big blue eyes overflowing with tears. “A bad man grabbed me. I bite him and he let go . I hide cause he was gonna come back for me. ” She cried harder.
“It’s okay Tessa, you’re safe. Mama’s here.” I smoothed her hair back as I thought how close I had come to never seeing her again. I was never going to let her out of my sight ever again. “We have to go talk to the manager now Tessa,” I said as I picked her up and carried her towards the front of the store. “Brenda’s a very nice lady, and I need to let her know that you’re safe.”
Tessa nodded and started to quiet down.
“Tessa… Do you remember what the bad man looked like?” I asked hesitantly.
“Yes, Mama. H-he was tall and had a beard like Santa.” She whispered. Oh my god.
“You’re safe now,” I kissed her forehead. “I’ll never let anything happen to you,” I told her even though I knew it was a lie. Today was proof of that. There were things that I couldn’t control, and I knew some day she would figure that out. However, I would do everything I could to preserve her little bubble of innocence until then. As I walked out into the dark starry night, I vowed to never set foot in that cursed Walmart ever again.