It was December 20th, the day I thought I became an orphan. It was an extremely cold night. The store was packed with people doing a last-minute Christmas shopping, this included us. My mom was rushing through the aisle trying to find the perfect gift for each member of our enormous family. I was right behind her, my attention getting caught by every pretty little thing I saw.

            The next moment happened so fast. One minute I was standing beside my mother looking at HD TV’s, the next I am all alone surrounded by strangers fighting for the last toaster oven. I rushed outside to make sure the truck was still there fortunately it was. I decided to go back inside running up and down the aisle trying to find my mother. Jumping trying to see if I could at least spot the brown tiger hat she was wearing. After 5 minutes I decided to stop for a second to try and catch my breath.

            A middle age man with a long untamed beard walked up to me asking me many questions such as, “Are you okay little girl, are you lost, do you know where your mommy is at, do you want me to help you find her?”

I stayed quiet as I was always told to never talk to strangers. Plus, something in me told me not to trust him. I started walking away but he reached for my hand and pulled me close to him. I started screaming and kicking till he finally let go. I ran so fast to an employee it felt like my feet didn’t even touch the ground.

            I explained everything to them, and a very nice employee took me to the back of the store where I met a cop in which I had to retell my story to again. At this point I wasn’t sure if my mom was still her and I had no way of contacting her. I didn’t have a phone and I couldn’t remember her number.

            The cop asked me for my mom’s name and mine. The next thing I heard was my moms name being called over on the speaker, “Ms. Jessica Reyes can you please come to customer service. We have someone here waiting for you.” I for sure thought that my mom was going to show up any second, but she didn’t. 30 minutes go by and she still hasn’t shown up. I was trying my best to remember her number and out of nowhere it came to me. The numbers just came out of my mouth as if my mouth was a fountain and the numbers were water. After several tries the police finally were able to get in contact with her.

“Hello”, she replied with a sleepy voice. “Is this Jessica Reyes? Marias mother?” the cop asked. “Yes, this is she” she answered in a worried tone. “I’m calling to inform you that your daughter has been at the store for some time now.” You could hear her rush out of bed “I’ll be there in a few,” she ended the call. After around 10 minutes she arrived. Having to explain everything that happened. Child services was called but I was able to go home with my mom.

The next day child services arrived at our house. Everything turned out okay, but ever since that day she hasn’t forgotten me or any of my siblings and is extra careful when we are out in public. A bonus to this was that for that Christmas I got my first phone.