A Wal*mart Nightmare

A Story by Shela Lian

I warn anyone who reads this, this is NOT a happy story. Please don't think it is or get mad at me for it please v.v'

    A small girl was wandering the isles of the Wal*mart super-store. She was lost. Her mother had told her to go look for a new Barbie for her room. Her mother said she has forgotten her keys in the car and would be back shortly. The little girl had skipped off to the toy isle.
    Fifteen minutes later the girl started getting worried. She thought that maybe her mother had gone to get some food in the food department. She headed over and looked everywhere. Her mother wasn’t there, so the girl wandered the whole store. Yet her mother was nowhere to be found. The girl started panicking; she was only six years old. An hour and a half later she had gone through the store over ten times. Still nobody noticed this small girl wandering the store all alone and afraid.
    Then the girl thought suddenly. The parking lot. She decided to look there. Maybe her mother had fallen on the ice and was hurt. She went out and the cold air whipped at her face the moment the sliding doors opened.
    It was cold, the little girl was happy she hadn’t left her mittens in the car. She headed over to where she remembered the car had been parked. But instead of the silver Toyota that her mother owned there was a blue BMW parked there. She thought maybe she had looked in the wrong spot. Deciding that was it she started walking up and down the car isles.
    Another hour later she was sure she had looked at every car in the whole lot. She had seen no sign of her mother’s car anywhere. She felt a lump in her pocket and remembered what was in it. Her mother had given her thirty dollars pocket money that morning. It was the most money she had ever gotten. Usually she only got two dollars a week. She took out the money and looked at it. Her little hands had gone numb in her mittens, and her ears had gone even redder then the Santa’s suit that the man ringing the bell at the collections pail was wearing. She put the money back into her pocket. She was so cold and scared. She wished she had brought her hat in her pocket and not just her mittens. When her legs got numb even while she was walking through the parking lot, she sadly turned around and walked inside.
    She walked to the back of the store. She had gotten hungry. When the girl had arrived at the store with her mother it had been 8:00. It was now 2:00 and the afternoon crowd had started coming into the store. Yet still the little girl was invisible to them. They passed by her sitting on the bench and didn’t even give her a second glance. She finally pulled herself wearily off the bench. She went over to the food counter and pulled out her money sadly. She had been planning to buy the new Barbie convertible when she had enough money. She bought herself a hotdog and small milk. As she sat down to eat she was happy her mom had told her to bring all her money with her that day.
    When she was done with her lunch she thought of something. Her mother must still be in the store looking for her. The car wasn’t in the parking lot because it had been towed. Her mother told her it happens sometimes. With a bubble of hope she set off wandering the store again.
    It was now 6:00. She was hungry again. She went back to the food counter again. After ordering the same thing she had gotten for lunch she went and sat on the bench again. The bubble of hope was gone. She was worried now. Not about herself, but for her mother. She had no idea what was going on. Her eyelids felt heavy and she drifted off to sleep. Five minutes to nine she woke up to the last intercom call of the day. It announced that the store would be closing within five minutes. The girl finally understood. She really was alone. She slid off the bench with silent tears running down her face and put on her coat, and mittens. She knew it would be cold. With that thought she walked out the sliding doors of the Wal*mart store. It had started to snow while she had been inside. The girl looked up to the sky and shivered her tears still coming.
    An old man was watching the morning news. He had just gotten his usual breakfast of a cup of coffee and a slice of buttered toast with marmalade jam. He had sat down in his old tattered green EZ-boy recliner. He took bite of his toast and turned his head to the TV when he saw the main headline of that morning. It announced “six year old girl freezes to her death outside on local Wal*mart bench.” The old man was shocked when he saw the girl’s picture. The toast fell out of his hand and clattered onto the chipped plate. He sits still for a minute eyes staring off into the distance. Then he got off the recliner as fast as his old limbs would let him, and stumbled over to the phone. His hand was shaking as his boney fingers pressed the buttons on the phone. He had to talk to his daughter. Finally she picked up the phone crying. It sounded as though she had been crying for a while. The old man only said one word. “Why?”….