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Imogen Halstead (age 3)
Word count: 429
Haileys POV
Food shopping is the absolute worst when you have a toddler who will not sit in the cart and will not stand still. I turn my back for one second and she's already running away. Even the stupid harnesses don't work, jay tried that trick once and she slid right out of it. So as I stand in front of the spices, browsing my options, I keep one eye trained on my kid. Children can be nightmares at times...
I lean down to pick the paprika up, however to do that, I need to look at the shelf. I take my eyes away from my child for one second, if that, and when I stand up to grab her hand... she isn't there! For **** sake!
I run to the end of the aisle and look both ways, but she isn't there. Great! My heart starts racing as I rush to try and find a tiny blonde haired child running around holding a pack of oranges. How hard could it possibly be? Pfft, who am I kidding? When kids want to get their way, they gain super hero like abilities and there's no competing.
"Imogen!" I call out, gaining many judgemental stares from other parents, as if their kids haven't ran away from them before. My palms begin to sweat as I begin to panic, she's never gotten this far from me before. Within two minutes of useless looking, I decide that my child is lost. I run over to security in hopes of finding her but she isn't there, nobody has brought her here. He looks at me worriedly, "lost your kid?" He sighs. I nod frantically, "don't worry ma'am, no child has walked past here to get out of these doors. She's in here somewhere, we'll get her" he reassures me as he grabs his radio. I stand there helplessly as he calls for other security members to begin their search. I feel incredibly stupid as a detective for not being able to locate my own child's whereabouts.
It takes all of twenty minutes for one security woman to come wandering over to me, holding an innocent looking Imogen in her arms, "I found her playing in the box of plush toys" she chuckles. I breathe out a large sigh of relief, "thank you so much..." I close my eyes for a second, holding Imogen tightly to my chest. They all shoot me small smiles before going about their day as if this is a normal daily occurrence. Kids...
