The Missing Piece // Scarlett Johansson x Daughter

Lost in Central Park

Professor Márquez carried a huge responsibility. He was grateful to have Chloe and Peter as assistants on this trip, as he knew he couldn't handle the children without their help. However, he regretted bringing them to Central Park, driven by his own desires. The park was crowded, and the children were dispersing, joining forces with other little ones who were closely watched by their mothers. Márquez began to sweat, not just from the heat, and shouted at several of them who were straying too far. "This is the last time I'm taking the kids so far from home," he exclaimed, wiping his forehead with his handkerchief for the eleventh time.

As Professor Márquez continued to try to keep control of the fifteen children, one of them stumbled and fell to the ground while playing. The child began to cry inconsolably, and Márquez ran to him to see if he was hurt. Several companions formed a circle around to see what had happened. Fortunately, the child only had a small scrape on his knee, but his crying was so intense that it worried Márquez.

Meanwhile, the other children began to complain of thirst, expressing their desperate need for water in a sharp and desperate tone. Chloe, one of the twenty-five-year-old monitors, immediately offered to take a couple of children to get water, while Peter, the other monitor, stayed to care for the rest of the children. Chloe took the children by the hand and guided them towards the water stand.

Althea's blonde hair was stuck to her forehead from running after a ball in the park with her best friends Iratxe and Carlitos. The ball belonged to a boy named Philip, who often visited the park with his grandparents. She stopped in her tracks when Chloe returned and gathered everyone to offer them a bottle of water. After thanking her, Althea drank almost the whole bottle and within half an hour, she needed to use the bathroom. Iratxe was talking to her parents on Professor Márquez's phone as they wanted to hear her voice. Carlitos, on the other hand, was eating Prince cookies from his backpack while Chloe was making a ponytail for one of the girls, and Professor Márquez was calming Marco, who had teary eyes and a scraped knee.

So Althea, shrugging her shoulders, went to the public bathroom alone, feeling like a big, independent girl. John followed her with his group of friends while two of them kept watch. He closed the door to the women's bathroom without caring if he trapped anyone else before. Stepping out of the small cubicle, Althea stood on her tiptoes to wash her hands, hearing a woman asking to be let out. When she approached the door, three women were making noise, and she began to get scared. She caught the attention of one of the women, who approached her.

—Sweetheart, where is your mom?

—I came with the school —she pouted and was lifted up.

—They will open soon, there is nothing to fear. What is your name?

—Althea.

The woman, named Sasha, took care of Althea the whole time they were locked in the bathroom. She asked her questions to keep the girl distracted. It was a young boy coming out of the men's bathroom who heard the screams and removed the block, surprised when three women came out with a girl in their arms.

—The door was blocked —he told them, and they thanked him for his help before the boy left.

Althea, still in Sasha's arms, searched for her classmates with her eyes, but couldn't find them. Philip was already leaving with his grandmother.

"Philip," she whispered.

Thinking that Althea had found her class, Sasha put her down on the ground and watched her run after a boy. It was thanks to him that she found out her class had left a while ago. Althea saw him walking away and stood still watching his back getting further and further away. "My backpack!" she remembered leaving it near Iratxe and that her friend would probably notice that she wasn't with them. She ran and there was her violet backpack with little stars, alone on the ground. Althea looked around, unsure of what to do. Some people who had been enjoying the field were starting to pack up.