TDF Short Stories

3. Special Pink Things

Music blasts from the ceiling, people pushing giant clattering carts rush by, and her daddy is tugging at her wrists and telling her "hurry up" and "stop touching the merchandise" and "no" and "stop that." Aurora is fighting the urge to flop down on the floor and wail until her daddy will take her home, but Good Girls don't do that, and then... Then she sees it.

It's pink. The color of the delicate roses, the color of Aurora's stuffed kitty, the color of the tube of Aurora's favorite toothpaste.

It's up, up, so high! So high! Much higher than her little fingers can reach! Up where there are no adults racing around, up where everything is peaceful and still.

It's round, and shiny, and delicate in that light and beautiful way.

Aurora's right wrist is being dragged forward, but her left hand is free, so she reaches up her chubby little fingers and says "banoon."

She's spoken before, not much, but it always made her parents very startled, and then they talked fast and smiled. Maybe, if she speaks again, her daddy will stop and pay attention to her.

"Banoon."

"Aurora, hurry up! I can't drag you through the whole store."

"Ooon."

But her daddy is yanking her forward, away from the pretty pink balloon, towards more shelves of boring adult things. They go past shelf after shelf as he looks down each aisle.

"We really need to find a new nanny," he mutters under his breath. "I can't do this myself."

Aurora wants to see the balloon, but the tall shelves are blocking her view now. But she remembers the layout of the store, and she feels she knows about where the balloon is.

"Daddy, banoon."

If she can just look at the balloon, if maybe her daddy can bring it down for her, then perhaps she could handle all the rushing and loudness and awful things. If she could hold the balloon, tie it to her wrist, bat it around with her hands, just focus on that and let everything else fade away so it's just the pink pearly sphere and her...

Her daddy lets go of her wrist and approaches somebody. "Excuse me, is this really all your selection?"

"Yes, that's all we have."

"Can't you check in the back? Maybe there's more."

"I get the banoon," Aurora says. Her daddy doesn't even look at her. Well, she knows she'll be able to find him again. He will be talking with this person for a long time, she thinks. She can find the balloon and come back without him ever noticing.

Besides, she told him what she was doing.

So Aurora toddles off. She goes past the rows of aisles, this time not touching the things, because she is on a more important mission. Finally, the pink balloon catches her eye, so she walks up and stands under it, looking up.

How can she reach this thing? She could try climbing the shelves, but that could be risky (Could they tip over? Could she fall off? Can she climb that well?). Or maybe an adult could get it for her... but can the adults reach that high?

She looks around and notices a big stepladder. That would probably be big enough for climbing, to reach the balloon. She just needs to push it over to the balloon. It looks like it has wheels, but how heavy is it?

Aurora is calculating her next move when a girl and a woman walk into the aisle.

"Mom, look," the girl says, pointing at Aurora.

The girl looks like she is about Aurora's age, maybe a bit older. Her hair is like fire, like a waterfall, orange and curly and done in a ponytail with a bright ribbon. The woman must be her mother, because she just looks like a taller and older version of the girl, but with short hair.