Beating hearts

Chapter 13

Leawood Kansas, mall, 2005.
10 years ago

Jingle bells plays throughout the mall, as Ara, Lilly and their mother hold hands, making their way through the crowds.

"Santa and his elves, have just arrived from the North Pole, come meet him and tell them what you want for Christmas, he might even let you pet his reindeer." Says a man over the speaker.

"Mommy, mommy, I want to go see Santa," Lilly says tugging on her mother's blouse with one hand and holding her old stuffed bear, Georgie in the other.

"In a minute Lilly," she replies, before letting go of Her hand and digging in her bag to find her ringing phone, "it's your father, hold on,"

"Ara, let's go find Santa?" Lilly says stopping and grabbing Ara's arm.

"Mother said to wait, Lilly, "she says turning to her sister.

Lilly grunts and crosses her arms, indicating that she wasn't moving from that spot until she got to see Santa.

"Lilly, come on," she says tugging her arm, but she wouldn't budge.

Ara spins around, "Mom will you please tell Lilly that...." she stops when she realizes her mother isn't there.

"Sales are ending in 20 minutes," the voice on the speaker calls again.

"Mom?" Ara calls out, "mom!" She yells again, looking in every direction. The crowd becomes bigger and bigger, people are rushing around, pushing and shoving.

"Ara, I'm scared," Lilly says.

Ara takes Lilly's hand as they push their way through the crowd and into the entrance of a less chaotic store.

10 minutes passed, then 20, then 30. Lilly started to get hysterical.

"If you Hadn't been pouting for Santa and just listened to mom, this wouldn't be happening," Ara said angrily, but when she looked down and saw how panicked her sister was, she stopped.

"What if she never finds us?" Lilly's says as her breathing starts to become raspy. Ara only being 8 years old, didn't know what to do, she just knew she had to take care of her.

"It's all going to be okay," Ara stated, trying to get her calm. "Look at me,"

Lilly shook her head repeatedly as she struggled to breathe.

"Lilly, look at me," Ara said again.

She looked up at her big sister, tears streaming down her red and puffy face.

"Do you remember a couple of months ago, you misplaced Georgy and couldn't find him anywhere?" Ara said motioning her head down to the little girls worn out stuffed bear she carried everywhere with her.

Lilly shook her head more frantically still in the middle of her panic attack.

"You remember how sad and upset you were, but then we found him an hour later behind your dresser?"

Ara tucked Lilly's hair behind her ear, and wiped tears off of her face.

"It's like that... we've  just been misplaced, but she we will find us, I promise. There is nothing to worry about."

Lilly started to breathe more calmly and focus her eyes on her sister, Ara grabbed Lilly's hand in hers.

"I'm here, just breathe."

"Attention shoppers, Ara and Lilly Montgomery, your mother is looking for you at the customer service desk, Ara and Lilly Montgomery please find your way to the customers service desk," the voice on the speaker announced.

"See Lilly, everything is fine." Ara said.

Lilly's started to breathe more clearly, as Ara took her hand.

"Come on, "  

Lilly smiled; gripping Ara's hand tighter.

Time can be your worst enemy in a crisis, it goes slow in wrong moments, keeping you scared for what seems like forever, but once they reunited in their mothers' loving arms, everything scary went away, and time would be there friend again. At least For a while.