Thursday, February 01, 2007

Let me tell you about the time my heart stopped.

My daughter and I have a few routines that we enjoy. One of them is our weekend movie/bookstore routine.
Every few weeks she and I will go see a movie together and after the movie we will go to the book store. She is an avid reader so she tears through books really fast. She already has a pretty impressive bookcase in her bedroom for being as young as she is.
Generally how it goes is; we go into the bookstore of our choice that day, she goes to the section with the books she likes to read and I go over to the section with the books I like to read. I usually already have in mind exactly what I am going to pick up, so it doesn't take me very long to decide. She likes to flip through each book and read the backs, or open it up and read a few pages in the middle to see if it is what she wants.
Most of the time these book stores will have some form of a coffee cart or a cafe so I will go over and buy my Latte and her Chai and will meet her back by her books to tell her that time is up and we need to go pay. (If I didn't do this, she would be looking all day.)
On this particular trip I went and purchased our drinks and meandered back over to where she is always standing and she was GONE!
I didn't panic right away. At first I said her name and peeked around the high bookcases. I said her name again a little louder this time running a full circle around them. Then I saw a man briskly walking out of the store who I remembered seeing looking in the same section as she was when I left her there, I also noticed an emergency exit to the store right next to the shelves that I had not ever noticed before.
At this point my imagination has imagined this man having something to do with why I can't find her. In my mind he had shoved her out the emergency door to a waiting villain in a windowless van and was rushing to meet them out back.
At this point I start shouting her name really loud, I feel like I am going to throw up and I am just about to go running after this man when I hear, "Mom! I'm right here! Gaawwwd! You don't have to shout!"
And there she was, standing right in front of me looking both seriously annoyed with me and pretty embarrassed. The most beautiful person I have ever seen, all pissed off and everything.
It took me every ounce of strength to not throwm my arms around her and burst into tears right then. The adrenaline rush had already started, so I felt almost the same as I did the last time I was the passenger in a major auto accident where no one was hurt. We had to sit down for about five minutes so I could regain my composure.
It turns out she already knew what she was going to get, so this time she decided to go find me. The bookcases are really high so we passed each other on opposite sides and didn't know.

So, this time it was OK. This time she was safe and I was just an overreacting mother, and I am OK with that.
It ended up being a good thing though, because it made us revisit the topic of stranger danger and why you should always keep your cellphone on and charged and "What to do if..."

That was the longest couple of minutes of my life.

4 comments:

Marcy said...

my gosh that how cutie that ur daughter must crazy love you mommy !! i know mommy have to worry that job! Always love you!

Michelle Auer said...

Yes, it is funny now, but at the time I was a wreck! :-) Love you too M

Melodie said...

I could feel the rush of emotion as I read it! (Oddly enough for Marcy's kids!) I began to feel that way if they were with her and I didn't see them for a couple of days! Wondering if they were ok and who and what they had been exposed to.
They are doing great!! Both honor roll students and blossoming into beautiful young ladies. If I could just get the bickering to stop! There is something to be said for an only child!!
Love you and yours!!

Deb Hardman said...

Ok, my pulse is up. I knew she had to be ok, because you wouldn't be blogging about it if she wasn't, but it still made my heart pound. Hug each other tight for me, & give a big fat kiss!XOXO!

 

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