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A Matter of Seconds
The line to the checkout stretched all the way to frozen foods. I looked into the cart to decipher if any of this junk was worth the wait. Frozen boneless chicken breast, instant mash potatoes, Mac and Cheese in the blue box, generic Captain Crunch, and Blue Bunny ice cream. I could do without the junk food, but I could not leave without my death by chocolate. I checked the hour on my watch. It was seven in the morning. I had to get Julio to daycare. My mind wandered to the car parked outside with its doors unlocked and the engine running. My four year old son was probably getting bored by now and would be playing with the automatic windows. Julio knows I hate that, but he does it anyway.
It’s just this old lady with a gray nit hat ahead of me now. All she has is three cans of preservatives and a bag of generic cat food. This won't take long. Then she pulls out a fistful of food stamps. How could I have forgotten the first of the month is when all those people on welfare get their food stamps. No wonder the lines were so ridiculous. To pass the time I leaf through the magazines shelved along the checkout. Homes and Gardens, Woman's Day, and Parenting. Like I need a magazine to tell me how to raise my kid.
I get to the checkout and watch as each item is scanned across the red laser light. The Mac and Cheese rings up for $2.25.
"Hey, that can't be right." I said to the cashier, a kid with a dirty blond shag and eye brows like Oscar the Grouch. "The Macaroni is supposed to be on sale."
That kid just looked at me like cause I'm a Hispanic lady I'm going to be paying with food stamps anyway. He heaved a sigh and rolled the can across the laser several more times. He punched in a few buttons and the box was reduced to $1.12. The entire time my eyes were glued to the hands traveling on my watch.
I paid the boy with a twenty, and heaving the paper bag in the crook of one arm, I stepped out the automatic doors into the parking lot. For February it was cold. The weather man said the high was going to be 23 degrees. My cold bones ached for that warm seat inside my Ford Taurus. I swore if Julio had opened the windows and let my car get cold he would be in trouble.
I came to an empty space where I thought I had left my Taurus. At first I was agitated because I thought I had forgotten where I had parked it. As I searched the parking lot I felt that rock of dread sinking in my stomach.
I dropped the groceries. My death by chocolate seeped onto the black pavement like milky blood. I raced to the nearest payphone. Somehow my trembling fingers managed to dial 911. The operator's voice was like that of an angel.
"My kid's in the car. Hurry!” My voice was high and sounded like I had sucked on a helium balloon like we did on Julio's birthday. That is when it hit me that he was really gone. I had seen this happen on T.V. all the time, but I can't believe it really happened to me. Leaving him alone was my biggest mistake. I knew that now, but a little too late.
“I’m here, baby!” I sobbed as he buried his head into my shoulder and wrapped his small arms around my neck. I rested my head against his and patted his soft black hair. “I’m never going to let you go.”
