Lost at the Mall

"She was right here! She was..." If there was anybody sitting on the nearby bench, Mom's tendency to never look before sitting would have put her right on top of someone. Her words came through a stream of heavily salted water and mucus. "I jus' dunno how I lost her!"

"She's not _lost_, Mom, she's..." I didn't know how to finish the sentence. No matter how I phrased it, I'd be lying to her. "Okay, where do I look? Tamsin, you got any ideas?"

Tamsin ignored me, focusing more on comforting Mom. "Ma, I'm here. Just be calm and try to relax, Bastion will go find where she went." Maybe she wasn't ignoring me. "I got an idea, Bastion. Do you want to go check the chocolate shop one more time?"

"Good thinking, she's probably scared shitless right now, running everywhere."

"Bastion!" She left Mom's side breifly enough to grab me round the neck. She hissed in my ear, "That doesn't help her!"

"Alright, let me go, sheezus!" She pushed me away in the direction of the candy store, so I just kept going with the momentum and broke into a jog. The crowds weren't getting in the way, but they weren't dispersing either, so I couldn't exactly go into a full sprint. But that was fine. The shop wasn't that far down the corridor.

I found the place just around the corner, though it took considerable effort to actually get there through the crowds. Most people wanted to see what the racket was about. I, on the other hand, already knew: Tera. "Excuse me!" I called. "Excuse me, big brother coming through!" But nobody heard me. I raised a hand over the crowd, but that didn't accomplish a lot. I slowed down to meet the gaze of a mall security officer who had only briefly looked my way. "Excuse me, officer?"

"I'm busy, the hell do you want?" The security man was decked out in a navy-blue uniform - the kind our local police only recently stopped using - and was sporting a portable radio, handcuffs, a pair of aviator shades, and a blonde mustache that didn't match the thinning red hair on his head at all. He had scarcely an ounce of muscle, but it was clear that he believed he did. The kind of man who wished he'd passed the police academy exams, and had to settle for private security as a second choice. In short, a mall cop.

"I'm really, really sorry to bug you, sir, but--"

"WILL YOU QUIET HER DOWN?" the mall-cop shouted into the store, breaking my sentence over his knee in the process. "Fucking hell. Now WHAT?"

"That girl that's crying in there, I think that's my sister."

"You think? You THINK? You'd better be fucking SURE before I let a creep like you take a little girl out of my sight!"

I whipped out my wallet and flashed my high school ID card at him like Joe Friday. "Bastion Crowley, and if that's my sister, her name is Tera."

"Whaddaya mean IF?"

"I *mean*, I can't see who it is from here because you're in the way."

"I'm SUPPOSED to be in your way, you little shit!" He shoved me right in the chest, causing me to bowl over a rubbernecker or two. "I got better god damn things to do than get hassled by you fucking punk teenagers!"

I scrambled to my feet. Against my better judgment, I raised my voice. "TERA! Is that you in there? Tera Crowley!"

The mall-cop leaned over so his gaze pierced straight into mine. "You shut the fuck up!" Before I could react, his fist collided with both my cheek and one of the hands I was cupping over my mouth. I went down hard. I mean, it's hard to go down any softer on high-traffic ceramic tile. The crowd of rubberneckers, having seen me get knocked over once before, collectively backed off and let me hit the ground. But the sight of them pulling aside also (mostly) cleared the view for whoever was crying inside the candy shop...and it was Tera. Seeing her again almost made me forget the bruised cheek, and she obviously saw me too, as she got off her knees, brushed an arm across her welled-up eyes, and made to run towards me...

...except the man in blue had other plans. "You're staying here!" He grabbed her by the shoulder, stopping her dead. "Safer for you brats to stay put 'til I can call your mothers! Quit your struggling!" I made to move forward, forcing the rent-a-cop to raise a "stop" hand at me. "And you stay the fuck back or I'm gonna mace you, you little punk shit!"

I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was firm, resolute, but not intimidating. No, this was a hand I'd felt before. And from it, a voice I'd heard before. "You let my daughter go, right now, or I'm calling the REAL police."

"On whose authority, lady?"

"Do you want to be known as a pederast your whole life, buster? You take your slimy rent-a-cop hands off my daughter or I'll make sure that happens." It was impossible to tell that this was the same Mom that had broken down on a bench minutes ago. Just to her side was my older sister Tamsin, carefully gesturing to the security man that no, he did NOT want to tempt fate. Because fate, much like my mother, was a very harsh one indeed, when the time called for it. And that time was now.

Copstache very slowly lowered his "stop" hand and let the other hand off of Tera's shoulder. Tera was not getting up to run. In an unusually calm tone, he gave his plea. "That won't be needed today, missy. Here's your daughter back, and I'm sorry." He gave Tera a very gentle push on the back to start her walking.

Mom bent over to look at me. "...Your cheek is bleeding," she muttered to me, giving it a ginger touch that only made me realize how much it stung. "What'd he do to you?" I held up my left fist and subtly gestured with it, indicating to her that he'd punched me. She looked him dead in the eye, with a fierce look that he couldn't even hope to mimic. "Did you hit my son?"

"I'm sorry, miss, I--"

"You punched my son. You restrained my daughter...and you PUNCHED my SON." She delivered the words slowly for effect. "If you have children, sir, I'll bet you they despise every minute of your presence." I glanced at the candy shop's manager, who was on the phone, hissing frantically into the mouthpiece. "I hope you don't have any already. Because if you act around your kids the way you acted towards mine today, there's not a jury in the world that'll take your side. Come on, we're going." Mom gently tugged on my shoulder, and gestured with her free hand towards Tamsin and Tera to follow. As we parted the crowd and walked in one direction, two men in suits - I assume mall management - ran at top speed towards the policeman-wannabe, who was so lost in babbling to himself that he probably didn't notice that his aviators were about to fall off his face.

So we got our shopping done, two people had nervous breakdowns, and one security officer was publicly shamed. Overall, I wouldn't call that a bad day.