FREE ESSAY ON A MOTHER'S BIGGEST FAIR

A MOTHER'S BIGGEST FAIR

One spring afternoon a mother met her greatest fear head-on. Crystal Beck and her
three-year-old son Travis were shopping for a new spring and summer wardrobe at a local
mall. The mall was very hectic for the middle of the afternoon and to make matters worse
Crystal had forgotten her sons stroller at home after taking him for a walk earlier that
day. She had told her inquisitive son to say by her side. After visiting a few stores
Crystal began to notice that Travis was becoming very anxious. So she made the decision
to finish her son's shopping in JC Penney at the far end of the mall, the two made their
way to the children's clothing section located on the third floor.
As Crystal searched through the cluttered racks looking for the perfect outfits for her
son, still glancing back at Travis who was looking through a bin of stuffed toys. She
looked back to the rack for a split second to find the size she needed, and when she
looked back up to check on her son he was gone. Crystal began calling his name, waiting
for a response, no response ever came. She called again, but louder this time "Travis,
where are you?" With every call for her son her heart began to beat fast and harder
inside of her chest. She could feel herself beginning to tremble and shake, her vision
became gray and distorted, she then began running though the store call her son and
crying uncontrollably. 
A salesperson stopped her to try to calm her down and find out what had happened. Crystal
explained to her still crying and shaking what had happened. The salesperson assured her
not to worry, that he would be found. The girl notified security for the store, they
brought Crystal to their office and asked for a description of the boy. She told them
that he was a three years old boy, with blonde hair and blue eye, and standing 36 inches
in height. He was wearing a blue baseball cap, a red long sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and
a pair of white Reebok sneakers. When she was done with the description of her son the
security officer offered her a glass of water, but she refused it. Her stomach felt as if
there was a solid piece of metal lying at the bottom of it.
As Crystal sat in the office so many horrible thoughts ran through her head, thoughts
that no parent would ever want to imagine might happen to their beloved child. Just then
an officer walked into the office with a stone gray look on his face. He asked the
officer sitting behind the desk if he could step out into the hall. At that moment
Crystal had an overwhelming intuition of fear come over her. She knew that when the
officer returned it was not going to be good news.
After a short moment, which seemed to her as an eternity the officer returned into the
room. He informed her that a surveillance camera had taken some footage of a man carrying
a small child who was kicking and screaming out of the door that fit the description she
had given of her son, Travis. Crystal immediately began crying again; she felt herself
become nauseous and lightheaded. The officer said " Ma'am, we need you to take a look at
the video."
Crystal knew that she was the only one, who could positively identify her son, so she
agreed to look at what the camera had captured. The officers led her out of the office
and down a corridor to the monitoring room. This walk seemed like the longest walk that
she had ever had to endure. She took a seat in front of the monitoring television. The
officer asked her " Are you ready?" Crystal could never really be ready for what she was
about to see, but she responded with a quiet and unsure "Yes." As the tape played out, to
her relief the boy in the video was not Travis. She responded with " Oh thank God, it's
not him." Again she began to cry and sob uncontrollably with relief. By this time
two-and-a-half hours had gone by since Crystal had last seen her son. She decided that
she wasn't doing herself or her son any good just waiting for news. She decided that she
was going to help in the search for Travis. After seeing the video she felt that her son
was somewhere in that store, and she wanted to be the one to find him.
She started in the last place she saw her son and followed her mothers' intuition. Her
intuition led her to the back of the store to the bedding department. With her eyes she
scanned the area. A twin-sized bed with Mickey Mouse bedding caught her eye. On that bed
she noticed an oddly shaped ball in the middle of it, as her heart began to pound she
walked up to the bed and pulled back the covers. To her surprise and delight there lay
her blessed child sound asleep unknowingly what was going on around him. Crystal heart
immediately filled with joy and relief. She quietly lay down beside her son, holding him
in her arms while she sobbed.
Fifteen minutes went by when one of the security guard walked by. He immediately saw the
two laying in the make-shift bed, standing there in the distance he watch a mother
lovingly hold her lost treasure in her arms. He radioed in that the boy had been found
and to call off the search and all was back to normal in the store.