An Inkwell Prompt: The Eve of Christmas.

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It was that time of the year again. A festive period, it was Christmas Eve and the mall was packed full. People were shopping, trooping in and out of stores and into the next one. Everywhere was hustling and bustling. Anyone could get lost in the crowd due to the beehive of activities.

The Games plug was one of the stores in the mall and as expected it was packed full. Mrs Linda Scott was the Branch Manager of the store. While she was in her office trying to sort out the numerous issues, it was clear she was under a lot of pressure. Someone knocks on her office door.

“My God can I just get a break today”. She says under her breath before responding “Yes! Come in !”. It was one of the cashiers. “Good Afternoon ma’am, this little boy seems to be lost”. She said.
Linda looked at the boy, he looked scared and his eyes were watery and red showing he had been crying.
“You can go now but call one of the security officers at the entrance of the store”. She said to the cashier. The cashier nodded and left.

“Okay honey, you’ll be fine and we’ll find your parents. I just need to ask you a few questions”. Linda said while wiping the boys tears and offering him a seat.
Immediately one of the stores security officers entered the office and Linda explained the situation on ground.
“What’s your name?”. She said
“My name is Marcos Bennett”. The young boy said while munching on a pack of Doritos that was given to him.
“How old are you?”. The security man whose name was Paul asked.
“I’m nine years old”. Marcos said
“Do you happen to know the names of your parents?”. Linda asked
“Yes. Mr. Peter Bennett and Mrs Grace Bennett”.
“Do you have their phone numbers?”. Linda asked again.
“No. But I know our home address”. Marcos said
“Okay that’s good. Now Paul please inform the other security officers about this and make sure to mention it to all the customers leaving and entering the store while I use the public addressing system to announce it in the store”. Linda said
“Okay ma’am I’ll do as you’ve said”. With that Paul left.

The time was 3:00pm and Linda had announced that there was a missing child stating his full name, age and names of his parents. She kept announcing at twenty minutes intervals and nothing happened for two hours. She then decided to alert the main mall security both at the entrance and at the gates.

The time was 9:00pm and the store was about closing. They hadn’t heard anything from his parents. Marcos was sleeping soundly in her office. Linda then discussed with the other managers and it was decided that one of the managers with a security officer take Marcos home since he knew his home address.

While they were all packing up to go, Linda got a call from the mall security stating they had found the parents of the boy. She was happy that his parents had been found but furious at the fact that they left their child abandoned for the past six to seven hours.

With Marcos holding her hand, Linda marched to gate alongside one of her fellow managers- Stephen. She was prepared to give Marcos’ parents a piece of her mind but on getting there all her anger died down as she saw the tears on his parents face, they looked so distraught, worried and desperate.
Immediately Marcos ran to his parents and hugged them.
“Thank you so much for finding our son”. His dad said.
“You’re welcome sir but I’d like to know how you lost your son and didn’t bother searching for him all these hours in our store”. Linda was still pissed at them.
“It’s not as it seems madam. We weren’t exactly in your store, we were at the adjacent store and that’s where we’ve been looking for him. He was so fascinated by the games in the store that he wandered there I presume. I even blamed my wife while we argued because I didn’t know what else to do. We searched for him everywhere”. Mr Bennett said with tears in his eyes.
Linda looked over at Mrs Bennett but she was just so happy to have her son back in her arms to even say anything, she just shed tears of joy as she hugged her son.
“Just be careful next time and always hold his hand. Goodnight and Merry Christmas”. Linda said happily.
“Merry Christmas!” Mr and Mrs Bennett said while Marcos gave her a goodbye hug.