Living Incognito

Chapter 2
The Mall

I hadn’t truly thought this thing through. As I sit here locked in a stroller in the shopping mall it becomes more and more evident. I guess I somehow believed I could just wander through the mall looking like a cute five year old and then go back home having had an interesting experience... boy was I wrong...

Due to a recent tooth ache, I had a dentist appointment scheduled for this morning. It was supposed to be a simple procedure, I had to have a tooth filled and then I was going to take a taxi to the mall and change into my new outfit. Well to get things started, the dentist didn’t go as smoothly as expected, I guess I don’t brush as well as I thought I did and I had to get a tooth capped. Yea, now I have one of those shiny silver teeth in the back of my mouth. But that wasn’t the worst part of the appointment. When the doctor did it, he gave me a local anesthetic. You know, the shot of the numbing stuff... Well, it turns out that I am overly sensitive to that stuff. By the time he was through I couldn’t feel my lips or my tongue. I had drool running down my chin and there was no way I was speaking intelligibly. The doctor assured me that it would wear off after a few hours, and there was no way that I was going to let a little bit of drool ruin my special day. I got into the cab and handed the driver a note that said to go to the mall...

When I went into the mall I was wearing my regular clothes, a skirt and a blouse and carrying a backpack with my new clothes. The first thing I did was to go into the bathroom and change into my overalls. When I went in, I was another freak... another midget for everyone to look at and whisper about. From the minute I stepped out of the restroom door, it was different. I was no longer out of place. The only reason people would notice me now was because I was cute. My plan was just to walk around and enjoy myself for an hour or so. If someone looked like they were concerned about seeing a child of my “age” by herself, then I would just tag along behind the next adult to walk by like I belong with them. It went wonderful for the first half hour or so, then I made my second mistake... It gets tiring walking around with legs as short as mine. I decided to take a break and relax on a park bench in front of Dillard’s. That’s when the lady walked up to me pushing a stroller with a toddler in it and asked me what my name was, where my mommy was. I’d quit paying attention for just a few seconds and then I was busted. My first instinct was to just explain myself... what came out was, “blaasvaamee asssbmaaave”. The anesthetic was no where near wearing off, here I was looking like I was a little kid and talking like this to a concerned mother. Then I thought to reach into my backpack for my wallet... and realized my first mistake. I must have left it in the bathroom stall. The woman looked around for someone who might be my parent... as I tried to think of what to do, she picked me up and put me on her hip and headed to the mall information office.

The adrenalin was rushing, I had never felt like this before... it had to be the craziest thing I had ever done. I decided to go with it. When we got to mall information office, she sat me in one of those free mall strollers and buckled me in. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but the next thing I knew there was an announcement over the loud speaker that there was a lost little girl and she was waiting at the mall information center. The concerned mom came back and told me her name was Carrie and her little girl was Lacy. Carrie told me that my mommy should be back anytime and she would stay with me until she got there...

I was starting to realize how deep into this I was getting... I was also starting to realize that I had to pee... or maybe better phrased under my current circumstances, I had to “go potty.”

Coming soon... Chapter 3... “Social Services”