The Children Are Gone

*It's Flash Fiction Friday Time!

"The children are GONE," Miranda frantically cried into the phone.
"What do you mean 'gone'?" Daniel asked, his deep voice sounding tinny from the other side of the world.
"I mean, they were with me, but then little Adam...oh!" Miranda began to weep in earnest.
"What? Adam WHAT?" Daniel demanded.
"Oh, he's just three, Daniel! He just slipped away! And before I could tell Geoffrey any differently, he ran off in search of him!" Miranda was crying and clutching the phone to her ear.
"Miranda! How could you let this happen?" Daniel was upset in the way men become when they cannot fix a problem.
"I don't know! It's just...so scary here. It's like feeding time at the zoo! The people...oh, God, there are SO MANY of them, and they all wander about, crazed looking, and it's like they see you but they don't really SEE you..." Miranda's voice trailed off.
"Calm down, Miranda. They can't have gone too far," Daniel was trying to calm down, miles away.
"You don't understand, Daniel. This place is a football field! It's enormous! And the noise, can you hear the noise? Two little boys will not survive alone!"
"Miranda, please, honey, you have to calm..." Daniel's voice was becoming harried again.
"What will these people DO to them? What will they do? Why, they could snatch our babies up and I'll never see them again! Oh, it's all my fault!" Miranda cried. "Oh, Daniel, how could you let me come here ALONE with the children? I thought you loved me. I thought our hard times were over, and you would protect me, and the children! Now, you'll never see your sons again, and all because you couldn't leave your precious library!" Miranda was screaming now. She turned to look around her. She searched the sea of faces for her little children. They could be anywhere! They could be hiding in a dark corner, or trembling with cold somewhere.
"Miranda, we've been over this too many times. I simply CANNOT hold your hand through everything. You HAVE to understand--there are some things you must face alone," Daniel said.
"Yes, alone! Okay! But NOT with the children! You made all three of us vulnerable! You've abandoned your family for the last time! I won't put up with it. You can put me away again, lock me up, ignore me forever. But if you ever put our boys' lives in danger again by stranding them here, a place such as this...I will never forgive you!" Miranda screamed. Some of the faces in the crowd turned and looked at her with empty eyes. For a brief moment, some of the faces registered panic in Miranda's voice, but this realization quickly dissolved. The zombies were too numb to help Miranda.
She prayed all of the zombies were like these--dull, dumb, and without desire for two little boys. Oh! Geoffrey had on a bright red Mickey Mouse shirt...Miranda scanned for the color. No, nothing. Adam had on his little Oshkosh jumpers with the train embroidered on the front pocket. Those were the jumpers Miranda's mother had bought for him. To see that little train again would be a miracle, but Miranda had given up hope.
"Daniel, if we survive this nightmare, if I can come back with our babies, I promise you, I will never EVER come here again unless you are with me! Do you understand?" Miranda shouted.
"Of course, dear, yes, but please...go look for the children!" Daniel cried.
"Wait, wait, I hear something," Miranda's voice grew quiet on the phone, and from the large house where Daniel sat alone, he heard a voice grow over Miranda's breath.
"OH! I must go, Daniel. I must go!" Miranda hung up the phone and began to run through the thick crowd. Her eyes frantically darting here and there, she almost careened into a tall, devilish man, but she righted herself and kept running. And there! There, around the corner, thirty, now twenty feet away, she could see her boys. Geoffrey and Adam were standing together, holding hands, eyes large with fear and grief. And the voice came back on the loudspeaker just before Miranda collided with her children and gathered them into her arms, sobbing loudly with relief.
"ATTENTION WAL-MART SHOPPERS. MS. PATTERSON, YOUR PARTY IS WAITING FOR YOU AT CUSTOMER SERVICE."
Miranda Patterson clutched her cart, white-knuckled, while she bundled the two boys into it. She glanced around at the other shoppers, oblivious to her plight, and sighed a deep sigh. As the three reached the exit doors, Miranda left her items in the cart and yanked the boys to the green mini-van.
She buckled Geoffrey and Adam into the backseat, climbed into the front, and made sure the child safety locks were on. She placed the seatbelt across her chest and began to reverse out of the parking lot.
As the minivan rounded the corner of the street, homeward bound, little Geoffrey spoke up.
"Mommy? I don't ever want to go there again!"
Miranda nodded and glanced in the rearview mirror.
"Don't worry, baby. We'll never EVER go back to Wal-Mart."