K-mart Abandonment

My new home.

My mom, like most parents, soon found that threats of abandonment are about the only way to get kids moving. She used to threaten to leave us about 10 times day. She would claim that if we didn't get in the car she would leave us home, then if we didn't quit fooling around she would leave us at the store, the gas station, the wherever we were lolly-gagging. I remember being a little worried but mostly not because I didn't think she would really leave. However, one day at K-Mart I was in the toy section giving all off the G.I. Joe and He-Man toys a proper inspection and she threatened to leave me if I didn't come with her but I was in some sort of toy induced hypnotism and while I did hear her, I was helpless to follow when so many toys still needed a good looking over. My mom went and checked out and headed to the car, loaded in the other three kids, who, in those days were all piled in the back. She asked my sister if I was in the car and she said yes and they were off. This was about the time I realized I had not been nagged in a while and ran, in a panic, around the store looking for my mom's distinctively fluffy hair and hair bow. The only real problem was there were lots of moms with that same look and I had a couple of false positives as I continued to get more and more scared. I then ran outside and saw that the car was gone and just lost it. I was crying and running back and forth in front of the store trying to see the car but it was gone. A lady saw my distress and I sobbingly told her that my mom had said if I didn't stop looking at toys that she was going to leave me. Then she left me. She took me into the store and they called the police who got there in a few minutes and started asking me questions about my mom and where we lived and what our phone number was. About this time my mom had realized that she did not, in fact, have a full compliment of children. She was on the freeway and it was about six miles between exits and then six miles back made it a little over 20 minutes before she was back. She then had to explain that she did threaten to leave me for motivation but left me on accident. Relived that it was merely incompetence and not child abandonment that was the cause of all the hubbub they police turned me over to go home. The next time she told me she would leave me I knew she just might.