Flashback (Original)

Chapter 3 - Age 4

I had been lost. Completely, utterly, hopelessly lost. I had stared around the huge airport in confusion, wide blue eyes looking up at faces around me to find my parents. I couldn't have seen my mother's curly black hair, or my father's dark green T-shirt he had chosen to wear. I couldn't have even seen the chubby little baby that had been my brother.

I had been in the bathroom with my mom. I had seen the faucets that ran water over my hands when I moved and had been playing in the sink, soaking my pink jumper with water and cascading between my fingers. Fascinated with a non-alive item that moved, I had completely forgotten about my family. But when I finally remembered and looked up, they were nowhere to be seen.

After struggling through the door to the bathroom and spilling out into the crowded hallways of the airport, I spent the next twenty minutes stumbling through the flood of people and out into the slightly less crowded food court. By now my little four year old brain was exhausted from the effort of trying to find my parents, and I finally stumbled one too many times, falling forward and landing on my knees with a crack. Tears leaking from my eyes, I sat down on the hard floor and sobbed into my shirt. People looked at me pityingly but not a single person stopped to help. I was alone.

"Are you alright?" I heard someone say. When I looked up I saw a middle-aged woman standing over me, looking at me with concern. Her face was covered with frown lines but when I looked at her eyes I saw that they were kind. My tears slowly started to ebb as I stared up at her, finally managing to whisper;

"I'm lost. Can-can you help me?" She smiled at me, and I tentatively smiled back. In my mind, anybody who could smile was a friend, and I looked up at her with a little more trust in my gaze.

"Of course I can. I'll just need your name, full name if that's OK with you, and the names of your parents." Now, of course, my 17 year old self would immediately be worried if someone was asking these sorts of questions, but in my four year old brain she was completely trustworthy. I leaned close and whispered the information into her ear. Soon I heard the squawk of the loudspeaker calling my name. I was still sitting on the floor of the food court, staring forlornly at the wall.

Ten minutes later my parents burst through the doors to the food court, their worried eyes scanning everywhere.

"Rena! Where were you? We've been looking everywhere!" They cried, rushing over to me and helping me up. I grabbed hold of my dad's hand, clutching it tightly as I related my story.

"I-I was with mommy. There were sinks! Mommy was gone! I could no find her. Lady helped me." I repeated, my parents swapping glances over my head.

"C'mon, Rena." My dad said, gently scooping me onto his back. "We're very sorry we let you get away from us, and we have to go catch our plane. its a miracle we didn't miss it." The last part he was talking to himself. I nodded and we walked over to the boarding area.

Good times, good times. My family.

I miss them already.

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