The Rogue Child

Photograph by Christina Molholm, whose blog can be found here.

As she went through her wallet checking on funds she absentmindedly went for a basket and out of the corner of her eye realized something was wrong; there was a small child sitting in the top one. After a moment of thought and a quick look around for a nearby frantic parent she grabbed the last basket from the other stack and turned to walk away. After a few feet she stopped and looked back at the child, who gave her such a melancholy stare that she couldn’t just leave him there.

“Is anyone looking for a rogue child?” she said to her surroundings. Nobody surfaced with a look of calming insanity so she said it again, louder. “Did anyone lose a kid?” He rested his head on the side of the blue basket and sighed. She walked over to the manager’s desk and reported the little boy as missing, and went about her shopping, proud of her triumph, as she heard the loudspeaker say, “Would the owner of the rogue child sitting in the pile of baskets please report to the manager.”