Going, Going, Gone! With the Pain and the Great One (6 page)

I tried to catch up with him. “Dad … wait!”

By then Dad had found a security guard. “My son!” Dad said. He sounded out of breath. “My son is missing!”

The security guard went into action, pressing numbers on his walkie-talkie. “Don’t worry, sir,” he said to Dad. “We deal with this all the time.”

“His name is Jake,” Dad told the security guard. “He’s six years old.”

“He’ll be seven in April,” I added.

“He’s missing his top two front teeth,” Dad said. “He has brown hair and brown eyes, and he’s wearing a … a …”

I finished for him. “A gray sweatshirt with a big kangaroo on the front. Aunt Diana brought it back from Australia, and …”

Before I could finish telling about the Pain’s clothes we were at the security station. Mom’s told us a million times, if we ever get separated at the mall, we should tell a security guard. She says he’ll take us to the
security station and that’s where she’ll come to find us. Maybe the Pain forgot our plan, because he wasn’t there. And no one had heard anything about a boy who was lost.

Suddenly, I heard a man’s voice over the loudspeaker. “Attention, shoppers! We have a missing six-year-old boy last seen near Toy City. If you see him, notify security immediately.” Then he described the Pain. After that he said, “Stay where you are, Jake. We’re going to find you.”

“Try to stay calm, sir,” another security guard said to Dad.

I wanted to tell him my dad is always calm. I wanted to say there’s no one in the whole world who’s more calm than my dad! But I didn’t. Because I could see in Dad’s eyes that he was worried. And seeing Dad that way was scary. If I was the one who was lost, Dad wouldn’t be worried. He’d just say,
Abigail, we missed our movie because of you
.

Now there were security guards everywhere, and regular police too. I could see
them from the window of the security station. Some of them were driving around in carts. And the loudspeakers didn’t let up.

“We’ll find him,” the guard told Dad.

“I know we will,” Dad said. “We have to.”

And then you can tell him what a pain he is!
I thought.
And how he made us miss our movie!
I didn’t actually say any of that out loud. Because I started to think of the Pain being lost and scared. Then I got scared and grabbed Dad.

“It’s going to be okay, Abigail,” he said.

“Promise?” I asked.

He hugged me. “Promise.”

KAPOOIE TWO

The Great One’s story was so boring I stopped listening. When we passed Toy City, I saw a big crowd. I wondered what all those kids were looking at. I wiggled my way up front to see. And there it was—a giant robot made of LEGOs, walking up and down in the window. I pressed my face against the glass. That robot was way bigger than Dad. That robot was huge! It was
incredible. It was the most incredible LEGO toy ever! “Can you believe it?” I said to the Great One. “Don’t you wish someone would give you
that
for Christmas or Hanukkah?” We’re lucky because we have a Christmas grandpa and a Hanukkah grandma.

The Great One said, “Yes, I would like that LEGO set. How about you? What else do you wish you could have?”

I looked up then, because that voice didn’t sound anything like the Great One. And when I did I got a big surprise—because it
wasn’t
the Great One! It was some other girl. She was maybe in fifth grade. “You’re not my sister!” I shouted.

And she answered, “Did I say I was?”

“No, but you’re talking to me,” I told her.

“You talked to me first,” she said.

“I wasn’t talking to
you
,” I said. “I was talking to my sister.”

“Fine,” she said. And she walked away.

I thought the Great One was right behind
me, with Dad. But when I looked around, I didn’t see them. Probably she and Dad were inside the store. So I went in too. It was crowded. I felt like I was swimming through an ocean of legs. Legs and shopping bags and raincoats and dripping umbrellas. I pushed my way through the store, but I couldn’t find Dad or the Great One.

I knew the food court and the movies were upstairs. So I got on the Up escalator. I’m not supposed to go on the escalator without holding hands. But I did it anyway. And when I got off, I stood at the top and looked around. No one was watching so I decided to go for it. I decided to do something I’ve always wanted to try. I walked
down
the Up escalator. And nothing bad happened! Some people looked at me, but nobody said anything. Then I rode it back upstairs.

When I got off the escalator this time, I saw the bookstore.
They must be in there!
I thought. We always stop at the bookstore
when we’re at the mall. So I raced through the store until I came to the children’s section. I was sure I’d find the Great One sitting in the red beanbag chair with a pile of books. Instead, who was there? The girl from Toy City.
She
was sitting in the beanbag chair,
reading. “My sister likes that book,” I told her.

She looked up. “You again!” she said. “Are you following me?”

“No,” I told her. “Are you following me?”

“How could I be following you when I was here first?”

I didn’t answer.

“Where is your sister, anyway? How come she’s not with you?”

“I don’t need her!” I said. “I know where the food court is and I know where the movie is too.”

“You’re going to the movies?” she asked. “So am I. What are you going to see?”

“It’s a compo … it’s a compro …” I started to say. But I couldn’t remember that word.

“Never heard of it,” she said. And she went back to her book.

I left the bookstore and looked around. I was angry at Dad for getting lost with the Great One. He should know better. I started to feel funny then. I could feel the thump,
thump, thump of my heart. And a big lump in my throat.

Suddenly, I heard a voice coming from everywhere. At first I thought I was dreaming, because it sounded like Dad. “Jake … don’t worry, son. We’ll find you. You won’t be lost for long.” It
was
Dad!

“I’m not lost,” I said. “You are!”

Dad kept talking. “Don’t go anywhere with anyone.”

“Okay,” I said.

“If you’re in a store, tell a salesperson or a cashier who you are. And they’ll know what to do,” Dad said.

“Okay,” I answered again, thinking he could hear me the way I could hear him.

I went into the nearest store. It was the skate and surf store. The music inside was so loud I had to shout at the guy behind the counter. “Hi, I’m Jake.”

“Hey, dude,” he said to me.

“You know what to do, right?”

“Sorry, dude, I’m really busy right now.”

“Should I wait?”

“Up to you, dude.”

I decided to go up to the cashier instead.

“I’m Jake,” I told him.

“Cool name.”

“My dad’s looking for me.”

“Don’t worry, dude. Your secret’s safe with me.”

What secret?
“Maybe I should go to another store,” I said.

He shrugged. “Whatever.”

When I came out of the dude store, I saw the lights spelling out PIZZA. I ran up to the counter and I said, “I’m Jake.”

“What’ll you have, Jake?” the server man asked.

“You’re supposed to say you found me,” I told him.

“Okay, sure.” He snapped his fingers like he was a magician. “I found you!”

I told him, “No, not like that.”

“What is this?” he asked. “Some kind of knock-knock joke?”

I heard Dad’s voice again. “Jake … Where are you, Jake?”

“At the pizza place,” I said. I’m hungry, so I’m going to eat, okay? You said we could have pizza.”

“Yeah, sure kid,” the server man said. He thought I was talking to
him
. “What’ll it be?”

“I only eat white food,” I told him.

“So you want a white pizza?”

“Okay.”

“We’ll call you when it’s ready.”

“My name is Jake.”

“Yeah, you already said.”

Then I heard another voice saying, “Jake is six years old. He’s wearing jeans and a gray sweatshirt with a kangaroo on it. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He’s missing two front teeth. Please stop a police officer or a security guard if you spot Jake.”

I sat down at a table to wait for my food. And suddenly, three big girls surrounded me. They started jumping up and down. “It’s
him! It’s him! You’re Jake, right?”

“How do you know my name?” I asked.

“They’re only blaring it all over the mall,” one of them said.

Then another one shouted, “We found him! We found Jake!” And she waved her arms around.

More people made a circle around me. A woman with curly hair called, “I’ll watch him. You get security!”

That’s when I got scared. “I want my dad!” I said.

“He wants his dad,” they repeated.

“And my sister,” I said.

“And his sister,” they repeated, like we were doing a play.

“Don’t worry, Jake,” the woman with the curly hair said. “They’ll be here soon.”

Then the girl from the bookstore inched in close to the curly-haired woman. She looked at me. “Why didn’t you
say
you were lost?”

“I wasn’t lost!”

“Do you two know each other?” the curly-haired woman said.