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Time & Place
You’re young. You are standing in front of a shop window watching something on the black and white television inside. A woman grabs your hand and runs down the street, pulling you along…
…………….
Save Me Lassie! by: Marilyn Griffin
My nose was cold… but, I didn’t mind…
Mom had wrapped me up tight with a sweater… a coat… my fuzzy hat and my muff for my hands…
It was almost Christmas… and we were window shopping…
We had visited Santa at his workshop at Sears… I had asked for a new baby doll… One that drank and wet…
Oh, if I could only get one… I would be the happiest little girl…
Shop after shop had “Christmas Specials”… and the sidewalks were very crowded…
The TVs always grabbed our attention as we passed in front of the display windows…
These wonderful machines that not only talked… but, showed pictures… just like a talking story book…
I was engrossed with the show on one of these TVs … Lassie… my favorite… Collie dog with that cute boy named Jeff…
His Mom… they called her Ellen and I just loved the Grandpa… I think they called him George every once in a while…. but, mainly Gramps…
Lassie was running to get Jeff… He had found someone in trouble…
I felt Mom take my hand… and pull very hard…
That was not like her… I looked up to see why she was wanting me to hurry so…
But, it wasn’t Mom… A strange lady had my hand and was pulling me hard down the sidewalk… almost into the street…
I look around… searching for my Mom… and could see her still standing at the window… probably engrossed as I was with the TV show…
I tried to jerk my hand… but, the lady kept pulling me further down the street… I finally got my senses… and began to holler, “Let me go!… What do you want?”…
The woman glanced down and a funny expression ran across her face…
“What?… Who?… are you?”, she is saying…
I’m Katherine… “I want my Mom”, I said… I think I was choking up a little… feeling a little frightened… and not understanding…
“Where is she?”, asked the lady…
“Back where you grabbed my hand… in front of the department store window”, I said… as I pointed back in that direction…
“Oh, my gosh!”, cried the lady… I believe she was as scared as me!…
“But, where is Nancy?”, she asked…
“Who’s Nancy?”, I asked…
“My little girl… She has a hat and muff just like yours!”…
“I was hurrying to catch the bus down the street before it left… which I’m sure it has by now”, explained the lady… who seemed to be quite nice… now that she was talking to me…
She grabbed my hand again… a bit gentler this time… and started running with me in tow back down the street to the department store front…
We saw my Mom standing there with a frightened look on her face and holding the hand of a little girl…
She almost looked like me with her furry hat and muff hanging around her neck…
We all burst into tears as we saw each other!…
Me and Mom hugging…
The lady and Nancy hugging…
So glad to be with our own Moms… and listening to the explanation of the lady who had grabbed my hand by mistake…
We were just so happy… and hysterically started laughing… as Lassie barked on the black and white TV set in the window of the store…
Evidently all were safe and sound… just like us…
