“EMS?”
“Called.”
I looked toward Lucy.
Her face had gone white.
“Mommy sick?”
I moved closer.
“We don’t know yet.”
“She fell?”
“We’re checking.”
Lucy began trying to climb off Elias.
He finally moved his hands, carefully supporting her so she would not fall.
She planted both feet on the floor.
“Mommy!”
She ran.
I caught up before she reached pharmacy.
Elias stood.
He did not follow.
That detail mattered too.
A kidnapper, as the internet was already preparing to call him, had just been given the easiest possible opportunity to leave.
Instead, he stayed exactly where Lucy had left him.
Derek stood beside him.
“Don't go anywhere.”
Elias looked down at him.
“I wasn't planning to.”
I ran with Lucy through grocery.
She was fast.
Faster than someone her size should have been.
Near pharmacy, employees had blocked the restroom entrance.
Paramedics were coming through the front.
A woman lay on the floor just inside the doorway.
Early thirties.
Brown hair.
Light-blue blouse.
Lucy screamed:
“Mommy!”
The woman’s eyes fluttered.
“Natalie?” a pharmacy employee asked.
We had found her wallet.
Natalie Carter.
Twenty-nine.
Insulin-dependent diabetes.
Her glucose level was dangerously low.
Lucy tried to rush in.
I caught her shoulders.
“The doctors need room.”
“That’s Mommy!”
“I know.”
“She needs me.”
“She needs them first.”
Lucy sobbed.
Then a deep voice behind us said:
“Your mom needs you to stay where she can find you.”
Lucy stopped struggling.
I turned.
Elias stood twenty feet away.
Derek was behind him.
Apparently “don't move” had lasted less than a minute once Elias heard Lucy screaming.
He had followed but kept his distance.
Lucy looked at the purple bracelet visible again beneath his sleeve.
“Purple means stay.”
Elias nodded.
“Exactly.”
She sat on the floor.
Right there.
Cross-legged.
Just as Elias had.
I sat beside her.
Natalie received glucose.
Within minutes, her eyes opened fully.
Her first word was:
“Lucy.”
I almost cried.
“She’s here.”
Natalie tried to sit up.
Paramedic stopped her.
“Stay down.”
“My daughter.”
“She’s safe.”
Lucy shouted from outside:
“Mommy!”
Natalie began crying.
Those two voices meeting across that hallway changed the atmosphere of the entire store.
People who had been staring now looked away.
Some with embarrassment.
Others with relief.
Derek remained stiff.
Elias closed his eyes.
His shoulders dropped.
For the first time since I had seen him, he looked tired.
Not physically.
Old tired.
The kind people carry inside bones.
Natalie was transported to a nearby hospital for observation.
Lucy was allowed to ride with her.
Before leaving, she escaped the paramedic guiding her and ran back toward Elias.
He dropped to one knee.
She wrapped her arms around his neck again.
This time he hugged her.
Carefully.
Just once.