I sat in the mall waiting for a late friend.  I
contemplated becoming a cynic, but instead decided to simply
play the role of one until my friend arrived.  Everyone was
shopping the week before Christmas. Aware of my surroundings, I
noticed that most people weren’t.  Yes, I confirmed to myself,
we have to be the most impractical, unintelligent species on
the planet.  Gotta love last minute Christmas shopping.
 I sat focused on the swinging doors, waiting patiently as
I did when I was a child.  Yes, everyone was there as a family,
except for the fourteen year old anorexic girl standing before
me.  She bent her limber body to be noticed until she met an
older man of about 40 behind the semi-secluded block extending
from the pizza store.  How flirty their actions were.  I
considered jotting down notes about how sick that relationship
was, then reminded myself of my own lonliness.  But this is
Christmas, and you’re not supposed to think about precocious
relationships in which anorexic, butterfly shirt wearing
fourteen year olds are taken advantage.  The couple left, with
a secluded hand in hand.  Many would assume they were father
and daughter.  It was Christmas, though, so onward I looked for
my friend who would be arriving from the outdoors shortly.
 In walked a peculiar group instead.  Two men in their mid
twenties, with one woman of the same age and two girls- one in
her teens, and one about nine.  The bearded man held a child,
an angelic looking little girl of about two.  He handed her off
to the nine year old, whose innocence was obviously gone, and
lit a cigarette.  He stood outside, comfortable in his puffy
coat and his puffed cigarette, while the little girl wore only
a dress.  She had thin, ripped white tights and hair askew.
The nine year old brought her into the enclosure between the
inside and outside, a semi-warm conjecture of doors.  People
brushed in and out, knocking them from side to side, and there
sat I, unwilling to help or give up my seat.
 Eventually the girl put the younger girl down, while the
bearded man stood and laughed contentedly.  He laughed at them,
then coldly stared at my critical glare.  The nine year old
tried keeping hold of the child’s hand, but was unable to do so
as the little one ran througout the food court forum.  She
weaved in and out of the legs of girls on cell phones, into the
legs of a burly lumberjack type man, past the bench in which I
sat, and for the first time, she smiled freely.  Her smile of
freedom.
 She was caught by the older woman, taken back into the
area with the doors, and put down.  Here the girl stood, sad
and confused, while she was knocked about as passing, cold
strangersd the doors.  She was stuck behind a door as a
strong Adonis type flung the door into her.  Nobody noticed,
except for me.  The beareded man extinguished his cigarette and
walked in, picking her up and talking to others.  He watched
women and attempted to flirt and glanced at me severely.  Down
fell the baby, on her head and crying.  She was smacked for
crying.  He scooped her up, wishing I hadn’t noticed, and
passed her to one of the females.
 Then in rushed my friend, who was never mistreated or
wronged.  I was content as I stood up and left.  And I have not
been content with my memory since.