When I was younger, I hated to go shopping. I always thought it was so boring waiting around while grown ups bought presents for themselves. It all seemed so unfair.
To pass the time, my dad and I started playing hide and seek in the clothes racks. The best time of year to do this was right before winter because Macy’s always had long, fluffy coats out for sale. To me, these coats were like a secret and wonderful cave protecting me from being discovered.
One time, Macy’s must have been expecting an Arctic winter because the coats were extra thick with loads of fur, providing additional shelter. Those jackets were so thick that I couldn’t even hear my dad calling my name.
I was pretending while I hid that I was a princess up in a tower, protected by the fortress of coats, while evil goblins swarmed around me. The evil goblins were really just shoppers walking past my hiding spot. My biggest fear was that they would give away my location if they decided to purchase a coat.
After what seemed like forever, but was probably only 15 minutes, I began to wonder when my dad would find me.
“I really picked a fantastic hiding spot,” I thought to myself. “Maybe TOO good.” I wasn’t ready to show myself just yet, though. I laid back down in my fortress, snuggled up with one of the coats, and fell asleep! When I woke up, the store was so quiet I could hear the cars on the highway outside.
“Dad? Dad!” I yelled, panicking. “Dad, where are you?” I couldn’t breathe. How could my parents leave me in the store? What if I’m stuck here all night? I sat down and began sobbing.
“There you are!” a familiar voice called. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”
“Daddy, I’m so sorry. I found this great hiding spot, and I fell asleep, and…and…”
“It’s OK, it’s OK. What matters is that I found you and you’re safe. Don’t do that again. You almost gave me a heart attack!”
Later, my dad told me that they were looking for me for an hour, and they were about to call the police. Since then, I never played hide and seek in the store. At least I didn’t when the puffy coats were out.