The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The holiday season is fast approaching; with just a week until Christmas Day it's easy to understand why I am wishing that I was anywhere but where I was tonight - at work.

I work in retail, to be more specific, I work for the biggest 'boxstore' in the world. That's right folks, I work for WalMart. Now normally it's not that bad here - sure you get the odd customer that seem to go outta their way to take out their crappy day on you but you learn to deal with them. Believe it or not, that's not the worst thing a customer can do.

This time of year always brings the crazies outta the woodwork. You know who they are. The Ones who expect to get something for nothing, the ones who expect you to pull this years hot 'must have' toy from places that toys don't normally come, because they decided to leave their holiday shopping until the last minute. Nothing matters to them, not the fact that you aren't gonna magically find the toy hidden somewhere; or the fact that soon the toy they spent forever looking for, and a ton of money on, will sit unplayed with, gathering dust in some forgotten closet long before the shine wears off. Ah yes, I was having one of those days, so my Christmas spirit is pretty much nonexistent at the moment.

My main department is infants; I stock the shelves, help customers look for items and make suggestions where ever I can. The real reason I work infants is to see and talk to the little kids that come through - I love kids. I can't wait to have some of my own. I'm 23 years old and single, so that may not be for a while but it'll happen.

Like all associates, just because I'm assigned to a certain area doesn't mean that you'll always find me there. Now I know what you are thinking, that you can never find an associate at WalMart when you really need one, and for the most part you are right. I assure you, it's not intentional. The lack of people in the town I work in, and the high number of places looking for people, make for staffing issues at my store. So if you don't find me in infants it's because I was called to help someone else in the store. I'm cash trained, so you may find me at the tills; you may sometimes find me covering the fitting rooms while that associate is on break; you may even find me helping a customer at the layaway desk, which is where I found myself tonight.

This close to Christmas, store policy is to no longer except layaways until the new year. We like to have all layaways picked up by the middle of the month but of course, in some cases, people don't quite have the money for their items until later. So that's why I was helping two different customers pick up their layaways. While I was working with the customers, they were a mother and daughter, really friendly - it's always nice when customers are friendly, it makes life so much easier and honestly? It makes you want to help them - I noticed a little boy wandering around the area. I didn't think too much of it, I assumed he was with them.

I finished with the ladies, cleaned up the counter and went to make my way back to infants. I paused, seeing the little boy was still wandering around, I looked around for an adult but there wasn't anyone close by. Turning my attention back to the boy, I watched as he stopped, looked around and then he looked at me. When his tear filled blue eyes met mine, I was struck with a feeling that I should know this little boy but for the life of me I couldn't figure out who he was. He looked so sad, it damn near broke my heart. His little lip trembled as he hugged the raggedy teddy bear to this tiny body. Damn, I thought, he can't be any older than 3. I stepped closer to him, intent on finding out who he was. He sat on the floor, his shoulders slumped, tears fell freely as his tiny voice called out, "Daddy?" I felt my own eyes fill with tears as he called out to his dad again.

"Umm, hey little boy," I said softly as I knelt next to him. "My name is Anna, what's your name?" He stared up at me, like he was thinking that he shouldn't talk to me because I was a stranger. "I work here, see?" I straightened up, showed him my smock and pointed to my name badge. "I'm Anna." I repeated. Nodding to the counter behind me, I continued. "I'm gonna go over to there and make a phone call to find your daddy. You'll stay here?" He nodded, "Want Daddy"

I smiled, "Don't worry sweety, I'll find him." I made my way back to the counter, picking up the phone to page, I glanced back to where I left him - he was gone! A moment of panic hit me, then I felt a little tug on the leg of my pants. Scooping him off the floor, I sat him on the counter in front of me. "Now to find-"

"Attention all associates," a concerned voice came over the PA system. "We have a Code Adam. A boy, 2 years old. He has blue eyes and dark brown hair. He is wearing a red t-shirt, blue jeans and black sneakers - all have Spiderman on them. He is carrying a teddy bear."

Raising a brow, I smile at the boy. "Daddy is looking for you." He held onto my arm and stood up on the counter. He leaned towards the phone at my ear when I dialed the paging number. "Child matching Code Adam description in Layaway," I said. The little boy piped up, "'lo Daddy?" just as I was finishing. Laughing, I replaced the receiver. "Daddy is coming sweety."

Not long after I heard the sound of running footsteps, as they got closer I heard a deep male voice call out, "Jesse?" The little boy on the counter grinned, his eyes growing wide, he threw his arms up, "Daddy!" He cried as he jumped from the counter, into the strong arms of his father.

I picked up the phone, paging again. "Code Adam child safe and sound."

I turned back to Jesse and his dad as I hung up the phone. At the same moment, Jesse's dad lifted his head from his son's shoulder, he started to say something as his eyes slid over to me. I don't know what it was that he wanted to say, the second my eyes met his blue ones I felt my stomach lurch and my heart clench, I knew why Jesse seemed familiar to me. "Oh my God!" I exclaimed before everything went black.