#103: Find

Panic stabs Peter's chest. A momentary lapse of concentration and they're gone. Swept away in the sea of people. It's crazy the pandemonium of Christmas shopping, with the rules of decency thrown away.

He hopes Grace has been watching Rory. There are simply too many people moving in too many directions.

He scans the crowd but can't see very far. Scrambling to the side, he finds a bench and climbs up. He thinks of himself on the bow of a boat, scanning for submerged obstacles.

Peter feels his phone vibrating. Grace was always the clearer thinker. She says she's in front of a shoe store. He refrains from stating the obvious, that there are dozens of shoe stores and they all look the same.

It's when she asks where are they that he knows Rory is not with her. He explains where he is when, in a parting of the seas, he glimpses Rory. He knows that pouting face and the welling of the eyes.

And before he could see the tears flow, the crowd push together, oblivious of his son's agony.

Near the sporting store, Peter exclaims to his wife. Their son is by the sporting store.

Grace snarls to get him. Her voice is crisp and clear, as if she were right next to him.

Peter shoves his way through and people sense his urgency, sense his purpose and move out of his way. He doesn't care what they think. He needs to find his son.