WHERE HAS MUMMY GONE?

Where Is She?
Rainbow Joe

Panic floods his body. She was there and now she has gone! He paused to look at something and now there is not a single yellow dress insight. His little heart pounds and his shoes thump the floor, one small step in front of the other.

A forest of legs surges forward. He freezes and his little heart pounds. He dare not breathe. He hopes she will know he is lost. Then as he wipes away tears with the back of his hand, he trembles and whispers, ‘I should go and look for her, but it’s scary and I don’t know where to start.’

Things rise to the sky on either side of him, gigantic and terrible. Disinterested grownups impatiently push past him on their search.

Moving cages sway and creak and he bites his lip as not to cry. Got to be a good boy, got to act grown up, because if my brother hears I cried I‘d never hear the end of it. Big brothers can be so mean.

There is still no sign of her; it has been so long that it feels like an eternity. He takes one cautious step, then another, hoping she will come back to him before he reaches the end his world, to where there is a new and frightening world waiting for him.

A woman looms over me, smiling. “Have you lost your mummy, sweetie?” Her voice is gentle but she is terrifying. He nods silently, fighting back tears welling up.

“Well, how about you come with me and we’ll find your mummy, she must be somewhere in the supermarket! Does that sound good?”

He is five years old and wants his mummy. He sobs.

The End