Page 135 of A Whole New Play

I’m wondering what I can do next to help find Abby when I walk into the last bathroom on this level before I reach the spot where I first began my search.

“Abby!” I shout. “Are you in here?”

“Va—” The word is cut off.

My heart drops.

“Abby!” I run into the bathroom and promptly begin to hit the stall doors when I don’t see her. “Where are you?!”

Thumps and the sound of a scuffle fill the massive bathroom. Unlike the other restrooms, it’s not empty. Three women stand at the sink. Their eyes are wide and their demeanor nervous as they take in my erratic behavior and hear the same sounds I hear.

“A little girl is missing,” I quickly explain. “I think she’s in here.”

The women’s fear of me instantly fades. They’re on my side. “We’ll help find her.” They scatter and begin pushing in the other stall doors.

“Abby!” I yell again. “Make noise if you’re still in here!” There are two exits to the bathroom. I’m in the path of one. I pray whoever Abby’s struggling against didn’t take her out of the other one.

A yelp makes me jump in my skin.

“Let me go!” Abby screams.

I race towards the sound of her voice, turning the corner to another row of stalls, and see Abby struggling against a woman wearing a baseball cap. The woman grips her wrist and tries to drag the little girl to the exit just a few feet away.

“STOP!”

“Valerie!” Abby’s eyes find mine. Her ponytail is loose, and her t-shirt looks stretched. She drops her weight, tugging the woman’s arms down and throwing her off balance. “Help!”

Footsteps sound behind me as the other women follow the noise and appear beside me. One heartbeat later, I’m charging the woman holding Abby.

I don’t know who she is.

I don’t know how dangerous she could be.

But I don’t care.

All that matters is getting Abby away from her, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

The baseball cap is pulled over the woman’s eyes, but she sees me coming. She grunts in frustration and tries to pick up Abby to run.

The six-year-old flails wildly, delaying the woman’s escape long enough for me to reach their side.

Instinct takes over, and I grab the woman by the arm, digging my nails into her long-sleeved t-shirt.

She screams but doesn’t release Abby. I maneuver my body and get the stranger in a chokehold.

Thank you, college self-defense lessons!

“Let her go!”

The other women appear and help free Abby of the woman’s grasp.

“Stacy, go get the police!” One of them shouts as she pries the stranger’s fingers off Abby’s shirt.

“Got it.” The woman, Stacy, races out of the bathroom just as her companions free Abby from the stranger.

Relief floods through me.

Abby is safe.

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