Skylar Pentman walked down the cement strip, her feet making a familiar clop-clop sound as they struck the pavement. She saw the green Bus Stop sign in the distance and sped up to reach it.
Waiting at the stop were the usual people; Rick, the spinal surgeon, who practices at Memorial Hospital a few blocks down. Yesmeen, the teacher who got her car stolen. Erik, the creepy guy who only talks if you give him food.
But Skylar spotted an unfamiliar face, huddled in the corner of the bus stop awning. The face of a child. She skimmed the outside of the awning to locate a guardian or parent, but the little girl was alone.
Skylar pondered.
She did not want to get arrested for kidnapping if the girl’s parent had simple stepped away for a moment. But there was nowhere to step away to on a dead- end street.
So, she mustered up the courage to approach the child. Yesmeen, Rick, and Erik followed her with their eyes, probably curious about what she was fixing to do, she guessed. She tapped the short little girl on the shoulder lightly, and said,
“Where are your parents?”
The little girl appeared startled and jumped backwards.
“They left me here.” The little girl’s blue eyes were wide with fear, and her hands were white with cold. Every time the snow-ridden wind slipped through the cracks of the awning, her lips chattered painfully. The street lights shining down through the darkness cast shadows on her face.
“What’s your name?” Skylar asked, reaching into her pocket for her phone.
“Genevieve,” she said.
“Skylar, who in the world are you talking to?” asked Yesmeen. Skylar, confused, snapped her head to the side to look at the teacher, and noticed a concerned look knit into the woman’s eyebrows.
“The little-“ she started to say, but as her lips parted to say “girl”, Genevieve was gone.