“I’ll be right back.” Mom promised.

She got out of the car and walked around the building into the U shaped parking lot. It took so long it seemed while she was inside that it was like a lifetime for a child’s anxieties. After about fifteen minutes, a neighbor came running out to the front of the apartments yelling toward the car. 

She was screaming, “Mr., is this your wife! There are two women fighting and one of them has a knife!” Mom’s guy friend was shaken. He looked perplexed.

 He said, “Oh my God, I can’t leave you guys in the car like this!”