Everybody in Macy’s could hear not only Betty Bly’s screams but those of a few other shoppers. They all had one thing in common: their young children and babies had literally disappeared before their unbelieving eyes.

“I was looking at these sale items and, after only a moment, noticed that Yvonne wasn’t there. In her stroller! Oh God, help me. It can’t be true ,” Betty sobbed.

“Give her some space. Here, Ma’am, here’s a chair someone’s brought over,” a security guard said.

Most of the shoppers on each of the large, prestigious store’s multiple floors were quietly leaving the premises. Also, most of them had one sole thought in mind: get home now, find out about their own families. The level of fear in their eyes, as evidenced by clenched teeth and blushing faces, seemed as palpable as the water going over the edge of the falls up at Niagara, New York. Hardly anyone was walking without a phone in their hands.

Jeff, the beefy security guard assisting Betty, had even noticed that one or two of the store employees on his floor were missing. He especially saw that Jeanne, the happy buxom blonde, was gone. Jeff was beginning to feel things were a bit spooky cause he’d always called Jeanne his ‘angel’. She never minded either. To her, it was an endearment.

Chaos reigned everywhere, inside and outside: overtaxed phone lines, stalled traffic, malfunctioning intersections, people standing in the middle of streets and mall parking lots crying and gnashing their teeth. Only the cathedral’s Monsignor Jacob Jones, looking out the rectory windows, seemed to have a sense of calm about him, and even he didn’t bother to hide the tears streaming down his chubby face. He’d recognized the Event from its first moments. Now it began to dawn on him that, while all may not be lost, he had much work to get done. Much work for his own soul.