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We were here at Khari’s birthday party, and this had to have been my fourth time going to the restroom. The good thing about the pavilion we were in was that the restrooms weren’t that far of a walk. We’d just sang happy birthday to Khari, and now, everyone was sitting around, eating birthday cake. Most of the kids were on the dance floor, doing the new dances as the DJ was spun track after track. I looked at what some of these kids were doing with these new dances, and I wouldn’t even attempt because half the things they were doing, just looked so complicated. I could barely do a quick little two-step, so I knew I wouldn’t stand a chance with what they were doing.
I stood up and brushed down the yellow shorts romper I was wearing. My husband had told me a while back that he loved when I wore yellow, so I made it a habit to put some yellow on my beautiful, chocolate skin every chance I got. Because we were at an outside birthday party, I didn’t try to do anything out of the ordinary with my hair; I just pulled it into a tight bun. I only wore just a bit of foundation today, I did my lashes, and I wore gloss. I wore gold sandals, which showed off the perfect pedicure that I’d gotten yesterday evening after work.
“I’ll go with you. I wanna go too,” Khari said, looking up from the cake she was eating.
Her adorable princess dress was filthy from all the playing and the sweets she had been eating. She got up from her chair and rushed over to grab my hand. I kissed my husband, letting him know that we would be back, and then Khari and I walked toward the restroom.
“I’m having so much fun, Normani,” Khari cooed as she let go of my hand and walked a little faster, getting in front of me.
“I know you are. I can tell by your dress,” I joked as I pointed at her beautiful, pink and gold Cinderella dress.
She no longer had the crown on her head that she entered the party with, and her bun was barely holding on. Once we made it into the restroom, I would put some water in her hair and use the tiny edge brush that I had in my little pouch to fix up her hair a little bit, because this little girl was playing so wild. She laughed at what I said, and then we walked into the restroom.
As badly as I had to pee, I walked into the first stall and got her prepped first, so she could go. I set down multiple toilet paper sheets around the toilet seat, and because her dress was so long, I had to assist her. Khari squatted down and used the restroom while I waited.
“Go over to the sink and wash your hands. Don’t leave Khari,” I told her as I used my foot to flush the toilet.
“I won’t,” she told me.
I watched as she went over to the sink and washed her hands. No longer able to hold my pee, I went into the same stall that she’d used. I did the pee dance, as I fought to get the zipper on the side of the romper off. The zipper had gotten stuck, and I just knew that I was about to embarrass myself by pissing my pants, but eventually, I got the zipper down, then the romper, and I released what felt like buckets of urine into the toilet.
“You still there, Khari?” I asked.
“Right here, Normani,” her sweet voice called out.
I finished and wiped myself.
“Still there?” I asked again as I pulled up my romper.
I didn’t get a response this time.
“Khari?” I called her name, and again, she didn’t answer.
All I could think about was Mexico, so I quickly swung open the bathroom stall door. Khari was no longer standing by the sinks where she originally was. I rushed out of the restroom, searched the area, and didn’t see her. Khari had a bad habit of wandering off. Whenever we went to the mall, park, or anything, we had to keep a close eye on her. Khari also had a crazy sense of humor because she watched a lot of YouTube videos where people did pranks, so in turn, she liked to pull pranks on people too.
“Khari?” I yelled her name a little louder this time, and she still didn’t answer.
I was definitely in panic mode now as I rushed over to the pavilion, hands shaking as I had to tell my husband that I didn’t know where his daughter was. Billion was going to go ballistic on me. When I reached him, he was standing by all of the gifts that Khari had gotten for the day and was more than likely getting ready to load them in different cars because they all couldn’t fit in his.
“Fuck did you do? Run over here? Where Khari at? I want to show her something,” he said.
“Billion, I don’t know where she’s at—”
“What the fuck you mean you don’t know where she’s at?” he barked at me, and at the same time, he was looking over toward the restroom, trying to search that area from where we stood.
He just took off running, and that’s when everybody kind of realized what was going on and took off in opposite directions, looking for Khari. God, I just hoped she had wandered off, and no one had grabbed her up.
I walked as fast as my body would allow me to as big tears fell from my eyes. Knowing this was all my fault, I scanned the area, looking in different directions to see if I could spot Khari. I felt myself about to have a panic attack. The only thing I kept thinking about was being thrown into the back of that white van, and I was hoping the same thing hadn’t happened with Khari.
This park was huge, and there were so many places she could have been. I was standing over by the stalls when suddenly, I looked up, and all I saw was that pink and gold princess dress on Khari as she ran my way, so carefree. She was happy and didn’t have a clue in the world how she’d just scared the shit out of me and everyone else. I fell back onto the ground, put my back against the wall, and pulled my knees up as I tried to catch my breath.
“Normani, that’s my friend’s party over there. She’s having a Little Mermaid party,” Khari excitedly said, like nothing had just happened.
I looked up at her with tears in my eyes because she’d scared me shitless. When she saw that I was crying, her little eyes saddened.
“Why did you run off, Khari? I told you not to leave,” I said.
At the same time, her father walked up, and he glared at me, with a pissed off look on his face. I had never seen him look at me like that. His eyes went to his daughter, and he pulled her to him. By now, Khari seemed to have realized what was going on. She more than likely saw that running off had made her dad angry with me, so she quickly explained herself.
