The Why of Buying

She was pregnant.

Newly so, and more than a bit excited by the prospect. 

Necessity had driven her to the mall. 

Preparations to begin.

New clothes to buy.

She visited shop after shop but nothing drew her.

Tried on shirts and smocks and pants and dresses.

All were cute and appealing.

But none appealed.

The only thing that caught her eye in the entire, rather wasted experience, was a little stuffed puppy.

She held it and looked at it and snorted softly.

Well, maybe this new baby she was carrying would like it.

In about a year.

She bought it and stuffed it into her bag and forgot about it.

A few days later, a worried husband brought her to the hospital. Violently ill for the past couple of days, he ignored her protests that ‘it was just the pregnancy’ or ‘just a touch of the flu’ and hustled her into the waiting car and off to seek medical attention.

Seated a short time later in the facetiously-named ‘waiting’ room of the above-mentioned hospital, she tried to relax and await her name being called by a clipboard-toting official.

She looked around at her fellow awaitees.

A small boy across the room caught her attention.

With no obvious parental companions, he was being cared for by the nurses on the shift.

And not very happy about it.

The boy. Not the nurses.

She got up and moved closer.

Apparently this little guy had been, with his parents, involved in a car accident.

He had checked out.

And was now waiting for them to do so as well. (They were both fine, as it turned out. But it took a while to determine that.)

In the meantime, a small boy needed distracting.

She suddenly remembered the little puppy tucked away in her bag.

She produced it.

And was rewarded by the instant light in the child’s eyes.

He clutched it and smiled.

The games the nurses were playing took on new interest as they included his new toy.

Puppy could hide in the most fun spots.

Including the vacuum tube that normally transported documents between floors.

Puppy could go in. And up with a ‘thoomp’.

And come back down again with a ‘boof’.

Oh, the giggles.

He was still happily engaged when her name was finally called.

And he and his family had left when she reappeared.

But she realized why she had needed to buy the little puppy.

It was not for her child.

It was for someone else’s