Shelly was terrified. Nothing looked familiar. She had no idea where she was or where her mom had went. All she could do was keep walking forward, tightly clutcing the bone charm her gandmother had made for her. She felt tears coming and shook her head violently as if she could shake them away. She was trying hard to be a big girl and her mom said big girls didn’t cry.

It was no use. The tears came anyway, turning her surroundings into puddles of color. Nearly blind, Shelly whispered, “Mom?”

She knew he mom hated being bothered and hating it when she cried but she didn’t know what else to do. She raised her voice slightly. “Mo-om?”

The sound came out whiny and Shelly flinched. Whining was one of the number one no-no’s. She sniffed to stop her nose from running but that didn’t do any good, it just put gross stuff into her throat. She wiped tears and snot away with the back of her hand, smearing it along her cheek. Her mom hated that too. She was supposed to use a Kleenex but she didn’t have any.

“Mommy?”