Timmy!
When the mall cops found Timmy, he had already worked his way up from ‘sniffling’ to ‘sobbing,’ and was wondering whether he’d have to resort to ‘bawling’ to get somebody to see him. He didn’t want to. Really crying over stuff was stupid, and if he tried he figured the other kids would know he was faking it. Adults wouldn’t, but a lot of adults were as stupid as crying was.
But adults also like things quiet, and it was Christmas, so they knew enough to look for sobbing kids all by themselves. Timmy didn’t have to sob more than a minute or two before a mall cop came up to him. This was one of the young thin ones, too. That was good. Sometimes the old, fat ones needed to be pushed a little before they’d care. Young and Thin bent down to talk to Timmy; from this close he could see just how cheap the mall cop’s hat was. Timmy wondered why they just didn’t get the right hats, but not much. If he asked, nobody would explain it to him right.
“Hi, kiddo,” said Young and Thin. “You trying to find your mom?” His breath was all right. No bad teeth, no cigarette smell. And he wasn’t really looking at Timmy. Timmy was just this little problem walking around that he had to fix, because it was his job, and if he never saw Timmy again Young and Thin wouldn’t even notice. That was good.