As the red and blue lights flickered, I saw tears begin to fill my mother’s eyes. The three squad cars drove away with the woman in the back seat of the last car. My parents pulled Colleen and me close, and hugged us for what seemed like only a few seconds. As we walked inside the narrow walkway towards the blueish green door, I realized this was the day I got away. My father, though, took it a different way; he could no longer in good conscience let us play in the alley without close supervision. The neighborhood wasn’t as safe as we had thought.

My day did not start off like that, though. It was an ordinary day for a six year old girl. I woke up and brushed my teeth. Then my three-year-old sister, Colleen, and I went outside to look for something to do. We ended up asking my neighbor Laura, who was about eight at this time, to play some basketball, because she had a hoop set up on her garage. My father was barbecuing dinner. Laura and I played a simple game of twenty-one while Colleen sat back against the adjacent garage and watched. It was about five in the evening with the sun just above the apartment tops, and everything began to go wrong.

A strange woman came stumbling down the alley from the left of us. I walked over to Colleen to take a bit of a rest, and Laura made a comment to me about how “That crazy lady must be drunk or somethin.” We all giggled and didn’t think much about it. I could smell the steaks and potatoes my father was cooking on the grill from behind the five foot fence and the four giant pine trees. Then out of nowhere I felt a cold clammy hand grab a hold of mine. Before I knew it, Colleen was lifted off of the ground by a woman that I only knew as “The crazy lady.” Colleen seemed almost unaffected, but then again, Colleen likes everyone. Laura ran inside; I began screaming my little brown haired head off.

“Daddy! Dad! Dad!” I screamed, with tears pouring down my red and terrified face.

“Lauren, I’ll come check on you in a sec, just let me finish the steaks. I don’t want them to burn.”

“”But Dad-”

“I said one second!”

I heard a snicker from the woman as if she found it humorous that my screaming wasn’t grabbing attention from my father. She pulled me down through the adjacent parking lot with my feet dragging and both arms clasped around her hands trying to pry myself away. Then she gave me a look that is still fresh in my mind. A creepy, wide, and almost satisfied smile stretched across her face. That was when I knew I had to get keep screaming even if it KILLED ME! I began again...

“Dad! Dad! Dad! Right now! Now! PLEASE?!?!?!”

“Lauren! Settle down, you’re goin’ to be fine. You can’t be hurt that bad.”

“No! now Daddy!” As those few words came out I felt the feeling he would never come, and the fear increased.

“Betty, get the phone! Call the cops! Hey you- yeah you! What the hell do you think you’re doing with my girls!”

“Well mister I don’t know whatcher talking bout. These girls are my nieces.” She pulled my arm in a way that I ended up behind her legs, so I had to stretch my neck to see around her thin body.

As I heard the woman’s voice, I became a bit less frantic. I knew she was caught, and my daddy would not let her leave with me. I was still crying, but I looked up at my sister, and to my shock she was smiling. Almost as if she had no clue what was happening at all. Selfishly, I thought, one day a long time from now you are going to thank me for saving both of our lives. She can not recall the incident anymore, but she does acknowledge the fact that I was the reason she did not get kidnapped that day. Then my father yelled...

“ Bring my daughters back here right now! Ya hear? The police are on their way, and you’re gonna have to give my girls back anyways, so you might as well do it now!”

I was tugging her boney hand back, and I started towards my parents. I was released; Colleen was set on the ground. I grabbed a hold of her hand; quickly, we ran. It all almost seemed picturesque because the bright yellow sun was setting in the pink and blue sky just behind Colleen and me as we ran through the alley towards my parents, who were standing below the dark green pine tree awning right behind out back fence, and the grayish white smoke began to roll in from the grill. We were safe, at least for now.

The woman started walking away, but we were all too preoccupied to care that much about her. We all saw where she was headed, and kept up with the hugs and tears. Before long the policemen were there next to their three squad cars, and one of the men asked, “Where’d the lady go?”

“She went thatda way,” I chimed in, almost too eager to help, and pointed my little finger down the opposite side of which the woman had originally emerged from.

The police man who was talking to us sent the rest of the men out to find the “Crazy Lady.” He remained back to have all of us answer some questions. They weren’t hard questions though they seemed a bit routine, things like: “What was she wearing, What did she look like, What are all of your names, How old are you, and Have you ever met this woman before.” I was propped up on a blue recycling bin; that way I could talk directly to the officer when he asked me questions. The questioning ended when a voice on the officer’s walkie-talkie said, “We’ve got her, and we’ll drive back so the parents can identify the woman.” They did what they said. Thus the drama was over, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t changed.

As the red and blue lights flickered I saw tears begin to fill my mother’s eyes. The three squad cars drove away with the woman in the back seat of the last car. My sister and I were pulled in for a well needed hug, and a reassurance that we would be okay. After that day I was changed for good. I knew that the world was not as safe as it seemed. My father felt the same way. I look back on this day, and know that it is one of the reason’s I don’t trust strangers or even the random people walking along the street. My father will never forget how he almost lost two of his four children that day. Innocence seems lost early in young people today, and with instances like this one that I went through, it is not hard to see why.