One of Leta’s favorite past times has always been food shopping.  It combines her love of pushing a shopping cart around the store and her love of eating.  I have often given her free reign to push the cart down every aisle, load up on all her favorite snacks, chips, soup, frozen pizzas, chef boy ar dee, ravioli, apple sauce, ketchup and lots of pasta sauce.  This sport has helped us pass many a long weekend when I was at a loss for how to keep Leta otherwise occupied.  The trick was to have her enjoy the shopping but not really have to buy any of it.  If any Acme managers in Philadelphia are reading this book,  this is my confessional that I am the one who left all those obnoxious shopping carts filled to the brim with red food products and chips on rainy Saturday afternoons.  I am so sorry.    The girl likes to shop, what was I to do?  And with her Ninja speed she was able to fly down the aisles grabbing things as if she were on a gameshow, timed to see how much she could load up on in 5 minutes.  Occasionally, we would change the rainy day venue to something more exciting like Target!  And it was one rainy day in Maine when I took Leta to Target that I got distracted in the athletic bra section.  When I turned around, Leta and the shopping cart were  GONE.  Thinking that she couldn’t have gotten too far away, I casually walked to the next few aisles to catch up with her.  But Leta was no where in sight.  I quickened my pace to a slow run to cover more ground but still no Leta.  Now I was in a bit of a panic and started running between aisles.  Surely, I would hear her or see her at this pace.  But Leta was  really gone.  5 minutes had now gone by, so I ran to the front of the store and told one of the check- out clerks that I was missing my 12 year old daughter.  I described what Leta was wearing and they put out a broadcast, “Would Leta Moseley please come to the mangers office at the front of the store.”   When I heard this, I realized I hadn’t explained the situation clearly at all.   They were assuming she was a typical 12 year old who had wandered off.  “No! “ I screamed.  “My daughter has special needs.  She is non-verbal and won’t understand that.  She is only “this high”   I gestured, showing a child of about 3 1/2  feet .  “But she is pushing a shopping cart around somewhere in your store, …alone.”   Now, they seemed to understand.  And the next thing I knew, an alarm went off and Target went into lockdown.  All entrance and exit doors were locked shut and the Target staff and I began searching for Leta.  5 more minutes went by and still they had not found her and I  became frantic.  I couldn’t imagine someone actually kidnapping Leta but the thought began to cross my mind, or worse what if she had already walked out of the building?  What if this was one of those moments that my life as I know it stops and Leta just disappears for good?

It also occurred to me that the security team at Target probably had no idea what sort of child they were looking for.  Leta pushing a shopping cart around could look quite competent and not appear to be in any distress at all.  If I wasn’t able to find her, how could they?

Ten more minutes passed, and I had systematically walked every aisle in the store.   And at last, I heard over the radio that she had been found.  I waited  and sure enough, through the aisles, Leta appeared with a security guard in red.  Leta was still pushing her shopping cart, now overloaded with everything imaginable and more.  There was food, there were piles of clothes.  There were diapers and toys.  And Leta, of course, no worse for the wear,  had the biggest grin on her face.  As far as she was concerned, this had been a very successful day of shopping therapy!