Leah Smooth
10/11/12
1st period Short Memoir

The Park Tragedy

One hot summer day, I was left at Delaware Park, in New York. It all started when my family and I decided to have a picnic. They were having fun, talking, laughing, and eating. I was having fun eating ice cream, playing with my cousins, and my favorite thing to do was swing on the swing sets. At the time I was 5 years old, so swinging on a swing set, was like a teenager riding on a rollercoaster. I was having a blast, like any child would! But, that fun I was having, didn’t last long at all. My family agreed that it was time for us to go, but I wasn’t ready yet, I was having way too much fun. I bet you don’t know what happens next. We had so much family there, that they forgot that I was still on the swings! Can you imagine how scary it was to be a 5 year old in a city park without your family being there? I felt like I was in area full of monsters without protection, because my mom always taught me not to talk to strangers. After that I was afraid to be alone. That day didn’t change my perspective fully towards strangers, but it made me a lot braver than I was before. While I was there alone, a woman and her child walked up to me and asked “what’s wrong?” I explained to her that my family left me there by accident. She asked for my mom’s phone number, and I gave it to her, because my parents taught me how to contact them by phone. I called my mother, and told her what was going. As any loving mother would do, she said “Oh my gosh, Baby are you okay?, mommy is on her way, I’m so sorry”!! She thought I was in my aunt’s car. But when she got there she hugged me tight and said “Please forgive me, I love you but make sure you don’t tell your dad, because I don’t want to have to punch him in the head about this!”