No Compromises: Chapter 2
South London, 1988
Jackie Tyler sighed. She was really beginning to regret this shopping trip and agreeing to the upcoming outing that spurned it. Bev had told her that she was going to have to leave the house sometime, and just because she was grieving didn't mean it wasn't okay to have some fun now and then. "Rose needs a fun mum," Bev had said gently, and that had sealed the deal. They were going dancing. She'd even convinced Jackie to get a new outfit, "so that you can feel special." It didn't feel special. It just felt pointless, like most of her life these days. But Bev had booked and paid for the babysitter and even given Jackie the money for the new clothes, so now Jackie was at Henrik's, looking through rack after rack and finding nothing that interested her. Maybe this whole thing was a mistake. Really, she just wanted to go home, hold Rose, drink some tea, and miss Pete. But she'd been doing an awful lot of that in the ten months since he'd died, and Jackie knew that Bev was right – she couldn't just mope around forever. Rose deserved better.
So far, Jackie's little daughter stayed faithfully by her mother, holding one hand and running the chubby fingers of the other across the ends of the garments she could reach, watching them sway. But they'd been at the store a while now, and Rose was starting to get antsy. She let go of Jackie's hands and started toddling around the large, round rack, making little noises. "Rose, darling, stay by me," Jackie warned as she sorted through a number of sequined dresses. Finally, she happened upon one that was a bright magenta, a color she knew her daughter loved. She took it off the rack and bent down to show it to Rose. She came face to face with the hem of a gown. Her toddler was nowhere in sight.
Jackie was nothing if not dramatic, but at this moment, she was pure steel. Panic was no good; she needed to get her baby and get her now. The little girl was always so curious, she surely just wandered farther than Jackie thought she could have in a few seconds. Jackie tried desperately to ignore the sick feeling screaming inside her, "You're wrong. She's gone."
"Rose! Rose, come to Mummy!" She spoke loudly, but in a friendly voice so that Rose wouldn't think she was in trouble and hide. Sometimes that child was too clever for her own good.
Jackie knelt down to get a toddler's-eye-view and scanned the vast department store floor for Rose. All she saw were grown up legs and racks of clothing. "Rose!" It was getting harder not to panic. It suddenly seemed like there were ten million people around and no one at all. And the only person who mattered – this one tiny, precious girl who was all Jackie had left in this world – was absolutely nowhere.
Jackie screamed her child's name again as tears spilled over her cheeks.