“Why are criminals locked up?”
“If they’re not locked up, they’ll kill us.”
“Why should women and children be saved first in a shipwreck?”
“So they don’t drown.”
“But why should they be saved first?”
“Because moms and daughters should never be separated.”
“What would you do if you broke something at a friend’s house?”
“Is it a sleepover?”
“It’s not a sleepover.”
“Because I don’t sleep over. I don’t want to sleep over.”
“You’re not sleeping over. You’re just visiting.”
“During the daytime?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. If it’s the daytime and I’m not sleeping over, that’s okay. I broke something? Was it an accident?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’d tell the mom of the friend and say I was sorry.”
“What would you do if you found yourself alone in a strange city?”
“Where is my mom?”
“She is here, in New York. But you are in a strange city, all by yourself, without your mom.”
“How did I get there?”
“That’s not the question. The question is, what would you do?”
“I disappeared from my house?”
“I guess so, yes.”
“My mom said that can’t happen. She said that doesn’t happen to kids.”
“All right; well, let’s say, just this once, it did. What would you do?”
“But she said people don’t just disappear.”
“Let’s just say that it happened to you. One day you were home and the next, you woke up in a strange city. What would you do?”
I have asked my mom a million times what I should do if something like this happened and she says the same thing every time. “That won’t happen,” I say.
“Amanda, I need you to try to answer the question. What would you do if you found yourself alone in a strange city?”
I have disappeared from the room. I am in a strange city right now. “I would cry.”
“Okay, let’s move on, and we’ll return to that question later.”