Laura, stumped as to how she will be able to escape now, plops onto the ground to think. There are too many people watching for her to leave without being noticed. She needs to find an adult who will take her out of the area. As she thinks, she finds herself instinctively sucking on the pacifier the woman stuck in her mouth. Part of her wants to spit it out the juvenile object, but part of her wants to keep sucking.
She decides to indulge her more childish side and continues suckling the pacifier for some desperately needed comfort. As she looks around the playground for an adult to take her out of the little kid section, her eyes land on a man she recognizes. It’s the same man that helped her out earlier, when she was pretending to be a boy.
Him thinking she was a boy might be a problem. Or she could use it to her advantage, and pretend the “boy” he met earlier was her older brother. Laura gets to her feet and walks over, or rather, toddles, due to the thick diaper she is now wearing. She tugs on his pant leg. He looks down.
“Hello there, sweetheart,” he coos, crouching down to her eye-height. “Do you need something?” Laura nods. “What do you need?” The man takes out her pacifier, which Laura had completely forgotten she was even sucking on still.
“Loth my bruver,” she says, deciding to mask her words behind a toddler-like lisp.
“Oh, no!” The man looks her over thoughtfully. “I think I might have seen him earlier. Does he like to play on the slides in the big kid section?” Laura nods. “Okay. Let’s go find him.”
The man takes Laura’s hand and walks out of the little kid section with her. No one bats an eye. Laura lets out a soft sigh of relief. The man looks around the park.
“Do you see your brother?” he asks.
As the man heads for the slides, taking Laura with him, she suddenly realizes that she’s escaped one difficult situation for another.