Leah’s beginning to worry that neither the woman nor Tina will discover the switch until it’s too late. They’re now in the checkout line.
“Excuse me, ma’am?” Tina’s voice says. Tina appears in Leah’s field of vision, pushing the other stroller.
“Yes?” asks Leah’s kidnapper.
“I think we may have gotten our strollers mixed up.”
“What? That’s-” the woman scoffs, looking into Leah’s stroller. Her eyes widen. “This isn’t my little girl!”
“You’re right. She’s mine,” Tina says. The woman apologizes for not noticing earlier, and the two switch their strollers back. “Have a good day!”
“You, too,” the woman says. Tina pushes Leah’s stroller away from the checkout, back to the baby supplies aisle.
“That was a close call,” Tina says softly. Leah removes the pacifier.
“You’re telling me,” she mumbles. Tina chuckles.
“By the way, how is that pacifier? I need to pick up a few more for the daycare.”
“I mean, I don’t know if it’s better than other pacifiers, but I guess it’s all right,” Leah says.
“Hand it over, please.” Leah is more than happy to give Tina the pacifier. “Okay. I think they’ve got some more of this brand. Thank you, sweetie.” To Leah’s displeasure, Tina puts the pacifier back in her mouth. Tina grabs a package of pacifiers and pushes the stroller to the checkout.
“Finally, this nightmare is over,” Leah sighs around the pacifier.
“Actually, it’ll still be a little bit. This is the shortest checkout line, but it’s still pretty long,” Tina says. Leah groans loudly. Hopefully nothing unpleasant happens while they’re waiting in line.