Behind us, the store doors opened again. Police officers stood by while a manager started walking customers back inside to get their purses and shopping bags.
And then I heard a familiar voice.
“This is ridiculous! I didn’t do anything wrong!”
The woman from the checkout line. She was standing by the entrance, arguing with the young security guard. An EMT was trying to take her blood pressure.
When she spotted my mother behind the concrete wall, she pointed again.
“There she is! Ask her! Go on, ask her!”
The store manager, a tall woman in a black blazer, stepped right between them.
“Ma’am. We’ve reviewed the security camera footage,” she said. “You kicked this woman’s wheelchair. Twice. Before any of the other events began.”
“Because she was pretending!”
“That’s enough,” the manager said. Firmly. “You are no longer welcome in this store. Ever.”
The woman opened her mouth again.
But the young security guard gently took her elbow and walked her toward the parking lot.
A Columbus police officer followed them over. I saw him take out his notepad.
I turned to Mom.
“Do you want to press charges?” I asked. “You could. The officer said kicking a wheelchair counts as assault.”
Mom watched the woman get into a white SUV in the parking lot.
“Maybe,” she said. “I’ll think about it.”
Then she looked up at me.
“But right now, I’d rather go buy my granddaughter a birthday present.”
I let out a startled laugh.
“After all of this?”
“Especially after all of this,” Mom said.
I stood up. I moved around behind her chair.
My hands came up toward the handles.
And they stopped.
Mom noticed.
She didn’t say anything.
She just waited.
“Mom,” I said. “Would you like me to push?”
She smiled.
“Not yet,” she said.
She put her hands on her wheels.
“There’s a little music shop across the street, by the fountain. Sounds of Easton. I’d like to look in there.”
Adrian Hawthorne is a celebrated author and dedicated archivist who finds inspiration in the hidden stories of the past. Educated at Oxford, he now works at the National Archives, where preserving history fuels his evocative writing. Balancing archival precision with creative storytelling, Adrian founded the Hawthorne Institute of Literary Arts to mentor emerging writers and honor the timeless art of narrative.