A young woman walks briskly between traffic in the front of a mall, both hands grasping her take-out box containing her lunch, on her way back to her car in the parking lot. She has spent most of her lunch hour in the mall and now, fearing that she'll be late, is now making her way back with her meal so she can finish it back at the office.

She walks through the underground parking lots balancing the take-out box in one hand, and is rummaging around in her purse for her car keys when she hears the cries of a young child. She looks up at a car parked across from where she stands. There is a large stroller beside the car's open backseat door where a woman, likely the child's mother, is leaning into the backseat with a child in arms. The child, no more than a year old, is screaming at the top of its lungs. From the looks of the black and red winter coat the baby is a boy. The baby is refusing to settle into its car seat and continues its shrill screams.

The mother is now forcing the child into the carseat by shaking the child and harshly thrusting it backwards into the seat while shrieking at the baby to "shut up and sit".

"SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!! SIT DOWN NOW!" she screams trying to drown out the child's voice with her own yelling.

The young woman is so startled by this scene that she stares in disbelief. She can see everything that is happening through the rear window of the mother's car. The young woman takes a step forward thinking she should leave. The mother then raises a hand to hit the baby. The young woman cannot see where he was hit.

The young woman then frantically looks around for help. For another witness. She doesn't know whether she should confront this woman. She doesn't know how to confront her. Should she call the police? The mall security? What if the mother leaves before she comes back? It is the crowded lunch time, and despite there being a sea of cars around her, the young woman sees no one that she can call out to.

The young woman turns towards the mother's car attempting to step forward. Then, she suddenly turns around and maneuvers quickly around other cars and finally reaches her own. The childs cries seem to have quieted. Or maybe she’s too far to hear them. She shoves her hand into her purse again once and comes out with her keys in hand. She unlocks her car door, sits down inside and slams the door shut again. She stares straight ahead and can't move. What should she do? Her heart and mind can only hear the screams of the child and mother, though her ears hear nothing now. The young woman starts the car and pulls out of her spot.

Rather than go towards the exit sign, she swerves around the other way and drives up to the car with the baby. The mother is now folding up the stroller and placing it in her car trunk. “Can I block her car?” thinks the young woman to herself, “would I call 911 or the local station? Maybe I can leave the car parked behind her and look for help.”

The young woman, however, does none of this. The mother now closes her trunk and gets into the driver’s seat. The young woman makes a mental note of the mother’s license plate and speeds away and out of the parking lot, breathing rapidly.

Now she will never know what becomes of that little boy. Was this was a habit of the mother to treat her baby this way, or had the mother had a very frustrating day. The mother had been shopping so it’s not likely that she was suffering from bad news. Could she have post-partum depression? Was the child okay? Were there other children?

The young woman thought about all these things as she drove back to her office. But because of her foolishness, she’d never know and would have to face her own guilty conscience.

She missed her chance.
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What would you do had you been in the young woman's shoes?