Reset a Password

"Good morning my little baby". I smiled at the most beautiful face in my life, my little girls face. Her big green eyes looked at me with happiness. Her deep green eyes fascinated me every time I looked into them. Her little nose was so delicate and her pink lips so soft. To make the picture even better, her fire-red-curly-hair sparkled all over her face. She was just 5 years old of today and a pink birthday cake was already waiting for her. "Happy 5th birthday to you my darling, I wish you all the best". She put her arms around my neck and gave me a big hug and a big kiss. "Thank you mummy. Now I am a big girl", she said. "From now on I can walk home from kindergarten all by myself ". "Yes, you can" I said. I knew she was waiting for this big day for almost one year now.

She jumped out of her bed and ran into the kitchen. A big balloon was hanging on her chair and at her place was her birthday cake, on which a big 5 was emblazoned. A small present was also there, for now. Her big birthday-party was after kindergarten. With all her friends. She was so excited, that she gave the cake a kiss. "Can I open the present?" she asked. "Of course you can, this is only a small one for now, the big surprise will be at your birthday-party". She grabbed the present and started to open it. "Oh mummy, it is my favorite book. Winnie the Pooh". Her eyes were sparkling like stars and her little face was red for excitement.

"Hurry up with your breakfast, or you will be late for kindergarten-pre-school".

"Uh, that would be not good", and off she went for the bathroom. I helped her to dress, just a little bit, because as of today, she was a big pre-school-kid as well with new responsibilities. One new responsibility was to walk home all by herself. The kindergarten was not far away, just a 5 minute walk; but she had to cross the street. We had practiced this together many times over the past 3 months. We also talked about what she has to do if she is spoken to by a stranger.

To make sure that she doesn't fall for a bad person, we thought about a password. A password only Molly, or I knew. So if someone would walk towards her and tells her that she should be picked up and taken to my place of work or if I have an accident to the hospital, then that person should say the password. Because we talked about that during our practice, I thought we need to reset the password, just in case someone already new it.

I asked her what 'password' she would like. She looked at me and said: "But we already have one, right?" "Yes Molly, we do. But we talked about it on the street during practice, remember?". "So, I think, we should go with a new one. A new one, no one knows". She looked at me for a moment and than she said: "What about 'Baby-Pepper'?" "That's brilliant", "no one ever will know that one".

"Alright than, lets go to kindergarten-pre-school", and she ran for the door.

We walked together slowly down the streets. I was so proud of my little girl. She walked like a princess, head up, her curly hair was tied in a ponytail with a silver ribbon. I dropped her off and left.

I was a little bid worried because she would walk home all by herself today. The first time ever. Hopefully nothing would go wrong.

The time went by fast as I was preparing for her birthday party. It was almost 2pm. The time, when kindergarten was over. I was getting more and more nervous. It is only a 5 minute walk, I said to myself. But I had a bad feeling. I grabbed my keys and left. I wanted to make sure, she was fine. I walked down the street on the other side of the walkway, so that she would not see me.

There she was! Walking home alone. And there was that woman. I don't know why I had a bad feeling, but there was something strange about her. The woman approached my little girl. I couldn't hear what she was saying, so I walked faster to get closer. I saw my little girl backing up. The woman stepped closer to her and asked her again. That's when my little girl asked for the password! The woman starred at her and I could hear her voice:" What are you talking about? I already said the password. I got a phone call from the hospital that your mother asked me to pick you up. She had an accident, and therefor she is not at home!". But my little girls voice became louder now.

"What is the password!" The woman's face was already red and she tried to grab a hand from my little girl. "The password!!!" My little girl was now yelling at that woman and heads were turning around from others to see what's going on.

A young man stepped closer and offered his help. But the woman pushed him away. That was the moment my little girl turned around and started to run back to the kindergarten. I quickly changed to the other side of the street and ran after my little girl. I was there in no time to pull her in my arms.

I was so proud of her. We phoned the police and when the police showed up, my little hero and that very nice young man gave a very good description of that woman. One of the police officers asked her, how she managed to find out, that something was wrong. She looked at him and said: "The woman didn't know the right password!" My mom and I reset the password today!". The police officer looked at me puzzled."Password?". "Yes", I said "we have for everything in life a password, but unfortunately not for the most important things in life: OUR CHILDREN. So we thought, it will be a good idea, that she needs to be protected by a password what only she knows, and I. And, in case she needs to be picked up by 'a stranger she don't know'." The police officer was stunned. But nevertheless, the reset-password saved my child, Molly.