If You See Something, Say Something

Being a full time mother of two, working full time, and full time significant other has it’s overwhelming points, but majority of the time it is full of love, blessings, laughs, and cries. Only recently, within the last two months, I have returned back to work as I just had my son 6 months ago. It has been a lot of change with the move to a bigger apartment, another baby, and my oldest starting Pre-K. Her school is in NYC right next to my job so she commutes every morning with me. I love it. It is full of adventure and life to commute with her. Children are such curious beings; they are full of questions and the most random thoughts where they have absolutely no shame in voicing. My mornings have become fun traveling with her, we play games like iSpy and Name That Animal’s Habitat, an original of ours.

We travel in from Jersey City, so our passage through the Oculus, end to end, is our morning routine. The Oculus is the new World Trade Center filled with stores, places to eat and sites. It is rush hour and she needs to be in school by 8:40 am and me at work by 9 am, so there are people everywhere. The Oculus is always decorated or showcasing something new so my daughter is frequently engaged and entertained. It has housed farmer’s markets, a Lego event where passerby's could play with old legos, and it is decorated for every holiday with Christmas being the most spectacular. 10 feet metallic snowmen, faux Christmas trees, light arches, reindeer light shows, and much more.

“Mommy take a picture of me in front of the snowman” Grace asks me, then immediately poses because she knows the answer is yes. She strikes a couple of poses and I take a couple of pics,

“Let’s go baby because I know you want to take more with the Christmas trees.”

As we get closer to the Christmas trees, I notice a new display in the center. Looks like a glass tower filled with stuff, as we come even closer I notice that stuff is L.O.L. toys, do they know the riots this will cause?

“Mommy it’s an L.O.L. dream house!!” she exclaims and runs toward it. Of course it is, I think to myself.

“Take my pic here!!” She never asked for the dream house, she just admired it through the glass and seemed satisfied with just a picture. As we walk onto the escalators, I notice how messy it is around with boxes and gift wrapping paper. If someone trips that could be a really bad accident, I hope they straighten it up soon.

I am Director of Operations at a Neurology Practice so my day to day consists of scheduling, payroll, patient accounts, billing, inventory, and time management so I’m able to leave on time at 5pm. Grace’s Aunt picks her up from school as she lives a few blocks away and I pick her up when I get off work. It was a beneficial set up for us all while allotting her Aunt quality time with her. Memories were being made all around, this was a happy time for us all.

Coming down the escalator into the Oculus on our way home, I notice the box and gift wrap mess is partially cleaned where I am satisfied not to say anything. That could have been bad. The L.O.L. display is still standing, but Grace passes it right on by because we always stop at the candy station to pick us some after dinner sweets. Then when we exit the PATH on the Jersey side, we buy a flower to bring home to Daddy and brother. It’s always a great start and end to my day.

The next day it’s business as usual through the Oculus and this time when we reach the escalator there is only one package tucked into the corner and it seems to be wrapped in brown paper.

Why am I so fixated on what they store next to these escalators? Maybe it’s because I am NYC born and raised and suspicious packages, bags, suitcases are always on the back of our minds. Safety first, I say to myself. At the end of the day, we stopped for some Burger King as I did not want to go home to cook. Grace did not mind at all. As we enter the Oculus, there is an out of service sign on the escalator and the entrance is blocked off.

I hit the down button on the elevator as it is right next to us and already on our floor. The elevator slowly makes its way down and I happen to be standing facing the escalator and guess what I see? The suspicious package wrapped in brown paper. Are those tiny holes on the top? Oh shit. Did it just jump? No, I must be seeing things now, but just in case…

I take Grace’s hand and exit the elevator. She tries to walk towards the PATH, but I pull her in the other direction towards the package. It moves again! We spin around and walk towards the security desk as I do not see any police officers, which I find odd as there is always one.

“Excuse me, Ms. Hi, I walk through this Oculus every day, twice a day, and I’ve noticed a suspicious package wrapped in brown paper under that left escalator for almost two days now.”

Her eyes widen when I say this. I know what she’s thinking because I’m thinking the same thing. And if NYC has drilled anything into our heads, it's “If you see something, say something”, so here I am doing my citizen’s duty.

“I know it’s probably nothing”, I continue, “but I couldn’t keep walking this time without saying something.”

She’s still silent. I know she is strategically choosing what to say next because of the chance of panic. Then she picks up her walkie, clicks the button and says,

“Moses, we have a woman with a child at the desk saying she has seen something that she would like to inform you about.”

Good move and what a fitting name for such a situation. Moses arrives with an officer, whether intentional or not, I do not know, but I say to him exactly what I told Ms Security.

“Can you show me this suspicious package, Ms …”

“Sasha. My name is Sasha.

“And I’m Grace. I’m 4 years old.”

“Nice to meet you Ms. Sasha and Miss Grace.” says Moses.

“It’s right over there” I point and just as I do so the box jumps! We all stop and the officer immediately calls for backup on his walkie.

We are instructed to not to get any closer and to wait for backup. Backup arrives, tapes off a perimeter and sends three men toward the package. Grace and I wait on the sidelines and now a crowd has formed. People have their phones out recording, but Grace and I are just watching. The men are carefully handling the box to open it, they slice off the brown paper to reveal a box with poked holes all throughout. One of the men gasps when he looks through the holes and immediately opens the box, but with extreme caution. He reaches down and pulls out a baby wrapped in a blanket.

“Mommy it’s a baby inside!” Grace declared. I am perplexed. A baby? How could no one hear a baby? The baby does not seem distressed after being in a box. I pull Grace just a little bit closer to me and squeeze her as if to say “I would never leave you, your brother, or any child in a box.” I noticed two officers coming my way and I know why, I reported the box. Shit. I don’t want to be too involved in anything, I just noticed it.

“Hi Ms. Sasha, I am officer Patton and this is officer Jones. When did you first notice this package?”

“That’s hard to say because there’s been a mess of boxes since yesterday morning. The pile slowly decreased until that was the last box there. I only said something because I saw it move.”

He clicks his pen and writes down my response in his mini notepad.

“And after you saw it move, what did you do?”

“I reported it to security and here we are. That’s all I know really. I do not want to give my name or number to be contacted in the future, I feel it's unwarranted.”

“But you discovered the box. You don’t think we should keep in contact?”

More writing.

“I saw something and I said something. I am no longer beneficial to the investigation. I’ll give you my first and last name and you could Facebook message me if anything further is needed of me.”

“Do you want to be considered as kin for the baby if none is located? Given that you did discover the baby, we may be able to arrange something if you like.” He says this very nonchalantly with his head down and jotting something in the mini notepad as if he just asked for the time.

I stood there having a staring contest with officer Jones taking me almost a minute to respond. Is this dude serious? I guess to some people this may be the miracle they have always asked for, but not me. I already got two. Now I feel queasy. This poor baby.

“No, thank you. My name is Sasha Williams and you could find me on Facebook if you have further questions or updates. Have a great rest of your day and good luck.” I don’t even give them a chance to say anything else because Grace and I are already walking towards the PATH.

“Mommy, you don’t want another baby?” Grace asks me with such tenderness.

“Of course I do mama, I just don’t want a new baby right this second and I want it to come from my tummy again.”

“I understand. You probably have a baby in your tummy right now.” she states so confidently as she begins to skip onto the train. I laugh, “Oh no I do not” and at those words that queasy feeling I got earlier returned. We reach Jersey City, buy our flowers and continue home. When we get there she exclaims to her father,

“Daddy! Daddy! We found a baby in a box in the Ockaless, but we left it because Mom didn’t want it so now there’s a baby in her tummy! I’m getting a baby sister!” The look of confusion on his face is priceless.

“There is no baby in my tummy, but we did find a baby in a box..” and I told him what happened.

“Things like that only happens in movies” he says

“I know. So this is probably just a weird dream that I will soon wake up from.” We both laugh and I go into the bathroom to pee. That queasy feeling is still lingering and so are Grace’s words “there’s a baby in your tummy” so I reach under the sink and pull out a pregnancy test. As a mom of two and in a serious relationship, you tend to keep some just in case. I stop my pee as I open it and then continue to pee on the stick. I set it down, finish, and wash my hands and face. I dry off and notice I am stalling to look down. I do a few neck twirls with my eyes closed, take a deep breath, let out a big sigh and look down.

Positive.

You have got to be kidding me!

“Babe! You better come in here!!”

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