Whoa! Okay, so now we know why yesterday's strip was so lame. It was merely exposition. The quest for the perfect card led April here to be Shannon's rescuer.
But jeez! Must Lynn infantilize Shannon this way? My first assumption was that someone had been making fun of Shannon. My second was that she was in a similar quandry regarding card affordability. Because a special needs kid bringing all her pennies to the store in a change purse and still coming up fifty cents short is so heartrending, y'know?
Well, it isn't that, but I'm not sure that this is any less glurgey. Are we to believe that Shannon's mom wouldn't keep careful watch on her special-needs daughter? She'd just wander off without a backward glance, and when she noticed the lack of ellipses in the air around her, wouldn't alert the staff, and security if any? She wouldn't even call out, "Hey Shannon, where are you?" I'm not even special needs, and my mom was not shy about letting loose with a golf-course cry of "BETSY!!!!" if I wasn't in sight.
