Lost Time

The Walk

After a week of selling off some of my valued vinyls and being home “late” from school, I had managed to save up enough money for a bus ticket. Friday was the day I was going to run away from home and get the answers I deserved. As soon as my parents left the store I was out the door. I knew they would be back home within an hour, so I left a note saying I had gone to my friend on the other side of town. Her parents were notoriously bad at answering their phones, so they’d have to drive all the way there before realizing it was a lie. I ran to the nearest bus stop and got on. I would have to change buses many times, but in 13 hours, I would be there, outside the prison.

The bus stopped at the side of the road as the sun was rising behind the forest. I had traveled the entire night, but barely felt tired. I got off the bus and started walking to the entrance. The signs confirmed what I had managed to read online, open visits Sundays from 8-12. As I got closer to the entrance, my arms and legs started shaking. I had been so fueled by rage and confusion the entire trip that I never had time to feel anxious. But now it hit me, all at the same time. Who knows what that man had done to me, had he raped me? tried to sell me? show me off as some sort of prize? I stood still for a second, contemplating what I was doing. My life had already changed beyond repair. I know I was abducted, nothing could take that away from me now, might as well find out what happened.

I registered at the lobby to meet Keith Lander, saying he was a distant relative of mine. Maybe it was pointless to lie, but I didn’t want to risk them not letting me in. It was a medium security prison, so we were all allowed into the same room, none of that “glass wall with a phone” you so often see in movies. I sat down at the designated table and waited for him to show up. My legs were shaking so much I had to try and disguise them so as to not raise suspicion. I wouldn’t even know when he entered, cause the picture I could find online was 12 years old at this point. Finally a tall, somewhat skinny man sat down in the seat in front of me. He had bruises and cuts all over his face and neck, some looking older than others. “So who are you?” he asked me. “I don’t know any relatives by your name”. I stuttered, I knew it would be difficult, but I still thought I’d manage to tell him who I was with a straight face. I catched my breath and looked down on my hands, I was sweating profusely and felt my own heartbeat going faster. “I’m the girl you went to prison for”.

We stared at each other for a few minutes, his face slowly turned as he realized I was being serious. I decided to break the silence. “I know you abducted me for two days, but why, what did you do to me?”. I didn’t know what I wanted to ask, I just wanted to know what happened in my life, why I was tortured by imprisonment by my parents for so many years, why I didn’t have any real friends, just why. “Hm”, he scanned my body with his eyes, taking his time to absorb everything he could see. “Never thought I’d see you again”. Then he laid out everything. I guess he didn’t have anything to lose, the court case had been finalized and nothing was going to change that at this point, no matter what he would spend the next 8 years of his life in prison. His inmates already seemed to have him figured out for being a child abuser, so he was a constant target for cuts and fights, nothing was going to change for him I guess.