TAKEN FROM THE HOME - A MOTHER'S BETRAYAL

New Awakening

I had no idea how long I was out for, but I assume it was for a couple hours. I was awoken by a young girl, a teenager herself probably in the same age group as myself, who had apparently suffered the same or similar fate. I did not know what her story was, how we ended up in the same place, but we shared one thing in common, we were in this together. After regaining full consciousness, I realized that I was no longer in the trunk of a car. I was in unknown territory, a strange and mysterious environment. I must have been miles away from home. My first reaction was one of renewed fright. I started to scream loudly and hollered for help. My new found companion, much to my astonishment, tried cautioning me and asked : "a wah me a gwaan suh fah?" It baffled me as to how she was so cordial and spoke and act in such a casual manner. How could she be so relaxed . . .

I switched from screaming to been frozen with my jaws dropped as she turned on the light revealing my surrounding and herself. We were in a stately furnished room. None like I have ever been in before. She was a rather beautiful looking girl. At first sight I couldn't tell how old she was because though she looked petite in frame, she had a facial feature that suggested that she was older than me. She also had quite a few obvious tattoos all over her body, complemented with piercings in places I never knew could be or even should be pierced. As I quickly tried to process the data that was now exposed, amidst that which I had forcefully collected and stored leading up to that moment, I slowly sat on a cushioned chair. As i was sitting my bones remind me that they were aching. Finishing up my visual canvassing of the room, my gaze became fixed, eye to eye with the only other human in the room. She had as much a curious look on her face as I had on mine. My jaws were still agape but she began to speak. "A how yuh cut up and dutty so" she muttered. I heard the question but couldn't answer as I was asking the opposite though not out loud. I didn't get it . . . was I the only one who was taken to that room against my will? It certainly appeared so. Who was she and why was she there? Why was I there? I heard her asked again, the question she asked before, at that time muttered, "dem kidnap mi". "weh yuh mean? Who kidnap yuh?" she asked. My attention was shift from her and her questioning to the door. I felt a renewed rush of strength in my entire body, as though I was jolted back to life by some miraculous means. I was about to dash to the door when it was suddenly opened and in walked two other girls accompanied by an elderly, well dressed woman. The girls, one looking like a teenager and the other like a middle aged woman, were smiling gleefully and had luggage as though they were either going to board a plane or coming off one. When the elderly woman saw me, she quickly locked the door with a key and rushed over to me with a concerned look on her face. "What happened to you?" she asked. Before I could utter a word she turned to the other girl who was there with me prior to her entry and asked her why was I so battered and bruised. The girl explained that she was out shopping and when she returned she discovered me as is. She had no idea as to how or when exactly i got there. I just sat there and stared as the dialogue between them continued. I might have blocked out for a while, my hearing sense that is, because at one point, though they were right there talking in my presence, I wasn't hearing what they were saying. My sense of hearing returned when I observed the lady taking a cell phone from her bag and dialled a number, put the phone to her ear and asked to talk "Mr. Jakes". That name sounded familiar, that was the name of the business man that came to our house. She walked away from our immediate presence as she argued with whoever else was on the other end of the call. Obviously she was displeased about something. Strangely it seems to have to do with me as she kept looking in my direction while she argued. I couldn't make out much what she was saying but I did hear her cursed "unuh too #$@#* wicked!"

After a few minutes of disputing on her phone she came over to me and ushered me into the bathroom. I found myself strangely hugging on the woman and feeling as though I knew her and she was close to me. What took place in the bathroom over the next hour or so was a startling revelation. While I was provided the means to cleanse my body, assisted by the woman who acted like she was my own mother; not the one I just left behind but the one I was accustomed to when my father was alive. It was all explained to me; the reasons and caused that led to me being in that place and the plans that were to proceed. I was, like the other girls, to be shipped off to America to work. The difference though, between the other girls ad myself was that they wilfully volunteered to be a part of an illegal means of leaving the island. They would be provided jobs as exotic dancers. At that juncture in the revelation I asked why is it that I was involved in the whole process as I was just a child and totally innocent to all that was just explained to me. For reasons unknown the woman was just letting me in on the whole nine yards of an operation that was ongoing for a long time. She couldn't explain though why I was taken to the house , which was a processing point for the girls who avail themselves to the perpetrators of the operation at a cost that they agreed on prior to. The girls would repay the "boss" for getting them out of the country by dancing at clubs and or being escorts. I couldn't travel, even if I wanted to. I didn't have a passport or any other credentials plus I was only 14. I was assured that the "boss" takes care of "everything". Mr Jakes ran a well organised operation. As I listened to the woman spilling all the beans as though I was her lifetime confidant, while at the same time soothing my bruises, I wondered why she was sharing with me all that load of information. I asked her who she was talking to on the phone earlier and she explained that it was the boss. She said he told her that I was a special case and won't be going to America to work like the other girls but was instead going to live with an elderly rich man who needs a young girl to treat as his daughter because he had no children. Why me? I enquired. The boss could get any other of his volunteers to fill the order. I was told that it was cheaper to use me as I was the right age required and being that there was a race against time to deliver what the rich man ordered, after having paid handsomely. That still didn't add up to me. Why me of all the girls in the world? Why did they have to take me against my will? I might had gladly considered the opportunity had it been presented to me. It was already my dream to get away from all that I was going through. The explanation was that my stepfather actually sold me to Mr. Jakes and the best means of delivery was to devise a kidnapping. Well, I thought, I could have been spared the torture I underwent as I would have gladly agreed to go, only that I would insist on taking my baby with me, maybe that was suspected and that was why they utilised the act of kidnapping me.

After finish cleaning up and being provided with a change of clothing by the woman, Nana was her name, I was ushered back in the room where the other girls were chatting away gleefully. I was given food, pizza and soda. I never had pizza before. I ate hastily as my stomach welcomed every morsel. I didn't even realise that I was no longer scared and wanting to escape. I was just there . . . i layed on one of the three big beds in the spacious room, on my back, staring in the ceiling, suspended in thoughts, a series of thoughts fighting for space in my head. I tried to order them but couldn't. I had then came to realise what happened to Jenny. She was a victim of Mr, Jakes's operation,, or maybe not. Maybe she volunteered to go or maybe not. Had she actually chosen to get away by that means she would have let me know and would come back for me. I remembered the night when she disappeared, she did tell me that she was going to be ok. Could that be because she knew what she was getting into? Two years had passed, that was enough time for her to come back for me. Or was it? Was she ok? I wish I knew it all. All that was explained to me in the bathroom had me wanting to know more. My mind then flashed on my baby; will I ever see her again? As for my mother ant the rest of the evil clan, they could always remain in my past. Will the rich man I was to be sold to treat me good? Will I ever be abused again? All those questions plagued my mind as I laid there.

My meditation was disturbed as Nana spoke in a stern tone, standing at the door, about to leave. "Nobody must try to leave the room, or else . . ." or else what I pondered. I didn't have to ponder long as she opened the door I peered outside and saw a tall husky man sitting on a chair across from the door in the hallway with what appeared to be a gun in his hand. Nana stepped out and shut the door. The three other girls were comfortably busy on their cell phones. They didn't even seem to be aware that I was there, though they were. I was just not among their concerns. They didn't even care to talk to me. I looked at the clock that was on the wall and realized that it was after 3pm. A sudden state of exhaustion encapsulated me and I gradually succumbed to slumber.

The next thing I knew was that I was awakened by a real loud explosion which was followed by two other. I sprang out of the bed and was instantly conscious of the other girls frozen in front of the TV, they two were frightened by the explosion which came from just outside the door. There was the sound of rushing footsteps and after the explosions. My ears were ringing like a bell. Then came the door crashing in followed by men in uniforms, with guns; police and soldiers. "Don't move, don't move!" they shouted. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest and my mouth was dry as a desert as I tried to process what was taking place. Through the door way I could see blood splattered on the floor and lying in it was the tall man I had seen earlier, clutching a gun in his hand. The police and soldiers swiftly searched the room as guns were pointed fixed on us, myself and the other girls. After satisfying themselves that there was nobody else there, guns were lowered and we were escorted from the room. Outside I realised that we were housed in a rather big house surrounded by a yard out of the movies. As I was ushered to one of the many police cars on the scene, by a woman police, i was just too shocked to believe I was awake, I was sure I was in a dream. I felt my knees gave way and i started to fall to the ground. That was the last thing I remembered until I opened my eyes to realise that I was in a hospital. I was instantly aware when I saw a nurse beside me checking on some bags of fluid hung on a rack beside my bed. "oh, you're awake" she said with a smile. I was about to move my hand only to realize the needle stuck in my vein. How long i have been there I did not know. Neither did I recalled right away anything prior to waking up.

The next set of words from the nurses mouth was what set off an avalanche of memories; "your mother is waiting to see you". My who???? What was she talking about??? In hyper speed, all that took place from the point of my abduction to being led by the police woman flashed through my mind. I don't imagine that a computer could process such information so fast. How or why would my mother be there? I pondered, as I tried frantically to make sense of what was now taking place, being unable to fill the gap between passing out and waking there in the hospital. I stared ghastly at what must have been a ghost; my mother was walking feebly towards me with a fountain of tears flowing down her cheek. My vision became blurred and I was no more; I passed out again.