It was dusk, and I was on my way home. I walked towards a group of people who were in a heated discussion. Their voices were loud, and their hands rebuked others as they spoke. As soon as I got to them, they stopped talking, and a man stepped out in front of me. He had a red bandana tied around his mouth and nose. I stepped to the side, and he moved in front of me.
“Excuse me,” I said as I looked into his eyes. There was a tinge of wrinkles at the corners. I can imagine the smirk he wore under the disguise of the bandana. I was a little afraid but became more fearful when the others placed their attention on me.
“What do you want?” I asked, putting on a brave stance.
He looked down at my hands, which held my cell phone. “Give me your phone.”
“No!” I exclaimed. “I need my phone.”
He grabbed my hand, and I felt a sharp object pressing on my wrist. I looked down, and it was a knife. The blade of the knife dug deep. Then another man stepped towards us. He had on the same color bandana over his mouth. His nose flared in intimidation. I handed the man my phone, and he released my hand. “Come back for it later… I will be right here waiting for you.”
“I do not want to come back later. If you want to use it and give it back to me now, that is okay.” How dare he take my phone. The blood stomped through my ear like a marching band drowning out the sound.
“If you want back this phone,… ” he twirled it around in his hand, “… you will have to come back here later.” He stepped aside out of my way.
I left enraged but relieved that I was set free. It was just a phone, my daughter’s phone. But that did not make it okay. How was he to take it from me? I decided to get help. So, I walked towards town. I was about to turn on a side street when a female voice called out, “No lady, do not go down there. It is not safe.”
I looked behind me, and a petite young lady was there. She walked closer to me, and I thought she was a part of that group I faced earlier, and she was; that blue steak of hair was the same. “Who are you, and what do you want? Why are you following me?”
“I am not following you; we are just going in the same direction.”
Probably I was just hasty or cautious. However, I turned away from the street and walked alongside that stranger. I looked at her. She seemed to be around sixteen or seventeen years old. What was she doing with those men?
“Follow me,” she said. “You cannot walk around here like that.”
I followed her until we got to a building, which looked like a house. She opened the front door, and I stepped in behind her. There were laughter and talking. A set of girls spoke in a language I could not understand. How would I ask for help if I could not communicate with them? The girls in the room flaunted skimpy clothes. Could this be a prostitution house? Was this a sex trafficking hideout? Did I voluntarily give up my freedom to the charms of that innocent-looking girl? I turned to leave, and she shut the door.
“You will be safer in here,” she said and walked to another room.
“What is this place? Why are we here?” I followed her.
“I will explain to you later. Stay here; I will be right back.
I was nervous; here I stood as an adult, and here I was in this predicament. I was no kid. I was a mother, and I could be their mother.
I waited and watched the girls as they looked at me as well. There were no adults around. Why couldn’t they leave? I thought to myself. Then the young lady emerged with a package in her hand. “We have to go,” she said.
“Why? Where are we going? I wanted to get the police to get my phone back,” I blurted out. The young lady opened the door and looked nervously outside. It was darker now.
“Let’s go?”
“I am not going anywhere else with you until you tell me what is going on.” I stood in the doorway defiant.
“Come on, Miss. You will get help soon.” She looked up the street when the lights from a car turned the corner. “We have to go.”
Reluctantly, I followed her. What else was I going to do? I did not know where I was, I had no phone, and I did not know how to get home. We walked briskly for a while, going from street to street as if trying to lose a tail. Then, my heart felt like it sank to the bottom of my guts. We turned the corner right back into the gang I confronted earlier.
“Oh, my God! What is happening to me. I must be dreaming this could not be my misfortune,” I said out aloud.
The man that took my phone stepped in front of me again, called me by my name, and told me to calm down. He called me by my name. He knew who I was. He dug in his pocket, and I thought he was reaching for the knife, but instead, it was my daughter’s phone.
“What the hell is going on here?”
“Here, take the phone.” He stretched his hand out to me. Then, he pulled the bandana down to his chin. I knew this man; he was one of my daughter’s friends.
From the corner of my eyes, I saw my daughter. She was laughing hysterically. “It was an experiment, Mom.”
“Experiment my ass.”
She walked over to me, “Were you nervous? How did you feel?” She hugged me, and I pushed her away. “Mom, these people are my college classmates. We are doing a class project assimilation to put random people, but in your case, it was not random,” she giggled. “I chose you to experience the everyday life of young girls on the streets. We want people to see how young girls are susceptible to being kidnapped and taken as human trafficking or sex trafficking.”
They were laughing and clapping. Oh my gosh, I felt so relieved that this was not my reality. I was scared for my life, but now, it felt like a weight came off my shoulder. I hugged my daughter and the young lady that was with me.
I turned to the young lady and asked her name. “So all this time you were with me, you were just acting?”
“Yes, I was. It was my mission to make you trust me and to lure you or any young lady in. Was I convincing? Did you believe me?”
“I believed you, and since I had no other choice but to follow you. You got me.” I saw that it was easy to get caught up without wanting to get involved in such a horrible calamity.
I hugged her again.
“So, what is in that package?”
“This is my compensation for completing the mission. The young lady opened the box, and I woke up… Yes, it was all a dream.
Ok, I said it!