“Not yet,” she told him. “Want a coffee?”
“That would be great. Thanks,” he said and then reached into his bag. He held out a book to Suda, “Here’s a novel Nittha thinks you’ll like,” he said, handing it over.
“Oh, thank her for me; will you?” she said, flipping through the pages. Her reading still wasn’t as strong as she would like, but she was getting better, and luckily for Suda, Nittha had a weakness for young adult novels and always passed them on when she was done.
Chai had moved in after he and Simone got married. His undercover days were over, but maybe that was just as well now that they had a baby on the way. He still worked the sex-
trafficking beat, but now he worked from the opposite angle. He was out on the blade, trying to convince the girls that they had a safe alternative. Some believed him and got help; others didn’t fare as well.
“Are you up for working with me this weekend?” he asked Claire. “I can always use your help if you want to come with.”
Claire sometimes went along and talked to the girls herself, but she couldn’t do it too often because it brought up too many bad memories for her. Instead, she found that she healed through prose. It was cathartic to allow her thoughts to empty onto the page.
“Nah, I want to spend the weekend getting some writing done.”
She had been working on a novel for the last year and a half or so. She reached for the coffee Suda had set on her table and opened her laptop. She had begun it with the arrival of a starving girl in a shipping container. She scrolled back to the beginning to get her bearings before she continued writing. Her eyes followed the lines of text that read:
The deep blue water pitched and churned—as if
expressing distress while simultaneously protecting the ship’s cargo: the girl was held in a steel box among stacks of the same.
Desolate and lonely, she had only the sounds of seabirds
and crashing waves as her company. The wind, which began as a warm breeze against the ship at the port of departure had turned cold and howled as the days passed, and then finally stilled
before the ship reached its destination. Weak with hunger and deeply fearful of what was to come next, the girl journeyed across the deep ocean from Thailand to the docks of San Francisco.
If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking please contact the Human Trafficking Hotline
at 1(888) 373-7888 or humantraffickinghotline.org.
What Is Human Trafficking?
Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. This crime occurs when a trafficker uses force, fraud or coercion to control another person for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts or soliciting labor or services against
his/her will. Force, fraud, or coercion need not be present if the individual engaging in commercial sex is under 18 years of age.
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge the amazing women
I have had the privilege to get to know and love in the safe house
I am fortunate to be connected with. You are a true picture of strength and resilience in this sometimes-heartbreaking world
and I am grateful to be a part of your lives.
This novel would have been a mere shadow of itself without
the love and attention showered upon it by my strong, wise,
beautiful friend, Kate Canova. Special thanks as well to Jeff Reed,
who helped me learn the heart of a poet.
To my husband Matt McGuinness and to Kim Carpenter,
who both checked the character connections early on to make sure the puzzle pieces all fit. Gratitude to Cheryl Duncan, Bill Duncan, Chris Boral and Natasha McCormick for giving a recent draft a read and for the insightful feedback.
Appreciation goes to my homegirl Tracy Sunrize Johnson for
the beautiful design and for being such a delight to work with,
to Hugh D’Andrade for the amazing cover illustration, and to
Amy Bauman, copyeditor and proofreader extraordinaire.
Finally, huge thanks goes to Jacqueline Mitchard, Catherine
Armsden, Jeff Reed and Cynthia Newberry Martin for such kind words of praise and for allowing those words to adorn the cover.
Each of you played an important role and I am truly grateful.
Also by Lisa McGuinness
About the Author
LISA MCGUINNESS is the author of Catarina’s Ring, Meaningful Bouquets, Hoppy Trails, and several journals and is the coauthor of numerous children’s books. She is the executive director of the SE Asia Rescue Coalition & Haven (SEARCH) search4hope.com and often travels to SE Asia where she volunteers in a safe house for women and children. She has two grown children and lives in Northern California with her husband and two hilarious dachshund mixes, Hazel and Wyatt.
Yellow Pear Press, established in 2015, publishes inspiring, charming, clever, distinctive, playful, imaginative, beautifully-designed lifestyle books, cookbooks, literary fiction, notecards, and journals with a certain joie de vivre in both content and style. Yellow Pear Press books have been honored by the Independent Publisher Book (IPPY) Awards, National Indie Excellence Awards, Independent Press Awards, and International Book Awards. Reviews of our titles have appeared in Kirkus Reviews, Foreword Reviews, Booklist, Midwest Book Review, San Francisco Chronicle, and New York Journal of Books, among others. Yellow Pear Press joined forces with Mango Publishing in 2020, both with the vision to continue publishing clever and innovative books. The fact that they’re both named after fruit is a total coincidence.
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