Trafficked: a novel

by Sophia Rey

  “What happened to Chimone?”

  “Well, DCS had the kids checked out by a doctor and they found that Chimone was pregnant.”

  “Pregnant!”

  “Yeah. And she didn’t know what to do. She’s a really nice kid. She makes cards for all the other girls on the unit when it’s their birthday. Very caring. She doesn’t know whether or not to keep the baby. They tried to convince her to place it for adoption, but these girls have nobody that cares about them, and they mistakenly think having a baby will solve all their problems.”

  “A wise counselor told her to take a few weeks to think about it. After all, she was only six weeks along. After two weeks she came in, distraught because she’d lost the baby.”

  “It’s sad, but there really didn’t seem to be a good solution, did there?” said Mom.

  “Yeah, I know. She couldn’t handle it alone and, Lord knows, she had no help. But it was very hard on her. Did you know that about half the girls I work with have been pregnant before?”

  “Wow! Half! Are you kidding?”

  “No. And most of them brag about it. ‘When I was pregnant I was sick for three months’ or ‘I don’t know who the baby daddy is, but this baby’s the best thing in my life.”

  “Who takes care of all these babies when their moms are at The Gardens?”

  “Well, they don’t all have the babies. Many of them get pregnant so young that their bodies just aren’t ready to have babies and they miscarry. And some place their babies for adoption.”

  Dad was quiet for a moment, then continued. “The boys are even worse. One is 15 and has five kids already. His current girlfriend – she’s older than him – has four kids from another relationship, and he has one with her. I heard him telling one of the other BHTs, ‘and me and my ex had one when I was 11.’ My first thought was, How can you be having sex that young? but he might have just said it to shock us. Nobody’s taking care of these kids. They’re the kids who wander around the park at night, looking like they’re part of a gang, but really, they’re with nobody. They have nobody.”

  They kept talking, while I tried to drift off to sleep. I listened to a lot of conversations like this through the wall at night. Those kids Dad worked with sounded like they were so confused. Who would want to have a baby so young? I mean, sure I found Mason attractive and I was ready to have some fun with him, but I wasn’t about to ruin my life with getting so carried away that I had to figure out what to do with a baby.

  Ah, Mason. My mind turned to him, as it did a lot these days. Thoughts of Mason were much more pleasant than trying to figure out why Dad confused me with these messed up kids. I wasn’t anything like them. My biggest problem was navigating life with Aspergers…and I’d been relatively successful with that, I thought, even if it was hard to make or keep friends. But Mason made me feel special. When he’d look at me with his big brown eyes I felt beautiful, like there was no other girl in the world but me. I couldn’t wait to be with him.

  CHAPTER 4

  MASON AND I DATED a lot throughout the fall. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me,” Mason would tell me almost every time I saw him, his eyes looking deep into mine. Or, “That shirt sure looks good on you. It makes your eyes look huge. I never knew someone with such thick lashes.” Or just, “You’re so hot. Guys are going to flip when they see me with you.”

  I was head over heels in love. I couldn’t stop thinking of Mason and what we’d do on our next date. Carol and her new boyfriend would meet up with us sometimes and sometimes we would go out alone ...to movies, to concerts, or just out to Dunkin Donuts – it didn’t matter where, as long as we were together.

  One night in early November Mason asked me over to his place. I hesitated. I knew it could be easy to make a mistake if we were there alone.

  He saw my reaction and pulled me close. “Come on. I’m not going to eat you,” joked.

  I laughed. He was right. I knew him better than that. I loved Mason. And I didn’t think he was a monster. The thought was ridiculous. “Of course you’re not,” I sure loved looking deep into his eyes. “But I have to be home by 10 and it’s already 9:30.”

  “Do you think your parents really care, if you’re home by 10:15? It won't matter. They like me. Come on. Just stop by. I want to show you off.”

  What girl doesn’t want to be shown off? I was looking forward to meeting his roommates. If it was true that he was telling them how cute I was I wanted to show them that he was right!

  My hesitation melted. “Okay, let’s go!” Yes! I thought.

  My hesitation came back when we arrived at the house, but no roommates were there. It creeped me out a bit because I didn’t really want to be alone with him in his house. But Mason gently led me to the couch and started kissing me, melting away my trepidation with each caress of his lips. He was so passionate!

  “I’ve been waiting all night to do that.” He had one hand in my hair and the other around my waist, holding me to him, as he told me what felt like a magic potion to my soul. He gently pulled my mouth to his again and I sank right into his embrace. If it weren’t already late I’m sure a lot more would have happened. But after a couple of minutes, my mom called. “Just wanted to call and ask you if Mason wants coconut cream pie or French silk when he comes over next week,” she said casually. I knew, though, that it was much more than a casual call. Thankfully, that little phone call broke the mood. And I was kind of glad I had an excuse to get home. Truth be told, I was afraid of my own body, in a way. I wanted to go further with him, but just wasn’t ready to take a step forward that I couldn’t take back.

  I hadn’t seen Carol for weeks. We’d become something like friends during our double dates, but after six double dates with Keith and Carol, they broke up. She’d found a new boyfriend really quick and she seemed to be very busy, since she hadn’t returned any texts in a while. So I was surprised when I saw her at Big Boy’s and even more surprised to see that she’d been crying. She was at a table near the kitchen, on the phone, talking and crying while she tried to keep her head down as if he didn’t want people to notice her. After a few minutes of this, she put her sunglasses on.

  I headed into the bathroom. When I came out I didn’t want her to know that I’d seen her crying since Mom had taught me that social cue (”When you see someone you know and they’ve been crying, don’t bring it up, unless they tell you they want to talk about it first,” I can still hear her voice saying after I had lost a friend in sixth grade when I kept insisting they were crying and I wanted to know why), so I made a lot of noise as I approached her – shuffling my feet and stuff, then made a big production of saying, “Oh, hi Carol,” as if I had just noticed her sitting there. She looked up, kind of startled. At first it seemed like she didn’t recognize me. She just stared blankly at me for about five seconds, before something clicked and she returned my greeting, asking me to sit down.

  I really didn’t want to spend a ton of time with her. I mean, other people’s emotions aren’t really my thing. But I sat anyway. 200 seconds, I said to myself, beginning the little game I play. If I don’t know if I’m going to like something or someone, I tell myself that if I can just count to whatever number I choose two times, I’ll be okay. Two hundred was the number I picked to sit there with Carol because that’s all I thought I could handle.

  “How are things with you and Mason?” Carol asked.

  “Oh. Good. Thanks for introducing me to him.” Is this what she wants? I thought, for me to make a big deal about her setting me up with Mason? I’ve already thanked her. I’m not going to go on and on about it.

  “Well I just wanted to know how it was going because he can’t stop talking about you. You’d think he never dated another girl in his life.” She smiled.

  I smiled back. I couldn’t help it. Dating Mason was the best thing that had happened to me in a long time.

  With Dad only working a few shifts and Mom only bringing in enough to cover the bills and insisting that we be frugal u
ntil Dad got another job, going out with Mason was one of my chief forms of entertainment. He always paid for whatever we did and I never had to worry about money. He had a car, which I didn’t, so I kinda counted on him to get me out. If it weren’t for him I knew I’d be sitting home a lot more often. Without realizing it, I was becoming more and more dependent on him.

  “What are you guys doing tonight?” I wondered why she wanted to know, but I was willing to share.

  “We’re going to Ying’s Chinese,” I told her. That was another thing I had inadvertently begun to depend on Mason for: food. We were down to the bare bones at home, thanks to Mom’s frugality kick. It would kill her to say anything, but I caught her staring more than once at the food I brought home from the many restaurants we went to. I know Mom loved to go out to eat, but she and Dad has begun eating soup and sandwiches most of the time for dinner, to save money.

  “Maybe Chandler and I will join you – he’s my new boyfriend.”

  “That’d be nice,” I responded, with what I knew was a look of confusion on my face.

  She could see I was puzzled so she said, “I just haven’t seen you for a while. I miss you.” It was as if we were old, best friends. I thought it was weird, since she hadn’t returned my texts for weeks.

  Then she started to tremble. A tear slid down her cheek as she said, “I’m sorry. It’s just good to see a friend.”

  I sensed this was the opening Mom had talked about, so I asked, “Carol. What’s wrong?”

  “Oh. It’s nothing.” The tears really started to flow. “I really shouldn’t go into it with you.” She began to blubber, which made it harder to understand her. “I really didn’t think I‘d break down in front of you.”

  “If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s okay.” I wanted to give her (and me) a way out of the conversation.

  Carol started weeping uncontrollably. “I’m so sorry. I really shouldn’t talk about this. I just really shouldn’t say anything.”

  “What isn’t anything?” I asked, sure she really wanted to tell me something.

  “I know I shouldn’t tell you this,” she sniffled, trying to stop crying, “but I need to tell somebody. You know my sister, Maurine?”

  “Yes,” I said. Maurine was two grades below us, but I saw her occasionally at school.

  “She’s in trouble. Oh, I know I shouldn’t tell you this.” There were multiple emotions in Carol’s body language. One second she’d look distraught, the next fearful, the next confused, the next determined. It was hard on my senses; my brain like everything to make sense and this didn’t. “Em, promise you won’t tell anybody else. Not even Mason. No one knows about this – not even my new boyfriend, Chandler. I can’t tell him about it, either. Oh, I just don’t know what to do!” She started crying again.

  “What’s going on?” I was starting to get worried about Maurine.

  “Well, remember my step dad, Nate?”

  “Yes,” I said to her. Inside, I said to myself, Uh oh. I’d heard about how some step dads didn’t have the same boundaries with their step children as they did their biological children.

  “Well, when we first moved in with him I think he tried to put the moves on me. I was sleeping in my room one night and in comes Nate with just his briefs on. Says he has to check the windows. But he looks me over like, ‘Hmmm. I like what I see and I can have anything I want.’ It totally gave me the heebie jeebies.

  “So I told my mom about it. Then I hear them talking about it at breakfast. ‘Alright. Alright!’ he was saying. ‘I won’t go in there any more when they’re sleeping. Can we let it go? Nothing happened. I’ve done nothing wrong. It’s my house after all, and you know she’s completely overreacting!’

  “Mom just agreed, and said that I could be a drama queen when I wanted to be. Technically, he just looked at me. But this isn’t the first guy Mom has been with who won’t leave me alone. And honestly, I can handle myself with Nate, but Maurine looks like she’s going to cry when she sees him, and she keeps insisting on sleeping in my room with me.

  “I think something’s happening, but I can’t get her to talk to me. I think he’s threatened her into silence and my mom backs him up; thinks I’m making it all up. I told my mom how Maurine’s been acting in front of Nate – that she seems scared to death of him. But Nate is so horrible. He just said to Maurine, ‘Mo. Have I done anything to you while you and Carol are sleeping?’

  “I wanted to say, ‘What have you done while I’m not there?’ A lot of times Chandler and I stay out later because Maurine has an earlier curfew than I do. She has plenty of time in that room alone.

  “Maurine just clammed up. ‘N…no’ she stammered, even though it was obvious she was scared spitless. I looked at my mom like, ‘Look how frightened she looks.’ And Mom started to tell Nate that maybe it would be a good idea if they weren’t alone in the house together.

  “But then Nate got angry and said, ‘You always take their sides. Look what happened when that one’ he looked at me ‘told you that I was in her room for no reason. You got on my case. And now this! Maurine plays the mopey, sullen teenager and you blame me. Maybe she’s having trouble at school. Maybe she’s being bullied. Why do you have to blame me? I’ll tell you why. Because it’s convenient. I’m right here. Well I’m not going to be here for long if this continues. What a bunch of crap!’

  “Then he stormed out of the house. Mom was in a frenzy. Nate had completely changed her mind. She called us ‘ingrates’ and ‘unappreciative spoiled brats’.

  “She’s definitely on his side. She used to buy us things and give us allowance, but Nate didn’t like it, so now we can’t even count on her for that anymore. I just want to get out of there and take Maurine with me. With my job and the money I have in my savings account, plus whatever Maurine can make babysitting, I hope we can move out soon. Then Mom can have Nate to herself.”

  “I didn’t know you had a job.” I was surprised by this news because Carol didn’t seem like the type who liked to work hard for anything.

  She became instantly evasive. “It’s more like a gig.”

  She obviously didn’t want to go into whatever she was doing to make money, so we talked a little more about other things. Finally, my game had ended (I had played it twice while Carol was talking) and I told her I had to go. “But text me,” I told her. “You can talk to me.”

  “Thanks, Em.” Carol wiped her nose and grabbed her leather purse. “I really needed this chat. Chinese tonight, you said? That sounds like a lot of fun. What time should we meet you there?”

  Since I wasn’t getting out of another double date, I wrote down the info and gave it to her, then made my exit. The conversation had been uncomfortable for me, but I tried not to read too much into what she said as my brain attempted to sort the words from the emotions of her story.

  I couldn’t help wondering what Carol’s “gig” was. She did seem to have quite a bit of money for someone who didn’t have a regular job. All the kids I knew who did retail sales or fast food jobs complained about the long hours and low pay.

  There was one store I heard about that actually kept their employees in the store until the place was all cleaned and straightened for the next day. They locked the employees in until the store looked perfect. Junie had worked there last Christmas and she said they didn’t let her out until 2 in the morning when it was near the holiday. I made it a point to remember to ask Carol how she earned her money next time I saw her. I could sure use the extra money.

  CHAPTER 5

  MASON CALLED THE NEXT day. ”Wanna see Keep Your Eyes Open if You Dare?” It sounded like an okay movie – you know the kind: guy is sick…girl falls for him…he gets better...then one of them dies, but you don’t know who it’s going to be.

  “Sure!” I replied.

  We agreed to meet at the theater around 7:30, since the movie was showing at 7:50. When I got there, Mason came over and gave me a kiss, telling me he’d been waiting for me. Then he pointed to a guy stan
ding near the curb, trying to sell tickets.

  “Let’s see how much that guy’s selling tickets for,” Mason suggested.

  “Why? Tickets are only $9.50. Let’s just go in.” That was a lot of money for me, considering the situation at home, but Mason always paid and he seemed to have plenty of money so I never thought about the price of things when we went out.

  “C’mon.” Mason seemed set on this for some reason. I found that kind of strange. “It’ll be fun. Besides, who doesn’t like to save a buck or two.”

  So we went closer. He was talking to a woman passing by. “Five dollars, and that includes a coupon for a large popcorn.”

  She stopped. “That’s a DEAL.” Then she asked, “How are you making any money doing this?”

  That’s just what I was wondering.

  The man was explaining. “I got one of those big coupon books, you know? Buy this thing. Get this thing free. Well. Tonight’s the last night to use these movie tickets, and I have to go see my son in his band performance. I don’t have a lot time, but I figure $5.00 a ticket is better than nothing.”

  My interest was piqued. “That’s a steal!” I whispered to Mason.

  “True….” He turned me toward him and ran his fingers through my hair. “But I bet we can get them even cheaper. How would you like to go and see how low he’ll chop his price? Lots of guys’ll do anything for a hot girl.”

  Mason calling me hot was thrilling. And I was curious to see how low I could get him to drop his price, just to make Mason proud. So, I squared my shoulders and walked up to the guy.

  “Hey,” I started. “How many tickets do you have left?”

  “Twelve. You want some? Five bucks a ticket, and it also gets you free popcorn.”

  That’s a lot of tickets, I thought. He doesn’t have much time to get rid of them. “I’ll give you three bucks apiece for them.”