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Excerpt: 30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless

Honey in her seat on the airplane. The first time she’s flown anywhere. Biting her lip, nervous and excited, imagining what her new life will be like. If she knew what awaited her, she would take one deep, final breath and ask God to hurl the airplane into the sea.

Australia. She saw pictures of the country when she was young. Honey and her little sister liked the photographs of baby koala bears and dreamed of touching their soft fur. Hopped around the street like kangaroos, giggling until their sides hurt. Met Australian travelers on the streets of Bangkok, tourists visiting Thailand to take photos of temples and rickshaws that they would later show to little Australian children.

The person sitting beside her is more devil than man. Once the plane touches Australian soil he will casually lean into Honey’s seat and say words he has whispered to other young, hopeful girls. Plans have changed. She will not be working as a maid in a home with children. There is no factory job waiting for her in Sydney. The seat belt sign will turn off and Honey will realize she’s been fooled. The exciting job opportunity, the promise of a brighter future in another country, was too good to be true.

Australia. Land of childhood fantasy where Honey will become a new worker in a thriving sex-trade. Where she will be forced to sell her body day after day for years to pay for her newly acquired debt: airplane ticket, visa, passport, luggage, clothing, travel documents. The very things promised to her as part of a lucrative job contract.

Honey sips on orange juice and looks out the window at the sky. Makes shapes out of the clouds. Turns and looks at the employment agent in the seat beside her who helped her out of the bleak situation at home in Thailand. Not realizing that within hours he will confiscate her passport and lock her into her new home – a small apartment shared with four other girls. That, within a few hours he will introduce her to her owner, the first man who will rape her in her new country. Within a few hours she will be faced with her new fate: forced sex with johns every day, hospital visits, bruises to the bone, involuntary abortions, and a debt that won’t go away. The memory of home, anger at her naivete. Anger that she let hope get the better of her. The desire to escape.

Honey in her seat on the airplane. Excitedly biting her lip. Imagining her new life.

* the above story is based on facts but is fictional, for actual statistics order 30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless today
© 2006 Andrew Kooman