The Book Club Rescue

Chapter Two

2

Harriet could feel her heart pounding in her ears and felt her own breath quickening. The thumping noise distracted her from her thoughts. That's how fast her heart was beating.

June had just said she thought a young woman working at the restaurant might be caught up in human trafficking. She didn't say things like that off the cuff. She was the quiet one in the book club. Sweet as a popsicle, but shy as a farm mouse.

Harriet tried to shake off the feeling of dread that was settling in the pit of her stomach. She had heard stories about human trafficking, but it always seemed like something that happened to other people in faraway places. Not something that could be happening right under their noses, in a vacation spot.

June wouldn't say something like that unless she really meant it, though. Totally out of character for her.

A voice inside Harriet was telling her to do something totally out of character as well.

Go talk to the girl.

A debate was raging among the women of the book club, but Harriet barely heard what they were saying. She was so deep in thought.

"The girl is working," someone argued. "You can't bother her at work."

"She needs help."

"What if you're wrong?"

"What if I'm right?"

"You're imagining it."

"What if she's in danger?"

"If she is, you might put her in more danger. Without even knowing it."

"You might put yourself in danger."

"If she is in danger, what can we do about it?"

Harriet had her own debate raging in her head. The voice was growing stronger. Go talk to her. Ask her if she needs help.

She couldn't see herself doing it, or even visualize it, but the voice was right there, saying something out loud and making it real. Telling Harriet that something was wrong.

It's not like Harriet hadn't done something that brazen before. She was a woman of deep faith and wasn't afraid to go right up to perfect strangers and ask them if they're saved. Or go up to someone in need and help them.

She was always there if someone needed her. The kind who had never met a stranger.

The debate continued in the restaurant and in her head.

"WWJD," one of the book club ladies said.

"What would Jesus do?"

"No. What would Jamie do?"

They laughed.

"We know what Jesus would do. He'd try and help the girl."

"So would Jamie. She'd be there for the girl in a banana second."

"What's a banana second?"

"I don't know. I just made that up."

"Who's going to go and talk to her?"

"I will," Harriet blurted. Interjecting herself into the conversation for the first time.

Her heart was still doing laps around her chest. Her hands were practically shaking.