SWEET CAPTIVITY

CHAPTER 1

It was 6 o' clock I was so ready for my mom to come get me from daycare. I wanted to show her everything I'd done today. When my teacher told me she was there to get me I was so happy. I gathered all of my things just so I could show her. When I ran around the desk I could see it in her eyes. She was tired and I knew today even though she promised me we would go to the park we wouldn't. The drive home I was telling her about how excited I was to show her all of my work from today. When we got home she made me take a picture with her like we did everyday, then uploaded it with a caption that said "Fuck my baby daddy my lil girl good," to her Facebook. While she was typing walking down the hallway I yelled "Mama we still going to the park?" I jumped out of my chair and walked to her room looking as she got her shower clothes together and still scrolled her Facebook acting annoyed by me. "It's too late and I'm tired here take my phone and play some games, I'll make you something to eat when I get out of the shower." I was tired of playing bejeweled and it was still light outside, we could make it if we left now. All I wanted to do was make her laugh when I pushed her on the swing today, but she still headed towards her bathroom ignoring me. She always turned her music on why she showered and that day I wished she hadn't. As I sat on the couch barely beating level 65 a message came through. I was only 6 but I could read very good and was smarter than my mama thought. I knew how to erase messages so that's why she would never know who I was talking to through her page. Every day at the same time my friend Gabe from mommys page would message me and today wasn't any different. He said "So did your mama take you to the park yet?" Of course she hadn't, mama had promised me for weeks we would go and I really wanted to swing and hang on the monkey bars. I told him no and he promised me today he would take me if I really wanted to go, he said mommy could go to. I was so excited and gave him our numbers and street letters that would tell him how to get to where we were. He told me to make sure I erased it so mama wouldn't be mad at me for "acting grown."  I did. As soon as I was done hitting delete there was a knock on the door. Mama was still showering so I didn't want to bother her  and I opened it. Before I could scream he covered my mouth and yanked me out of the door so hard I dropped mamas phone. Oh man she was really going to be mad at me because I think I broke it. He put tape on my mouth and tied this rope around my legs. I just wanted to go to the park, was he tired too.  I could hear my mom screaming my name she sounded so close. He walked down a hallway and I heard him say, "No I haven't seen her today come in and calm down let me get my jacket and I'll help you look for her." I could see my mommy but she couldn't see me, the mirror was leaning against the wall my way. Maybe we were just playing hide and seek and he was playing a joke on mommy. He said we would all go to the park so maybe this was his way of making sure she would come with us, but they walked out of the door. I was so hungry that tears started to slide down my face. I just hoped as soon as the game was over mommy would make me something to eat. I fell asleep and when I woke up it was really dark. I could hear a lot of people outside calling my name even Gabe. I didn't like this game anymore though, why didn't Gabe just tell mommy he knew where I was. I was hungry and I knew mommy would be really mad now because it was dark and I hadn't took my bath yet. I know she was probably checking her Facebook every minute to see how many shares she had on my picture that she posted saying I was lost. I know my daddy probably came by for the first time in months just to tell my mommy she was an unfit parent. That's what always happened, when I would get sick and go to the hospital, mommy would take pictures of me in the hospitals bed and say y'all keep my baby in your prayers. When we would get home she would forget to give me some of my medicine because she would be responding to peoples comments. So I learned to get well by myself so mommy could relax. I would see my daddy when he felt like seeing me and that was rarely. When he would stalk my mamas page, like she would say, and see I was sick he would call her and ask, "You been having her around them nasty ass hoes you hang with?" He and mommy were still my two favorite people in the world though. I started to cry harder thinking about them. Oh man even though they didn't ever take me to the park all of the time or come eat lunch with me at school, I still loved them lots. I looked over at a clock with red numbers on them that said 12:43. Tonight as I looked at that same clock that said 12:43 I remembered that night ten years ago, I remembered watching tv and seeing my mama on there begging me to come home. I remembered her standing next to my daddy them crying and holding each other while Gabe said to the camera, "Whoever has her we will find her." He was not only a part of neighborhood watch but he was a very active member in the black lives matter campaign. It has been 10 years and Daddy Gabe still has my mommy and daddy over promising them that they will find me and to just keep hope alive. Today he is having a lot of family and friends over for bar-b-que to celebrate. He would tell them he had his first big lead in my case disclosing false information to them about a sex trafficking ring that went on when I went missing. But I knew that was a lie he was celebrating something else. The pain I endured last night while he sat next to me and held a towel over my sweating forehead. In that hot basement where he'd kept me all these years smiling as my fever finally broke. I wished that day mommy wouldn't have showered. I wished that day daddy would have actually kept his promise to come visit me. I wished that day instead of mama handing me her phone she would have said, "Ok baby let's go to the park." Because today I knew it wasn't to celebrate his first big lead in the case, it was to celebrate his first child into the world.