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Dawn has lazily crept upon the sky, announcing its presence boisterously. Helena’s grass green eyes were greeted by the bright, roaring colors of dawn. She had no choice but to wake up unless she didn’t want her children to go to school. Wearily, she got out of her bed and did her daily bath routine. After that, she made herself breakfast as she sipped her green tea. She gave her children some more time to rest since it was still a little early. At 5 am, she woke them up for their day to start. Once they had been dressed and fed, she drove them to school in her small, used white car. The children exclaimed their I-love-you’s and their goodbyes as they entered the school entrance.
Helena then drove back to her house and began to rummage through her closet for some appealing outfits for her job. It was a female-dominated job so she didn’t have to worry so much about having to work extremely hard to prove herself as a hard worker. But, she did have to prove herself a bit since she worked at a competitive job. She worked so hard to get to the position she is in now and because of that, she has a lot more clients than before. She finally found her box full of clothes that was perfect for her job. After putting them on, she put on her black trench coat and headed for the door.
She never took her car to work. She preferred to take her amble time to her job by walking and enjoying the fresh, warm sun; trying her best to avoid the thought of work. She knew that no matter how many times she shut her eyes to forget the bad memories of being at her job, she had to face it. She had to face it because she needed to do this for her children to survive. They were her only priority.
Once she reached her workplace, she waited for one of her clients to come to her. Time wasn’t flying by fast enough as she kept waiting anxiously for her client to come. This client was always on time and most of the time, her client waited on her. Her client paid a lot of money for her to help him. No client equals no profit and no profit equals less food on the dinner table for her children to eat.
“Hey Helena. How’s it going?” Regina, her colleague greeted, trying her best to start a conversation.
“Okay I guess. How is life?” She replied. She needed some company to feed off her extreme boredom and anxiousness.
“Life’s a bitch. If it wasn’t for my son, I would’ve slit my throat goodbye.” She answered, motioning her index finger across her throat for emphasis. If anything, Helena understood the sacrifice they would go through for their children.
“That well, huh?” Helena smiled with sarcasm stuck in her vocal chords.
“Yea…” She smiled back absent-mindedly because they both knew how the business was like: fast pay, less respect. “So… How are the kids?”
“They are doing great.” She replied and that was the end of their conversation as Regina was taking out a lighter. There was a strange man, in a black hoodie, who was crossing the street with his head down; one hand in his pocket while the other one was holding a knife, coming towards Helena.
“Run.” Regina warned calmly as she lit her cigarette and placed it on her cracked, overly-painted lips. Helena ran fast with the cool breeze hitting her in the face. The stranger in the black hoodie was faster and he grabbed her from behind, dragging her to a nearby fence. She was shrieking, screaming, crying for help.
Regina had been long gone, shooing the screams as if they were annoying flies. Many passersby’s’ saw this man shred her clothes off with no shame or mercy. They all shooed the image away as if they were annoying flies. He was piercing through her skin like she didn’t matter. As if she couldn’t feel the pain. As if she was a toy. A toy that could be thrown in the garbage once a person grows tired of it.
Tears were sliding down her face in attempt to comfort her. They couldn’t comfort. They couldn’t stop this man from crawling into her skin like a hormonal dog. She knew how to fight but the skills that were embroidered in her soul became paralyzed and frozen in this period of time.
Once he was finished with her, he slit one side of her face with the letter X; the screams of pain didn’t even faze him.
“Something to remember me by love.” He whispered in her ear as he licked the ‘X’ on her face. He pulled his hoodie closer to his face as he walked back in the same direction he took before, as if nothing ever happened.
She laid there crying, naked on the dirty sidewalk with the blood flowing out of her. Passersby’s’ still ignored her. Shooed the image of her like an annoying fly. She summoned the courage to grab for her phone and dial 911. She was embarrassed and ashamed but she had no choice but to call. She gave them the information while putting her clothes back on. They promised her that an ambulance would come and get her.
While she was putting her last article of clothing on, a man in a suit took one single look at her for just a second. Within that same second, the judgments began to formulate in his mind like bees swarming in a bee’s hive. In that same second, she instantly became angrier at him than at her rapist. He had the nerve to laugh and remarked:
“You’re that much of a whore that you couldn’t get a room?”
She didn’t say anything but her middle finger did as he walked away with one hand in his pocket and his pride so high that it blocked the risen sun. But karma had plans to knock down his pride soon. She waited for the ambulance to come as she leaned against the fence with bitterness staining her face like suffocating make-up as she watched the passerby’s’ watch her.
Finally, the ambulance came and the male paramedics came out of the ambulance and took one long look at her. The look that he gave her could condemn all sinners to hell while they burn with shame biting at them like acid. She was use to those looks and the way he came up to her as if he was afraid he will catch her sickness. She pushed his efforts away to take her inside the ambulance and went inside of it without his help. As they were driving her to the hospital, they held their nose as they asked her the general information about herself since she reeked of dirty sweat.
Once they arrived at the hospital, she was immediately taken to the E.R to do a rape kit. In the process of doing a rape kit, two policemen came in to ask her questions concerning the rape. Once they asked her for her name and general information, one of them asked the first question concerning the rape:
“What were you wearing?”
She told them exactly what was on her mind:
“I was wearing clothes, you jerk.”
“I apologize. It’s just that your clothes were revealing.” The officer replied back, looking at her clothes that were in a bag, trying to hide the disgusting smirk that was forming at the side of his mouth.
“So what if they were revealing. Their clothes!” She answered back with anger shivering all over her body like she was in the middle of winter.
“Well, it makes a big difference. You probably provoked the rapist.”
“So you’re saying it’s my fault for getting raped?”
“Well, it’s not your fault but you should’ve been a little more discreet in what you wear.” His voice held no shame.
“Why do I have to change my clothes because some dimwit can’t control his freaking desires?! Why aren’t you blaming him?!” She exclaimed, her anger taking her to new heights.
“Look, we just don’t see why you have to wear something like that. Are you a prostitute?”
“Yes I am a prostitute. Does that make a difference too?!” Her voice could’ve been heard all the way from Europe.
“That makes a major difference.” The other female officer stated while noting down that last piece of information in her notepad.
“Oh yea, you idiot! How so?” She asked tapping her feet uncontrollably.
“Don’t you already have to do this for a living? I just don’t see the problem with it. Shouldn’t you be used to it by now? She replied looking straight at her with a sheepish grin; she looked at her with no respect.
“Well, you may not see the problem but I do and it is looking straight at me! How dare you make me the bad guy! I am the freaking victim, you airhead! I expect it more from him and those other men out there but from a woman?!.... You are a disgrace.” She attempted to insult the officer but she was more amused than insulted.
“I’m the disgrace. You’re a fucking whore! You spread your legs for a living while I fight the bad guys.” Amusement caressed her lips as she burst into small bits of laughter.
“You are obviously not doing your job right or else you would’ve tried to catch the bastard who raped me instead of standing here and putting the blame on me!” Her face was redder than an apple.
“Shirley, you know what you should add on the notepad?” He told her, ignoring the angry Helena.
“What Mike?” She asked.
“No humans involved!” He answered dying so hard from laughter. Helena wished they were both dead but she wasn’t that lucky.
“I am human! Just because I have sex with men doesn’t mean I am not human. You two should label yourselves that because you are not doing anything to help me through this investigation! Instead you are mocking me! This is not my fault!” She roared.
“Hey look. Call us when you are done spreading your legs for a living, okay?” Mike told her through amounts of heavy laughter handing her his card but she ripped it in half and threw it at his face. She yanked his tie and he began to choke.
“Listen you imbecile. I don’t want your stupid card. If I had known I was going to get lousy police officers to handle this investigation, I would’ve just taken a shower and called it a day. Now, if you don’t want to help me than fine! Go and find me some other officers who aren’t as lousy as you two! Prostitute or not, I want my justice and I want it now!” She threatened and roared with all of her might.
Shirley threw her on the bed and began to say, “You are under arrest for—“ but Mike got up coughing hard and long and stopped her from continuing.
“It is okay Shirley. Forget about it. I have had so much amusement that this little stunt doesn’t even faze me at all. Let’s leave the whore alone. This was obviously a waste of our time” He said and she released her grip on Helena’s wrist.
“Stop calling me a whore! The name is Helena!” She growled.
“Oh yea. Well, at the end of the day, you will still be a whore.”
“Don’t mix my profession and who I am as a person together. They are two separate and different things.”
Oh yeah. How so?” He said enlightened.
“For instance, I am a mother of four children. I didn’t choose to be a prostitute and I wasn’t one at first. I had a job but the company laid me off. I was unemployed with 4 children up my butt and my husband left me. I have tried other jobs but I was either overqualified or it wasn’t enough money. So I did what I had to do for my children even if it meant selling my body to hundreds of men! If it means they get food on the table or cool gifts, than I would do it in a heartbeat and I am not ashamed.” Her pride invaded her when she said those things.
“Yea whatever. I can see why your husband left you anyway. Why would any man want a whore for a wife? I will get you new officers because I know I can’t handle this case without having to crack a smile every now and then. Goodbye ‘Helena’!” He motioned air quotation marks around her name.
They left her hospital room laughing. They laugh because they are ignorant and they don’t know the meaning of sacrifice. They laugh because they are oblivious to the economic struggle that many people like her have to go through. Yet, they are the lucky ones with a decent job and with no children to take care of.
As soon as she was done with her rape kit, she walked out of the hospital with her head held high. She went home to take a shower, trying her best to scrub the humiliation off of her, before picking up her children from school and dropped them at their neighbor’s house.
She then received a call from Mike, the officer, telling her to come to the police station since he found officers who were willing to do the ‘dirty work’ he was referring too. She hung up the phone in his face and went to the police station. The two officers he had referred her to treated her the same way they did: like smelly trash.
She left and told them to forget about it. Time was money and the more time she wasted on those airheads, the more money she would lose and she just couldn’t afford that. She went back out on the streets, selling her body for fast money for her children. It was a blessing that they still don’t know mommy’s little secret.
She never got her justice because no one saw her case as anything needing to be justified. In this world, humans have failed to be humane. They choose who to save and who to throw away. They play God with life and death. Humans were much more different before the evolution of power got out of control. But wait a second…The evolution of power has been around in history for years. So were people really any different from their ancestors?
There is a way that people can change if they are not afraid. It is this one question that humans need to ask themselves. It is the one question that people in power has buried for fear of its intense power that it has over the mind. It is the one question that we have refused our conscious to understand. It is the only question that can start a revolution: What have we become?