Sunday, March 4, 2018

Hidden Promises - Prologue

Oh dear Lord, let this be the right decision, Maria fidgeted with her rosary beads.  She prayed often and believed He heard, but right now she was terrified. She was totally out of her element.
As this young woman sat alone on the bench in a small border town in Mexico she had an old, small, multicolored bag and her long black hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail.  Waiting on the bench at the bus station she contemplated what she was about to do.  She was going to Phoenix.  She had nothing left here for her.  While scrubbing floors, the woman she had worked with showed her a letter from her bother.  In his letter he had told her to go to Nogales and to wait at the bus station there, a coyote would find her.  She would need to bring about two thousand dollars.  Her brother had sent her the money, a little bit at a time.  His sister wasnt interested in crossing to the US and had used the money for other things.  Her feeling about the trip was that it would be too dangerous.
She had never seen so many different types of people in her life before.  Maybe if she had made it into college, maybe if her family hadnt been murdered.  Life was supposed to be much better, maybe she would find it in the States, according to that letter.  It had been a hard decision, one she might regret, but after the decision was made there was no looking back.  Now here she sat in the bus station with what could be thousands of people around her all looking for the same thing or plotting to take what they had left.  Letting the rosary beads slip through her fingers she kept looking over the area.
            From behind her a strange man threw his leg over the bench making her jump and then followed through with his other leg, stepping the rest of the way over.  Making himself more than comfortable by sidling up close beside her, made her a little more than uncomfortable.  Dressed in a fairly new leather jacket, dark glasses and a baseball cap turned backwards to hide all but a bit of his black hair did nothing to hide his slimy character.  He was only about five feet ten inches tall, and he weighed in at about one hundred eighty or ninety pounds.  She wasnt physically scared of him, but she wasnt positive about his intentions either.
            “Wherere you headed?” she sat eyes straight ahead, not sure whether or not to answer his question.  “Wherever youre going, I can get you there.  Whats your name?”
            “Maria, and I want to go to the States,” he didnt look like any official she had seen.
            “The States right,” he leaned close enough for her to feel his breath on her cheek and smell the peppers he had eaten.
            “Yes,” she wanted to leave, run, he made her skin crawl.
            “Five hundred dollars will get you across the border safe and sound,” Maria fiddled with her bag.  She had been told it would cost her nearly two thousand dollars and here was someone that would take her for five hundred.  Doubt started to grow and show on her face, and she wasnt gullible.  She looked at him again, “No catches, I just want you to get there.  I can find you a job and then I get the first two months pay.  Most of the time I make more money that way.” 
Even though she still had doubt niggling at the corners of her mind she couldnt help but think that she may need the money she had for other things.  His offer of finding her a job could be useful since she would be an undocumented worker.
            “Okay,” she replied tentatively as he smiled and grabbed her bag.  He stood up and turned before she had a chance to change her mind.
            “Follow me,” and he walked off with her bag not even glancing back at her.  Maria got up and followed him, not sure of what was coming next, and she was too afraid to ask.




Available at: www.amazon.com/Hidden-Promises-Annay-Dawson-ebook/dp/B01M09HTR0

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