Page 45 of Mouse Trapped

Twin expressions of disappointment and excitement seem to war for first place. Then he turns to Blade, enthusiasm for putting his first step on the road to independence seeming to win out. “Thanks. I can’t wait to see the car you’ve picked out.” Then he spies the girl who he’s become friendly with, it’s not surprising, she’s the closest to his age being just a year older, and calls out, “Hey, Jayden. Guess what?”

As he goes over to talk to her, Blade and I raise our hands and bump fists.

Chapter 19

Mariana

My relief at finally being released from solitary confinement—which coincided with the evidence of the blow to my face fading to nothing—is short lived. Initially I was just grateful I wouldn’t have to lie awake waiting for a key to turn in the lock and the guard returning to molest me. He never did, but my fear didn’t leave me all the same. But instead of taking me back to join the general population and my original cell, they handcuff me, and I’m taken outside to a large truck. There’s already a number of other people inside, most looking as puzzled as me.

I swing around to the female guard who accompanies me. Terror making it hard to speak. “Am I being deported?” I ask.Is this it? Being taken away without the chance to say goodbye to Drew, or Tse? Will I find myself sleeping in Colombia tonight?

My guard clearly has no concerns, or opinion on my future. “ICE wants you in the transport. That’s all I know.”

“Don’t you care?” I ask, without expecting an answer. “I’ve committed no crime. I’ve lived all my life in the US.” But my voice trails off at the set expression on her face. One which suggests she’s seen and heard it all before.

Her hand on my back encourages me to move. I glance around, taking what I fear is my last sight of Arizona.Perhaps I’ll see the last view of the States as I fly over in a plane.My gut rolls, and I swallow down bile.This can’t be happening.My quick look has shown me armed guards standing around, there’s noway of escape. No option but to climb the few steps up into the transport, feeling unstoppable tears rolling down my face.

Cuffs snap around my ankles, they’re fastened to a bolt on the floor. I’m being treated as if I’d committed murder, and not as if, by no fault of my own, I happened to reside in a country where I hadn’t been born.

A couple of others enter after me, looking equally bemused, then the doors are closed with loud bangs. Voices shout outside, then the truck lurches forward, throwing me against the person at my side.

“Where are we going?” I ask, but if my companions understand me, no one answers. It seems they’re as much in the dark as I am. So I continue asking questions in my head.Does my lawyer know? Does Tse? Drew?

There are windows, but placed up high, just enough to let light in, but there’s no way to see out.

The journey seems to take forever. I equally want it to end and don’t. I’m terrified our destination will be an airport.Where else would they be taking me?

No one speaks. It’s clear we’re all caught up in our own misery. Time drags. The truck progresses on. Eventually it starts making turns, then slows, and then arrives at what I suspect is the journey’s end. Confirmed when the doors open and the guards undo the chains.

Almost the last in, I’m one of the first out. Hardly daring to look, I stare at the ground, so it’s my senses which first alert me. There’s no sound of planes taking off or landing, no smell of gasoline in the air. Nothing to suggest it’s an airport.My sense of relief is immense, and now using my eyes, I realise where I’ve been brought. Apart from the layout, the institutional smell, the way we’re treated as we’re hustled into the building, it’s evident this is a different Service Processing Centre.

I can’t understand why I’ve been moved, scared nobody knows where I am. A chilling thought strikes me as I wonder whether this is only a short reprieve. Maybe I’ve simply come somewhere where the deportation process can be speeded up.

Does my lawyer know where they’ve brought me?

As I’m taken through the booking procedure, unnecessarily and intimately searched, then taken to yet another cell—this one I’ll be sharing with three other women—I find breathing becomes difficult. When I walk through the door my steps are uneven, when I throw myself down on the only free bunk, I’m shaking.

What if no one knows anything? What if I’m abandoned? Alone?What if I’m sent back to Colombia and no one knows where I am?Except for my father who’s certain to find me.

Trying to force myself to calm down, I start to concentrate on taking deep breaths in and out. It’s up to me to do something.Ring my lawyer. Talk to Tse.

But that’s not easy. Yes, I’m allowed to call my lawyer, but I haven’t got her number. I had it in Florence, but the things I had there weren’t brought with me. I haven’t a clue what Tse’s is either. And while Tse put money into a facility account, has that been transferred with me?

So many thoughts flying through my head. I pick one to ask. “Will anyone be able to know where I am?” My eyes plead with my jailers.Am I lost somewhere in the system?

When I start shaking again, at last a guard takes pity on me and deigns to answer my question. “If you’ve got a lawyer, then yes, they’ll be able to find out where you are.”

If.I know why she qualified it. So many people around me haven’t. “Where am I?”

Los Angeles comes the answer.So far away.I haven’t even been out of Arizona before. A wild laugh escapes my lips.I’ddreamed of being able to bring Drew to Disneyland. Never expected to come to LA as a prisoner.

I try to console myself with the knowledge Carissa will get the information if she asks, that I haven’t disappeared never to see a friendly face again, but it’s hard. I don’t eat, can’t sleep. I spend all my time worrying.

The first day passes slowly, with no contact. I might be in a different city, a different state, but life’s much the same here as it was in Florence. It’s the second morning something changes, when I hear I’ve got a visitor.

Carissa. It must be Carissa.Now perhaps I can get some answers. It’s the not knowing that’s destroying me.

But when I’m taken into the visiting room, across the table I’m pointed to, I don’t see Carissa. I see Tse. My first feeling is relief.He knows where I am.The second is panic, and that drives the first words to come out of my mouth.

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