I could hear Grace but I didn't have any energy to talk. I had blacked out and everything was slowly coming back to me. Getting in touch with reality was making me nauseous. Is this real? I was locked up in a small dark room that smelled like; well it smelled like a stench I had never smelled before in my life. My guess was it was a chemical of some kind. It was pungent and I could barely stand it. I couldn't breath. I wanted to gag. I sat up against the wall and took off my sweatshirt. I was burning up.
I gasped. "I'm going to throw up."
I heard Grace stand up and take a few steps back. The smell was extremely strong and I couldn't take it any longer.
Grace rattled a bucket near my face. "Here use this."
The last thing I wanted to do was throw up. There was no way I could do anything to prevent it though. It was going to happen. There went my Gatorade, tacos, and the amazing crunchy pinwheels that I would never have a craving for again. What sucked was after puking I didn't feel any better and the smell was still unbearable.
I wiped my mouth with my shirt. "Sorry Grace."
"It's okay I don't think it made the smell any worse."
The only light in the room was coming in from the tiny square window in the door. It was extremely faint and I could barely see Grace.
"What is this smell?" I asked. How bad was this for my lungs? Could it be a poisonous gas? "This can't be good for us to breath."
"Who knows what they have done in this room," Grace responded.
I groaned showing my distaste for the smell even though I knew it wouldn't help any. "What is this room for?"
"I am sure it has multiple uses but the main one is for solitary confinement. Case in point."
I had a thousand questions for Grace but instead of rattling them all off I held back. The tone of her voice told me she had no interest in hashing out the last few months of life as Ping's property. I thought about how long this night was going to be and my stomach turned over. I had no idea what time it was. It was early evening when we walked into Ping's. I was looking at least another 10-11 hours in the box. I couldn't even tell the size of the room or what it looked like because it was too dark. There could have been a mound of dead bodies to my right and I wouldn't have known.
I did have a burning question for Grace that couldn't wait. "Grace why does Ping call you Rain?"
She sighed as if I was disrupting her. "Because of my last name Yu it means Rain in Chinese."
"Oh."
I put my hand against the wall and used it to pull myself up to a standing position. I picked up the puke bucket carefully. It was hard to see anything. I kept a hand on the wall and took small steps. It only took me only eight steps to reach the back wall. I placed the bucket down and walked back to my spot. I slid down to the ground until I was lying on my back. I used my sweatshirt as a pillow and stretched my legs out. I closed my eyes and tried to rest while my mind attempted to process the night's events.
After what seemed like a very painful hour of silence Grace spoke. "Leah."
"Yeah?"
"What happened for Ping to say I am going home tomorrow?"
I sat up a bit putting my hand underneath my sweatshirt to prop my head up. With the dim light from the window I could only see Grace's feet.
"$25,000 and Sebastian agreed to drive one of his trucks over the border for him."
"Really?" Grace's voice had a hint of disappointment and sarcasm in it.
"What you don't think he will keep his word?"
"He told me when I got here I would be here for two weeks," Grace sighed. "After that he told me I would be home in less than a month. This place is a prison nobody gets out."
Grace had been held hostage for nearly three months so I understood why she wouldn't believe anything Ping said. I would probably feel the same way. I wished there was some way I could get her to believe that it was possible Ping would keep his word this time.
"Well he made a deal with us so." I realized how ridiculous that sounded and stopped talking. Ping had me in solitary confinement. Why wouldn't he keep me here for himself and either use Sebastian for some kind of labor or as a pawn in a business deal. "I guess it's stupid to believe anything Ping says."
My mind raced as I thought of Sebastian. What did Ping do with him? Was he in another room like this? I knew Ping said only the girls stayed the night but who the hell knows with him. I visualized the worst. Ping takes Sebastian out back or drives him out into the desert to have Eduardo shoot him with the Glock. I live in this box by night by day I work for Ping. I'd be dead in a week. I shook my head and wanted to scream.
I started to tear up thinking of Sebastian. He was alone wherever he was. At least I was imprisoned with Grace and not alone. I thought about Nelly and Gwen. They already got the text from me for the day so they would not be alarmed. If Ping aborts the plan and we don't leave this place it wouldn't be until the following night at 9:00 that they would know something went awry. This was too much for me to bear. I felt a nervous breakdown coming on although I had never experienced one before. This had to be what it was like.
"You okay?" Grace asked.
She heard me sniffling and attempting to prevent myself from bawling. I took a deep breath to try to get a hold of myself. "Yeah I am just worried about Sebastian."
Grace didn't make a sound and it made me feel worse. I didn't even get to tell my Sebi-bears bye. If they would have given us a chance to say goodbye I am not sure what I would have said. Sebastian would have said something sweet and I would have been teary-eyed. I wouldn't have wanted to let him go.
"He's probably okay, right?" I asked Grace. I wanted her to assure me Ping was not a monster.
Grace made a clicking sound with her tongue. "Don't know."
"He needs Sebastian to drive the truck. Ping got serious about our deal once he agreed to drive a truck." Grace kept quiet and this agitated me. I wanted her to answer me and give me a ray of hope. I needed something, anything to lift my spirits. "Grace did you hear me? He needs Sebastian to drive the truck."
"Leah do you really think we are getting out of here in the morning?" Grace snapped. "Look at where we are!"
Her voice echoed off the cement walls. Tears welled up in my eyes. I realized how real this was and how naïve I sounded. I was locked up with Grace who had been here for 3 months. She knew what the reality was. We were in hell. I felt claustrophobic and shivered at the thought of this box being my new home. I started to hear soft then harder thumps. At first I thought it was some sort of torture being done somewhere in the building but realized it was raindrops pounding the roof. I let the tears flow as I listened to the rain wondering what our fate was. I was a prisoner in Mexico. I was scared shitless.
After I went through a period of agony from the thoughts that were free flowing in my mind I wiped away the tears that were streaming down my cheeks. I knew I had to attempt to keep it together or this was going to be a long painful night. I took some deep breaths and regained my composure. I decided I would attempt to get information out of Grace. If I was in hell why not find out how bad it was. A flash of lightning lit up our box and I could finally see all of Grace. She was sitting down with her head buried against her knees. I admired her flexibility.
"Grace what kind of business does Ping run? What do you do for him?"
Grace didn't move from her position I could tell this because her voice was muffled. "I translate."
I listened for a moment waiting for Grace to elaborate. It was like pulling teeth to get this girl to talk. "Translate what?"
Grace exhaled. "Ping's business is drug and human trafficking. He has me translate for him."
From the sound of her voice I could tell she lifted her head up from her resting pose.
"He doesn't know mandarin?" I asked.
"Not fluently. His Spanish is non-existent and you've heard his English. I know three languages so I am the lucky one that gets to facilitate all his sick inhumane
deals. He brings in women mostly from Asia then makes deals on them."
"How? I mean like how does it work? What kind of deals?"
Another flash of lighting shined in through the window into the small disgusting room. Grace and I made eye contact. Both of us were alert. I was listening intently ready to hear this real life ghost story and Grace for the first time in three months could tell her story to somebody.
"Well typically how it works is an Asian woman usually from a poor rural village in China is promised a new life in America. Of course they jump at the opportunity to get out of there and start a new life in the US. They get shipped here in herds. There are also quite a few young girls who come here after being sold off by their parents. The first time I witnessed the women arriving I was horrified. A big container arrived around back. It was loaded with around thirty women. Ping's men sifted through them. I saw lifeless bodies being checked for pulse then set aside. I counted thirteen dead bodies."
Grace paused to reflect. I put my hands up to my face trying to shake away the vision in my mind of what Grace was describing.
"It was horrifying Leah. The men didn't look twice at the dead bodies they just started to get the woman who survived cleaned up and ready to inspect."
"Like cattle," I whispered.
"Exactly. They take inventory to see who they will put to work in their sweatshops and which ones will get shipped off for sex."
"Shipped off where?"
"Lots of different places. That's my job to facilitate where they all go. Some are sold to be prostitutes in Cozumel or Cabo. Some end up on yacht parties thrown by VIP drug runners and from there are permanent sex slaves. Some go to local brothels."
"Damn," I sighed. "That's so messed up. So these girls go willing thinking they will land in America instead they end up in Ping's Comida China?"
"The greatest Chinese food in Mexico," Grace said sarcastically imitating Ping's voice. "He has no regard for human life. Asshole!"
I thought of the girl in the brothel that slipped me the note. I wondered if she came from Ping's. "You said local brothels so just the ones in Juarez?"
"No I meant ones in Mexico. He is the supplier of Asian girls to all the major brothels in Mexico."
"Do you know a brothel called Rasas?"
"Yeah it's in Mexicali."
"The girls all get there by the hand of Ping." I thought of all those poor innocent girls traveling together like sardines all believing they would arrive at the land of the free. It was disturbing. "And on top of all that he runs drugs?"
"Yes I have had the displeasure of talking to cartel, drug lords, evil scary people all to broker high dollar deals. The amount of money is insane."
I thought of how horrible Grace's captivity had been. She was a slave and she had to help Ping run his evil empire. "Did you ever try to escape?"
"Once," Grace said. "It was after I had been here two weeks and I realized Ping's promise of going home was a lie. When it is nighttime here it is still daytime in China so I work around the clock. It wasn't like I was shackled but there is always a man near me. Early one morning I used the bathroom and when I came out there was nobody in sight. At first I walked not looking back then I couldn't help it I started to sprint."
I felt like a young kid getting tucked in not wanting the bedtime story to end even if it was a story that would give me nightmares. "What happened when you ran?"
"I got a block away before Eduardo caught up to me."
I shivered thinking of Eduardo and his evilness. I pictured him grabbing Grace by the neck and shooting her daggers with his intense eyes. "Oh man he is so scary. What did Ping do when he found out?"
"He had," Grace's voice crackled. "He had Eduardo teach me the lesson. I got put in here for three days with nothing but water and a loaf of bread. On day three I was blindfolded and thrown in the trunk of a car. He drove for what seemed like an hour. I was sure I was going to be killed. The trunk was so hot and it smelled."
I heard the agony in Grace's voice and could feel the fear she had that day.
Grace cleared her throat. "When the car stopped he pulled me out of the trunk. He took off my blindfold and my eyes burned from the brightness of the sun. We were in the desert and there was nothing around at all. I was shaking from being so scared that he was going to rape and kill me. He grabbed my arm and walked me over to an area that didn't look significant. There were three small mounds and he pointed to the middle one telling me that was their last translator. That would be me if I tried to escape again. My eyes finally were in focus and I could see what he was showing me. They were shallow graves Leah."
"Oh my gosh!" My heart was racing.
After a few moments of silence Grace continued. "He blindfolded me and put me in the passenger seat. On the drive back he kept putting his hand on my leg. I was so freaked out he was going to take me somewhere to rape me or have me work for sex." Grace's voice started to crack again and she started to cry softly. "He didn't though he drove me back to Ping's. I have been a model servant since. I didn't want to endure any more torture. Being a translator is so much better than what the other girls have to go through."
Grace started sobbing. I crawled over to her. She had her arms wrapped around her legs with her head buried against her knees again. I put my arm around her and put my head to my shoulder. I felt her body shake as she let out all her pain and suffering. I wanted to tell her it was going to be okay but I didn't believe that. How could it ever be okay for her and the other women under Ping's power? I didn't say a word.