Janice's Trip. | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Janice's Trip. | Previous Challenge Entry
By Gloria Pierre Dean
11/22/23
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Fifteen-year-old Janice lived in a small wooden shed behind the manor house. She was a servant, but not by choice. She was brought to England by a couple, Mr and Mrs Tomes who told her mother that they would employ and educate her. The sale took place so that her mother and her three younger siblings would have money to buy food.
In truth, she was being used as a skivvy... She had no personal salary and very little freedom.

“Your salary will be sent to your mother” she was told.

Her widowed mother Lucy and younger siblings were poor and lived in a deprived area of her homeland in the third world. She had ‘sold’ her to the Tomes family for ten years, in exchange for them helping her family.
Janice was not a cook but she helped with certain tasks in the kitchen, bedrooms, and living rooms. She also did the laundry and cleaned up after meals.
At night, as she lay in her little bed, she would often say to herself;
“I am tired. I want to go home!”.
Her deepest desire was to leave. She kept thinking these words to herself; “Leave! Leave!”.
“But how could I go? How will I travel back to Africa?” were her frequent recurring thoughts. She knew she had to start planning, but how?

As a non-native, she had a passport that the Tomes obtained for her, but it was in their possession.

Janice's free time was limited. She had free time when the family were out socializing. She found out that there was a church located not far away..across the village green. So, one Sunday morning, when the family was out, she decided to sneak out and go to the church. Putting on her non-working clothes, she slipped into a back seat.
“No one would see me here.” she thought.
At home, she had gone to church with her mother and younger siblings when they could.

She attended the church whenever she could, but not as frequently as she wanted. She enjoyed the praise and worship and the sermons were so good to hear. She would sneak out before the service ended every time, until the day a visiting speaker, Jill Hancock spoke about and explained “Human Trafficking”.

As the talk progressed, she kept hearing the words in her heart,
“Leave! Leave!”
She hung back as people started to leave. At an opportune time, she approached Jill. “Miss Jill, can I speak to you?” she said quietly..

A series of events and talks ensued from that interaction, resulting in Janice’s being removed from the Tomes’ home.
Their ugly secret of ‘enslavement and trafficking’ was revealed publically and she went home to her family. Back home in Africa, she was able to find paid work at a local school.

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