Chapter 15: Birthday Girl

Sara Johnson and her family were on vacation, taking a cruise ship down to Central America. Sara was with her parents, her grandmother, two older brothers and her younger sister Janet, who was only fourteen. This trip was special for Sara because she celebrated her sixteenth birthday while at sea in the Caribbean the second day out. She’d gone past the bar area later that evening on her way to her room when she’d been pulled in, handed a drink. Everyone cheered when they heard it was her birthday and ordered more drinks. Later, she’d made out with at least two men, both of who did a good job of feeling her up. She staggered back to her room with Janet, feeling so grown up today. Sixteen was the best.

The next day the ship docked and everyone went ashore shopping, over a thousand tourists flooding the town. Sara staggered along behind with Janet. They stopped for a cool fruit drink in the crowded square, as Sara told Janet about the night before. Unknown to either girl, a young man sat nearby, listening. Once he heard their names, he went to another man, an older man, and told him.

Jose nodded, walked over to the two young American tourist girls wearing a waiter’s apron. In heavy accent, he said, “Excuse, please? You are Sara and Janet, si?” The two girls looked at him, nodded. “Your parents are at the restaurant down here and said you should come join them there now.” He pointed the way, down a small crowded road beside the ice cream bar. The one girl said “Oh, uh, OK, thank you, uh, por favor.” The two girls got up and walked down the sidewalk. Several men moved up around them in the crowd. As they passed a doorway, the two were suddenly shoved through by the two men. As they fell in, saying “What the hell...?”, Jose and Juan both tased them with their tasers. They held the trigger down, giving each girl a long, painful tase. It keeps them from screaming. The third man came in behind them as they did, closing the door. Jose asked if anyone had seen anything. “Nah, looks ok.”

They’d done this before. Using a large sidewalk sign by an open door, they’d get their target right to that spot as she paused by the sign, then push her inside. From there, she was theirs. This time, it was two girls. They were immediately secured with duct tape around their wrists, knees, ankles and mouth. Each was then shoved into separate canvas bags and taken out back, put into the back of a truck and driven off. This all normally took less than four minutes.

Today they drove down the street to the outskirts of the city. The truck pulled into a warehouse; the door was closed. The two teens were unloaded, taken from the sacks and put on a bench. A comforting woman in a uniform knelt in front of each girl. With a clipboard, she assured each girl in broken English that they would soon be going back to their families on the ship. She asked their names, their ages, their birth dates. Where they American’s? What grade were they in? We just need to verify who you are, she said. When Sara said her birthday was yesterday, the woman turned to others and said “chica de cumpleaños! dieciséis ayer!” (“Birthday girl! Sixteen yesterday!”) Everyone laughed. The woman turned and spoke to Jose. “OK, get them ready. These two go to Columbia tonight.”

The woman posing as a policeman was actually part of the cartel. Her job was to check in whoever the men brought, then direct them to the next appropriate customer on the list. These two would go to a high end social club in Bogota, Columbia.

She typed on her computer: “Sara Johnson, white, sixteen. 5’ 2” tall, about 105 pounds. Brunette, long hair. American, 9th grade. Good physical condition. Taken as is.” Then next, “Janet Johnson, sister of Sara. White, fourteen. 5’ 0” tall, 90 pounds. Brown hair. American, seventh grade. Good physical condition. Taken as is.”

This information was forwarded to two places- the cartel headquarters, and the receiver. The receiver was also given the arrival time for the girls. Young American white girls paid top dollar, and so they went by either speed boat or air. These two would go by air tonight.

Janet and her older sister Sara were carried to a room. There they were asked questions by a policewoman. When she left, the two girls had the tape removed. They were told to use the bathroom, then go into the next room. In there, they had to take off everything and put on these orange jumpsuits. As they did all this, they kept crying, demanding to go home, to see their parents. Anytime either girl raised her voice, a hand would slap her. They soon learned that all these men did was speak Spanish. They made Janet and Sara go to another room down the hall. In there they saw eight other girls. They were all similar to themselves. They were all in their early teens. The two youngest looking ones were oriental. Four girls were Latino. Two girls were white, like them. In fact, Janet recognized one of them from the cruise ship! She was her age! Maggie or something. Janet and Sara were made to sit on the concrete floor with the others. Janet nodded at the other girl, who looked back with a look of, ‘what’s going on?’

A short time later, the ten girls were led to another truck. They were driven to a small local airfield. There, an old DC-3 cargo plane sat with a load of contraband, engines running. The ten girls were put on board, the door closed and the plane took off. Destination- a small grass field near Bogota, Columbia. After the plane landed, the girls were taken off and put in a van, then driven to a large mansion up in the mountains. It was luxurious, but it was not a luxury they would enjoy. The girls were taken downstairs, separated. The Americans in one room, the Latinos in another and the Orientals in yet another. Janet was given a thorough physical inspection by a doctor as she was made to stand there naked in front of everyone. Two young nurses assisted him. She kept asking where they were, what was going on, but no one answered her. They checked Sara, and Maggie and the youngest girl. Janet was in middle school. This girl looked like she was still in elementary school! They were told to stand still in a line. The doctor left, the two aides stayed. A woman came in, dressed in a very fancy dress. She had two big musclemen with her, all looking very angry.

The woman started. “Listen up! You work for me now! If you want to get home, you have to earn points! Earn one thousand points, we send you home! Every time you do what you are told, you will earn one point. Every time you don’t do what you are told, you lose five points! Do I make myself clear, girls?!”

Maggie raised her hand slightly. “Um, excuse me, please, but, um, what do we have to do to earn points?” Fourteen-year-old Maggie Shelby with her red hair thought maybe they meant cleaning or something.

The big woman stood right in front of Maggie, glaring at her. “You will each go in a room for ten hours every day by yourself. When a man come into the room, you will do what he wants. One man, one point. One man every hour. Ten points a day. 100 days. Then you can leave. You will do whatever thing he wants you to do, no matter how sick or perverted you may think it is. If I hear a customer complain about you, you will start again at zero. Do I make myself clear!?”

What the ten girls didn’t know, was that after 100 days they would be sold to a lower grade whorehouse. From there they would get traded until they ended up either dead in the jungle or servants in some Peruvian drug lord’s house.

That speech was an eye opener to all of the four girls. They were all crying, begging them no, to just let them go, but the two muscle men had electric prods. They made them keep quiet and stop crying before they stopped zapping their young nude bodies. The girls were terrified, scared to death, with no idea what was next or what was even happening. That was the last time Janet saw her sister Sara. They were all led to separate rooms. One of the doctor’s aides led Janet to her room. “You stay here. We will bring you food, pass it through this opening here in the door. Always wear your jumpsuit. Always keep clean, always use makeup, there in the shelf. Always keep your hair combed. If you don’t, you lose points.” With that, the aide closed the heavy door, locked it and left. The room had a bed, a dresser, a chair, a sink, a toilet and a shower. She had been carrying her jumpsuit; now she put it on. A clock on the was said it was 9:15 am.

At 10 o’clock, a man came, unlocked the door, told her to come with him, time to work. He led her to a fancy hallway, with plush carpets. In a plush bedroom, he told her to put on a dress from the closet. “Hurry up! You start work now.” He closed the door, locked it. Janet looked around, terrified. She went to the closet. It was filled with a lot of clothes. She grabbed a dress, any one, took off her jumpsuit and put the dress on. She couldn’t find underwear anywhere. Suddenly the door unlocked and an older man walked in. He was quite old, at least fifty she guessed. He also was swaying, like he was drunk or something. He looked at her, grinned. “Ven aqui, bebe’!” he said. He started to get undressed. Janet stood frozen by the closet, not knowing what to do. Should she run? Scream? Everything she could think of seemed like something that would make those people very angry. But then the man had his shirt off, then his pants dropped and his underwear came down. His penis stood out in front of him. It looked like those pictures she’d seen. Very ugly and hairy it seemed like.