“I don’t like to wear my dress… it’s too short,” she said as she gazed down at her bare legs.
She is 24.
She is beautiful.
She is a forced dance bar worker in the red light district.
She is trapped.
As we discussed favorite colors, celebrity crushes and dogs, she patted me on the shoulder and said she would be right back.
“I have to go dance… I’ll be back, save my drink,” she said as she motioned to the Coke we had purchased for her.
[To acquire time with the women at the dance bar you have to buy their time by ordering them something to drink. In other words: you have to buy her if you want to spend time with her.]
She stepped on stage in her skin-tight red dress and she began to smile and move around the stage.
I wanted to look so she she knew I supported her, but I also didn’t want to be another bystander watching like she’s a zoo animal.
I sipped my tea and began to pray with my friend, Sylvia, until our new friend came back.
10 minutes later.
“I’m back!” she exclaimed as she slid between us and nestled back on the couch.
I turned to face her and asked, “Did you have fun dancing?”
“… hmm,” she paused, turning her head side to side, “not really,”
We slid the conversation to be about our hopes and our dream jobs as she lightened up and began to smile.
“I want to work in a beauty parlor,” she said to us as she tugged on her long black hair, cinched up high.
I moved closer and looked her in the eyes, as the music began to drown out the venue.
It was dark, the couches were full of men eying her and the other women forced into their high heels and provocative clothing moving around. The spotlights switched from red to blue to purple, yet the room felt black.
As we looked directly at each other I said, “Do you want to leave this place?”
She nodded her head slowly and then began to move it a little faster.
I grabbed my phone and asked her to type in her number so we could call tomorrow.
“We can get you out of here, we can train you to work at a beauty parlor instead,” I said as I slid my phone back in the pocket.
She was beaming.
All night she sat between us and discussed how much she missed her family, how she doesn’t care for holidays because she works on all of them, and how there isn’t any good reason to own a cat.
She became my friend for the night.
Many nights she becomes an object to many, but last night she was a sweet, innocent women who saw the good in the world. She was a human, she is a human. She is a lovely individual who is so worthy.
We are praying she commits to being rescued, we are praying for her safety, we are praying she sees the light- from our Heavenly Father, but also from outside of this dance bar.
Freedom is coming, friend.
