(Short Fiction Story)
With me being homeless on the streets, sleep deprived, restless & bored; I figured, why not pass the time & write a short story, based on this? People would always tell me, "The streets is NO place for a woman". The main character will be a single woman, but it's not me.
Sumiko, a Japanese American woman, became homeless on the streets after escaping domestic violence with her abusive sex trafficker, named Damien. She was 4 months pregnant. The domestic violence shelter told her that there was no more space available. Other homeless shelters were also full. Society seemed to not care. Everywhere she went, people gave her a hard time.
Sumiko didn't have any money. She thought about going to move to Japan, even though she's a legal US citizen. She had never been to Japan, before. There was a random guy named Maurice, who pretended to be homeless, just to prey on single, vulnerable, homeless women; & he would offer them drugs or money & lure them into abandoned buildings to rape them. Somehow, he never got caught.
Sumiko didn't see it coming, to be his next victim. She was already pregnant by that trafficker. She thought she was finally set free. She slept at a park, even though it was illegal to be there at night. She got harassed & threatened with jail quite a few times, but was never arrested. The cops would bully & terrorize her & just make her move.
Despite being pregnant, she was forced to go hungry for many nights. She normally wouldn't eat out of garbage cans, but she did it for her unborn baby. She would wait across the street from restaurants & then run up, asking for the customers' leftover food. Sometimes they would buy her a meal, sometimes they wouldn't. She never disclosed her pregnancy. Maybe more people would've offered compassion if they knew that she was carrying a baby. But she was too ashamed. She couldn't comprehend people's unnecessary hostility & cruelty towards her.
At times, she wanted to give up, but she kept pressing on & fighting for her survival every day. She wanted to do it for her baby. She fought more for the survival of her baby, than herself.
Unfortunately, she was small & not showing as much, as her pregnancy progressed, but some people noticed it. She met up with Maurice again. He trafficked her while she was 7 months pregnant. This is her 2nd time! He did her grimier than Damien!
She was fighting to escape. He threatened to kill both her & her unborn baby in that same abandoned house where he initially raped her when she was 4 months pregnant. The next door neighbor's 8 year old daughter called the police & then started praying.
Sumiko was overheard screaming & crying & telling Maurice, "I'm gonna tell the WHOLE world, what YOU did!"
No matter how far along in her pregnancy that she was, Sumiko fled the scene before the cops came. Maurice fled the scene, as well, but he went another direction.
Sumiko got tired of the suffering & abuse, & then she went into hiding, to never be seen or heard from again. Many people did a candlelight vigil, praying for her safety.
THE END