sold

BETWEEN TWILIGHTS
"Sometimes, between the twilights,
I unwrap my bundle from home
and bury my face in the fabric of my old skirt.

I inhale deeply,
drinking in the scent of mountain sunshine,
a warmth that smells of freshly turned soil and clean laundry
baking in the sun.
I breathe in a cool Himalayan breeze,
and the woodsy tang of a cooking fire,
a smell that crackles with the promise of warm tea
and fresh roti.

Then I can get by.
Until the next twilight."
from Sold by Patricia McCormick

Sold is a hard book, a story that you cannot put down, a story that does not easily leave you. It is told by 13 year old Lakshmi from Nepal, as she is sold into the Indian sex trade and survives. It is raw and it is real. It is a fiction book, but the story is not. This is a story that is taking place today, around the world. According to the US Department of State, "human trafficking is the world's third largest criminal enterprise, after drugs and weapons." According to UNICEF, "worldwide, there are nearly two million children in the commercial sex trade." Two million children.

I think of Isaiah 1:17, "Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless; Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow."
There is much to do...