Pray You're Not Next

It happened once more. Another person was taken in broad daylight on my street with tons of people around. Forcibly taken. Yet no one did anything about it. Didn’t take one step towards it to stop them. Only a few people glanced in the direction of the commotion. Most people were keeping their attention elsewhere as the person was pulled into a large white van. With strange letters on the side that I couldn’t read.

They were…they were nothing that I had ever seen before.

And I wanted to do something. Wanted to go out there and save this person from being taken. I couldn’t. Something in the back of my mind told me not to. That someone else was going to step up. Step up and do what needs to be done. Though it never does. A few times I tried to ask someone about it. But they look at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. Or that I hadn’t said a word. Sometimes, though it rarely happens, people have told me that it wasn’t a problem. That it was their fault for not being more observant of their surroundings.

“If they stayed home, they would have been safe.”

“They probably were a criminal. That’s what happens to criminals.”

Despite how much I’ve invested in saying that this isn’t normal. That this shouldn’t be happening regardless of them being a criminal…no one cares. It feels like I’m speaking this to a wall. There’s no point in the slightest bit. All of this seems so damn pointless to even care about in the smallest bit. Even so I felt like it wouldn’t be wise to try and stop any of it at all. After all, if they weren’t going to stop someone from being kidnapped right in front of them. Then who was going to help me? No one. It was difficult to watch as I stood in the store window. I have been holding a sweater that I had wanted for the past three months. A young man around my age was being dragged into the back of another strange white van. With the same text on the side. He made brief eye contact with me as he mouthed the words ‘help me’.

I did the only thing that I felt that I could. Turned away from the horrible sight that was before me. Like everyone else was doing at that moment. Or milling about like they hadn’t noticed it. Heard the screams for help that this young man was giving at the top of his lungs. Heart feeling like it was turning to stone within myself as I took the sweater that I wanted to the front. Buying it and waiting for a few seconds before going outside. My new sweater is in a light brown paper bag. Looking around I saw that the van was no longer on the street. Something that didn’t make me feel any better as I continued down the street on my shopping trip.

Just because it was gone didn’t mean it was out of my mind. Unlike everyone else I worried about whether I’d be next. Something that I couldn’t stop myself from pondering every waking moment that I was outside. Anytime that I woke up in the morning and got ready for the day. Looking at other people, I debated if everyone else thought about it either. If they were going to be the next one taken in these vans. To whom knows where. Or if they didn’t care about it in the slightest bit. That, unlike myself, they just spent their lives thinking about other things that mattered. Holding the paper bag tight to my chest, I tried to forget about it. Just heading to the bookstore to get a few new books and pray that I’m not next.