Monday, May 23, 2011

For those who love Law and Order

I'm a huge crime show fan. My crime show of choice is Law and Order: SVU. I started watching it while homesick in Mexico the Fall after graduation. Howerver, about a year after back to back hours of rape, kidnapping and all crimes against woman and children, I grew a more than usually sensitive heart and stopped watching. A few years later, I'm back. I just love them, I'm not sure why. Perhaps its the mysery of solving a crime, of justice being served or just knowing that there are literally crazy people who think that kind of behavior is normal. I dunno.

So it all started at 3:00am Sunday night. We'll come back to that. (I'm going to be vague on the details just in case.) I wake up Sunday morning from a panic dream. It's not the first one this week, but this time I was late for a party and everyone was waiting for me and my cousin was in the shower so I couldn't get in. Yes, I know for some this is no big deal but for me...that's stressful! So fling off my blankets when I finally wake up and say to my self "Ugh, I'm done sleeping!" and get out of bed in a hurry. Suddenly, I realize I'm super dizzy and bounce around my room like a ping pong ball to the bathroom. "What is wrong with me?!" I ask myself!

After bathroom duties I hop back into bed where I decide to watch the season finale of Bones. OMG, don't get me STARTED on that!

Halfway through, my mom calls: "Nena, are you ok?" she says with concern. I'm slightly annoyed cuz um duh, of course I am. I only just saw you about 10 hours ago (I picked her up at the airport late the night before, then I went straight home to watch my boyfriend JT host SNL. What?) So she proceeds with the story:

I thought it was a dream, she says. In the middle of the night, my cell phone rang. When I listened to the voice mail, I heard someone say "Hi Ma...". I thought it was a dream. So, I was in the shower and I thought to myself, 'Wait a second, was that a dream?' So after the shower, I go to my room and look at my phone. It's not where I usually leave it at night (Mom and I are very systematic about our patterns.) and I saw there was a voice mail, so I check it and it sounds like a young girl...It sounded like you. So are you ok?!

I tell her yes. And finally when she's 100% I did NOT call her at 3:00am last night in the middle of the "freakin woods", she tells me more of the voice mail: "freakin woods", *"juan", "van with no windows" and she says it sounds like someone takes the phone away from her and that's the end of the voice mail.

I tell her we need to call the police and I know she won't do it. So I tell her I'm going to eat breakfast, take a shower and head over. I'm supposed to head over anyway for my nephew's award ceremony, so I don't want to go back and forth.

As I finish up bones and breakfast and am in the shower, panic sets in: what if this is time sensitive, what if she really was kidnapped and here I am, taking a shower. I freak out. I throw on my clothes, pack my make-up bag and rush out the door.

Upon entering my mom's house I listen to the voicemail. The gist of it is this girl is pregnant (!!!), she moved away with *Juan, who got her pregnant but now she's scared and she doesn't know what to do, she's in the middle of the "freakin woods" in *Mississippi, and she's scared and she doesn't know where *Juan is taking her and she's in a van with no windows not knowing where she's going. Then she says "just..." and the phone rustles and its over. I check the ID: unknown. I check the time: 3:00am exactly.

I call a friend who is a social worker and she advises me to call the non-emergency hotline. I do. The woman there is very sympathetic but says there isn't really much information to go on, but to call a state patrol agency in *Mississippi. I pick one that's open on weekends and talk to a woman there. She says the same thing, but tells me to call their Bureau of Investigation Monday.

Now, it's Monday and I call. The gentleman was very helpful. I gave him my mom's cell number, my cell number and he said that he'd look into some missing person's case. He said that if she is of age, there is nothing he can do, but if they find that she is underage, then they'd need to get the voice mail message. He said that if he didn't hear from me in a couple days, then to not worry. I said ok.

And that was that. Wow. I just hope, whatever it is, it turns out ok or to be nothing...Crazy crazy Sunday!

Note: * Means info has been changed.

2 comments:

Kelly Anne Powers said...

That is crazy and scary.

Kristin said...

Ugh, that's really freaky!! I hope it turns out that the girl is okay. I hate thinking about a pregnant girl in the woods in a van with no windows. EEK!