Read Online Breaking Free by Abby Sher - Free Book Online

as quickly as possible, apologizing to the ones she had to leave behind. She raced to get the rock moms and dads and the little rock children reunited before sundown.
    That night her dad raped her again. That night her mom beat her again for “making him do it.”
    But the worst part to Minh was the next day when she came home from school and saw that her shoeboxes were empty again. She ran out to the yard and began digging. She begged the rocks to hold on until she found them. Her fingers got scratched and raw as she searched and searched. Then she frantically crammed the shoeboxes in the garage and scrambled to get her homework done before her dad came for her in the dark.
    It kept going like this: Rape. Beat. School. Search. Rape. Beat. School. Search.
    And then Minh came home from school one day, saw her empty shoeboxes again, and something in her broke. She tore through the rocks outside. None of them looked familiar or beautiful to her anymore. She was so tired of digging, so confused and lonely and hopeless.
    Now it was Minh’s turn to get angry.
    She threw the empty boxes down and started screaming at the rocks.
    “I hate you! I don’t need you! You’re just stupid, stupid rocks!”
    She knew these words so well by now. She was just echoing everything that had been screamed at her before.

 
    FICTION:
    The sex industry is very secretive. Ladies of the evening stand on street corners or back alleys and proposition people in seedy bars.
    FACT:
    There are tons of ads in newspapers and online that make it clear they’re selling sex. Hint: anything that says “barely legal” isn’t legal at all . Village Voice Media makes an estimated $22 million each year from these ads. Craigslist.com and Backpage.com are also big hotspots for ads. And there are things called “john boards” that list places where people can find commercial sex nearby.
    Here’s the Deal …
    When Minh turned ten, her father took her to a local café in the Bay area. In the back were private rooms where Minh was told to wait. Soon a man came into Minh’s room and raped her. Minh knew this feeling all too well. She felt faceless, nameless, and lifeless, lying under the stranger like a piece of furniture.
    As she was getting dressed, Minh heard her father make a deal with the café owner. He promised to bring Minh to this café regularly so people could pay to use her body however they liked. The café/brothel owner would get a percentage for handling the clients, Minh’s parents would get the rest. Minh’s father told him proudly that she was very obedient.
    Minh couldn’t feel her legs as she walked out of that back room. She couldn’t tell whether it was day or night. All she knew was that she’d just been sold—sold by the two people who were supposed to love, nurture, and protect her from all danger.
    Now they were the real danger.
    Her father pushed her back into the car. It was almost dawn already. Then he drove her home through the streets of San Jose where other moms and dads were turning on the coffeepot, pouring cereal, or opening the curtains and whispering good morning to their slumbering children.
    When Minh’s father brought her inside, he told her to get in the shower and get ready for school. No one mentioned the deal. Her parents did not even try to explain or apologize. This was her unspoken obligation. Her duty as their daughter.
    This was Minh’s routine through middle school and high school. She constantly struggled to stay awake in class after countless sleepless nights. Then she went to soccer practice and tried to do some homework before getting shuttled to the brothel for another eight hours of being raped and beaten. Her life circled around her in a horrible loop, strangling her. Most mornings she saw the dawn as she went home. Sometimes her parents didn’t even pick her up, but they demanded that Minh get home before sunrise. Then Minh scrubbed her body as if she could wash away the night, got dressed, and