Paralyzed

Paralyzed

"I love you too babe." Ana said she hung up the phone. Collin was on his break and wanted to say hello and see how she's doing. Ana has been home with a stomach flu.
She spent all day in bed. Finally, after hours of tossing and turning, Ana got up to make herself some tea.

She would rather make herself some hot chocolate, but Ana's been watching her diet. As she set her tea kettle onto the stove. She glanced and saw Collin's iPad perched on the shelf next to his cologne.
Ana wanted to look up a few 'before' pictures that Collin took of her a couple months back. It was when she began her fitness journey, and she wanted to compare it to now and see how much weight she has lost. She logged into his iPad 54321, she laughed at how predictable his password was.

She scrolled through his iPad and clicked on the icon photo. There she flipped through the images. There were tons. One was of them at the Griffith Observatory park. They just finished an 8-mile hike. Collin's face was beet red and both of their shirts were soaked with sweats.

Another was when Ana was at her favorite bar. She wanted to take a picture in front of the big ancient typewriter, so she made Collin chugged the rest of his Old Fashion and come take the picture.

Then there was a couple of them at Trayvon's 30th birthday dinner. It was at a fancy French restaurant. Everyone was all dressed up. Collin had on a blue stripped button up. It made his eyes popped. And Ana had on her favorite black v neck stress. Collin had his arms wrapped around her shoulder and they both had big smiles on their faces.

Ana had a big smile on her face right now as she's flipping through the images. Collin is so photogenic. She thought. He always has a way to capture the camera.

She also found a candid shot a friend took of them at his sister's wedding. Ana had her back turned towards the camera, and Collin was holding her by the waist, look down and smiling profoundly at her.

Ana starred at that picture for a long minute. She remembered how that night, he told her that she was someone he sees himself growing old with. She had butterflies in her stomach when she heard that. She too, imagined herself walking down the aisle, with him standing on the end waiting for her.

Flip, flip, flip. Ana was still searching for her picture.

Wait.

She paused.

At first, she thought it was another picture of his ex-girlfriend. Sometimes, would find pictures of his ex, he would just say that she sends him pictures to try to win him back. And he forgot to delete it. He told her not to worry about it. Ana knew that it was a lousy excuse, but she somehow convinced herself to forgive him. But this, it wasn't a picture of his ex. In fact, it was a picture of a woman.

It was a little girl.

The sound of the tea kettle whistled loudly, piercing the silence and darkness of the room. But Ana didn't flinch.

She just stood there, staring down at the iPad. Her heart felt heavy, like she just got punched in the chest.
She looked closer. The girl looked like she could have been 9 or 10 years old.

The little girl was posing nude, Ana saw a logo down in the corner. It looked like it was downloaded from an unknown website.


She doesn't know what to believe. She dropped the iPad onto the bed and slowly sank down onto the floor.

What is happening?

She felt like the room was closing in on her. And she couldn't breathe. No, this can't be true. She wanted all of this to be just a nightmare.

Just 6 hours ago, Collin kissed her on the cheek and said good bye. He was the love of her life.

But now, he feels like a stranger. Who have I been living with?
You've lied, I forgave you.
You've cheated, I forgave you.
You've hit me, I forgave you.

But this...what kind of person would I be if I stayed with you?

Ana found herself paralyzed. After what seemed like an eternity, she found the strength to pick up the phone and called her friend.

She told her what she found.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry. What are you going to do?" Her friend asked.

Silence.

"I don't know" She finally spoke. "But this isn't right. This is illegal!" Ana felt hot tears streaming down her face. She wanted to scream, she wanted to throw things, she just wanted to take this pain away.

After talking with her friend. Ana knew what she was going to do.

She called for the taxi. 20 minutes later, a yellow cab pulled up and Ana got in the car.


"Good evening miss, and where would you like to go?" The cab driver cheerfully greeted her.

"To the police station, please" And she closed the door.