How Do You Comfort a Stranger?

Imagine you’re just walking down a street – preferably a safe one – and you see a girl about your age sitting on some steps. She’s just staring into the distance: not moving, not saying anything, and blinking only when the tears make her eyes too heavy. She’s dressed for something special, and even though it’s cold out, she hasn’t got a jersey and the only thing she has on is a fitted black dress and fishnet stockings, red heels thrown aside.

‘Why is she sitting here?’ you start to wonder. Should you be a gentleman and sit down beside her and let her mouth just empty out her story? Is it too late to pretend not to notice her? Perhaps your best option to get away is to pretend you’ve forgotten something and turn back to find another way home. While, in the time you’ve taken to think, she’s turned towards you with a desperate look in her eyes.

“We enjoy warmth because we have been cold,” stutter her lips. “We appreciate light because we have been in darkness... And in the same sense, we can experience joy because we have known sadness.” A tear breaks through her mascara.

Intrigued, now, at what she has to say, your feet draw mistakenly toward her. Your own silence follows. “Sorry,” she stumbles, “I didn’t mean to disturb you, but the air is too pressing for silence.” She begins to rub away the tears.

Confused yet still silent you’re lost for words, your hands start pointing in different directions, supposedly indicating if you can leave. The look on her face makes you stop and just say “Huh?”

She looks where the moonlight sheds an eerie light on the alleyway, takes a deep breath ready to speak and starts weeping again. You stride toward the alleyway, determined to find the problem, and convert into what she must’ve looked about ten minutes ago. Guys don’t walk down the street prepared for this.

Lying by the wall like a clump of old play dough was a baby. Covered in everything; from dirt to after birth. Through glassy eyes you notice light bruises, and even as horrific as the image is, you can’t push your own eyes away.

That tiny baby was a victim and unknown to be so. Nobody knows what happened to it and nobody knows what to do with it. An inconvenience to everybody.