> The story you are about to hear is one of love born from trauma.
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> A rainbow after a storm.
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> It all started one damp day back in 1984.
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> Fate intertwined the paths of a three-year-old American girl, a five-year-old Japanese boy, and a child trafficker at an airport.
Chapter 00
DARK STORM CLOUDS CROSSED OVER the airport, seeming to laugh at the people who blamed their delayed flights on airport staff instead of the weather. As the weather improved, the airport was thrown into confusion as numerous flights announced their new boarding times.
In the chaos of the airport stood a little blonde-haired girl clinging to her mother’s hand. The little girl’s green eyes looked around at the vast variety of people pushing by her hurriedly, not even noticing she was alive. It was like for one place in time, money and race had no social meaning. Poorer people with their children hurried along to catch their economy flights. Rich people hurried the same way across the airport, dashing to their first-class seats on the same flight. The noise of their footsteps and their voices melted together into a harmony that was relaxing for the little girl.
She smiled at them, holding her mother’s hand in one hand, and holding tightly to her favorite gray, white-nosed, stuffed bunny in the other. The stuffed animal was almost half as big as she was, with big floppy ears and a pink ribbon wrapped around its neck. On its right bottom paw, a child’s hand had written unsteadily the number seven.
“Seven! The lady asked you a question.”
The piercing sound of her mother’s voice broke into Seven’s world. For a second, just one second, in her mind, she was alone in the airport. She glanced up at her mother, but her attention was quickly drawn to the black, purple, flower-printed, flowing skirt her mother wore. She looked towards the lady who was behind the counter, but all she could see was her short black hair.
“How old are you today?” the lady asked again.
Her mother picked her up so she could see the lady. Seven stared at the lady, looking her completely over, deciding that she didn’t like her. She wasn’t really sure what it was about the lady, but it scared her to answer her question. Knowing that things would get worse if she didn’t answer, she held up three fingers for her to see.
“Three years old! How about that? She’s so cute! I hope I have one just like her,” the lady said.
The lady’s loud and high-pitched reaction to the very simple answer she gave her sent a shiver through Seven. She jerked, dropping her bunny on the floor.
“She’s a handful sometimes. The delay isn’t helping,” her mother’s voice changed slowly into the voice used when she was angry at her. As she talked to the lady behind the counter, not noticing that Seven’s bunny, her only friend in the world, was on the floor being stepped on and taken away.
She watched as her bunny was slowly being kicked further and further away from her. She struggled in her mother’s arms to get down and save her bunny from the thousands of feet that swiped across the airport floor. Her mother, who was having a hard time talking while holding a kicking three-year-old, finally placed her down on the ground so she could continue her request for a manager.
Her heart raced as she rushed to her bunny and cradled it in her arms, showering her best friend with a warm welcome-home hug. However, her joy was interrupted when a strong, sweet smell caught her by surprise. A hand swiftly covered her face, smothering her mouth with a cloth. Shocked, she involuntarily inhaled, feeling a wave of weakness and fatigue wash over her. She closed her eyes and became limp in the person’s arms. She fought desperately to cling onto her bunny as she was lifted up, but the world around her faded and her grip weakened until, unable to hold on any longer, she dropped her best friend to the ground as her consciousness slipped away.
* * *
A little Japanese boy stood in front of the fallen gray, white-nosed bunny. He had been watching the little girl play with it for the last twenty minutes. He picked it up, looking around to see if anyone else had seen what had just happened. Everyone was too worried about catching their plane to notice the little girl. His eyes then came across the little girl’s mother, who still hadn’t noticed that she was gone.
He spun around, not wanting to lose sight of the little girl. He hurried after them, knowing he was her only hope. His five-year-old legs couldn’t compete with the tall man carrying her, and she got further away with every breath.
Panicking, he shouted the only English words his mother insisted he knew before their trip to America: “HELP! POLICE! KIDNAPPER!”
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The little boy’s scream echoed over the noise of crying babies and people yelling that their luggage was missing. Everyone stopped in their tracks and looked around for the kidnapper.
The man carrying the little girl dropped her to the ground and ran for the exit.
“Natsuo! Where have you been?” his mother yelled in Japanese. The worry in her voice caused a shudder to go through him. As his mother took his arm, he looked away from the little girl. His mother’s eyes said everything he needed to know; she was angry he had sneaked away from her.
“What were you thinking? This isn’t a place to wander off!” she continued to yell at him, pulling him away from where he was standing. The grip on his still bruised arm wasn’t exceptionally tight, but it hurt just the same. He tugged slightly to free his arm, but he wasn’t strong enough to fight the force in his mother’s protective grip.
“But mom-” he pleaded, looking back at the little girl who laid on the ground.
“I don’t want to hear a word!” his mother interrupted. “Our flight is boarding. We have to go now.”
Before he walked out of sight, he took one more look at the little girl. He was relieved to see people were gathering around her. Her mother, having finally noticed her daughter’s absence, ran to her and picked her up in her arms. His mother pulled him to their gate and down the boarding bridge to the plane. He didn’t realize until he sat in his seat that he still held the bunny in a tight grasp.
* * *
“Seven! Seven!” Susan hurried over to her daughter laying on the ground. She picked her up, cradling her in her arms. “Wake up, baby,” she called out, her voice filled with worry and affection, hoping for a response from her unconscious child.
The world around her blurred as a group of people ran after the would-be kidnapper and pinned him to the ground, and airport police ran up to take him into custody. Now everyone seemed to forget they had flights to get to as they crowded around to see what was going on.
Airport paramedics run up to Susan and her daughter. With a practiced motion, they gently took hold of the child, delicately cradling her small frame as they laid her down on the cool ground.
Susan, her face streaked with tears, leaned over her unconscious daughter, her voice trembling with worry. “Why won’t she wake up?” she managed to utter, her words barely audible amidst the chaotic scene unfolding around them.
The paramedics examined her young daughter. “She’s unconscious, but she’s okay. There’s a minor cut on her head.”
“A cut?” Susan’s eyes darted down towards her clothes, now tainted with crimson stains. Her trembling hands reached out to touch the damp fabric, confirming the presence of her daughter's blood. Her vision blurred as dizziness flooded her and she collapsed to the unforgiving airport floor.
“We need compression on this gash, and it’ll need stitches. Bring another stretcher. The mother fainted. We need to take her back to the clinic.”
* * *
Susan opened her eyes and found herself in a hospital room. Dizziness still attacked her as she tried to remember why she was there. She had been in the airport, talking to a lady behind the check-in counter. Seven had wandered off and…
“My daughter! Where is she!?” she called out as she sat up, remembering what had happened.
A nurse heard her and hurried into the room. “Your daughter is still asleep. She’s fine. You’re at Lakeside Medical Center.”
“Can I see her?” Susan asked, lying back in the bed as her head pounded.
“Let me go get a doctor,” the nurse answered as she scurried out of the room.
It didn’t take long for a doctor to walk into the room.
“What’s going on?” she asked before the doctor could close the door behind him.
“You were brought here after you fainted at the airport. That was a couple of hours ago. We gave you some fluids, but you’re fine.”
“What about my daughter?” she asked, not worried about herself.
“They’re still gathering evidence, but your daughter is fine. If you feel up to it, the police would like to have a word with you. They’ll fill you in on what’s going on.”
“Please send them in.” She took a deep breath.
A man dressed in a plain suit walked into the room. His face was unshaven and his shirt had coffee and catsup stains on it. Adding to the stereotype, he wore a trench coat and carried a cup of coffee in one hand with a notepad and pen in the other. “I’m Detective Locke with the Los Angeles Police Department. How are you feeling?”
Anxiety tinged her voice as she responded, “I’m okay. I don’t want to be rude, but could you please explain what’s happening?”
“Of course,” Detective Locke replied, understanding her concern. “But before we delve into that, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
Susan nodded.
“What’s your name?” he asked, flipping open his notebook.
“Susan White,” she answered.
“Why was your daughter away from you?” Detective Locke’s voice was calm, but probing as he wrote her answer down.
“I don’t know. I turned around for a moment, and when I looked back, she was gone,” she replied, her voice shaking with guilt.
The detective continued, “Did you see anything? Any suspicious behavior or individuals?”
Susan’s eyes shifted, her mind replaying the events. “No,” she replied, “I was talking, and it happened so suddenly. I didn’t notice anything strange.”
“You were flying to New York, correct? Why were you headed to New York?” he asked.
“To bring my husband home,” she replied.
His pen scratched against the notepad as he asked another question. “Did you teach your daughter about strangers and how to stay safe?”
She nodded, looking down at her hands in her lap. “Yes, I did. We’ve talked about strangers and staying alert. I thought she understood.”
“Is there anyone that might have a reason to harm your daughter?”
“Not that I know of.” She grew tired of the questions.
“You are really lucky to have your daughter.” The detective placed his notebook and pencil into a pocket inside his coat. “The man who took her had two airplane tickets, one for him and one for a child. He’s been kidnapping young children from airports around the US and selling them overseas. I’ve been trying to catch him for over three years, but for some reason, there were never any witnesses.”
She looked at the detective in shock. “How can there be no witnesses in a crowded airport?”
“Well, we know why now.” The detective sat in a chair next to the bed. “He waits for a child to get away from their parents, swoops in behind them and chloroforms them before they can scream. After that, everyone thinks that he’s a father carrying a sleeping child.”
“What happened? What saved her?” She shook her head in disbelief.
The detective took a sip of his coffee. “That’s the unbelievable part. Witnesses say that they heard a little boy’s voice scream that there was a kidnapper, but we have yet to locate the boy.”
Her body shook at the thought of how close she came to losing her daughter. So soon after the loss of her husband. If that little boy hadn’t been there. A tear trickled down her cheek.
“Everything is going to be okay now, Susan.” The detective placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.