It was a typical Friday afternoon, except I wasn’t in school.  I just left the doctor’s office and my Mother had to pick up my prescription from the pharmacy. I’m feeling like crap and she leaves me in a boiling car with a broken air conditioner. The cars been running for at least 15 minutes and I keep hearing the same song on every radio station. Finally I saw someone going towards the car. Except it wasn’t actually my Mother. An older looking man with greasy brown hair probably in his thirties went up to the driver’s window. I rolled down the driver’s window to see what he was trying to say.  He started to panic saying my Mother was in a horrible accident. He said he could drive me to the hospital to see her. I didn’t doubt him for a second things like this happens in my family a lot. About a month ago my Aunt Danielle was walking through the grocery store and slid and broke her back. Anyway, I unlocked the driver’s side door so he could drive me to the hospital. I didn’t have my license yet I was only fifteen. He didn’t clarify what happened to my Mother he was really mistrustful. Then I noticed as we pulled out of the parking lot I noticed a bunch of people running towards the car. But that wasn’t it he drove in the opposite direction of the hospital. I thought maybe he wasn’t from here. In a calm tone I asked him to turn the car around. He didn’t respond. I asked him again but this time a little louder. He just looked at me and pressed the lock button on my door. He started to drive faster and I looked at the time on the radio, we’ve been driving for forty-five minutes. The hospital was only fifteen minutes away from the pharmacy. I tried not to panic I don’t know what this man is capable of. Another fifteen minutes pass by and I notice the car was running out of gas. He pulled over and told me to get in the backseat, I did what he demanded. He tied my hands behind my back and put a blindfold around my eyes. He told me if I kept quiet he would take the blindfold off. He started to drive off again. The man didn’t tie the rope that tight, I was in girl scouts and we learned how to tie knots and get out of them. I could easily get out but I didn’t want to risk anything. What if he’s going to kill me? All I kept thinking about was my family and how worried they must be. I doubt my Mother told any distant relatives they always talked down on her this would be another thing to annoy her about.  The man whispered “Keep quiet or else well have problems.” I was terrified! Since I had the blindfold on I started to consider escaping. At this point it seemed difficult. The man came back and drove off quickly. He pulled over again and opened the door. He took my blindfold off and untied my hands and he smiled at me.  He told me to sit in the front again. I kept thinking about how he smiled at me. My thought was interrupted when he said “Tell me about you.” I said my name is Klarissa and he rolled his eyes. I didn’t ask him why he rolled his eyes but said his name is Luke. I told him my mother gave birth to me when she was on vacation in New York. He started to ask all these questions about my family moving. We were always moving it was like someone was following us or something. Luke was really interested about my life. I tried to get off topic but he kept asking questions. We’ve been driving for about two hours now. The area started to look familiar like I’ve been there before. It’s as if Luke read my mind he asked “Does this place look familiar?” I didn’t respond.  I began to doze off when he started talking. I fell asleep for forty five minutes until Luke woke me up. He said he has news and a surprise. His house is very nice and by the look of it he must make a large sum of money. As the car pulled towards the house the garage opened. I was anxious I didn’t want to open the door.  Luke opened my door and I refused to get out. “Get out of the damn car”, he yelled. I yelled no! This female walked into the garage, I guess she overheard all of the yelling. She stared at me for a while not saying a word. The lady began to mumble “Is that?”  She couldn’t even finish her question. Luke understood what she was saying and replied with a yes. She ran over to me and studied my looks. I was so confused and I had no idea what was going on. They said they have news and I was told to sit down.  I sat down and I heard the woman shuffling through papers in the other room. She put the paper behind her back and sat down on the other couch. She was trying to speak but the words weren’t coming out of her mouth. Instead of speaking she handed me the paper which turned out to be a birth certificate. The name on the birth certificate was Juliana Wilmore. I was still utterly confused! Who is this Juliana Wilmore and why are they showing me her birth certificate? They moved closer to me I was in the middle of them. I was a bit terrified and I was worried about what they were going to say next. They asked if I know who Juliana is. I said I don’t think so.
The next few words they said changed my life forever. They said “You’re our child.” I somewhat didn’t believe it at first, so I asked them questions. First question I thought was the most important was why I am leaving with my so called “parents?” Luke said, “Well your Mother and I were only seventeen when we found out that she was pregnant, we told her mother and she wasn’t excited about the news.” My mother added,” Your Grandmother made us sign papers giving you up or else she would kick us out with no money or anything. We didn’t want to selfish and raise you with nothing; as soon as I delivered you were already in another woman’s arms. It was the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life.” My jaw dropped. I understood why they did what they did, plus they didn’t really have a choice. They did everything they could to give me a great life without being selfish. It’s like my whole life was a huge lie. Why didn’t anyone say anything everything was a lie! They saw how angry I was getting and offered we order take out. It was funny we all ordered the same thing, noodles with beef. The food arrived and we stuffed our faces. In my house we never sat together as a family, and honestly it was nice sitting down with them. As we finished our food I heard the doorbell ring they couldn’t hear it because they were cleaning up, so I answered the door. There was older woman and a little girl probably around five years old. They ran into the house as if they owned the place. I heard the older woman call the little girl Emily. Emily ran into the kitchen and began to yell at Luke saying, “Who is she, and why is she in our house?” The older woman sat in silence with her arms crossed. She reached into her bag and pulled out her phone. There wasn’t an explanation or anything. We sat quietly at the dinner table, as if we were waiting for something to happen. Shortly there was loud knocks at the door, nobody got up. Until, the older woman sprinted to the door we jumped up. Two men ran inside the room with guns. “Pennsylvania State Police put up your hands!”  We all put our hands up as Luke and his wife were handcuffed. They were taken into the police cars and my parents came walking in the door. They were asking so many questions at once. I turned away, I needed space. A few minutes later I confronted a police officer I asked him if I could visit my parents wherever they were being placed. Yes I said my parents especially because my so-called “Parents” were behind listening to my conversation with the police officer. They said I couldn’t because he kidnapped me, and stole my Mother’s car. The cops said that there was nothing they could do, unless the charges were dropped. We drove all the way home without saying a single word. I walked into the house immediately went to my room to lie down.  They called me down for dinner a few times, until they realized they were being ignored. Two days go by still haven’t spoken to them once, I was living off of microwavable ramen noodles until school. I woke up really early on Monday and turned on all of my lights, so they wouldn’t have to wake me up. After school I did my homework and napped until it was dinner. At dinner they always made me a plate and put it in my spot. I waited until they were to eat dinner and I ate upstairs in my room. This routine went on for about four days until it hit Friday. I saw it in their faces every night I know they wanted to talk about what happened it was just an uncomfortable topic to talk about. Friday after school I walked into the house and they were sitting together on the couch. I knew they wanted to speak and I didn’t want to I sped into the kitchen without eye contact. They stopped me short and said they wanted to talk. I said,” There’s nothing to talk about it’s over now.” As I started to walk away they said, “It’s not over yet, it’s actually just beginning.” I was speechless what could that mean? We went into the car and they wouldn’t say where we were going. Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the police station. What are we doing here? They got out of the car and I was walking slowly behind them. We walked into the station and there were my biological parents. They dropped their kidnapping charges but they still owed them a new car. I was able to see my parents every weekend and over the summer we go upstate to their cabin. Life has been so crazy lately I love having two families.