It's Fall - it's a Saturday morning. One of the joys of Fall Saturdays for me is College Game Day, so I try to get up early enough to watch the beginning of the show. I also had big plans to walk at the college track with my buddy this morning. Therapeutic. I was just coming out of my sleep and thinking about turning on the TV when my doorbell rang. It was 5:50 a.m. Who rings a doorbell before 6 in the morning? I'm about to tell you who.
There is a security screen door outside my front door. I can see out, no-one can really see in. I like it that way. I opened the front door and peered out through the screen - there were two little girls standing on my porch in the dark. "What's going on?" The bigger girl answered "We need a ride home." "Let me get changed and come out there - sit on the porch and I'll be out in a minute".
I just don't understand our species a lot of the time. I feel like we are overrun with selfishness and bereft of empathy. Not all of us individually, but as humans - I don't get it, and the constant puzzle in my head and the thing that drives me daily is the desire to change this.
These two girls were on Fall break last week, as many kids were in the Valley. They had been staying with their grandma, a tiny, well-worn woman, for the week instead of with their Aunt, whom they usually live with. Grandma's ex-husband lives on my block - he is not related to the girls in any way. Are you feeling sick at your stomach already? You should be.
"Grandpa" took the girls to the Fair last night, even though it was raining. They rode some rides, had some turkey legs, won a stuffed sprinkle doughnut, typical. They came home and waited for grandma to pick them up. They called her, she didn't answer. "Grandpa" told the girls they could sleep on an air mattress, gave them a sheet between them and proceeded to power down a bunch of beer. Queasy yet, are you? Yeah.
The older girl was crying when I opened the door. We sat outside together, and I tried to get information from them. Her cell phone was dead, they wanted to go home, she had run away from Grandpa, but wouldn't tell me why. I looked at her - "Look, if Grandpa did something bad, I need to know the truth. I don't want him to get into trouble if he didn't really do anything bad". She started crying again. That's all I needed to see.
I went inside the house to get my phone, and called the police on the non-emergency number. I gave the girls some Belvita biscuits, and the younger one a blanket - the sun was just coming up, but it was still a little chilly outside by Phoenix standards. Because it wasn't an emergency, the dispatcher told me it could be awhile before anyone came to the house. In the meantime, I learned that these girls, 13 and 10, did not know their street address.
At this point, I am just thanking God that they rang my doorbell and not someone else's. Most of my neighbors are pretty good people, but you know - this is a big city. They are little girls. How bad was the situation to make them come out in the dark and ring a stranger's bell? I asked them why they rang my bell: "Because your house was the only one with a porch light on".
The older girl had a cell phone, but it was dead. She asked "Do you have a map on your phone?" Sure. We figured out where they lived roughly. She said "We can just walk home, but we wondered if you would drive us there?"
Because the Fair has so many animals, and because the barn is literally across the street from my house, the flies this time of year are prolific and disgusting. The sun came up a bit more, and with it the flies got busy. It was kind of gross, but I didn't want to bring the kids into my house- I wanted us all to feel safe, and outside seemed like the best place for that to happen. I told the girls I would make myself some coffee then we would talk about driving them home, all the while hoping the police would hurry up. I was inside when the doorbell rang again - the oldest girl had a panicked look on her face "My Tata is outside, I don't want him to see us!" So, into the living room they came. Almost an hour after they first rang the bell, two officers pulled up outside my house.
The female officer came into the living room with the girls. The male police officer took me outside so I could tell him what had happened so far.
These two little girls have broken my heart. Mom and dad are in jail. They live with their Aunt, but don't know their address. They go to school, but are failing a lot of their classes. And of course they have brothers and sisters. If they had money they would go to Footlocker and buy Jordans. They like to roller skate. I didn't sit with them for a while after the police came because they needed to do their job without me. I waited to come out until Grandpa was safely ensconced in the back of the police car. The female officer asked the older girl to go into my bathroom and take off her undergarments to put into a plastic bag she gave her.
Grandma finally responded to a voice mail that one of the officers had left her, and was on her way over to pick the girls up. She had just come home from the casino. She pulled up with other kids in the car, including a baby. I wondered where they had spent the night - and with whom?
And then there was CPS, or DCS. There was a lot of waiting and back and forth with them as well. All the while, the male officer and myself talked to the girls, learned about them, tried to encourage them to do right, study hard - tried to infuse them with every possible life lesson we could in that short amount of time, and to do it with good-natured kindness.
They had to let grandpa go, but there will be a criminal investigation. The girls left with their grandma, and were going to be met by CPS at grandma's home. I stood at the security door where no one could see me, and watched them go. I asked for angels to be by their sides, and prayed for their safety and health. And I did the same for the police officers as they left. Then I shut the big door and came in and cried.
Children deserve our protection. They deserve an opportunity to learn and grow and to know their address. They deserve to be taken to the Fair and to have fun without running the risk of being harmed. I spent an unexpected 4 ½ hours with two little girls and two of Phoenix's finest this morning. A chance meeting of all of us. None of us likely to ever see each other again - unless I am called to court to testify. I was thanked profusely for my kindness and patience, and for doing "exactly the right thing" this morning by both officers on separate occasions today. I could only look back at them and say the same things, - all of us with a world weary understanding in our eyes.
Let us continue to hold each other up, to stand by each other as humans. That's our job. Let us all be better at doing our job. Let's keep our porch lights on.
