When Things Are Not As They Seem

When I heard the approaching roar of the engines, I thought help had arrived.

We had been digging with our hands, trying to free our trapped family members from beneath the collapsed building. But, finally, it seemed, help had arrived.

We all cheered.

I jumped to my feet, despair transformed into hope, as pickup trucks and limos came into view.

Behind them, two bulldozers pulled in close to the collapsed sweatshop.

Everyone was screaming and yelling with renewed hope. The women trapped inside the rubble cried out all the more urgently. We all watched in great anticipation as men jumped from the pickups and headed towards the mass of twisted iron, splintered wood and broken glass.

Men in black suits slid from the limos, clipboards in hand. Workers dragged shovels and picks into the collapsed rubble and promptly returned with all the cash boxes and sewing machines.  The men in suits checked off each item as it was accounted for.

Then, the pickups and limos drove away.

Silence fell upon the crowd.  Even the women still trapped inside had gone quiet.

The bulldozers revved up their engines, and in front of all the family members, they bulldozed the collapsed sweatshop.

Women and all.

Need more powerful reading? Our writers at the MockingOwl Roost have plenty to say.

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Donna O'Toole

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Donna lives just outside Toronto, Ontario Canada. She is a recently retired JK/SK reading teacher and has vast life experience and a fully completed novel called Peyote Road. For her next project she would like to write and illustrate her own children’s book.

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