There comes a time in every person’s life when they need help whether they are willing to admit their times of weakness or not. Hopefully, someone else will be there to learn from their friend’s stubbornness, and help up the friend that has fallen. Whether you’re a fallen friend, or a fallen hero everyone needs a soft cushion to break their fall.
On the morning of August 11, 2009 a little girl by the name of Laila Green was born to a happy couple. Her dad a retired Marine, and mother a full time therapist. Growing up her life was wonderful; she had a life that most kids could only dream of. Then a terrible day came for the Green family, a day that left their family in a very dark place. Laila, now at the age of sixteen, was raped by her current boyfriend, Sean DuPont.
She came home that night not her usual happy self, her parents could tell something was very wrong with her, she seemed disturbed. When asked what was wrong tears flew to her beautiful blue green eyes, and down her sand colored cheek. She wanted to tell them everything down to the last, painful detail, but she could not do it. She feared the very worst, so many horrible predicaments fled to her already hurting head: Even though at the moment she despised Sean with every bone in her body, she still had feelings for him because in her mind, you have to know how to love before you learn how to hate, and she was at a battle with her bewildered heart. She knew that if she told her parents her dad would surely do terrible things and end up in jail or worse. If she went to the cops Sean’s whole life would be ruined before it even got the chance to start. “Sean is a good person; he doesn’t deserve to be in jail with those criminals” Laila thought to herself, “But I didn’t deserve what he did to me! I didn’t deserve any of it, not the unwanted kisses, the unwanted bruises near my shoulder where he grabbed me so hard I was numb, the unwanted memory of all of it!”
Laila, unwanting to admit her shame, needed help. Who would help her? She did not want to tell anyone because she knew she would be judged no matter her decision. Instead she went on the internet and searched “Pen Pal for Raped Victims”, she clicked on an unknown website, and began to IM, or instant message, and unknown stranger. The stranger went by the user name of EPAR, which is rape spelled backwards. She told Laila the reason she chose that name was because no matter how you spell it, or try to cover it up, it will always be unacceptable. She told Laila that she should tell the cops, forget about Sean: he ruined his own life by ruining hers. All actions have a chain reaction, and his chains just got a little tighter.
After thinking about what EPAR said she decided to turn Sean in to the cops. They did all types of tests including a head-to-toe test and an x-ray test to scan for any broken bones. Within a week Sean was on trial for statutory rape. He was taken to prison, tried as an adult. That night everyone in the Green house slept a little better knowing that the nightmare was over. At times that night haunts Laila in her dreams, she now goes to her mother’s group therapy, but it still breaks her mother’s heart because she knows that she can never really erase the memory of that horrid period in her only child’s life.