As I was cleaning out the kitchen in the old house to prepare the appliances to be replaced, I found a ziploc bag behind the fridge. Inside that bag were a couple bottles of prescription meds for a girl that lived with us for a few months, a couple of years ago.

I had thought about her a few times since, especially in light of how she came to not live with us anymore. I had wanted to to know if she was doing alright…

One day, she came to me, crying, askingm me to take her to the airport. She was going home. She’d gotten booted from her relationship, and she’d called her mom and she squared everything away. She told me that she didn’t have a working phone, though. I spoke to her mom on my phone, and found out the details of the flight the girl was going to be taking. And thanks for taking the time out of my day to get her to the airport.

We got her things together, and got in the car. She asked if I could take her to Walmart to recharge her cell phone minutes? Yes, of course. Let’s go to WalMart. She picked out the phone card she needed. I grabbed it down, said this one’s on me. Do you want any snacks for the flight? She picked out a couple granola bars or candy bars, whatever.

Then we got into the car outside Walmart and she admitted she didn’t know how to add the minutes onto the phone. So I followed the directions on the card and she was set up. We drove the 25 minutes or so to the airport.

We had plenty of time before the flight. Have you eaten today? No, not for a couple days. Ok, let’s get you something to eat… We stopped at a McDonalds and she told me about a sandwich combination involving a McD double cheeseburger and a McChicken sandwich. She merged the two sandwiches into one and ate it.

I walked her to the security checkpoint, and she waved and smiled a bit, and I never saw her again.

I felt shocked about how this had suddenly come to be: Waking up, I had no idea that I’d be taking someone to the airport to suddenly fly cross-country, back to her parents. She never saw it coming either…

She was a good kid. Pleasant, willing to help out, tried to keep her area tidy, in spite of forces that were not trying to keep things tidy. She had a job, and found ways to get to work on time. Responsible, as far as I could tell. She took care of the pets they had in their room, when her partner did not, would not.

Fast-forward about 10 months, and a W-4 shows up for her, for a job she had while living in our house. Income taxes are for real, y’all. I figured that she would want the W-4 for her taxes. So, I called the number that her mom used to coordinate with me to get her daughter to the airport and aimed at the proper airplane. Her mom was very gruff. Very no-nonsense. Very “tell me the name of the company, and we’ll handle getting a duplicate.” Very “I’m not telling you anything about her or her well-being.” Very “leave us alone.”

So, hard out. I didn’t understand the cool reception, but whatever. People are people.

When I keyed in her name to Google yesterday, I learned that she had been the subject of a missing person’s report about 18 months before she wound up living with us. Her mom in the news stories was convinced that she had been sold into sex slavery. She had run away, but keeping in touch every so often. Those check-ins stopped at some point. Mom was convinced something drastic and terrible had happened to her daughter.

Then it started to make sense. I’m a man calling about her daughter. The daughter who ran away, and she never checked in for 18 months. This man took her daughter to the airport, but maybe that man was only doing it to avoid getting in trouble. Maybe he had her this whole time. And now there’s a man calling about where she is?

No way would a mom give out any information to anyone involved in her life for the past 18 months. The time when her daughter was missing. I felt bad for her mom. Not pity. Not condescension. A realization that what I heard from her in those moments was extreme protectiveness. I’m not letting that happen again. Holy shit. The challenges I face pale seriously in comparison.

I never knew a ziploc bag could be so heavy.

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