Thank you. Two years ago, a Joint Task Force consisting of the FBI, the US Department of Labor, US Department of Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement, as well as several other agencies initiated investigation after receiving information regarding several individuals, detained against their will in a small community just South of Tucson, Arizona. For the past several months, the Task Force had determined, that individuals had been transported to various other locations through out the US as part of a massive underground operation, spanning 7 states.

We will continue to utilize any and all resources available to the task force in pursuit of their captors. Make no mistake, we will bring these persons to justice. I would like to thank…

Much earlier that morning…

There’s a rustling in my room. A hand goes over my mouth that keeps me from screaming. “Carla, be quiet. It’s me.” A hushed stern voice from the darkness. “Come on! We need to get out of here. The guards are only going to be gone for a little while, now’s our chance.“ My eyes are wide now. My sister, Carla, has a something in her hand. The moonlight through the window shows the glint of the edge of a knife. I let out a yelp. “Shhh! Do you want the guards to hear us?”

I don’t know what’s going on. My heart is racing. My sister is in my room, with a knife, I guess ‘rescuing Carla’ from some imaginary ‘guards’? I’m panicking. I don’t know if she’s going to hurt me or herself.

“No time to get dressed! Come on!” She pulls me by the wrist, out of bed and towards the doorway. She peeks her head out to slightly. Her hand gripping my wrist tight. Fear settles in to me as she pulls me into the hallway. She stealthily looks left and right constantly, then pulls me down the hallway. She has the knife out in front of her at the ready. I’m shaking. She looks back at me. “Carla, you need to calm down.”

The lights in the hallway flick on. “Carla?” Daddy’s half a sleep. She turns and places herself between me and my Daddy. Carla has the knife in front of her. It takes a moment for Daddy to realize what's going on. He must see the scared look on my face. He starts moving towards us.

“You’re not taking her back; do you hear me!” Carla growls. This causes my dad to retreat a step. “Carla?” She asks. No answer. “Carla!” She shakes my wrist. I’m petrified and can’t speak. “Carla! What’s the matter with you!” she screams at me. I can’t stop shaking.

“Daddy, please help me.” I’m starting to cry.

She turns to me. “Carla, you’ll be with your mommy and daddy soon, we just need to get out of here.” She pushes me backwards in a retreat.

“Daddy?” He looks at me. There’s something I’ve never seen in his face. I can’t quite place it. Terror? Every step we take in retreat. He advances. He’s trying to save me.

“Carla, don’t you want to see your Mommy and Daddy again?” She asks me. I’m so afraid right now; for me and for my family. “Carla, you’re going to have to trust me, okay sweetie?”

Mom peeks her head out. Her eye go wide. “Aaron?” She puts her hand to her mouth.

“Honey, call 911.” He says to Mom. She retreat back into the room.

Carla and I are at the top of the stairs now, slowly retreating. She has her hand gripped tight around my wrist still and isn’t letting go.

“Carla? What are you doing? that’s mom and dad." I ask. She looks at me, angry at my confusion.

“Carla, what is wrong with you? That’s not your mom and dad! I trying to take you back to them. Don’t you see? You don't need to be scared anymore. I’m here.”

“Who are you?” I ask.

“Shhh! No time to talk. I tell you everything you need to know when your back safe with your mom and dad, okay?” I turn on the lights to the stairway.

“Down the stairs. Now!” She says in a hushed but firm voice.

I look past her. “Daddy?” I’m pleading with him to help.

He stands there and raises his hand. “Do as she says, princess. The police are on their way.” We head down the stairs to the livingroom. “There’s the door. I’ve got to get the other girls out.” I look at her puzzled. “Carla, are you listening to me?” The cops arrive. “Look! I told you the authorities are here. Run! I’ll get the rest of the girls.” I can’t move. She give me a shove towards the door. I can see the flashing lights shine through the window. I don’t want to leave her. “Carla! What’s the matter with you. You need to get out of here!”

I turn and summon as much courage as I can. “Carla, this needs to stop! Now! I’m Angela, your sister, remember?”

“Have you lost your mind? Carla, you need to go out to the cops now! Stupid girl! You’re 10 feet from rescue and you want to stay here? Go! Out the door. Now!”

With tears in my eyes, I run to the door and open it. A cop pulls me towards him. “she’s clean!”

“What's your name sweetheart?”

“Angela, Angela Rhodes.” My fear turns to concern.

“Angela, How many are in the house with you?"

"My mom, dad and my sister Carla. She’s got a knife.”

“Who’s got a knife, sweetie?”

“Carla, She… She thinks she’s someone else. I don’t know what’s going on. Please don’t hurt her!”

One of the cops draws his weapon and advances into the home. A few minutes later, Carla emerges with the cop. A blanket draped over her. They’re walking towards us. She’s smiling. “See, I told you if you trust me, you’ll be safe!” I look at her puzzled. “Carla, you’re going to go home to your mommy and daddy now.” She says to me as she places a kiss on my forehead and is taken to an awaiting ambulance.

Mom and Dad rush out to me. “Honey, are you alright? Did she hurt you?” Mom asks as she pulls me in to a hug.

“I don’t know what was going on. Kept calling me Carla. What happened to her?”

“I don’t know, baby girl. I don’t know. You’re safe now though.”

The officer looks at me. “Is she going to be okay? Perhaps she should get check out at the hospital as well.”

***

It’s been three long and agonizing days since the Carla had her ‘episode’. I still wake up screaming. We’re on our way to the hospital. She’s been cooperative for the time being. She is in the behavioral health wing of the new hospital in town. Mom and Dad have to fill out paperwork. I pace the halls and finally I walk into the room and see Carla is standing there staring out the window. It’s a large room with several patients. Plenty of tables and chairs. Patients in wheel chairs. They seem to be transfixed, medicated?

I remember a room like this. The scars on my wrists remind me of what might have been had they not intervened. The room is bright and cheery. All I can remember was that the rooms that I was in were all grey. Funny this room seem to be laid out pretty close to the one I was in before. Was it the same room?

Carla sees something in the glass and turns towards me with a smile. She hurries towards me arms out stretched. “Carla! I thought I’d never see you again! Finally, we can convince these crazy doctors that you do exist. You were so scared, remember? God, I had to drag you to safety. I don't understand how you managed to stay there unharmed.”

“I…”

“Come, there's some people I want you to meet.” She drags me by the wrist again. Pulling me towards a nurse. “Nurse Gordon, this is the Carla I was talking about. I know, she’s a bit of a shy girl and I knew I had to rescue her she… She was so… helpless. She wouldn't even run out the door when the cops arrived to take her home.”

“I’m…” I sigh and look up at Nurse Gordon. Her eyes are on me then back at my sister. She must have thought we were twins.

“Young lady? Carla is it?” looking at me. I shake my head.

“Oh she’s just shy, after all she’s been through? Can you blame her for being shy around strangers? Carla, say ‘hi’ to Nurse Gordon. She’s been so nice to me here. The entire staff has been nice to me here. It’s just they all think I’m you. Can you believe that? Me? A scared little girl, like you? Honestly, I don’t see it.”

“Can I see ‘Carla’ for a moment?” the nurse asks my sister. Another nurse across the room is eyeing me for some reason.

“Well, that’s up to her. Like I said she’s really shy.” My sister turns to me and put her hands on my shoulders. “Okay, Carla, the nurse wants to speak with you for just a bit, okay? I’m right here so you don’t have to be scared, alright?“ I look up at Nurse Gordon, who looks back at me with a nod and sigh, casting my eyes downward. “Alright.” I reply as I walk with the nurse to another corner of the room. Carla has her eyes on me the whole time. I suspect, ready to jump to my aid at the first sign of trouble.

“Carla? Is it?”

“Angela, Carla, there, is my big sister.”

“Carla doesn’t have a sister. At least that’s some of what we’ve got from her.”

“Well yes and no. I’m transgender. I transitioned from Alexander to Angela after she was taken. They brought her to the house while I was in one of my therapy sessions.”

“You two look so much a alike, and you were so quiet and shy, that I almost believed her.”

“Is my sister going to be okay?”

“We’re doing our best to help her. It’s tough when she won’t face what’s happened to her. Now that she has you, it may help or it may hurt.”

“I… I don’t understand.”

“As long as she sees you as ‘Carla’, its easier for her to think that all of this happened to you, not her. She sees herself as the one that rescued ‘Carla’. I’m sure that scene that played out at your home perhaps reinforced that notion.”

“So what do we do?”

“We can’t do anything. She has to face what happened to her.”

“But she wasn’t like this… We… We were talking that evening… Like sisters. She was asking me about my life and my friends. She was even calling me Angie. I… I don’t understand how she could suddenly think of me as her.”

“The doctors here are very good. They’ll work with your sister through her problems. The best thing you can do is be there for her, okay?” She rubs my arm trying to as best as she can to comfort me.

My sister approaches with another nurse who give me a look as if she knew me and smiles. “Carla, I have to go now, okay? You seem like your okay with Nurse Gordon. Nurse Young here is going to take me for some tests. I’m so glad to see that your safe. You, were the one that had me the most worried. I hope one day you can be someone that doesn’t have to be rescued all the time. Your stronger than you think, you just have to believe that.”

I look at my sister with tears in my eyes. What happened to you? She wipes the tears out of my eyes. “Toughen up, girl. You don’t want to be that your whole life, do you? You’re out of there, you’re free now, you can live your life.”

She pulls me into a hug. I whisper to her, “Please get better. I need my sister.”

She pulls back from me with a smile. “I’ll alway be there for you Carla, no matter what.”

She happily follows Nurse Young out. I stand there tears streaming down my face. I stare at the pair as they walk out the door. Nurse Gordon looks at me pulls me into a hug as my parents enter the room.

“Angie? You should have waited for us. Why would you run off like that?” Mom hesitates for a moment.

The nurse turns me over to my mom who pulls me into a hug of her own. “It’s alright baby girl, mommy’s here.”