A few steps from my new Army soldier acquaintance was Mandy. Mandy looked about 17 and she was quick. I don't think it was the camera, but she seemed to walk ahead of me with a slow provocative walk and a turn just as I reached a few feet from her. How the heck did she know where i was in proximity to her turn...That was a good trick. Anyway, she asked me if i wanted some company, i asked her for what (I suspected she was hooking), "for a date" she said "I've been trying to get a place to stay out of this weather or make enough money to get a place for Christmas." I asked here where she was from and she played it off and changed the subject, choosing instead to flirt and see if she could get me teased into opening my wallet. I did get out of her that she was from the Midwest, she had left home because it was "lame back there". She was underage, but she never said how old. Feeling a little nervous by then (guilt by association and all), I said my good byes and moved on down the road on Commerce. I did think as i walked away how sad it was that this young woman had a family back somewhere and yet circumstances had come to pass that she was walking the streets of Tacoma. WA willing to sell her body for cash or a place to stay for the next few days.
I use to see this stuff when i lived in Los Angeles, CA. I left LA because it was way too much of that type of stuff. I hope we don't forget our young as we see our way through these troubled financial times. The Mandy's of the world will become tomorrows law enforcement customers and the tip of the spear of the next crime wave if we don't pay attention.
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