Character Profile - Annora Simon

About a year ago I was part of a group that published monthly anthologies. Each month had a different theme and I enjoyed the challenge of coming up with a poem or short story to fit each of them. As one might expect the themes tended to follow the holidays that appeared in the different months such as Love for February and Luck for March. Of course what else could have been done for July but Freedom but this one threw me for a loop.

I had anticipated the theme. I had found a poem I had written several years earlier that had received recognition and planned to update it for the anthology. It was created in response to my feelings following the attack on September 11th 2001. Everything was planned out. Then a few days into the month I was shopping with my boyfriend at the Apple store and decided to kill some time playing around on the computers while he looked for a new tablet.

I played a few games then tried my hand at the photo editing but he was still not ready to go so I did what I always do, opened the writing program. I was thinking about the Freedom theme and out of nowhere the following sentence flowed out of me - "Annora never set out to be a hero but there was nothing else that properly described her."

I had no idea who Annora was or what she had to do with freedom but it was clear that she was a character I was supposed to get to know. It was one of the strongest pulls I have ever experienced by a figment of my imagination. Persyphone Syntel is the only one that ever captured me more completely. I deleted the sentence from the computer and did my best to put it out of my head knowing there was no chance she was letting go of me.

As it turns out a fifteen year old with a stormy past is about as likely to let something go as a two year old with the latest toy. She invaded my dreams as well as my waking thoughts. It was eventually revealed not only the she was fifteen but she was a victim of human trafficking. It is perhaps this past that has kept me from telling her story but she is on the list of the books to be written next year and while I do not what happened to her I am looking forward to sharing her experience hoping it helps others out there.