The Price of Pretty

Written for MLMM Monday Wordle;
the prompt words are shown below.
I was also inspired by the image of
beautiful flowers behind bars from
Sadje’s “What Do You See” prompt.
Here’s where the prompts took me.

China, find, high, hunger, inside, place,
plea, pretty, shy, start, think, wonder

She came from China with a hunger for something better …. a place where shy girls could start again, find work, find hope.

They said she was pretty. She did not think this was a compliment anymore.

Inside the locked room, she would wonder about her mother’s face. She could still hear the plea ‘come home, come home’ carried on a phone call that lasted thirty seconds before the signal died.

The men spoke in loud high voices about money, about ownership, about things she no longer had.

But somewhere, a social worker paused outside a door and listened. Something felt wrong.

Sometimes the ones who find you are the ones who were not looking.

Sometimes a locked room calls out to one person on the other side.

She had to believe that was true.

NAR©2026
#MLMM
#Wordle

This is “Behind the Wall” by Tracy Chapman

MLMM Monday Wordle #474

What do you see # 338- 27 April, 2026

^{Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.}