Coffee Talk

It is almost midnight and I can't sleep. I keep thinking about all of the crazy disappearances we've seen on the news lately. The girl that disappeared in Aruba a couple of months ago hit especially close to home because I had just gone to Cancun with four friends whose attitudes seemed to mirror those of that poor girl's friends in Aruba. They trusted that she was safe with whomever she left with and believed that they would see her again the next day.
When my friends and I began our trip, we agreed that it was important to be safe; none of us was to leave the other and no one should go off alone with anyone at any time. My friend Ketema had warned me before we left, a solemn, unusual tone for her, "Don't go *anywhere* alone." she told me seriously. Of course I had just thought her paranoid. I had never been to Cancun, and thought that there was no way it could have been that bad, could it?
Thankfully, while I listened to my friend's advice, the agreement between us four friends was quickly shattered after our first night at a club and a few crappy drinks. My friend danced crazily again with some man she didn't know; the club was packed. I was handed one drink after another, and tried to keep up with the music, the oncoming drinks, and at the same time pay attention to my friends. It didn't take long to figure out that one of my friends, Blanca, had every intention of hooking up with her new Eastern-born friend, and before the end of the night had slipped away without a word through the crowd. My other two friends, completely drunken, had to be escorted out of the club an hour later. They were so trashed, they actually continued to fall down as we made our way toward our hotel. My one friend, despite her inebriated state, worried about Blana, but none as much as I. What if we had left her behind in the throngs of people it would be impossible to find her. And what if she had left with a man whose name I could not remember to get it on? What hotel had they gone to? Did she had money for the cab ride to our hotel? I got us all on the bus, and made three of us arrive safely at our hotel room. It was shortly after 4:00 a.m. We were due to go to an activity at 7:00 a.m.
My friends quicly crashed out, but I, worried about Blana, could barely sleep.
Thankfully, Blanca rolled in around 7:00, just as we were to meet our guide for our activity for the day. Blanca's leaving set the tone for the remainder of our trip, and I was the only one who knew better than to run off to some strange man's hotel room, no matter how good he looked after I'd had a few drinks.
Ultimately, any of my friends could have been the victim of some type of crime-anything from rape, to theft, to even murder. We were lucky, unlike that poor other girl who was not. I can only pray her body is found and justice is served to those who brought harm to her.
I also believe that my friends too should count themselves lucky that we came home from our trip all together, avoiding a tragedy that none of us ever thought we might see coming.