Life More Horrific Than Fiction...Amanda Berry.

"Two women who were kept for years against their will in an Ohio house finally returned home on Wednesday.

Amanda Berry, 27, was brought under police guard to her sister's home in Cleveland and was welcomed by a huge cheer from hundreds of neighbours. The house was festooned with balloons and placards, one saying "We never lost hope" and another reading "We missed you very much". Gina DeJesus, 23, had a similar rapturous welcome home. A third woman who was imprisoned, Michelle Knight, 30, remained out of the spotlight on Wednesday. When they went missing, Berry was 16, DeJesus 14 and Knight 21.

Berry burst free from the house on Seymour Avenue on Monday, with a six-year-old daughter born in captivity, leading police to the grisly scene where they discovered ropes and chains. Since their release, the women had been staying at an undisclosed location with expert investigators". (UK Guardian)

Recently, I finally resigned myself to reading "ROOM" Emma Donoghue's fictional account of a girl growing into womanhood while being imprisoned in an underground room.  In the course of her confinement she becomes pregnant and bears a son, whom she raises inside the dungeon-like enclosure.  

But that was fiction.  These headlines are reality.  A horrific and intolerable reality.  

One of the captors was a school bus driver, which brings me back to what I was once told about pedophiles:  They will always find jobs or professions in fields where they can work with children.

As a school bus driver, Ariel Castro had plenty of opportunity to develop a bond of trust between himself and various female students.  In addition, he would be able to identify those who were special needs, and whom he would possibly find eaiser to lure away.  I doubt that there was anything random about this crime.

I applaud Amanda Berry.  She is a heroine of the first water.  And like Ma in Donoghue's Room, she never gave up not just hope, but planning for that day when she would again be free.

May God go with you, Amanda, you and your daughter.