A Sinister Alliance: Human, Tech & Science

That time when a woman, tracking tech and DNA science wrecked a young girl’s life.

Rosa, a determined Black lawyer, had just interviewed her client. It would be a challenging matter. Her client was guilty, but Rosa had no intention of losing her case. She asked the woman to bring a designer outfit from her wardrobe that she had worn but not laundered to their next appointment.

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Rosa gave her investigator the plastic garbage bag with an authoritative command, “Deliver this to Goodwill, and make sure they understand it’s the usual treatment.”

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That same day, Meera, a young Indian woman struggling to make ends meet, entered the local Goodwill store. She spotted a beautiful designer dress on the rack, priced at a mere $5.26. It felt like a dream come true for Meera, as she had never owned anything so exquisite.

As Meera walked to the counter to make her purchase, the grimy Goodwill manager glanced up at her, his lips stretched into a thin line of a sickening smile.

Meera felt instantly uncomfortable. Something told her, It’s too good to be true. But she grabbed her purchase and hustled out of the store, seeing the associate reach for his phone.

She did not see the AirTag he placed in the bag.

“The Virgil Abloh has found its owner!” the man whispered into the phone with a raspy, slithering tone.

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Rosa received the call and listened carefully. She appreciated the Goodwill associate’s diligence. Only for the briefest moment did she pause to think better of making an innocent person suffer.

With deliberate care, she cautiously opened the sleek modern desk drawer, retrieving a concealed burner phone, her fingers moving stealthily in the brightly lit room.

Using the voice modulation application, Rosa called the detective handling her client’s case and gave the malicious, fabricated tip.

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The next day, just before going out to brunch with her family, she saw the news: ʜᴏᴍᴇʟᴇss ᴡᴏᴍᴀɴ ᴍᴇᴇʀᴀ ᴄʜᴀᴅᴀ ᴀʀʀᴇsᴛᴇᴅ Ⱥfŧɇɍ Ᵽøłɨȼɇ Ma̷ꝁɇ a̷ ĐNȺ Ma̷ŧȼħ.

© Scarlet Ibis James, 2023: All Rights Reserved.

This art and story was created in response to a prompt by Adrian CDTPPW for the R.O.D. publication to write a story based on a photo prompt.

Specifically, the question, “Have you ever bought second-hand clothes,” made me think of story I heard years ago. In that one, a court appointed attorney and his paralegal succesfully defended a client who has been arrested because of DNA found in a cap he had puchased from Goodwill.

That story wowed me and I have thought about how easy and horrible it would feel to be caught up in such a circumstance. How powerless and scary.

Furthermore, I imagined the coming together of all the technology we’re thinking and talking about these days.

This story highlights that the technology itself may not be as inherently sinister, as the way humans may use it for nefarious purposes; 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌?