Chapter 05: Kidnapped
It was a week after Aunty Norma’s funeral that I discovered that my money missing. I had hidden it away between the concrete grove of the floor and the load-bearing wood that supported the wooden wall. This particular area was under my bed. I had hidden it there, because I was certain Janet, who had no business there, wouldn't find it. After all, she had stopped cleaning the moment she discovered that she didn’t need to anymore.
It was Friday afternoon. I was alone, as usual. School had ended midday, because of a teachers’ meeting. I had decided to clean today, so I wouldn’t have to do too much the next day. I stripped the beds and put the sheets in soap and bleach water to soak. Making sure not to mixed the colored with the white. I then dragged the big, heavy wash pan in the sun to let the sun and the bleach worked their magic. I went back into the house and took out all the small things that were on the floor and under the table. I put them out on the so called veranda. Everything that could be held on the beds, including the three containers Janet had underneath her bed with her fresh cleaned clothes folded. Two other medium sized containers with sheets and pillowcases, also, neatly folded.
When I was certain there was nothing more on the floor to obstruct my cleaning, I grabbed the sweeping cloth and started to sweep. I couldn’t kneel, because of the watery sores on my knees from falling a couple days ago. I had gotten quite good at stooping and cleaning. I pushed Janet’s bed out of the way, so I could clean that area without going under the bed. The front door was closed, so I didn’t have to worry about somebody coming in while I was cleaning.
I moved my bed to sweep that area, as well and my eyes automatically went to my savings corner. I did a double take when I didn’t see the familiar brown paper, I had the money wrapped up in. I dropped the sweeping cloth and went to the spot and looked down. There was nothing. I was shocked.
“A who could a take it?” I asked myself, as I started searching frantically.
I pushed my little hand down the groove to see if it had fallen down there. I went outside and looked under the none existent cellar to see if it had somehow fallen underneath. There was no way it could have gotten under there. The concrete and the load bearing wooden wall had came right down to the ground. I still went down on my belly, not caring that I was getting myself dirtied.
I went back inside again, trailing dirt all over the newly swept floor to thoroughly checked again. Then I thought, maybe I put it somewhere else. But I knew I didn’t put it anywhere else. There was the only safe place in the house I knew Janet would never have looked.
I started thinking. With air stuffed in my cheeks and lips pushed out, I started to cry, because I knew Janet had found the money. I knew for a certain. She was too happy. She was smoking heavily, shopping too much and was always singing. And she was exceptionally nasty with some of the neighbors , recently. She found my money. I fell on my butt in the house and started rolling around on the floor, kicking and crying furiously.
Aunty Norma had wanted me to remind her to take me to the secret bank to open an account. But she was dead now and Janet had stolen my money. I was crying so hard, I didn’t hear the sound of the aluminum-fence that separated Janet’s yard from the neighbor’s.
In my world of misery, I suddenly heard Wayne’s voice saying, “grab the little s**t!”
I started screaming at the top of my lungs for Chris, as I was suddenly picked up from off the ground, forcefully, from behind. My money and my thieving mother with the idiotism suddenly disappeared from my mind. I was in more serious danger. The person whom I couldn’t see, lifted my little body like it was a chicken feather he was picking up. I started wiggling my body furiously. Twisting and turning, hoping he would suddenly lose control and dropped me. But his clutch was tight and he was moving very fast.
“Help, Chris! Chris! Chris! Help!" I screamed, like a wanna be soprano singer.
I didn’t even know I had that pitch in me, but I was using it like the world was coming to an end. And for me, it was indeed ending. With one final breath, I opened my mouth and screamed “Chriiiisss!” as loudly as I could, before I felt a hand clamped onto my mouth like a steal mask. I twisted and turned and flashed my skinny little legs like trees in a category five huricane, but to no avail. My kidnapper was very strong. He was running, with Crotchless Wayne hopping ahead. I guessed he was still getting used to not having a penis, or maybe it was his shot up knee.
I was struggling, relentlessly, under my kidnapper’s arm, whom by now had gotten a comfortable grasped on me with his hand still covering my mouth. They ran through Mikey’s yard and were now going through Ms. Gladdis’ yard. They didn’t care that they were walking on her calaloo, tomatoes and other vegetables. Their aim was to escape, before anybody could see them.
When they got to Trevor’s front yard, I saw a white Honda Civic with tinted glass parked. Wayne took something from his pocket and pressed on it. It made a beeping noise then the car made another noise. Crotchless Wayne hurriedly hopped to the car and opened the back door for his accomplice. His accomplice then shoved me in the back seat while still maintaining his iron gripped on my mouth and getting in beside me. By this time, Wayne was in the car starting it. The accomplice pushed me down to the floor of the car and wrapped a black sheet tightly around me. He threw a thick, heavy, black spread over me, then put his feet on my back to keep me from moving. Anybody looking into the car was none the wiser. The the interior of the car was black.
I was numbed and tired from struggling, but I was still mumbling “Chris, Chris, Chris,” at the back of my throat, hoping that, by some miracle, he would materialized out of thin air.
“Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris,” but all I could feel was Wayne’s accomplice’s feet on my little body and the car going at a normal pace, on the roughly paved road.
They picked up speed as they exited Bowerbank Community and turned left onto Windward Road. I felt the car drove for about twenty minutes then it pulled up somewhere and stopped.
“Bring her come in here.” Crotchless Wayne ordered. “Move you bumbocl**t and hurry up!” He snapped.
His accomplice grabbed me out of the car without any effort and hurriedly carried me inside. I heard a door slammed then the black sheet was taken off me.
I was in a church of some sort. It wasn’t a Catholic Church, nor a Kingdom Hall, nor was it a Poko Church. It was a culmination of all of them.
Inside the church had many black ugly masks covering the walls. There were countless ugly bamboo dolls, dolls made out of coconuts, wearing colored beads, naked dolls and dolls wearing all black.
“Jesas! Crotchless Wayne and him frien them love to play with dolly babies.” I though.
“But is how them dolly baby here look so ugly?” I asked, without thinking, then pushed my two middle fingers, on my left hand, into my mouth.
With my fingers in my mouth, I was still looking around the place with it’s many ugly dolls. I hadn’t realized that Crotchless Wayne had walked up to me. He grabbed me by the collar and pulled me to him.
“Listen little gal! You a go make me the happiest man alive this evening, cause what I have plan for you, you going to wish you mother did kill you.”
He looked so menacing and scary. But living with a scary mother like Janet, if he didn’t have something in his hand threatening me with, I wasn’t going to show him any fear.
“A you kill me aunty?” I asked, with my fingers still in my mouth.
Stunned by the question, Crotchless Wayne said. “A what kind a bl**dcl**t pickney this? Before you think bout youself, you a concern youself bout you dead aunty. Yeah, a me kill her and when me done with you later, me a go done her son to.”
Listening to him talked. I couldn’t do anything else, but stared at him with fright. There was something strange in his face that I’ve never seen before. I looked over his shoulders and realized, to my amazement, that his accomplice was Nevel, my mother’s friend. He was at the house last night drinking Red Stripe Beer and smoking ganja with Janet. They were having a jolly good time, laughing, chatting and playing Ludi.
My fingers had fallen out of my mouth when Crotchless Wayne admitted to killing my aunt, but after discovering Nevel, I jammed them back in my mouth and started sucking noisily, staring at Nevel with focused eyes.
It wasn’t the reaction Crotchless Wayne was expecting. It angered the shit out of him. He pushed me as hard as he could to the floor and barked at Nevel. “Tie up the little r**s and come. Sundown we deal with her.” He turned his back on us and walked out with a more pronounced hop, dragging the gunshot leg behind him.
I was still sucking my fingers as I now watched Nevel bending under one of the dolls’ stand, pulling out a bloodstained looking rope.
“Give me you hand them!” He ordered.
I continued sucking my fingers and looking at him.
“Little s**t, me said you must give me you hand them!” He said, knocking me on my forehead with the knuckles of his right pointy finger.
The pain of it shot through my head like a bolt of lightening and my suck finger hand automatically went to the spot. I rubbed it, wincing in pain, blowing air in my cheeks and pushing out my lips. When I still didn’t comply, he grabbed my two hands and roughly tied the bloodied rope around them. He then threw me to the ground in the corner, like I was dirty clothes.
“We’ll deal with you later.” He threatened.
I was still able to suck my fingers, so I stuck them back in my mouth, ignoring the blood on the rope and watching him walked away.
I was left alone. I didn’t understand this place, but I felt I was not alone. Although, I couldn’t see anyone, I felt the hair on my arms rising. My heart started beating uncontrollably fast. My already big eyes had gotten bigger, trying to locate the person I felt. There was no one
I looked around the small church and saw what looked to be an alter in front of a stained glass window that was covered outside by brick and mortar. On the floor of the alter were some red pillows. The flooring itself was black ceramic tiles. The alter was made of the same colored ceramic tile, but was now dirtied with soot, and ashes.
Six feet away from the alter were rows and rows of black bamboo chairs wrapped in red velvet cushions. They looked comfortable and I imagined four of them in Janet’s house around a nice bamboo table where we could sit and have a delicious dinner.
Like the dolls, there were red candles everywhere. Rows and rows of hanging shelves filled with red candles.
“Crotchless Wayne and him frien them like red candles.” I thought, still sucking my fingers and looking around.
Suddenly the room was filled with chattering, but I didn’t see anyone and I couldn’t understand what was been said. I continued looking around and noticed a couple of windows on each walls. They had iron burglar bars on them. I got up, still sucking my fingers and walked over to a window to see if I could see outside. As I got to the window, I realized I was too short, so I took my fingers out of my mouth and went to dragged a black bamboo chair with its red velvet upholstering to the window and climbed up.
I still couldn’t see. There were ugly dolls staring at me from the windowsill. With my hands still tied up, I swept aside some of them with their coconut brush heads and watched them fell to the floor shattering.The silence that followed the shattering dolls, was deafening. I climbed upon the windowsill, fear emanating from every pore of my being moved me to urgency.
The window had a latch on it, so I dragged it down and to my surprise, the window opened. I squeezed my little head through the burglar bar to see how far away the window was from the ground. It wasn’t very far down. Janet’s roof was higher than this and I used to enjoy jumping off it. This was nothing. I’ve never, however, attempted jumping off the roof with my hands tied up, but this was a life and death situation. Nevel had tied the rope securely around my wrist and I had not yet learnt how to get myself out of a securely tied knot.
Since my head had gone through the burglar bar, I knew that my little body could go through it, too. Suddenly, the chattering started again, but louder this time. The hair on my body stood up and my heart started palpitating. I felt like I was going to drop dead from the ominousness. The need to hurry was so great, it fueled my movement and before I knew it, I was outside on the ground. I had landed on my feet. I stood up and looked around. The grounds was surrounded with trees and protected by high brick walls.
I didn’t shout for help. Something told me not to. I started to run, skating behind trees trunks. The big yard was densely populated with fruit trees. Some of the trees hanged over the high brick wall. The sudden sound of dogs barking, further fueled my need to exit the premises as fast as I could. Dogs had never scared me. It was impossible to go on people’s mango trees when you’re afraid of dogs, but they were noisy and drew attention.
It was also difficult to run at my normal speed with my hands tied up, but I was trying. The sound of the dogs were getting closer, so I jumped up and locked my hands around a small tree branch and pulled my body up effortlessly.
I had to be careful not to wrapped my hands so that I couldn’t release my upper body. With proper maneuvering, I was in the tree walking along the branches, my tied up hands holding on to other branches for balance.
Because the yard was so densely populated with many kinds of fruit trees, including a variety of mango trees, I was able to nimbly walked from one tree to another, swinging like a monkey from one branch to another while making sure the rope did not get caught in the branches. That would have been a problem to see the rope getting caught on a mango tree and because the branch was too thin, I’d be left hanging like an over size East Indian mango. So I was been very careful and fast, at the same time.
I looked down on the ground to see two dogs circling the tree I had climbed. They must be stupid or something, because they were running around the tree like they were chasing their tails.
“Bl**dcl**t mon! A where the little gal go?” I heard a man said from a distant.
“She in the church.” Someone answered.
“No! She not in there.”
“You look under the chair them? She little, she probly under one a them a hide.”
My heart skipped a beat. I stealthily made my way to the brick wall, while trying to prevent the branches from shaking. I reached the wall and looked down on the other side. It was a busy road, with no sidewalk.
“Check the bl**dcl**t back before Wayne come back.” Somebody shouted.
Getting hit by a car and dying was more welcoming than getting raped and burned alive. I swung myself on the brick wall and looked down again. The wall was higher than the window, but I had to try. I bent down and grabbed ahold of the wall and swung my body like a gymnast. I didn’t jump down. I held on to the wall, hopping that a motorist would see me and stopped. A few cars started blowing their horns furiously.
“Good, them see me.” I thought.
The traffic had stopped and people were getting out of their cars and rushing over to me. I was still holding on to the wall.
A woman asked. “Jesas Christ, little gal! A mad you mad?”
I blew air in my cheeks and pushed out my lips, as a pair of big hands lifted me. I started to cry. Big drops of tears running down my cheeks.
“A who tie you up so?” The man who lifted me, asked.
“Little pickney, a kidnap, them kidnap you?” A lady’s voice asked.
“She alright? Another voice asked.
“Somebody call the police them?” Yet, another asked
“A what a go on?” Somebody else asked.
“Little girl, you alright?” The man who held me asked, again.
“Yes, me awright. I answered, through uncontrollable hiccups.
“A what happened to you?” He asked
“Him did a go come at sundown to rape me and burn up me body on the alter.” I said loudly, through heavy sobbing and hiccups.
They saw the bloody roped tied around my hands and took pictures. Someone had called the police and a few sent pictures to RJR News. Some men were climbing on their cars to get a look over the high brick wall. Suddenly, more cars pulled up, as people got out to see what was going on. The ambulance came, along with the police.
The paramedics came out of the ambulance with their garner and put me on it as the police came over to me and looked at the rope still tied around my wrist. They untied the rope while I laid on the garner. I watched as the police officer put the bloodied rope in a clear ziplock bag.
“How you feeling?” One of the paramedics asked. But I was crying uncontrollable by now. I couldn’t answer.
“What is your name?” A female officer asked me, kindly.
“Me name, Swofiyah.” I answered through hiccups and sobs.
“Swofiyah, you alright to talk?” The officer asked.
“Yeeeessss, maaammm. I drawled, shaking my head.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“Me in the house a clean when me see that my mother thief me money, so me start to roll on the ground a cry, when suddenly me feel two big hand lift me up. Me couldn’t see the face of the person that life me up, but me could see Crotchless Wayne face.
“Crotchless Wayne? Who is crotchless Wayne?” The female officer asked.
“He is me mother boyfrien.” I answered.
“Oh, I see.” She said, writing down everything. “Continue!”
“Them run through Mikey yard a carry me, then them run through Gladdis yard and broke up her vegetable them. Then them run through Trevor yard and go into a Honda Civix that park up in front a Trevor yard.” I sniffled with tears running down my cheeks and mucus running from my nose.
The paramedic took a napkin and told me to blow my nose in it. I did as I was instructed and he wiped my nose and chin clean of mucus.
“And then what happened next?” The police woman asked, again, kindly.
“And then them put a black sheet over me and put me down in the bottom a the car. Nevel put him foot them on me, so I couldn’t move.” I cried hard, again.
“Then them drive off slow at first, and when them turn them drive fast for twenty minutes. Then them stop in front of the church. Then Wayne tell Nevel to bring me inside. Then him shout again at Nevel and tell him to “hurry up and bring the bl**dcl**t gal in.””
I was still crying as I relived the experience for the police officer.
“When Nevel carry me inside the church, the church full up a nuff ugly dolly. So I say “ a how them dolly here look so ugly?” But Wayne collar me and tell me that I make him the luckiest man in the world for what him have plan for me. That is when me see that the man who carry me was Nevel.”
“Nevel? Who is Nevel?” The police woman cut me off again to asked.
“Nevel is my mother frien that was over the yard last night playing Ludi and a drinking beer.” I answered.
“Okay, I see.” She said ,still writing.
“Continue.” She instructed.
“The way I was so shock, me start to suck me finger them. But Wayne never like it, so him lift me up and throw me on the ground an order Nevel to tie me up until sundown.”
As I hiccuped, I continued telling the police officer my story, while the other people around listened silently.
“Nevel find the rope and then him want me to stretch out me hand them, but me still did a suck me finger them, so him knock me on my head with him finger here so.”
I pointed to the spot where Nevel had hit me on the forehead and rubbed it, grimacing.
“Then him say, “little s**t, me say you must give me you hand them.” But me never give him me hand them, so him grab me hand and tie them up with the rope, and tell me “we’ll deal with you later.”” I cried harder as I finished my story.
“A what kind a bl**dcl**t man them here?” A woman shouted.
“Them man here must dead!” Another woman said aloud with anger.
“Do you know why them kidnapped you, Swofiyah?” The officer asked.
“Yeeeesss maaammm. I said, crying louder.
“Why?” She asked patiently.
“Aunty Norma said that Crotchless Wayne and him frien them want to rape me and burn me on the alter.”
“Where is you Aunty Norma, now?” The police officer asked me. That got the floodgate of tears opened wider and I started crying unstoppably.
“She dead. Wayne shoot her cause she cut off him buddy.” I said, unable to form the words.
“She cut off his what?” The police officer asked, unable to understand what I was saying through tears and hiccups.
“‘Here aunty cut off him c**k.” A woman volunteered, understanding me clearly.
I nodded my head in agreement.
“Is that what happened?” The police officer confirmed.
“Yes maam.” I said and shook my head.
“Was there an alter in the church they took you.” The Officer asked
“Yes.’ I said. “And nuff candle and ugly dolly.”
“Where is the church?” The Officer asked.
“It over there so.” I said, pointing to the brick wall where I had came from.
“Are you sure that’s where the church is” The Officer asked, looking me in the eyes.
“Yes, Maam. Me climb up in the trees with my tie up hand them and walk on the tree limb them until me get to the brick wall, where me tried to jump down.” I said with certainty.
“Now Swofiyah, this police lady is going to follow you into the ambulance. Are you okay with that?” She asked.
“Yeeeesss Maaaam.” I said, still crying big drops of tears.
“Don’t cry, we’re going to make sure you’re safe. Alright?”
“Yeeeesss, Maaaaam.”I said again, shaking my head.
The Paramedics pushed the garner into the ambulance and allowed the police woman to hopped in. One of them closed the door and the other walked over to me and took my temperature, heart rate and blood pressure. She then stuck a needle in my arm then attached a long tubing that ran all the way up to an IV bag.
I could hear the siren screaming as the ambulance quickly drove to the Children Public Hospital. I must have been tired, because the next thing I knew, I was in a hospital bed.
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