Brynn

I sighed. My cousin, Krystal sighed, as if in response.


“So, whaddaya wanna do?” I asked.


“I dunno,” Krystal replied, “but we need to do more than just sit here.”


This conversation was very familiar. We had it just about every time one of us went to the other’s house. We usually found something to do, eventually. Usually something entertaining, but never really interesting. Thus the conclusion that our lives were boring. We always wished our lives were more interesting, like in the books. But, we figured, that’ll never happen. It’s a nice dream, but unlikely.


Or so we thought. Little did we know, our lives would soon become far from boring, far from entertaining, and just downright scary.


“Hey, we could go to the swinging bridge in the park,” I suggested. Krystal jumped at the idea. Not that it was a particularly genius idea, but even sitting on a swinging bridge, almost falling into the water is more fun than sitting on a still bed, almost falling asleep.


“Brynn, you’re a genius!” Krystal exclaimed.
Eh, well, I wouldn’t describe the idea, or myself, as genius, but whatever. I guess it was a better idea than any we’d previously come up with, seeing as we hadn’t come up with any.


We got our shoes on, told her mom where we were going, and headed out the door. The park wasn’t all that far away, so it was an easy walk. The bridge was shrouded in vegetation, and had kind of a mysterious air to it. There was hardly ever anybody on it, which was just fine with us. For the most part, we liked to avoid people. Nobody understood us, except us. And even then, we didn’t always understand ourselves.


As usual, the bridge was deserted. Perfect. We made our way through shrubbery and other miscellaneous forms of vegetation, heading toward the bridge. But we got sidetracked when we spotted something hidden in the bushes.


“Is that a car?” Krystal asked.


“Looks like it,” I said.


“What’s a car doing parked here?”


“Let’s find out.”


We made our way over to the car. It was one of those weird little cars, a Mini-Cooper. A new one. I went to one side of it, and Krystal to the other. We both peeked inside the back wind*ws. The sun glinted off of something shiny in the backseat. Pearls. We both looked over the car, at each other, puzzled expressions on both our faces. We both thought the same thing,
What would this many pearls be doing in the back of a car? We didn’t have time to ponder it further, for a big, strong hand clamped over my mouth, and an arm wrapped around my neck. I could see Krystal in the same position, only her attacker was female. I, though I couldn’t see mine, was sure it was male. Females weren’t this strong. I struggled, and when the hand came off my mouth, almost cried for help. But I stopped short. Something cold and metal pressed against the side of my head. I’d read enough mysteries to know what it was. A gun. Krystal’s attacker also had one to Krystal’s head. I guessed this was so we wouldn’t make any noises. A male voice confirmed my suspicions.


“Don’t make a sound,” it said. I was also right in that my attacker was male.


Krystal’s attacker approached the car, while mine, all the while keeping his gun on me, said to Krystal,


“Don’t move. You move, your friend here takes a bullet through the head.”


Krystal didn’t move. I guess she took him seriously. Either that, or she was too scared to move. Maybe both.


Her attacker opened the passenger side door, and got a couple lengths of rope out. I knew from all the mysteries I’d read what was going to happen next. They were going to tie us up, and either kidnap us or kill us. Or both. I didn’t like the looks of this.


I was slightly relieved when they shoved us in the car. That meant they weren’t going to kill us. Yet. But who knows, that could come next. I tried not to think about it.


Instead, Krystal and I tried to think up a plan. I sure was glad we had our own way of communicating, one that was subtle and didn’t require words. The male kidnapper was still pointing his gun at us, so we didn’t dare say anything. We just silently wondered why they didn’t gag us. Maybe they didn’t have anything to gag us with.


Things weren’t looking so good. For one thing, how do you escape from a speeding car? Especially with a gun trained on you. We’d have to wait until we came to a stop. It was either that or try to overthrow the kidnappers, and risk a wreck and/or getting shot.


So wait we did. And waited. And waited. We were heading down the road that lead to the golf course, but I didn’t think the golf course would be the final destination. However, it might be a good thing if it were. After all, there would most likely be people there, and people meant witnesses, which meant they probably wouldn’t kill us there.


It was a possibility, of course, that the kidnappers stop on the deserted road before we get to the golf course and kill us there, then bury our bodies anywhere in the acres and acres of undeveloped land. No witnesses. Nice and clean. I didn’t like that thought. I could tell the same thoughts had crossed Krystal’s mind.


We had to get away somehow. But, we still had the problem of a speeding car and a gun pointed at our heads.


You can imagine our surprise when the kidnappers pulled into the golf course parking lot. What were we doing here? Surely not playing golf. Were we? I actually kind of hoped we were, even though I hate golf. It’s a whole lot better than getting killed. Krystal and I exchanged puzzled glances. But our puzzlement didn’t last long.


“Where are they?” the male kidnapper asked.


“I don’t know,” the female replied.


“They should be here by now,” the male said.


“I know,” the female said. “Now, Sam, will you please shut your mouth?”


“Temper, temper,” said Sam.


“I said shut your mouth!” Sam did. Apparently, whomever they were waiting on being tardy was making the female touchy.


Who are we waiting for? And why? I thought. I looked over at Krystal. I could see in her eyes she was thinking the same thing.

After a couple more minutes, a black corvette pulled into the parking lot.

“There they are, Terri!” Sam cried, pointing. Apparently, the female’s name was Terri.

“I can see that, Sam.” And, apparently, she was still annoyed.

Both Krystal and I looked at the car. Inside were two large males. Very large. Probably muscle bound, but I guessed that was okay. It meant that if we could get away, we’d be able to run faster. There was also some one in the backseat, but from our angle we could see who. It looked like another male, though.

Now would’ve been the perfect time to escape. The kidnappers were distracted, and the car was stopped. However, it’s extremely hard to run with your hands tied behind your back. Fortunately, we’d thought of this while the car was moving, and, since the kidnappers couldn’t see behind us, we’d been working at our ropes. I could feel mine were just about to come off. Krystal told me (in our own little language) that hers were about to come off, too. Maybe, just maybe, we could get out of here. But we’d have to do it quick. The people that our kidnappers were meeting were drawing near.

Finally, I felt my ropes fall away. Seconds later, Krystal’s did the same. I subtly slid my hand to the door handle, and pulled on it. The door popped open. I pushed it the rest of the way open and basically fell out. Krystal followed. We ran. The kidnappers (and their friends, or whatever they were) ran after us. But we had an advantage. We were young, athletic. They were old (well, not really old, but probably fifties), and weren’t as fast (besides, those two men were muscle bound). However, Sam had a gun. I wondered why he hadn’t used it yet, until I heard Sam say,

“Stupid gun! Don’t jam up on me now!” I had to smile. Behind me, I heard Sam banging the gun against his hand, and cursing at it.

We ducked behind the main building, and changed directions. It worked. For a little while. But then we ran out of cover. Krystal looked at me, and I looked at Krystal. We were both thinking the same thing,

Now what? If we stayed where we were, the kidnappers would find us. If we ran in any direction at all, they’d still find us.

Crunch, crunch, crunch. Quick and heavy footsteps on the gravel behind us. We spun around. It was Sam. He was aiming his gun at us. I remembered how it’d jammed, but was only relieved by the thought for a second. The gun looked different. It was different. And I doubted this one was jammed.

With an evil grin of delight, Sam pulled the trigger.

Brynn

I froze. I wasn’t exactly happy about having more guns pointed at me.

What did we do? I thought. I racked my brain as the soldiers approached. We had all shown our passports to the border guards. We’d all been cleared. So what did they want?

The soldiers motioned with their guns for us to step out. They also jabbered something at us, but it was in Spanish, and I understood about one word of it. At least I knew what manos meant. Hands. But what about our hands?

As we stepped out, Josiah, seeing we were confused about the Spanish gibberish, told us,

“They want us to put our hands up.” We did. Just then it hit me,

Josiah speaks Spanish! The soldiers jabbered some more.

“Tenemos la razón para creer que usted toma parte en una actividad ilegal,” one soldier said. The “ilegal” sure sounded a lot like “illegal”. But we didn’t do anything illegal—did we? I looked at Josiah with a perplexed look. Wearing an equally perplexed look, he translated,

“He says ‘we have reason to believe you are participating in an illegal activity’” So that’s what the “ilegal” was about.

“What?” I cried. “We’re innocent!”

“Tell him we didn’t do anything,” Krystal pleaded.

“I was going to,” Josiah assured us. Then he turned to the soldiers and said, “Nosotros no hemos hecho nada. Somos inocentes.” I hoped Josiah would have them convinced of our innocence soon. My arms were falling asleep. Besides that, we really needed to be going.

“Nosotros los recieved redactamos que usted pasa de contrabando un ilegal en el país. Verifiquemos su coche. Si nosotros no encontramos nada, nosotros permitiremos que usted ir.”

Josiah translated for us,

“He said, ‘we have received word that you are smuggling an illegal. Let us check your car. If we do not find anything, we will let you go.’”

I was relieved. I knew they wouldn’t find anything. We weren’t smuggling anybody into the country.

As the speaking soldier started into his search, Josiah asked another,

“¿Podemos poner nosotros las manos hacia abajo? Ellos se cansan.” The soldier nodded curtly. Josiah lowered his hands, and told us, “We can put our hands down now.” All our hands were down at once, as if pulled down.

The soldier searching our car completed his search, including the trunk, without finding anything. He told us we were free to go. It was all I could do to keep from jumping up and down with joy.

“I didn’t know you spoke Spanish, Josiah,” I said as we drove down the road.

“Yeah. I took it in middle and high,” he replied.

“No wonder you’re so good at it,” I said. “You’ve got six years of practice. I only know a few words.” Changing the subject, Josiah announced,

“I’m stopping at the next hotel. I’m exhausted.” We all figured it was a good idea to let our only driver sleep. We didn’t want him falling asleep at the wheel.

Aaron, anxious to get to our destination, offered to drive.

“Hah, dream on, buddy,” Josiah said. “You’ve only got your permit, and none of us here is twenty-one yet. Besides, in Mexico, and for that matter, all of Latin and South America, you have to be eighteen to even legally drive. You’re only fifteen.” Aaron sighed and mumbled,

“Yeah, I know.”

It didn’t take for Josiah to find a hotel. I guess tired people have a built in magnet for them.

The sleep felt good. I’ve never thought hotel beds were the most comfortable beds, but I slept well. To rent rooms, we used some of the money the police officer in the States gave us. The rooms were right across from each other. The boys got room number six, we girls got room number four.

Krystal woke me up at eight o’ clock the next morning. I moaned.

“It’s too early to get up,” I mumbled, glancing at the alarm clock on the nightstand.

“Whaddaya talkin’ about?” Krystal said. “We got to sleep in!”

“According to who? Miss Get-Up-at-Seven-in-the-Morning?” I flopped over and tried to go back to sleep.

All of a sudden there was music blaring. It took me a few seconds to figure out it was the radio alarm clock. Krystal must have turned it on to try to get me to get up. I stuck my head under my pillow. Krystal stuck the alarm clock under my pillow.

“Okay already!” I said as I threw the pillow at her. It glanced off her shoulder. So I’m not the best shot when I’m tired. I’d get her later. . .or more likely, I’d forget all about it.

We’d just finished getting ready for the day when there was a knock on our door. Krystal and I raced for the door. I would’ve won, if I hadn’t tripped over her big foot. She opened the door as I picked myself up from the floor.

“What happened to you, Brynn?” Josiah said, laughing.

“I tripped over Krystal’s big foot,” I told him. Josiah laughed again, and Aaron joined him. Krystal started laughing, too. I laughed (it was either laugh of die of embarrassment), but I still didn’t think it was funny.

We sent letters to our respective families before we left the town we’d stopped in. We’d thought it was best to send the letters before we even got to Argentina—that way, if the letters were intercepted, the postmarks would be in Mexico, and the crooks would most likely think that was where we were. Unless we were being followed. But we hadn’t seen anybody suspicious since that little encounter near the border. We could only hope they’d stopped following us.

After nearly five days of traveling hard, we finally made it into Argentina. But we still had nearly another day to go to reach Buenos Aries (if we made virtually no stops), which was where we intended to go. I was sick of traveling. I was sick of sitting in a cramped car for hours on end. I just wanted to be there already.

“Guess what!” Josiah exclaimed, waking us all (well, those of us who weren’t driving).

“What?” I mumbled, though it came out sounding more like, “Whmp?” (Hey, I was tired).

“We just entered Buenos Aries!” We all sat bolt upright and exclaimed at the same time,

“Really?!”

“Yup,” Josiah replied. “I just saw the sign that said ‘Welcome to Buenos Aries.’ Well, actually, it said, ‘Bienvenido a Buenos Aries’, but it translates to ‘Welcome to Buenos Aries’.” I would’ve jumped up and cheered, except I would’ve hit my head on the roof of Josiah’s Sunbird. But I did cheer. Just without the jumping up. I wasn’t the only one. We were all good and ready to be at our destination. Especially Josiah. After all, he was the only driver, and he had to drive thousands of miles with little breaks. He had to be exhausted.

I was right about that. The first place we went was a hotel. I wasn’t that tired, since I’d slept in the car, but I was sore from the awkward sleeping positions. A bed would feel good tonight.

“I wonder if Buenos Aries has any English TV shows?” I asked as Krystal and I walked into our hotel room.

“I dunno,” Krystal replied.

It turned out there was only one English channel, and it wasn’t even anything good. Oh well. I never was much for TV anyway.