Three Word Wednesday - The Gravel Pits-Part 7

Three Word Wednesday - The Gravel Pits-Part 7

Bribery, noun: The giving or offering of a bribe.

Clobber, verb [with object] hit (someone) hard;

treat or deal with harshly; defeat heavily [with object].

Skeptical, adjective: Not easily convinced; having doubts or reservations.

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                                        The Gravel Pits-Part 7

  This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. 

     Terri came over and for two days they baked and cooked. Terri and Kathleen made muffins and cookies and cakes. Great- Aunt Frieda offered bribery some of the baked goods, but the job was tedious. They made casseroles and other meat dishes and Jell-O salads, until they thought they'd scream because it seemed so boring. Great-Aunt Frieda said they'd soon be done but Kathleen was skeptical, at least until they took the last cake out of the oven. 

  “Kathleen we need some linens, there are about fifteen white table cloths in the far closet upstairs near your bedroom. Please bring them here,” requested Great-Aunt Frieda just when Kathleen thought she take a break.

   Kathleen ran up the stairs and went to the cupboard and took out the linens that Great-Aunt-Frieda would loan to the church for the sale. She then started thinking about her lucky escape two days ago and grew frightened. Even going to the church seemed terrifying so she decided to tuck her dad’s Swiss army knife down her go-go boots before she went to load the car with the linens and food; after all better safe than sorry.

They loaded up the car and Great-Aunt Frieda drove them Terri and Kathleen to the church while she went to pick up Terri’s mother and the food from there house and a few other church ladies houses. There she opened the church with a key she took out of her purse. Then she helped them set up one table and then they placed all the food at that one. Great-Aunt Frieda instructed them to set up the tables, (twenty of them) while she left to pick some other foods from Terri’s house.

    The tables were soon set up and Terri became bored then she said to Kathleen, “I need to go to the bathroom. Want to come?”

   “I don’t have to go besides I want to put the Jell-O salad in the church fridge until it’s served,” Kathleen answered, “Do you think my chocolate cake will do okay in the raffle?”

   “Yes and my dorky brother will probably bid on it. See you in a couple of minutes,” Terri replied.

   A few seconds later Kathleen heard footsteps and asked, “Terri is that you,”

   “Hardly brown eyes,” a voice answered.

  As Kathleen turned she saw a man sticking his whole hand into her raffle cake and taking a big chunk.

   “Mmm yummy cake,” he said.

    Kathleen’s whole body filled with chill and her feet felt cemented to the floor. Then without thinking, she turned to flee, but in seconds her hands were grabbed and twisted behind her back.

   “Now is that anyway to treat a guy who offered you a ride the other day?”

   “Please, let me go!” Kathleen begged as he propelled her towards the door.

   “No I’m taking you for a ride, unless your friend Terri is here? She could join us too.”

   “No, I’m alone. But my Great-Aunt and Terri are due back any minute,” Kathleen insisted.

   “Then we better take that ride before they get back,” the man demanded.

   Kathleen struggled kicking back with her feet and even biting his left hand, but he still managed to push her into the car. Instead of putting her in on a seat, he opened the trunk. He clobbered her on the head, took out some rope trussed up her hands and feet and threw her in the trunk. Kathleen started crying as the car started up and her whole body felt the bumps as the car when down a gravel road. At least Terri was safe maybe Terri had heard and would call the police to save her? No, somehow she had to save herself. She tried moving this way and that and then realized if she bent her right wrist back she could slip it out of the rope. Being double jointed did come in handy. She managed to get her wrist out and reach down for her dad’s Swiss army knife in her boot. It had moved almost to her foot. She had to move around awkwardly, in the small space of the trunk to get it dislodged and to propel it to the top of her boot. This seemed to take hours but she knew it was really minutes as the knife dropped into her free hand.  She cut away at the rope on her left wrist and then was able to remove the rope from her feet. Now how could she get out of the trunk? She worked at the catch but it wouldn't budge. She was trapped and the car was still moving. would she become a statistic like that poor girl they had found two days ago? No, she had to think of another way before he stopped this car. 

    The car's engine came to an abrupt stop and Kathleen's heart felt like it had entered her mouth. This was it, her time was up he'd open the trunk and do whatever he was going to do to her, she thought. She heard a bang on the trunk and she hit her head on it. 

    "Hey little bitch, I'll be back to deal with you in a few hours after I have some beer. Maybe the time we'll teach you not to bite the hand that holds you. If you're a good girl when I get back we'll have some fun and maybe I'll even bring you a beer. No, maybe not, you're not old enough to drink. Are you?" he laughed.

   Kathleen then heard his boots hitting pavement. So they were in parking lot? Parking lots meant people. She started to scream and bang, but no one came. What kind of a dive had no people. The kind of dive a serial killer hang out at a little voice said.

   Kathleen felt herself baking in the late afternoon sun; it was so hot in the trunk. She had to find a way out not only because he was coming back to kill her, but because the heat in the trunk might kill her before that.

©Sheilagh Lee  September 3, 2014

To be continued