Chapter 5
By Julie
“Hello? Hello?” AJ
repeated over and over again into the phone.
Finally, he hung up the phone and turned to face Kevin and Howie, who
were both staring at him with wide eyes.
“What the hell was that all about?” Kevin asked. “Where’s Brian?”
It had been at least half an hour since Kevin had talked to
Brian on the cell phone. Brian had told
him he and Nick would be back “in a little bit.” Well, Kevin certainly counted half an hour as
more than “a little bit.” It was snowing
hard now outside, and he had ordered AJ to call Brian again to find out if they
were on their way home. “Nick’s not used
to driving in snow!” he had sputtered, anxiously looking out the window. “The sooner they get back, the better.”
Now, after hearing AJ’s short conversation, which consisted
of the phrases, “Who the hell is this?”, “Where’s Brian?”, and “No, you
asshole, let me talk to Brian,” Kevin was even more worried than before.
“AJ, where’s Brian?”
he asked again, repeating AJ’s earlier question to whoever was on the
other end of the line. He noticed only
now that AJ’s face had paled a few shades.
“He’s still at the grocery store,” AJ said, his voice a
whisper.
“So… who were you talking to? What’s going on?” Kevin demanded, while Howie
looked between the two of them, wondering the same thing.
“I’m not exactly sure,” AJ said slowly, “But I think
they’re in trouble.”
“You think they’re in trouble? Why, what did he say? Who were you talking to?”
“I don’t know, but he said…” AJ tried to remember the man’s words. “He said… Brian was there, but he was having…
stomach problems. And he wouldn’t let me
talk to Brian. And he said we should
start getting some money together if… if we want to see our friends again…”
“Oh my God!” Kevin gasped.
“It sounds like they’re in… a hold-up or something. Hostages!”
“A hold-up? In this
tiny little town? Shit like that doesn’t
happen in places like this!” AJ cried.
“Well, something must have!
It sounds like this guy’s holding them for ransom!”
“What are we going to do?” Howie asked, speaking for the
first time.
“Call the police,” Kevin said automatically, reaching for
the phone.
“Wait,” said AJ, grabbing Kevin’s wrist to stop him. “Are you sure? I mean, if we involved the police, and the
police surround them or whatever, maybe this guy’ll go psycho and… and shoot
one of them or something!”
“AJ, for Christ’s sake, what else are we going to do? Go there ourselves and demand he release
Brian and Nick? Yeah, like that’s going
to work,” Kevin scoffed. “We have to
call the police.”
“What about the money?” Howie asked. “He said we should get together some
money. Maybe if we do that…”
“What, he’ll let them go?
Don’t think so. Haven’t you ever
seen any movies, Howie? That doesn’t
work!” Kevin exploded, reaching for the phone yet again.
“Wait!” AJ cried again. “I forgot
– the dude on the phone said he’d get back to us to let us know exactly what he
wants. So maybe we should wait until we
hear from him and then call the police if we have to.”
“What, wait until it’s too late?”
“Kevin, I think AJ has a point,” said Howie. “We don’t want the guy to freak out when he
sees the police and do something to Brian or Nick. Let’s just try to be calm about this and wait
and see what he wants. Maybe all he
wants is money or something, and maybe he really will let them go if we give
him what he wants. If we don’t involve
the police and promise him our secrecy, maybe he will let them go and run off,
and that would be the end of things. But
if the police know about this, they’re not going to let him get away. And if he knows he can’t get away and can’t
get any money for Brian and Nick, he might just…,” Howie hesitated, “… kill them.”
Kevin studied Howie for a moment, his hand poised over the phone
receiver. Finally, he let the hand
dropped and nodded. “Okay,” he
said. “We’ll wait for awhile, until this
guy calls back or whatever. But, look,
if he doesn’t call soon, I’m calling the police. Deal?”
Howie and AJ exchanged glances and then nodded. “Deal,” said Howie.
“Good. I’ll give him another half
hour,” said Kevin. “If we don’t hear
from him by then, it’s police time.”
His two comrades nodded their agreement, and the three sat back nervously
to wait.
***
It had been over half an hour since the hold-up, and as the minutes
ticked by, Ella grew more restless… and more frightened. The gauze she had taped over Brian’s stomach
had not stopped the bleeding much – in fact, they were now almost saturated in
his blood. She would need to change the
dressing.
Without really thinking, she stood up, prepared to go get some more
supplies.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Nate’s voice boomed, startling
her.
Ella recovered quickly and spun around, facing him with a glare. “To find something else to put over his
wound. These gauze pads need changing,”
she said coolly, looking him directly in the eye. She was afraid of him, but she wasn’t about
to let him know that.
“Fine. Hurry up,” Nate said
shortly.
“Thank you,” Ella said with sarcasm.
She turned to the manager, who was now sitting on the floor with his
cashier, Kim. “Do you have any more
gauze or anything I could use?”
“I’m afraid we don’t sell first aid supplies,” said the manager
regrettably. “There’s paper towels in
the bathroom…”
Ella frowned. “Anything else?” she
asked, knowing that thin, coarse paper towels would make a pitiful substitute
for gauze.
The manager and Kim looked at each other, thinking. Suddenly, Kim sat up straighter. “Maxi pads – we sell those. Would they work?” she asked hopefully.
Ella heard Nick snicker behind her, but she ignored it and nodded,
smiling a little at Kim. “I think so,”
she said. “Good idea! Where are they?”
“Aisle 6, in the very back,” Kim replied.
“Thanks,” Ella said. She threw a
cautious glance in Nate’s direction, but he made no move to stop her from
getting the pads. She walked down Aisle
6, stopping near the end of it, where there were several shelves of generic
brand feminine supplies. She reached for
a big box of the super heavy kind, then stopped. An idea came to her from nowhere, and she
hesitated, thinking quickly.
She had a cell phone. It was in
her purse, and she had not really thought about it until now. Well, that was not really true – she had
thought about it, when Nate took Brian’s cell phone, but she had put the idea
of using it out of her head, knowing there was no way she would be able to call
for help when she was surrounded by armed robbers. But if she called from right here and did it
quickly, they would never know.
But she didn’t have her purse. It
was lying on the floor where she had dropped it right after the robbery, her
cell phone tucked inside. How could she
get it without them seeing and then get back to one of the aisle to make a call
without them knowing?
Ella formulated a quick plan and grabbed a box of thin, regular maxi pads
instead of the super heavy ones. Then
she hurried them back to the front of the store, keeping her facial expression
as blank as possible. She sat down on
her knees next to where her purse was lying and casually moved it in front of
her. Keeping her back to Nate, Kelly, and
David and the purse in front of her, hidden from their view, she quickly unsnapped
her purse, reached in, grabbed her cell phone and set it down between her
knees, where it could not be seen. Then
she tore open the box of pads and pulled out a few of them.
“Oh no,” she said loudly. “I
grabbed the wrong kind – these won’t work well; they’re too thin. You have the heavy kind too, don’t you, Kim?”
“Um, yeah, I think so,” Kim replied, watching Ella. Ella could tell by her expression that she
had seen the phone. Ella gave her a
subtle wink as a signal to play along.
Kim nodded, saying, “Yeah, they should be back there with the other
ones.”
“Okay,” said Ella. She put the
pads back into the box, and with them, she crammed her cell phone. Then she stood up. “I just need to get a different kind of
these,” she said quickly to Nate, holding up the box.
“Whatever.”
Trying not to smile, Ella hurried back down Aisle 6. When she reached the end of the aisle, she
glanced back to make sure she was hidden from view. Then she got her cell phone out and shoved
the open pad box haphazardly back on its shelf.
Turning on her cell phone, Ella punched in the numbers 911 and put the
phone to her ear. She pressed the phone
tightly to her ear and turned her body so that the side the phone was on was
turned away from the front of the store.
Even if someone came to find her, they might not realize she was on the
phone.
Ella’s heart skipped a beat as a woman’s voice picked up on the other
line. “911 Emergency.”
Letting out a shuddering breath, Ella whispered quickly into the phone,
“Yes, I need help. I’m-“
“-in big trouble,” growled a deep voice.
Ella cried out in surprise, and the phone slipped from her fingers and
fell to the floor. David was standing a
few feet away from her in the aisle – in her relief, she had not noticed him sneak
into the aisle. Now he smiled at her,
his lips curling back nastily. “Didn’t
realize I could see everything, did you?” he asked, and looked up at a spot
behind her. Ella glanced back, following
his gaze upwards to a long, slanted, mirrored panel above the dairy section
behind her. She groaned, having forgot
all about the mirrors installed on the walls in the store to keep people from
shoplifting. Looking into the mirror
now, she could see herself, the hand that had been holding the phone in clear
view.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered lamely.
Ignoring her, David strode past her and picked up the phone. Ella could see a crack running over its
faceplate. Silently, David put the phone
to his ear, and a malicious grin spread over his face. He lowered the phone, then, without warning,
hurled it. It flew over the high shelves
into one of the other aisles. Ella
grimaced as she heard it hit the floor and break apart.
“Now come on,” David said harshly, grabbing her upper arm. Ella had just enough time to grab the box of
super heavy pads she had left behind before David dragged her roughly back up
the aisle.
***
Brian grimaced in pain as Ella removed the bloody gauze pads from his
stomach.
“Sorry,” she whispered, as she tried to pull the tape off his skin as
gently as possible.
“It’s okay. Do what you gotta do,”
Brian said through gritted teeth, offering her as much of a smile as he could
muster.
Ella tried to return it, but looking at the deep, bloody hole in his
abdomen, she just couldn’t quite make herself smile. “Nick, could you unwrap one of those pads for
me?” she asked, glancing in his direction.
Nick, who had been watching her remove the bloody gauze with a dazed expression
on his face, blinked and then nodded wanly.
With some difficulty, he opened the pad box, peered inside, and pulled
out one of the pink plastic-wrapped packages.
He pulled it open to reveal a long, thick, winged maxi pad, which he
turned over in his fingers a few times before handing to Ella.
“Thanks. Tape, please,” she said,
and Nick passed her the role of medical tape.
Ella placed the large pad face down over the bullet hole and secured it
with a few pieces of tape. “There,” she
said, admiring her handiwork.
“Frack, just make sure you never tell AJ I once had a maxi pad taped to
my stomach, ‘kay?” Brian said lightly to Nick.
Nick grinned and laughed, feeling – for just a moment – like everything
was okay again, like Brian was alright, like they weren’t trapped in a grocery
store… like he and Brian were back to being the best friends they once were…
Frick and Frack. Frack – it had been a
long time since he had heard Brian call him that.
“Ohh, you just wait, Frick,” Nick replied teasingly, “J’s never gonna let
you live this one down.”
Brian started to laugh too, and for a split second, Nick felt a surge of
relief run through him. But then, Brian
gasped in pain, and his laughter was cut short.
And Nick, remembering the severity of their situation, felt nothing but
fear.
***
