Kidnap

He smiles, hands on the steering wheel, one foot on the gas pedal, propelling the car forward.  Bound and gagged, all I can do is look on.                                  
He drives on, hardly looking at me, humming snatches of songs. Suddenly, he has changed direction. The car makes an oblique rise, and then down it goes. Both of us jerk forward. The road curb is gone. We  are going down a slope, where the sea beckons far below.  I struggle, trying to free myself. I shout, but nothing comes out.

My husband and two children....do they know of my whereabouts?  My fear forms into something gooey which fills every part of my brain, limbs and stomach.

Hours before, I had been doing my laundry. The bell rang, and I opened the door, shocked to see him outside.

`What are you doing here?" I said. We had gone our separate ways more than ten years before. Our split had actually been on mutual agreement'. In the intervening ten years, I had been happily married and his sudden appearance baffled me.  He grinned and said, "How're you doing? Time really flies."

Lau had grown sturdier and older, but he now possessed a middle-aged charm. In between his eyebrows was a permanent cleft, from too much reading. This could have a magnetic allure for some women. He was wearing a checkered shirt and a pair of jeans. Very casual. His eyes, however, unsettled me.

I didn't want to let him inside. " How did you find me here? I sent you my wedding invitation card, but you didn't reply. "

An uncomfortable silence ensued.

"If there's nothing you can tell me, please go...." Before I could finish, he  gave the door a forceful push that sent me reeling. There he was, inside my house. As I struggled to get up,  he lunged forward and pinned me down, nearly knocking the air out of me.

I screamed, and he forced a sock into my mouth. I resisted and tried to shove my fingers into his face, but he  turned and I only managed to  graze his cheek. Lau's face dimmed, and he wrenched my hands to my back. Crying soundlessly, I fought him. Then something slipped on my wrists with a clicking sound.

He pushed back the gag into my mouth, and giggled. I tried to get up, but with my hands bound, it was useless.  As I struggled, he watched. He was panting heavily, but appeared bemused.

"How is it like? Exhausted?" he guffawed. My breath came out in gasps. I was almost spent, my clothes soaked wet.

He seemed to remember something and went into the washroom.  He returned with a long, dangling object in his hand. It was Ajang's towel, which he tied around my legs. He then gave me a smile, a very childish smile, and without warning punched me very hard in the stomach. I nearly passed out, and he carried me all the way downstairs over his shoulder. We passed a few gawking housewives, and he even said "Hi" to them. Where was the security guard?

A Myvi was parked by the roadside, and he threw me into it.  He strapped me to the front seat with tape. He peered at me, then flicked my nose and said, "Dear, fancy a ride? Let's go!"

(Myvi is a car in Malaysia)