Short story

He smiles, hands on the steering wheel, one foot on the gas pedal, propelling the car forward . And I,  tied to the seat, mouth stuffed, and body strapped to the seat, keep fixating my eyes on him.

He drives on, hardly looking at me, humming snatches of songs, and suddenly, he has changed direction. The car makes an oblique rise, and then down it goes. Both of us jerk forward. The road curb's gone. We  are going down a slope, towards its end, where the sea beckons far below.  I wriggle, trying to get myself free, but to no avail. I shout, but what comes out is only a tiny muffled sound.

My husband and two children come into my mind. Have they been informed about my kidnap? The anxiousness in my heart is multiplying. It forms into something gooey, so viscous that it begins to fill every part of my brain, my limbs and my entrails. My bladders almost burst.

Hours before that, 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 began. We had gone our separate ways more than ten years before, and our split had actually been on mutual agreement'. I had been happily married for ten years and his sudden appearance baffled me.  He gave me a grin, and said, "How're you doing? Time really flies."

Lau retained the same look, albeit with a little weight gain. Etched into the skin of his forehead were a few lines, which made him look more attractive though. Yes, he now possessed a middle-aged charm. In between his eyebrows there was a frown, which had stayed permanent on his face from too much concentration on books. This could have a magnetic pull on some women. He was wearing a checkered shirt and a pair of jeans. Very casually his way. His eyes, however, kind of unsettled me. There was a sly glint in them.

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

There was an ensuing silence. Not too long but it was enough to make me uncomfortable .

"If there's nothing you can tell me, please go...." Before I could finish my sentence, he  gave the door an unexpected, but forceful push and losing my balance, I fell. There he was, now inside my house, and before I had time to get up on my feet,  he lunged forward and pinned me down.

Amidst my scream, he took out a stocking from his trouser pocket, balled it up and pushed it into my mouth. While trying to  spit it out, I tried to dig my fingers into his face, but he easily ducked his head. With enormous strength he seized both of my hands,  and wrenched them  to my back, so rough that tears came to my eyes. With him astride me, I was still struggling furiously,  crying with muffled sounds when something slipped on my wrists with a clicking sound. A pair of handcuffs.

He pushed back the gag into my mouth, completely muting me and he giggled. Grasping at straw for freedom,  I  kicked out my legs wildly in the air.  I wanted to get up, but with my hands tied up, it was futile to do so. By now, he had got off me.  I kept tossing on the floor.  And he just watched, totally bemused.After sometime,  he seemed to remember something and went into the washroom.  He came back with a long, dangling object in his hand. It was Ajang's towel and he tied it around my legs. He carried me all the way downstairs over his shoulder, passed a few gawking housewives, and said hi to them.

A Myvi was parked by the roadside, and he bundled me into it.  He strapped me to the front seat with tape. He enjoyed the pleading look on my face, flicked my nose and said, "Dear, fancy a ride? Let's go!"

(Myvi is a car in Malaysia)