Chronicles Of A Runs Girl - S01 E42

2 years ago

Chronicles Of A Runs Girl - S01 E42

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 42

I remembered how the policewoman had warned me not to go with him. Perhaps he had told them that ‘they’ had their own way to get a confession out of me. It suddenly didn’t feel safe to be in Johnny’s house.

I decided to make my case: “You said it was likely they were after the Americans, so even if I told anyone that I was meeting up with Johnny, how would I have known about his friends?”

“I’m not accusing you of anything. I just want to make sure I’m not missing anything.”

“Anything like what?”

“Like why they choose that day, at that hotel, to kidnap him.”

“I don’t know.”

“I know you don’t, but there might be something you saw, or something he told you.”

“Or someone I called?”

“Sorry ‘bout that. Now that you say it I see how it sounds. Look, I’m just trying to sort this thing out.”

“I want to go home.”

“Don’t you want to talk to him?”

I don’t know why I stayed but I did. I cleaned up and he gave me Johnny’s t-shirt to wear. I lay on the sofa while he made calls and spoke in his language. I knew I should leave but I was too tired and too worried over Johnny. I wanted to go home and look for Kike. The police didn’t return my phone and I hadn’t stored any numbers in my head. I could only imagine how worried over me she ways – she and all the girls.

I don’t know when I fell asleep but I woke up when I felt a hand on my leg. I curled away in panic. I was instantly awake. I immediately knew it was night; how long had I been sleeping?

John junior was on the sofa on the side where my feet were. He had a phone in his hand. I looked around and saw that there were other people in the room with us. All Lebanese, all old, and all sitting down and looking at me, quietly.

I sat properly and pulled the shirt to cover as much of my laps as it could.

“He’ll soon call,” he told me.

We waited silently. I wished I had more things on.

The phone rang and Johnny passed it over to the oldest man in the room. What followed was a bizarre negotiation over lives. The man kept insisting that fifty million was too much. He was so brash and so rude that I worried he might piss off the kidnappers. The other men watched on silently, and just when I thought he couldn’t get ruder, he called whoever was on the phone a ‘son of a thousand prostitutes’ and hung up.

He had been so animated a moment ago when he was on the phone, but he was suddenly calm and quiet again – all of them as well.

The phone rang again and he picked it up.

“Look, my friend, if you want to talk to me don’t shout!” he shouted at the person on the phone. “I want to talk to me son…You bastard! Give the phone to my son. You cockroach! Give him the phone now! I have nothing more to say to you until I peak to my son. Have you ever seen fifty million in your life? You think I kidnap people for my money, like you? Give him the phone now, you bastard son of prostitutes!”

A moment passed then the man spoke softly in Lebanese. The others listened intently. Next he was speaking to the kidnappers again and telling them that all he had was five million.

“If you annoy me I will reduce it to three!”

The conversation went on and on until he shouted at the kidnapper again and warned him that he would by God kill all his family if anything happened to his son. Then he ended the call.

His son?

The next time the phone rang he didn’t pick it up. They were all talking in Lebanese while the phone kept ringing till it stopped.

I looked at John junior. He smiled at me as if to say everything was ok, then he turned his face back to the conversation.

The phone rang again and John junior picked it up this time.

“Can I speak to my dad, please?” he said.

The kidnapper wanted to speak to ‘the other man’ but he insisted on speaking with his dad and soon Johnny was on the phone.

“I’ve got your friend here,” he told his dad, “Amaka. She would like to talk to you.”

But he didn’t give me the phone. They launched back into Lebanese till it was the old man’s turn to talk to him then to the kidnappers.