Night to Remember

The weather was atrocious, heavy rain cascaded down from the sky, it was relentless and as the wind became a destructive force causing chaos to the city of Wolverhampton, one Codsall resident was about to receive an unexpected 2am phone call; with potentially devastating consequences.

    Despite the torrential rain, and winds that reached 90mph, Martin Sanders was unbelievably, fast asleep. How any man can sleep through these horrific weather conditions is implausible. However, on one previous occasion his brother Mark had called paramedics believing heaven had called his name; but in reality, Martin was in a coma like sleep, with ‘Cash in the Attic’ blaring in the background and a copy of the Radio Times opened across his midriff.

     Martin bolted upright, his sleep had been disturbed by something; he couldn’t remember the last time he woke up without the aid of an alarm clock. Martin switched his fluorescent light on, so he could gaze at his clock hanging on the wall, just above his head. 1.59am exactly. Martin was still adjusting his eyes to the bright light, when the wireless phone positioned on his bed side table rang. His eyes narrowed, as he pondered ‘who could be calling at this time?’ He wondered if his mother was okay, she had been ill recently. He apprehensively picked up the phone.

  ‘Hello’ he whispered. The man on the other end of the line sounded sincere and aggressive. ‘Do not talk, follow my instructions, and only speak if I ask you to, do you understand?’ No, Martin clearly didn’t understand, adamant that he will not be spoken to by anyone in a hostile tone, especially at 2am in the morning. He prepared to protest, but replied ‘yeah ok’ he had never liked confrontation. The caller cleared his throat, and spoke slowly but methodically ‘outside of your front door, there is a black Ford Focus, get in the back, do not speak, if you do, one of my men will have no option but to terminate your existence; do I make myself absolutely clear?’

  Martin isn’t exactly an intelligent man, any human being with half a brain cell, would call the police, shout for help or confront the assailant in some way, but not Martin; he simply did what he was told, and walked down the spiral stairs, with his pyjamas on, nervously opened his front door; and carefully climbed into the back of the Ford Focus with no shoes or socks on.

   He was alone in the back, it was too dark to see the driver; plus Martin couldn’t actually muster up the energy to take a closer inspection. This was serious, he was being ‘voluntarily’ kidnapped a crime even a member of the CSI, wouldn’t be able to comprehend.

  Martin was startled about the driver’s courteous road behaviour. The guy, was letting drivers turn right,  people cross the road and waiting patiently at red traffic lights. He even happily whistled along to Michael Buble’s CD, a rather surprising choice of song for a kidnapper! Perhaps used to his song being played at teenage parties or a school disco; he would be dumb founded that his rendition of ‘I just haven’t met you yet’ was softly playing in what was now a criminal vehicle.

  A mobile phone rang. The driver looked at the phone, before hurling it in the back of the car. Martin, without thinking picked the Nokia up, and simply listened; to the same man who called him earlier. ‘Yeah it’s me again, how’s the journey? It’s a rhetorical question, so don’t bother answering, according to my mobile tracker, you’re literally round the corner, see you tomorrow old pal!’

  The Ford Focus came to an abrupt stop; the driver took the keys out of the ignition and ejected his Michael Buble CD, before getting out of the vehicle. He then opened the back door, before motioning Martin to walk directly ahead. Martin wanted to remonstrate, but he was obviously concerned, that the accoster could be in possession of a weapon of some description. The driver shuffled past Martin, and ordered him to follow. He then took hold of Martin, and pushed him into what appeared to be a disused warehouse; before pulling the shutters down on the building. Martin was now very anxious, he had no idea where he was, and what would happen to him.

  Around six hours later, the shutters were opened; and standing there as ‘bold as brass’, were three of Martin’s best friends.  One of them helped Martin up before saying ‘come to rescue you mate, how about a pre-wedding breakfast?’ Martin was too shocked to utter any kind of words, and as soon as he walked out of the warehouse and into the blinding sunshine; something very familiar caught his attention; the black Ford Focus. Martin’s friends, simultaneously burst into hysterical laughter; Martin simply exclaimed ‘this time I’m going in the front!’

By Ryan Hillback (25/6/13)