Two Peasants and a President Read Free Page A

shred of reality. 
    “Ray?  Ray?  Babe, are you there?” she said tentatively, not really expecting to hear his comforting voice.  The terrifying darkness did not answer.  She pulled the blanket up around her neck, now seeking not only warmth but safety.  She could feel a tear gliding down her cheek.  It seemed to mock her, scorning the helplessness that was starting to envelope her.  She fought the sudden up welling of emotion inside her, like flood waters e n gulfing her, drowning her control.  
    Light.  Light.  I  just need light , she thought desperately, now feeling short of breath, the darkness a hood, covering her, smothering her.  She threw her head back, as if to shake off the panic, striking her head against something hard.  She started to cry, but that angered her.  Anger, something familiar, something she knew.  The anger made her stronger; she could feel it.  It reminded her that she was not a weak woman.  Her family had raised her strong.  She began trying to think clearly, to make sense. 
    Her purse had not been snatched, there had been no fender bender, no minor daily trauma that could be dealt with after a moment’s reflection, fo l lowed by some appropriate action.  She wasn’t overreacting to some insi g nificant event.  That thought tripped a spring and everything came flying up at her.  She had been kidnapped on the South China Sea.  She had been taken prisoner and thrown in some dark cell.  Her soul mate, husband of but days was nowhere she could reach out to, and her family was thousands of miles away, blissfully unaware that she was desperately in need.
    That thought unlocked more tears as a new possibility thrust its inel e gant hand deep inside her.  What had they done with Ray?  Was he even alive?  She could no longer hold back the images that thought evoked and she began to sob. 
    Moments later, she felt movement.  The mattress had moved, she was certain.  Her sobbing ceased abruptly.  Turning her senses outward, she searched for a clue, some bit of information.  But if what she discov ered terrified her, she wouldn’ t be able to go back.  That was silly , she thought, no one ever goes back anyway , never did; everything always moves forward .   But from this point on , nothing would be what she expected, nothing would be what she hoped for, everything would be forced upon her by someone whose motives were unfathomable, someone whose evil she could scarcely co n ceive. 
    She felt more movement again; now the whole room was mov ing.  A deep rumbling sound provided her with information.  The room had moved and was continuing to move.  The rumbling sound could only be an engine, which meant that she was on board a ship of some sort.  She thought back to the boat that had intercepted the junk, the one which had appeared to her to be a police boat.   Was she aboard that boat?  Had it stopped briefly and then recommenced its voyage to a destination unknown?  Or had she been tran s ferred to another? 
    “Ray?  Ray?  Babe, are you there?” she said again, thinking , hoping that perhaps he was nearby, but still unconscious.  “Ray!” she screamed , squeezing her fists as if willing him to answer.  Only the distant rumbling of the engine answered her.  “No, Damn it!” she said to herself as another tear trickled downward. “You will not cry again!”
    She began to explore the room around her, on her hands and knees at first, lest she fall over something unseen.  The object she first encountered seemed strange and unrecognizable.   Moving her hands over its surface, she gradually came to understand what it was.  They had placed a folding por t able toilet in the room, x-shaped like a lawn chair but with an oval seat and a plastic bag suspended beneath it.  This told her that it was unlikely she would leave this room until they reached their destination, a realization she didn’t need.
    In the first corner she felt something hard and flat.