She kicked the blankets from her
feet and felt the other side of the trunk cavity. They brushed against a cool,
stiff fabric. She trapped it between her feet, bent her knees so she could
reach behind her with her right hand and grabbed her black leather jacket. She
draped her torso with it. Are the rest of
my clothes there, too? she considered and stretched out again. Her muscle stiffness
and the many wounds objected, but she found other cloth with her feet and the
pointed heal of one of her black leather boots. Not much of a weapon but we’ll see. She decided to fetch them
later.
She rolled to her back and with
her right hand surveyed the area between her body and the rear of the car.
Immediately, she came in contact with something hard. It felt like a steel
pole. Okay, it’s no tire iron but … She
remembered her head bumped into something as the car sped off earlier after
Tony’s warning at gunpoint, and rolled to her right to explore the object with
her left hand. She slid her hand up along the rod and struck something attached
to the top—a light fixture. By feel
she recognized it as the one they used during the screen test and remembered
the wire cage covering the light bulb.
An idea began to form. A
formidable weapon may be within her grasp, one much more serious than a nail
file or boot heel. Her memory took her back to the farm. Her dad used a similar
floodlight when he worked on his tractor at night in the barn. She knew a small
powerful bulb could be accessed with the release of a protective wire cage. She
felt around at the bottom and found what felt like the hinge, so she reached to
the top of the fixture and located the latch. It came open with an easy tug.
Inside, her fingers grasp a small halogen lamp, about three inches long and a
half inch in diameter. Clasped on each end by a fitting, she pulled it free one
end at a time. With it secure in her hand, she held it with as much care as if
it was the antidote for a deadly poison she had swallowed. In the dark she felt
behind her for her purse and then placed the tube carefully in the outside
pocket next to the file.
She slid her left hand down the
pole as far as she could reach but couldn’t touch the bottom. Afraid to move it
for fear she would bump something and make a noise the three men would hear,
she tightened her body into a fetal position. Her stiff muscles complained, but
she clamped her teeth together and scooted as much as she could toward her
feet. Once there, she continued her examination of the pole until her hand
touched the base. A mental picture of it formed from her memory at the
warehouse and she felt for the retracted tripod legs. She lifted them. The base
was free.
While she was there, she
snatched her clothes and boots and took them with her as she stretched her body
back out. As she placed them in the space next to the purse, she noticed the
clothes still wrapped around a wire hanger. Another
possible weapon.
She reached again for the top of
the light. It too lifted free. She felt around the back of the fixture to where
she thought the power cord would be and found it on the floor loose. With her
left hand she lifted the poll and rolled to her back. Her right hand free, she
pulled the cord up and coiled it into her left. Now, with the cord looped, she
rolled back to her right side and slowly wrapped the cord around the pole. If
she had a chance for one good swing or jab, she didn’t want the cord in the
way. When she felt the male end of the cord against her hand, she wove it
through the wire into a knot and tied it off.
Satisfied there was nothing else
she could do but wait for an opportunity, she lay on her back and tried to slip
her clothes on. As she did, her stomach growled and she had a sudden craving
for a double shot vanilla latte. It must
be morning. No sooner had she realized this first spasm of hunger meant she
had passed the night confined in this steel space, than a second, more serious
urge cried out for immediate relief. A painful cramp in her bowels reminded her
she hadn’t seen the inside of a bathroom since she showered for the screen
test, and she needed one now.
_____
©
Jearl Rugh 2012
All
Rights Reserved
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