“Heidi!! Cindy’s here for you!!”
“Coming, mum” Heidi called down the stairs as she sat on her bed, putting on the new pair of knee length dark brown leather boots she had bought and pulling the zip up the inside of her leg. Repeating the process on the other side, she stood up and looked at herself in the mirror.
“This time Monday I’ll be in England,” she said to herself as she checked the way she looked. She was wearing a pair of dark blue denim jeans, the legs of which were tucked into her boots, and a grey v-necked pullover on top of a blue long sleeved top. Her jumper was tucked into the waistband of her jeans, with a thin leather belt around her waist.
Smiling, she closed the door to her bedroom behind her and went down the staircase. Entering her front room, she saw Cindy suiting there, smiling as she put her hand on her shoulder length dark hair.
“New haircut,” she said as she looked at Heidi. “Yeah - it needed a trim," she said as she unconsciously put her own hand to her fringe, her blonde hair cut to top of her neck.
“So,” Cindy said as she stood up, “all packed?”
“Almost - I just need to pick a few things up at the mall before we meet the others.” As far as Heidi knew, she was meeting all her friends for a pizza and a film that night, as she had a very busy day on the Sunday before leaving that night.
Cindy was dressed in a slightly more formal manner that she usually did these days. She had on a black pinafore dress, with large buttons on the shoulders where the straps came over, and a white long sleeved blouse underneath, open at the neck. She also had on a pair of short white socks and black Mary Jane shoes.
“I wanted to look smart,” she said as she twirled round. “After all, I won’t see you after today for nearly two months!”
“Fair point,” she said as Amy walked into the room. “My goodness,” she said as she saw the two girls standing there, “I forget sometimes just how much you are both turning into young women. What time are you meeting the others?”
“At about six at California Pizza Kitchen,” Cindy said as she picked up her shoulder bag. “Are you still able to give us a ride to the store?”
“Of course I can,” Amy said with a smile, “I need to go and visit your Aunt Veronica anyway. I’ll drop you off at the entrance to Macy’s, if that is all right?”
“Great,” Heidi said as she left the room, “Just let me get my bag and we can get going. We might be able to grab a bite to eat when we get there as well.”
“But you’ve only just...” Amy called after her daughter as she ran out of the room. “I’m going to miss her when she goes,” she said to Cindy.
“We all are,” Cindy said, “but we have video calls, and e-mails, and I’m sure she will have fun over there.”
“Yes, well,” Amy said as she grabbed her car keys from the table, “I’ve read some of the letters she gets from Miss Alicia Bailey, and I’m not sure she’s going to have that much fun. Who can tell though? Come on - I’ll be late for Veronica if we don’t get going soon.”
The mall was packed - not surprising given it was a Saturday in late June, and all the kids were free from the yoke of slavery called school.
Heidi and Cindy were sitting in a cafe, drinking shakes as the crowds walked past. On the other side of the mal she saw Dave walking past, a rucksack on his pack. She waved to him, calling out “Dave”, and he turned and waved back, before carrying on towards Newman and Marcus.
“Is Dave coming tonight as well,” Cindy said as Heidi turned back with a smile on her face.
“Yes, he’s coming,” Heidi said before sticking her tongue out. She had been out a few times with him now, each time more - pleasant than the last and last time they had just spent the night in her front room, hugging each other and talking about their experiences.
“So are we going to meet this mysterious boy of yours,” Heidi said as she flicked a biscuit crumb at her friend. “We keep hearing rumours of him, but no sign yet.”
“You might see him, you might not,” Cindy replied with a smile, “That’s for me to know and you to find out - one day. Come on - I want to see what passes for summer fashions at the moment.” She looked at a couple of girls walking past, with layered denim miniskirts and tank tops, shivering as she said “Are the Eighties really coming back?”
“God I hope not - I’ve seen the pictures of Mum and Aunt Veronica then,” Heidi said as they stood up and made their way out of the cafe, and towards the stores. As they went from store to store, laughing as they looked over the clothes and shoes, they didn’t notice the person following them, talking into a cell phone as they watched.
Eventually, Cindy looked at her watch, before saying “I need to visit the little girl’s room - want to wait for me out here?”
“Sure,” Heidi said as Cindy made her way down the corridor that led to the rest rooms. Turning to look at a stall that stood in the mall walkway, she picked up some of the cards and books that were on the side, flipping through them as she waited.
And waited.
And waited.
After ten minutes had passed, Heidi started to make her way down the passageway to the rest rooms, calling out “Cindy?” as she did so. The corridor seemed to be clear, with the white walls reflecting the neon light as she made her way down.
The door to the rest room was closed, but as Heidi stepped through she found no one inside. She checked the cubicles, before walking out, saying “Where the hell did she go?”
As she left the room, Heidi looked at the end of the corridor and saw a door that was standing slightly ajar. She was fairly sure that Cindy had not come back out, so she walked towards the door, calling out “Cindy? Are you trying to trick me,” as she did so.
Heidi was barely two steps from the door when it happened. Some sort of sack was thrown over her head and she felt her hands been pulled behind her back. “Wha... What’s going on,” she said as she felt some rough rope been use dot pull her wrists together, her palms slapping together as they were secured.
“Move,” she heard a deep voice say as she was pushed forward, her view obscured by the rough cloth that covered her head. She saw blurry images of a corridor before she felt her head been pushed down and she found herself sitting in the back of some sort of car.
“Heidi?”
“Cindy? What the hell is going on here?”
“I’ve no idea - they grabbed me when I came out of the rest room,” Cindy said as they felt the vehicle set off, the road bumping under them as they were driven away.
“Shut up in the back,” the voice said again, “or I will pull that hemp sack into your mouth.” It was a deep voice, strangely muffled, but Heidi could not recognise it at all.
How long the journey lasted they were not sure, but eventually the vehicle stopped and they were hauled out, then man handled across a gravel path into some sort of room. The hoods were pulled off their heads, and as they both blinked they saw that they were in a bare room, the brick walls reflecting the light from the bulb that hung from the ceiling.
There were three people in the room, wearing loose blue coveralls and black balaclavas over their heads. One of them was carrying several coils of rough rope in their gloved hands, as the voice said again “Bind their arms.”
“Is this your doing?” Heidi said to Cindy as the other two captors took a coil of rope each and pulled it round her arms, forcing them into her side under her chest as the rope was wound round.
“Nothing to do with me,” Cindy said as she felt more rope been passed round her shoulders and body, “I thought this was your idea of a surprise party.”
“Neither of you have anything to do with this,” the voice said as they both grunted at the tightness of the ropes been secured behind their backs. “Sit against the wall and stretch your legs out.”
“So is this a kidnapping, a robbery - what is it,” Heidi said as she watched her ankles been pulled together, the rope squeaking as it rubbed against her leather boots.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” the voice said as Cindy looked over at me. “Who on earth are these guys anyway,” she whispered out of the side of her mouth as she watched her own ankles been bound, the rough ropes over the top of her ankle socks.
“Less talking or we stop you talking,” the voice said as we both watched our legs been bound above our knees, our legs bent slightly as they wound the rope around and pulled tightly.
“Oh come on,” I said as the two stood up, “who the hell are you?”
“I told you to shut up,” the voice said as the other two walked back with what looked like folded up silk scarves in their hands, one white and one light blue. As they knelt next to us, I looked at the one in the hand next to me and realised that was exactly what they were - folded up large headsquares.
“I’m told you’re used to this,” the voice continued, and Heidi almost heard a laugh behind it. “So be good girls and open up - we’re on a schedule here.”
“A schedmmfmfdmfmdmfdh,” Heidi said as the silk pad was stuffed into her mouth, then secured in place with a long strip of white cotton that was pulled tightly around her cheeks and fastened at the base of her neck, trapping the edge of her fringe underneath. She looked at Cindy as the same thing was done to her, the edges of the pad folding over the strip as the ends were pulled over her dark hair and secured in place.
Both Heidi and Cindy looked up at their three captors, as they in turn looked down on them. “Right then,” the voice said as their masked face looked at their colleagues, “Get going - you each have a cousin to pick up.”
As the two captors left, Cindy and Heidi looked at each other.
“Jnneee?”
“Ntlyyy?”