Many Moons

Road Trip #2

"Where are you taking us?" Mona asked from under her hood.

"Home." One of the captors said, slightly annoyed.

So they knew where I lived.

"Then why the hoods, since we know where we're going?"

"So you don't see our faces."

"But you're all wearing masks." Mona noted.

It took a second for the next answer while they considered this.

"The hoods are for after, when we go to our final destination." Another voice said. It sounded like Gary, who added, "No more questions."

The words sounded ominous but the intended malice came out hollow. Mona simply ignored them.

"Who are you people and what do you want?"

She sounded more pissed than intimidated. At any given time we had almost nothing in common, but our relationship worked beautifully in spite of, or because of, this. At times of extreme duress, however, our personalities polarized even further. Mona was the furious yin to my serene yang. I absolutely loved her.

I decided to take her lead.

"I'm going to kill every last motherfucker on this boat!" I shouted, glad that the hood was hiding my smile.

There was no response.

"God Dammit!" I shouted, which was followed by a chorus of disappointed "Hey," and "Come on." from the abductors.

Now I had a pretty good idea who these people were.

I could feel Mona's shoulder next to mine and hoped that my presence was giving her some comfort. Probably not. This was an uncomfortable situation. Having a hood put over your head is a pretty strange sensation.

I decided to try and stretch my boundaries again.

I stood up and jumped back and forth, rocking the already tipsy boat to the point where it started taking on water. Lots of water.

"Hey!" "Don't!" Some of the crew pleaded. A few hands tried pushing me back down, but they weren't strong or forceful. They were clinging and pulling... almost pleading for me to sit.

"Should we tie his feet, too?" I heard someone whisper.

"Here." Gary whispered back, probably handing them some rope or a zip tie.

"But what if something happens and we go in the water. He won't be able to swim?" The person whispered again.

That, I thought, was a good idea.

So I stood up quickly again, breaking the soft grips, grabbed Mona by the arm, and jumped overboard.

We splashed into the warm gulf water and I lifted my knees in order to sink below the surface.

When Mona and I were on the sailboat we were only a few hundred yards from shore. By now we were probably less than a hundred which meant that the water here wasn't particularly deep.

The rope binding my hands got tighter as the water saturated the fibers. I couldn't free my hands right away but I could remove Mona's hood and then my own. The radiant moon lit up the ocean and I could see fairly well, including my feet on the sandy gulf floor. There was a killer conch shell about two feet away from me. I tried to make a mental note to come back and get it, but figured I'd never remember the location since I didn't know exactly where I was relative to Faruk's house.

I could hear shouting above the surface, and then splashes. I looked up to see first two, then three, then more bodies entering the water. At first I thought they were jumping in to find us but then I saw the hull of the sailboat as it glided past and into the Zodiac inflatable boat, capsizing it and crushing the motor underneath its keel.