Willis' Lucky Escape-an excerpt

Willis’ Lucky Escape by Austin Mitchell Willis woke up with a headache. He knew that it was after midnight because he had heard the National Anthem being played on the radio in an adjoining room. The room was dark and his hands and feet were bound. As he lay in the darkness he recollected what had happened earlier in the day. He had been driving his taxi on Molynes Road in Kingston, after dropping off a female passenger in Queensberry when two men waved him down. The men wanted to go the Papine. His first instinct had been to drive on but he remembered that he hadn’t made Bydie’s money yet and this was Friday and the man would want his money first thing tomorrow morning. One man came to sit beside him while the other sat in the back. They were on Molynes Road when he found a knife sticking him in his side. “Hey guy, we are going to show you which road to turn in. My brethren has his gun with him so don’t bother try anything.” “It’s not my taxi this, brethren. It’s a man I am running it for.” “All the better, we don’t like to take away anything from people like ourselves.” Despite his pleas to the men they took him to a lonely road off Old Stony Hill Road. They blindfolded him and locked him in the car trunk. He was highly suspicious that he was in Portmore and that the men had gone on a robbery spree with his taxi. Willis knew that when they returned they were going to kill him. They would probably run the car with him over a precipice. He felt weak having not eaten since this morning. They had taken his cell phone, his wallet and all the money he had on him. Willis wondered what Marlene, was doing when she didn’t see him come home. He was normally home by eleven o’clock. He would eat his dinner before washing up and going to bed. He had to be up by six or even earlier. His two children, ten year old Roger and six year old, Jassette, were bound to ask for him. Jassette, especially, never like to to her bed until he got home. Willis heard voices and suspected that the men had returned. He hadn’t heard a car, maybe they had left it on the road. The door to the room where Willis was, was kicked open and a light turned on. “Who are you? The guys are not here, Vinny,” the man said. “Who are you a talk to, Bounce?” the man named Vinny asked. “I found a man tied up.” “I’ll soon be there,” Vinny replied. Vinny came into the room. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” Willis remained silent. Who were these men? He wondered. “Two men took away my taxi. They tied me up, left me in the room here and said when them come back they were going to kill me.” Willis was sure that the two men were armed; both of them had their shirts out of their pants. “We can’t do anything for you. You just have to wait on those men,” the man named Vinny said and left. The room was again plunged into darkness. Willis slunk back into a corner of the room. He wondered who this last set of men were. It seemed that there were enemies. There was no way he could escape. One of his kidnappers had a distinct voice that he would recognize anywhere, Willis thought. It had a nasal drift to it. He missed his cellphone and knew that Marlene would have rung it several times. It must be after one o’clock now, he thought. The second group of men had turned off the radio. If you enjoyed reading this excerpt, why not hop over to my pages at Amazon. Please note that this is an excerpt from 'Days in Long Hill' a collection of short stories. This collection will be published later this year.