Death Wagon Ordeal

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 581.

Looking back over those terrible weeks – most of the time flat on my back with my hands tied – I would say that the most difficult thing to bear was the inactivity. I could only think of death, which was staring me in the face. I made myself think of the happy times I had had, but I kept thinking of my life as grains of sand in an hour-glass; I had no idea how much time I had left.

The kidnap had clearly been planned meticulously. As I was taking my usual evening stroll with the dog, a rather well-dressed man came up to me and asked me to direct him to the local church hall. I was just turning round to point up the road when a wet cloth was pressed over my nose... that was the last I knew until I came to in the back of a large van of some kind. It was only after I realised we were moving that I remembered what had happened. Still groggy from the chloroform I tried to sit up, but I was firmly strapped to a narrow bed.

As soon as we stopped, the back door was thrown open and in jumped two men. The light of their torches blinded me, but as I got used to it I recognised the man who had stopped me in the street. I felt that he was sneering at me, and as the days went by, I discovered that James – as he was known – was the most heartless, calculating person I had ever had the misfortune to meet. I immediately asked what they meant to do with me, to which he replied that it all depended on whether my company would pay the ransom money. I asked to be allowed to get in touch with my wife, as I knew she would be terribly worried, and it was then that I found out just how nasty James was. "Feel free", he said, and got out of the van, chuckling to himself at his little joke.

I suddenly had what I thought was a brilliant idea. For several years I have been taking pills for my heart, so I decided to feign an attack. Breathing heavily and clutching my throat, I shouted that I was having a heart-attack, and that I needed my pills. You can imagine my surprise when James came in with a glass of water, and a bottle of my special pills. How long had they been keeping tabs on me, I wondered, to know so much about my personal life? Having given me the pills, James told his accomplice to let me have something to eat while he "arranged things". As, in the position I was in, I couldn't move, I asked them to untie me, and to let me use my hands. The accomplice undid the straps that kept me tied to the bed, but he wouldn't free my hands.

When James returned, he was carrying a small cassette recorder. With thinly-veiled sarcasm he asked me if I would mind reading a short typed message to my firm, explaining my situation, and demanding a substantial ransom for my release. Once again, I begged to be permitted to make a recording to be sent to my wife, and you can imagine how my heart sank when he told me that the only thing my wife might receive was my wedding ring – with my finger still in it.

By this time I was beginning to feel the "call of nature", and asked if I could use the toilet. James agreed readily, lifted down a plastic bucket from the side of the van, and untied my legs. They refused to leave me alone even for a couple of minutes... My humiliation and demoralisation were complete.

C Find words or phrases in the text that mean:

DSay whether the following statements about the text are true or false. If you think the answer is false, give your reasons.