Carjacking: A Love Story

“Sweetie?” I said.

It took a moment but she opened her eyes. She was startled to realize she had fallen asleep and even more startled to see me dressed. She saw the gun in front of her but didn’t try to grab it. She just stared at me wide-eyed and frozen.

“I have a question” I said.

She relaxed slightly as I spoke. “Okay.”

“What did Gail tell you to do with me while she was gone making her deal?”

“To keep the gun on you at all times,” she answered.

“What about letting me shower or use the bathroom?”

Amy shook her head.

“Why did you do it? Let me go I mean.”

“I knew I could trust you. You weren’t like the other guy’s I’ve known.”

“How can you know that?”

She shrugged. “I guess it was because you were scared. Most guys would try to do something like threaten us or try to take the gun away. I don’t mean that you’re some kind of wimp or anything, it’s just that you’re sort of gentle. I don’t think you’d hurt us.”

“But certainly you knew what she was doing was serious, right?”

“Well, yeah. But I know she had no choice, Terry might have killed her. Besides, she said you wouldn’t tell the cops you got taken by a bunch of girls, they’d never believe you.”

I told her my theory about why Gail went through all this trouble. Amy told me I was wrong. Then I told her my plan on how to handle her and asked her to go along with me. She agreed, but added she was only doing it to prove me wrong.

About half an hour later Gail came back and saw us sitting in the living room. I was sitting on the couch in front of the window while Amy sat across the room in the easy chair with the gun on me. For a second she just stared at me with her mouth half open as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Then she looked over at Amy and she shut her mouth and her lips tightened as if she was trying to fight the urge to scream at Amy for defying her orders. Her nostrils flared though as her anger built up inside her.

“What the fuck is that?” she said softly.

“He was cramping up so I untied him.”

Gail‘s murmured “I told you to keep him tied up.”

“He promised he wouldn’t try anything and he hasn’t” Amy replied.

“I told you to keep him tied up” Gail repeated. Her voice was getting louder.

Amy tried to answer her but Gail put her hand up and Amy shut her mouth. She looked down at the carpet for a moment to gather her thoughts. Then she looked up at Amy and smiled. “Yeah, baby. You’re right. Can I have the gun back?”

“Sure” she said softly.

When Gail took the gun she looked at me, then at Amy, then at me again like she was trying to make a decision, or maybe just to judge the distance between her, Amy, and me.

She was judging the distances. She shook her head and chuckled. “You really are a dumb little bitch aren’t you?”

In half a second she aimed the gun at Amy, who was closer, and pulled the trigger. There wasn’t a bang, only a click. Then she pulled the trigger two more times and got two more clicks. Her mouth dropped and her face went pale. She should’ve check to see if Amy was smart enough to not lose the bullets.

Amy jerked back after the first click. Her lower lip quivered and she quickly put her hands over her mouth trying to cover up her shock and horror over what Gail had done. I didn’t stop to thing about how bad this was for her. I just got up, walked over to Gail who started to back up with this surprised look on her face. She tried to use the revolver to hit me but it was easy to block her and take the gun. Without the gun, or Amy’s support, she wasn’t much.

“Keys please” I said. Gail just stood there silent.

I stepped closer to her and she tossed them over to me and ran down the hall to one of the rooms.

“If you’re looking for the box of ammo you had I tossed the bullets out in the back yard!” I yelled out to her. Amy went and fetched her duffle bag out of the bedroom. Then she followed me to the car and we drove off together. We heard about Gail a few days later when we heard on the news about someone finding her in a ditch near a pig farm without Terry’s stash or the money but with a pretty big bullet hole in her forehead.

It took a little while to find the highway and by the time we did Amy couldn’t hold it in anymore. The initial shock of having Gail betray her had worn off, and the grief and shame of being conned was setting in. At first she just put her arms around herself like she was trying to keep warm. The next minute or two when I looked over, her face had gone red, tears were running down her face, and her mouth was contorted in a painful sort of grimace as she tried to hold it all in.

Instead of getting on the highway I drove over the bridge and found a place to park on the side of the road. I pulled up the arm rest, took her in my arms, and let her pour her grief out.

A few hours later we started the ride home. We stopped at a restaurant halfway back and tried to figure out what to do next. In the middle of eating she said “Are you going to call the cops?”

“No” I said. “How would I begin? She shrugged and nodded in agreement.

“Do you have a place to crash? I asked. She shook her head.

“Would you like to stay with me?”

When I asked that she eyes began to get swollen and teary and I thought she was going to break down again. But she just nodded and stared at her food.

“You do understand I’m not going to ask you to do anything, or expect anything like what we did earlier. I just want you to be okay.”

“I can pay my way fine,” she responded. “I don’t need your charity. I‘m not some dumb kid who can‘t take care of herself.”

“I’m not offering charity” I countered. “And you’re not dumb. You saved my life when you trusted me, and don’t you forget it.”

“Well something’s wrong with me! I mean, look at me! I can’t find anyone who won’t just get in my pants then throw me away. What do you call that?”

“I think you want what the rest of us want. It’s just hard finding the person who return what you give, that’s all.” She nodded again and we finished our dinner.

When we were back in the car she said “By the way, not all of the guys who got in my pants threw me away later.” She then leaned over and kissed me. “Thank you for not leaving me.”

“Sure,” I said. “But remember, you saved me first.” Then I kissed her back and we drove home.

I kept trying to tell myself she was an immature drifter with no goals and she’d soon attach herself to someone else once she realized how boring I was. What we had that weekend was a bizarre, once in a lifetime event that couldn’t possibly evolve into anything serious.

It’s now three years since I brought her home. During that time she’s convinced me to get that better job and finally use some of my vacation time. I convinced her to stop smoking pot and enroll in college. I figure when our daughter’s old enough and asks how we met I’ll tell her we met at the grocery store.