1000 Memories

Chapter 18

Cindy’s POV

It has been 3 days since I woke up in a hospital with all these strangers surrounding me in the room. They keep saying that they are my family but that’s not possible because first of all, they are speaking in English and second, I have never seen any of these faces in my entire life. The doctors and nurses here are also speaking in English and this is what made me realize that am not in France anymore ,but how did I even get here? Oh my God! Did I get kidn*pped? Are these kidnappers? The thought immediately occurs to me and it sticks. I mean they could easily be human traffickers acting like my ‘parents’ so it wont be suspicious, although I do admit that I look eerily alike to the older woman who tried to hug me but I refused.

I can clearly tell that they are struggling to understand my language, which is good for me because I can act like I don’t understand them. Also, it’s very funny how they try communicating with hand gestures or use materials to communicate but end up getting frustrated in the end and finally give up.

They have been showing me pictures of my younger self and even recent ones, and that is the one thing that baffles me. Kidnappers don’t usually carry a victim’s childhood photo album around, or even take them to the hospital when they are injured. The nice nurse who has always taken care of me, has told me that I am much better now and that I am being discharged today and this kind of scares me. At least being in such a public place has been  making me feel somewhat safe but now they are saying that I have to leave the hospital and go who knows where with these people.

I had already tried to look for my phone and call someone at home but it was nowhere to be seen and this is really bad news for me because I was never one to memorize phone numbers off the top of my head. What am I going to do?

I begin to hatch a plan in my head. If I escape now, they’ll probably be very active in hunting me down and I probably wont get too far. How am I even going to get out of this country and back to France if I cant find any of my belongings? They are probably holding all my documents that I need to travel out of the country. My only other option is to make them think that I am cooperating and then escape when they least expect it. Acting like I am perfectly fine and smiling when they talk to me will go a long way in helping to convince them that I am perfectly on board with everything.

The doctor comes back later to sign my discharge papers and says that am free to go. The tall girl and the other woman who keeps saying that she is my mom start to pack up my stuff in the suitcase and she takes it to the car in the parking lot.

When the nurse comes back into the room, I pull her to the side when no one is looking.

“Phone number?” I try asking her for her number hoping that she understands what am saying. Having one person’s number that I can call when I put my plan into motion might really help me out in case I get into trouble. Thankfully she understands, and writes her number on a piece of paper before handing it to me. She is the only one who has noticed how unsafe I feel around them but has constantly tried to reassure me that they are good people and I should trust them.

I sit on the wheelchair and we go to the parking lot into the waiting car. Apart from my ‘parents’ there are two other adults seated at the front and I am told that they are Maggie’s parents. We drive for a short time before pulling up into the driveway of a nice suburban home.

“Welcome home!” my supposed mom excitedly says as she helps me to get out of the car and walk into the house. This doesn’t look like somewhere they would keep someone they have kidn*pped. It’s really nice here. I think to myself and start to wonder if maybe what they were saying is actually true.

“I am going to start making plans for dinner. It is getting late.” She says to me after showing me to one of the rooms upstairs and making sure that I am well settled in.

“Your brother will call in a few minutes to see how you are doing okay?”

Did she just say brother? I don’t have a brother, but I just nod my head and smile to show that I have heard.

If am going to run away, then it has to be tonight. The longer I stay here, the harder it will be. As soon as she locks the door behind her, I look for something to put some clothes in and I find a small backpack in the closet. I put a pair of jeans and top, a black hoodie and the phone that they had given me. They said that it’s the one I had even before the accident happened. Now all I need is my ID and some cash, and I will be able to look for a bus station and buy a ticket to go any other place but here.

I walk into their room as everyone is still downstairs. I look through the drawers for some cash and my ID, which I find in the drawers of the bedside table.

“Dinner’s ready.“she calls from downstairs and I slowly walk out of the room to avoid making any noises. The table is already set and the four adults sit down and start serving themselves. I sit at the furthest seat and quickly eat the food that was served for me.

“Going to bed...,” I clear my throat and announce in my broken English before getting up and walking upstairs.

“Goodnight!” they all say and immediately go back to their stories which is perfect because they wont even notice that am gone.