The Rescue

It was a fine day, with magnolia-white clouds floating lazily across the cerulean blue sky. I hummed happily. I was on my way to my best friend, Evangeline’s house for a day and night of fun and relaxation! Her house floated into my mind. It was a semi-detached house, complete with a swimming pool and garden! I was very excited as it was only my second visit to her gorgeous house.        I stopped at the entrance of a stretch of deserted road. It was a shortcut to Evangeline’s house. Should I use the shortcut? “Yes!” I said firmly to myself. That way, I would reach her house and the fun we were going to have that day a lot quicker. I trotted forward and stopped, almost immediately in my tracks. Right in the middle of the dark and dingy road was ... a car? Yup, it was a car, but it was so different from the ones I had seen on the main road. They were all sleek and shiny but this one ... well, it was covered with tiny spiders beginning to make their nasty cobwebs.        “Woof!” a bark broke through the stillness of the morning. I leapt in surprise, Evangeline and I thought that no one else knew about this shortcut. Obviously, someone knew ... a dog, an adorable cocker spaniel! “Woof!” she barked and pawed at the car. My ears caught the sound of someone struggling. I cautiously took a step closer to the car. The sound seemed to be coming form the boot. I walked to the boot of the car and found a stick wedged between the boot and cover. I heaved and the boot cover flew open.        “Yikes!” I gave a little shriek of surprise. In the boot, lay a man tied up securely with ropes and a piece of cloth was stuffed into his mouth! I was at a loss as to what to do next. “Mmm ... mmm ...!” the man tried to say something. I galvanized into action. I picked out the wet-with-saliva cloth gingerly and threw it away. I pulled my handy pen-knife out of my pocket and sawed furiously away at the fraying ropes. The ropes fell apart within seconds and I pulled the man out of the boot. “What next?” I asked the man, who was massaging his sore ankles and wrists. “Let's go to the police station in the immediate vicinity!” He yelled as he took off suddenly. I followed suit and the cute cocker spaniel raced just behind me.        We skidded to a stop in front of the station. Then, I took a closer look at the man’s face. “Hey! Aren’t you ... the man who won a million bucks in ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’?” “Yup, I’m James Monroe,” he said grimly as we entered the police station. The policeman at the front desk did a double take when he saw the millionaire and hurriedly asked us to sit down. James Monroe then started his story. It turned out that he had been kidnapped on the way to work. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of thirty thousand dollars from his family and they agreed. The kidnappers took the ransom, ran off and left the victim bound and gagged in his own car. He was left there just the night before!        “We’ll find the culprits for you,” the policeman assured James. I then told them that I would be on my way to my friend’s house. When I reached Evangeline’s house, she was angry because I was late but her anger subsided when I told her my story. She said “Cool!” when I finished. I spent the rest of the day peacefully, recalling the incident.        The next day, a surprise awaited me. James was downstairs in Evangeline’s living room with his family! I greeted all of them and asked James why he had come. He said that he wanted to give me a reward for rescuing him. But I refused his offer of fifty dollars. He caught me looking at Sylvia, his cocker-spaniel puppy. Then guess what? He gave me Sylvia! He said that he had Sylvia’s brother and sisters at home to accompany him and would be glad to give me Sylvia.        That was the best gift ever, even though my mum said that I had to clean up Sylvia’s poo ....

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Written by Sng Evelyn Pri 6/1, 2002 Zhangde PS