Day One

This is my story, told by me Louise Castle. I am just your 'average' person, I am just like the lady you accidentally bump into in the street, utter your apology and then go about your everyday business. I care not for anyone else only for myself and my family and it is for them that I have to survive tomorrow. I have to write this down so that it seems real as each time I wake up I am re-living the same nightmare.

I think that it is best that I start from the beginning so that you know exactly what happened and it will give you and me, a better understanding. My day started just like any other, I have children and my days are spent looking after the ones that aren't at school. As any other stay at home mum will tell you, it certainly is not the most exciting job but it is full filling and i am my own boss so that cant be bad. I work part time, a few hours in the early morning and whilst i am working my friend Valerie takes the children to school and then by the time i get home in the morning she is on her way home and i take back my responsibility of Eden who is only 3 and Anna, only 1 and a half. That i guess is when my day starts, and really short of visiting my local town for a spot of shopping, (which at the moment is one of the things that i am living for) and that is as exciting as it got. That morning seems like centuries ago but it was only one day ago and i wish so much to be back there. Many times when i have been in situations that looking back were so mundane i have wished to be like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and having those fantastically sparkly shoes so that i could just click the heels together whisper a chant to myself and i would be back to wherever i had wanted to be.

This is no musical and no amount of wishing or chanting will get me back to my 'boring' life that i so wish i could be living at the moment. Yesterday i had gone to work, did the housewife things; washing, ironing, tidying and at that present moment in time was looking forward to seeing one of my closest friends. God i have wished that i had cancelled seeing Katherine but i had no idea that the term, 'wrong place, wrong time' would have such a detrimental effect on my life and instead of being tucked up in my bed with my husband next to me and my beautiful children in the next room i had no idea of knowing where i am and what time it is. Oh the beauty of hindsight. So the day went without a hitch and my husband came home from work yesterday afternoon, ( i think) so that i could leave the relative peace of the house and i could travel to Suffolk so that i could see Katherine. It is so hard to believe that i was actually looking forward to going out and a series of unfortunate events had led me to the situation that i am currently in.

I left my house and started the journey which on a good day should only have taken an hour tops. I was in my faithful car, radio on looking forward to a lovely evening catching up, no kids, nice food, few beers and a good old chat. I had only been on the road for about fifteen minutes and i came across a young man in his 20's, dark hair and skin, probably of Arab origin, frantically waving to me in what seemed the middle of the road. The road ran alongside a newly used small aircraft runway and no amount of common sense would have any other person react differently to how i reacted. I had no option but to stop and i had no idea that it was anything else except a man needing help. Looking back there was no car around so i guess i should have wondered why he would be flagging a passing motorist but my brain did not engage as quickly as it should have. So he was waving at me and i slowed down to pull in to a slip road next to him. I started to ask him what was wrong and that was when his manner completely changed and he no longer seemed vulnerable and i just knew that i was in trouble. He opened my door and ordered me out of the car, when i did not move fast enough he pulled me out of the car and as he did so i fell to the ground. As i scrambled to get up i could not utter one word. Inside my head i was screaming but no words would come out, i tried to pull his hands off of me but the gun that he had in his other hand immediately stopped me from even trying. He sensed that i had seen the gun as i started to do as he asked. He led me away from the car and that was when my voice decided to come back, 'what about my stuff?' I whispered, 'you will not need it' he replied. His voice was calm and expressed no emotion.