Path of Jen: Bloodborne (5 page)

Up ahead there was an open area. Jen hurried
toward it and moved out of the crowd to find a good vantage point.
She came to a busy sidewalk and a two way street. The far side of
the street was not nearly as crowded as the side nearest the
bazaar.
“If I stand over there I can watch for Armand and Aunt
Fatima. They will be able to see me easier too,”
she reasoned.
Jen wasn’t sure about jaywalking or even traffic patterns, so she
followed a few other people who were also crossing the street.
Several people were giving her odd looks by now.
“Can they tell
I’m American?”
she wondered. She tried to ignore them and
concentrate instead on finding her aunt.

After twenty minutes of waiting and watching,
Jen decided to go walking back through the bazaar.
“They’re
probably looking for me right by that cell phone shop,”
she
thought. She followed two twenty-something men across the street
and into the bazaar.
“All the women are wearing full length
clothes and hijabs, but the men are wearing whatever the heck they
want,”
she observed. She could feel a drop of sweat sliding
down her back.
“That’s not unfair or anything!”
she
complained. She wanted so badly to rip the scarf off of her head
and just start shouting for her aunt.
“Why should I be punished
for being a woman! I don’t even live here!"

Jen took a calming breath and sighed. She
looked around carefully. She was back in front of the cell phone
accessory kiosk so her aunt should be nearby. She spun in a slow
circle. Nothing.
“Ugh, why didn’t I just tap her on the
arm!"
Jen felt defeated. She crossed her arms in sort of a
self-hug and walked farther into the bazaar. She passed by some
shops she recognized and many she did not. Soon, she stopped seeing
shops she recognized.

It had been over an hour since she lost her
aunt and Armand. Jen felt like crying.
“I feel so stupid!”
she thought, and she looked down at her feet in shame.
“Please
God, help me!”
she prayed for the hundredth time that day.
Lifting her head, she looked around again and saw that she was near
another open area. Jen hurried ahead and found a good vantage point
like before. She determined to stay put and wait as long as it took
to find her aunt. As before, people walking by gave her strange
looks. Women and men alike frowned at her and seemed to look about
the area as if wondering who she belonged to.
“Mind your own
business!”
she wanted to shout.

Three hours later, Jen was sitting on a bench
near a different portion of the bazaar, watching the few people
still walking in and out of the bazaar. She watched with little
interest and even less hope. She was hungry and scared. The bazaar
was closing soon, and Jen was worried that she would be out here on
the street when it got dark.

A car door closed nearby, making her jump.
She turned and looked up the street toward the sound. A taxi was
parked next to the curb and a slender man was leaning against the
fender lighting a cigarette. He had his other hand cupped around
the cigarette and lighter as if protecting the flame from a
non-existent wind.
“It’s him!”
Jen thought.
“He’s the
creepy taxi driver from the airport. Oh great! Could things get any
worse?"
She looked back toward the bazaar hoping more than ever
that someone she knew would walk out and save her.

“Salaam,” said a man’s voice. Jen turned
slowly, hoping it was not the driver.

It was.

She glared at him and looked away. He said
something she couldn’t understand and sounded friendly enough, but
Jen continued looking the other way. “English?” he asked.

Jen’s eyes opened in surprise and she turned
in her seat to face him. “Yes,” she replied. She didn’t want to
give too much information away, but she realized she desperately
needed help from someone. Maybe this was God sending someone to
help her?

“Are you lost?” he asked in heavily accented
English. He looked around as if searching for her parent’s or
friends.

Jen considered how to answer. Finally she
said, “Well, I guess so. I was at the bazaar with my aunt and we
got separated. That was hours ago. I know she is looking for me,
but…”

He took a long drag from his cigarette and
nodded in understanding. “American?” he asked.

Again, Jen hesitated, but eventually
answered, “Yes, why?"

He smiled and took another long drag. He blew
the smoke to the side out of his mouth and held out the cigarette
to her. Jen shook her head and leaned away. He shrugged and took
another drag. After exhaling, he said, “I thought so. I can always
recognize a fellow American.”

Jen raised an eyebrow and looked at him
sideways in disbelief.

“Really!” He laughed. “I was born in
Chicago." The smile faded and he added, “My sister too." He paused
to stare ahead as if remembering something. He took another long
drag and let the smoke roll out of his mouth slowly. Jen turned her
head to look away. Something about it made her uncomfortable. “We
moved here to live with our uncle when our father died. Our mother
was too sick to take care of us on her own. That was twenty years
ago." Dropping the cigarette, he stepped on it and scuffed it
against the pavement with his shoe. “Come on,” he said. “I’ll take
you home.”

Jen laughed nervously and said, “That will be
a trick." To her utter embarrassment, she started to cry. She wiped
the tears away furiously and sat up straight.
“No! You will not
cry!”
she told herself silently. She took a calming breath and
looked at the taxi driver. “I have no idea where that is. I just
got to Tehran early yesterday morning.”

The man looked confused and wrinkled his
brow. Then he smiled and excitedly said, “You! You were the girl at
the baggage area!”

Jen looked down and nodded. She thought of
her father chastising her for walking out alone.
“I wish you
were here right now dad. I need you!"
She looked up and
shrugged. If you had driven us I could just say “take me to the
same place,” but we took a different taxi."

The driver smiled and winked at her. “Do you
think I don’t know the man who took you home? Come on! I’ll call
him and then I’ll take you home." He swept his hand in a grand
gesture, toward the waiting cab and stepped aside to let her
pass.

Still a little apprehensive, Jen knew this
was the best chance she had. She smiled and stood up. She shyly
nodded and walked past him to the taxi. He rushed ahead and opened
the back door for her. Jen bent down and stepped into the cab. She
slid into the middle of the back seat and felt hopeful for the
first time in hours. The driver slid into the front seat and closed
his door. He pulled a new cigarette from his shirt pocket and lit
it in the same cupping manner as he had outside. He rolled the
front windows down slightly, and exhaled slowly, letting the smoke
flow up his face and through his hair before drifting out the
window. Some of it came into the back of the taxi and she coughed,
but he left her windows up. Jen noticed that there were no door
locks or window controls visible back here, and there was a clear
plastic partition between her seat in the back and the front of the
cab. She suddenly felt uncomfortable and changed her mind about
trusting this man. She reached over and tried the door handle. It
moved with no resistance and had no effect on the door. She
instinctively looked back toward the bazaar for help, and against
all odds, she saw her aunt standing near the street looking for
her!

Jen banged a hand on the partition and said,
“Hey, I need to get out!" The man ignored her. She hit the plastic
harder and shouted, “Hey! Can you hear me? I think I see my aunt! I
see my aunt!" He started the car and pulled away from the curb
without any indication he heard her. Jen pounded on the window as
he drove her quickly past Aunt Fatima and away. Jen screamed as
loudly as she could and pounded on the window. Through tear filled
eyes, she saw her aunt turn toward her and reach out as Jen was
taken. Jen screamed and watched as a shrinking Fatima held a hand
to her mouth in horror and then ran back toward the bazaar.

In the back of the car Jen sat, trembling.
She had tried kicking and hitting the windows and doors, but
nothing had worked. She tried screaming and crying, pleading and
demanding, but those had not worked either. She also tried
signaling to other drivers as they passed, but no one paid her any
attention. She was frightened and still had no idea where she might
be, but she knew that there was always some way to improve a
situation. She was a sucker for shows with willful and creative
heroes or heroines. She sat against the passenger side door and
tried to think her way out.
“What else can I try?”
she
thought. She tapped her foot on the floor and found it was solid.
“Duh."
She leaned back against the seat, about to give up
when she remembered a show where a girl had been locked in a trunk.
She had climbed through the back seat to get out.
“Maybe I can
get out by crawling through the trunk!”
she thought.

Jen began tearing at the back seat. She
pulled at the top with no luck and then tried from the bottom where
the seat-back met the seat cushion. She lifted up and pulled out.
It moved! Jen wrenched the seat-back off of the tabs holding it to
the framework between her and the trunk and stopped. The spaces
between welded supports were too small for her to crawl through.
There would be no escaping through the trunk. Jen screamed in
frustration and turned back around. She didn’t bother putting the
seat-back back into position she just sat against it and fumed.

“
No! I won
’t let
you do this to me!” she suddenly shouted. Jen turned around placing
her back against the plastic partition. She maneuvered onto her
side and put one leg up and over the back seat, and held herself up
with her other knee on the seat and a shoulder against the
partition. She began mule kicking the rear window. The first kick
was awkward and she had to reposition to get a solid kick. The next
one was better. The third was better still, and she was pretty sure
the window gave a little. She knew she couldn’t break it, but she
also knew they were held in by a rubber seal. She just might be
able to knock it loose. She began focusing on kicking it toward the
top passenger side corner.
“There!”
she thought excitedly as
she felt the seal giving way. Two more solid kicks and she had
pushed it past the seal on that whole side. She scooted to the
other side and began kicking in the same fashion but even more
fiercely. She shouted with each kick. After five good kicks, the
whole back window tipped back and onto the trunk. It rattled there
for a few seconds before sliding off and falling to the road behind
them. They were going slowly at this point and it remained intact.
Jen launched herself toward the opening and began climbing through
just as the sky was blocked out. The taxi had just entered a garage
of some kind.
“Oh no!”
she thought.
“I have to get out
right now!”

The engine stopped and she heard the driver’s
door as she was pulling her upper body out of the window space. She
got one knee out before she saw the driver rush past her and pull
the garage door down from outside. She scrambled out onto the trunk
and rolled to the ground just as his feet disappeared and darkness
overtook the garage. “No!” she shouted. “No! Don’t leave me!
Please!" She pounded on the garage door.

Jen pounded her fists against the door until
they hurt. She kicked the door while facing it and then turned
around and kicked it with her heels a few times. She screamed in
frustration and tried to lift it. It was locked. She kicked it
again and then collapsed against it, exhausted.

Jen struggled to control her breathing and
her racing heart. She sat still and tried to listen. She couldn’t
hear anything of the world outside. Looking up in the darkness and
folding her hands in front of her she prayed. “Dear God,” she said
out loud. “Please! Oh God, please save me! Please, just let me go
home!" Jen couldn’t help feeling terrible about how this would
affect her family. She was guilt ridden on top of the fear and
frustration she felt.
“I didn’t even speak to my mom after the
airport,”
she realized.
“What kind of daughter does
that?"
She dropped her hands to her knees and prayed again,
even more desperately. “Dear God, please! If you help me out of
this, I promise I will be a better daughter. I promise I will tell
my parents about you! Is that what this is about? Do you want me to
tell them? I will! Please!”

She turned and sat against the door sobbing.
Jen was tired and hungry and to make everything worse, she was
pretty sure her period was starting. She clenched her fists and
pounded them on her knees. “Come on Jen!” She hissed. “You can do
this! Find a way out!" Climbing to her feet she began searching for
a light switch, a door knob, a window; anything. “There has to be
something here,” she reasoned. She searched blindly, moving along
the wall to her left and touching everything. She found a workbench
with a few pieces of metal and some bolts. Near the end of the
bench she found a long wrench. She picked it up and tried putting
it in her back pocket, but her pocket was too shallow and it kept
tipping out. She tried her front pocket and that seemed to work
okay.

Jen continued along the wall to the far end
of the garage. At about head level, about two feet past the corner,
she found a light switch. She flipped it up and the garage she had
been feeling her way around was instantly revealed. Jen felt a
surge of adrenalin. “Where is another door?” she asked aloud.
“There!” she answered when she saw a man door set back in a recess
not far from the light switch. She rushed forward and tried the
door knob.
“Locked!"
She pounded on it and yelled, and then
pulled the wrench from her pocket and started beating on the
handle. It was no use. The wrench did nothing but make little dents
in the metal. It didn’t magically open the door.