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6:00 a.m. The alarm rings out shrilly waking Sally Jones from a deep sleep. She moans and groans then hits the snooze button. Mondays are a pain in the neck. It seems only two seconds later that the alarm rings again. She turns it off and forces herself out of bed. She pulls on a bathrobe and blindly gropes her way into the bathroom.
6:20 a.m. No time for a luxury bath, she walks out of a quick shower, towels herself dry and, in a robe, goes to her children's bedroom. They lay there so peacefully she does not want to wake them up. But she has to so she gently goes to Philip's bed and kisses him gently on the cheek. He stirs lightly.
"Wake up, baby," she says to him. He opens his eyes then closes them and rubs on them. She knows he is awake so she crosses over to Matthew's bed and strokes his hair. He wakes up immediately.
"Rise and shine. It's Monday morning and we're all anxious to go to school, ain't we?" That question is only answered with moans. Nevertheless they crawl out of their beds and go into their bathroom. She pulls open the dresser drawer and picks out their clothes for the day which she lays on their respective beds. X-Men for Matthew and The Lion King for Philip.
6:30 a.m. Sally enters the kitchen, pulls the pots and pans out of the dishwasher and places them on the stove. She turns it on and gets the eggs and margarine from the fridge. She cracks the eggs, beats them quickly then pours the mixture on the greased pan. She pours water into a pan and places it on the stove then puts slices of bread in the toaster.
6:45 a.m. The children walk into the kitchen and sit at the table. Matthew is seven and growing fast. Philip is three and still troublesome. She gives them the eggs and toast with a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of orange juice for Matthew and milk for Philip. Philip loves milk but she has to make Matthew drink his. As the kids eat, Sally goes to the bedroom to get dressed. The fall weather is a bit chilly so she wears navy sweat pants, a white cotton blouse and light blue sweater. She looks at herself in the mirror and feels great cause she is in good shape. How can one not be with two jobs and two kids to raise? There definitely is no time to sit around and vegetate.
7:00 a.m. After a couple of munches on the eggs, Sally takes the children's lunch from the refrigerator and puts it in their lunch boxes. She always prepares their lunch the night before for she has no time in the morning.
"Everybody got their bags?" She asks as Matthew puts on his jacket then dresses Philip and straps backpacks on their shoulders.
"Yes." They both answer.
"Time to go." She grabs her purse and leads them to the door. Once out, she locks the door then takes Philip to her next door neighbor, Jane's apartment. Jane comes out smiling as though she had been up for hours.
"Hi, Matt. Come in, baby. Good morning, Phil. Morning, Sally."
"Good morning, Jane. Thanks and I'll see you later. Behave yourself, Matt."
"Yes, mama." Matthew says walking inside.
Sally leads Philip to the car. Jane usually baby sits Matthew until close to eight when she drops him and her daughter Susan to school. She picks them up from school at three o'clock then picks Philip from the daycare on the way home. Sally usually gets off her first job at 1:00 p.m., goes home, cleans up, then goes to her next job at 1:30 p.m. She gets back home at 10:15 p.m. She does this Monday through Friday so the only time she gets to spend with her sons is on weekends. She drops Philip off at the daycare then drives up the street to One Stop, a convenient store and gas station in one where she works.
7:20 a.m. She unlocks the door, quickly walks in and calls the security company giving them her code. She only has fifteen seconds between when she opens the door and calls security otherwise the silent alarm would be set off. She turns on the lights, locks the door then checks to see if everything is stocked. The cooler is low on orange juice. Willie, the night guy did not stock it again and he very well knows that people come in in the morning for that orange juice. She walks into the cooler and stocks up on the small eight ounce bottles. She comes out and puts fresh coffee grounds in the coffee makers. She makes sure the creamers and sugars are stocked up and pours water in the coffee makers.
7:30 a.m. She unlocks the door once again and turns over the 'Open' sign then walks to the counter where she turns on the register. Soon after, a beat up station wagon drives up to one of the pumps. A man gets out and pulls the gas nozzle out of its cradle. A beeping noise goes off in the store. Sally turns on the pump cutting off that annoying noise.
As he pumps, Emily, the donut lady from The Donut Queen, her own store, drives up in her van and delivers the day's donuts. Emily is rather heavy set and very friendly.
"Morning Sally." She calls out loudly. "How are the boys?"
"Stubborn as ever but I try to keep them in shape."
"That's kids for you." She walks over to the counter where Sally pulls out the invoice which she signs and leaves. She gets paid every Friday. She brings in an order of fifty donuts of ten different varieties daily. They are all eaten up by ten o'clock. No one makes a better donut than Emily.
7:37 a.m. The man finally fills up the station wagon, replaces the pump and caps the fuel tank. He slowly walks into the store as Emily walks out. He has a wild look about him. His clothes are dirty and his hair looks like it has not been washed in months. He looks outside then walks over to the counter.
"Sixteen and forty-two cents." Sally tells him. "Do you want anything else, sir?"
"Yes." He says then pulls out a gun. "Give me all the money. Right now!"
Sally is stunned. She has been working at One Stop almost a year now and has never been held up. The store has been robbed once in the past year but that happened at night. Nobody robs a store in the morning.
"Okay," she says nervously trying to unlock the cash register. Her hands are trembling as she keeps hitting the wrong buttons.
"Hurry up, lady!" The man shouts startling her. "I ain't got all day."
"Just calm down, okay? You're making me nervous with that thing pointed at me. I'll get you the money. Just don't hurt me." She looks up as the register opens and notices Todd Bollinger walking towards the store. Todd is a local police officer who always stops in at 7:50 sharp every morning for coffee and donuts. This is one officer who truly loved donuts, especially Emily's.
7:50 a.m. Todd gets to the door as Sally silently tries to signal to him by shaking her head. The man with the gun is so busy straining to look into the cash register that he does not see Todd. Todd, oblivious to Sally's signals, opens the door. The chime goes off ringing out noisily. The gunman spins around and fires a shot missing Todd by a foot. Things happen fast. Todd drops flat on the ground and rolls away from the door. The gunman leaps over the counter and grabs Sally shoving the gun into her ribs. He glances around like a trapped animal. Sally notices that he is shaking. She is scared the gun might go off.
"Relax, won't you. If that gun goes off, I'm gonna be dead and so are you." She speaks rapidly. She is scared but she has to keep her head if she is to survive.
"Shut up, bitch. Just shut up while I think." He strains to look outside the window in search for Todd. He cannot see him or his car.
Todd gets in his car and calls the station immediately. He waits, ready in case the robber comes out and tries to get to the station wagon. He knows that Sally is now a hostage. He must do all he can to get her out of this mess alive.
8:00 a.m. Police sirens scream as though from all directions. There are windows on two sides of the store so one can pretty much see a large area. To the left, across the street, is a McDonald's restaurant. Right in front is the highway. To the right is a Holiday Inn hotel. Soon the cars arrive. There must be about twelve of them including an ambulance, a fire truck and a big van. They immediately secure the area by tying those yellow, DO NOT CROSS banners along the streets across the entrances. They re-direct traffic to prevent motorists from driving directly in front of the store. They take positions behind their cars before one of them takes out a megaphone.
"Come out with your hands in the air." He calls out. "Come out now and no-one gets hurt."
"He must be kidding." The robber says. Suddenly the phone rings startling both Sally and the robber. The robber pushes Sally towards it and picks it up.
"Hello." He says.
"This is sergeant Benito, how are you doing in there?"
"How the hell do you think I'm doing?" The robber yells into the phone.
"Relax, sir. Let's talk about this. What do you want?"
"I want to get out and go home. That's what I want."
"What's your name, son?" While he talks, a couple of officers go into the station wagon and take out some papers.
"I'm not telling you my name. I said I want to get out and go home. If you don't let me, I'll shoot this woman right here." He points the gun at Sally's head.
Sally trembles uncontrollably. This man seems very unstable. He might be on drugs or something. She thinks of her kids. Philip is only a block away. The people at the daycare must know what's going on. Does Philip know what's going on?
"If you leave the lady alone we'll let you go home." Benito says.
"Do you think I'm stupid? You must think I'm stupid."
"I don't think you're stupid, sir. I'm just trying to find a way to resolve this in the best interest of everybody, especially the lady there with you. What do you want us to do?"
"I wanna think about it. Give me fifteen minutes, okay?"
"Okay, but first I want to know if the lady is all right. Can I speak to her?"
"Sure." He hands the phone over to Sally. "Tell them you're okay."
"I'm fine. Just get me out of here, please." Sally begs.
"We'll get you out, ma'am." Benito says. The robber grabs the phone and hangs it up.
9:00 a.m. Sally is scared stiff. The robber cannot seem to stay still. He trembles and sometimes shakes as his eyes roam all over the store and outside. More police vehicles arrive. This only seems to make him more nervous.
"They think I'm stupid. I'm not stupid. I can't let you go. If I do they blow my head off. I'm not stupid. You're my ticket outta here. You're staying right here with me." He mumbles almost to himself.
"Please don't hurt me, sir. I'm sure you can work
something out with them. I'm sure there's a way out of this." Sally
speaks nervously.
"Shut up! Just shut up. I can't think with
you talking."
Sally is silent.
The phone rings startling them again. He picks it up immediately.
"This is Benito. What can we do for you, sir?"
"I want a helicopter and a hundred thousand dollars in small bills. I want them now!"
"Come on, Charles, you know we can't get that right now."
"How do you know my name?"
"We know everything about you, mister Charles Hess. We are the law. Why don't we negotiate charges, sir. If you give up voluntarily with no harm done to the lady, we might get a nice deal for you."
"I want a helicopter and one hundred thousand dollars in small bills. You have until ten thirty which is about an hour and a half away or this lady loses a finger for every ten minutes I don't meet my demands."
"It takes a whole lot longer than that to get that much money, sir."
"Call me when you've met my demands." He hangs up.
"Can I say something here?" Sally asks.
"No. Shut up."
"Hey, it's my life and my fingers at stake. I'm tired of you ordering me around as if I was a child. You better find something else to do cause you ain't cutting off none of my fingers. I am a single mother of two young children. I'm a nurse but I also work here so I can get enough money for a down payment on a house. I want to achieve the American Dream by buying a big house with a white picket fence and plenty of yard room for my children to play in. I haven't worked this hard all my life to have some lazy bastard who doesn't wanna work blow it all. I need all my fingers to work. You ain't taking none of them" Sally speaks rapidly.
"Shut up, bitch!" Charles shouts at her.
"What are you gonna do if I don't? In case you haven't noticed, I'm the only hostage you got. You kill me and you got nothing to prevent them from blowing you away. The way I see it, you're at my mercy. From now on you don't order me around," Sally says, seemingly gaining more confidence.
"In case you haven't noticed, bitch. I'm the one with the damn gun."
"Next time you call me a bitch I wont give a damn about that gun. I'm gonna rip your balls out with my bare hands. If you doubt me just try it." Sally speaks fiercely. That appears to throw him off balance. She does not seem to be scared of him anymore. Hostages are supposed to be scared. He is supposed to be in charge here. He was losing control.
9:30 a.m. The phone rings again. He picks it up fast.
"What?!"
"We just wanted to know if everything was okay in there..."
"Have you met my demands? I wanna get outta here right now!"
"We're working on it. Like I said before, it takes time to get the money. The helicopter is on its way right now. Be patient in there."
"I want to see the helicopter in a few minutes." he hangs up.
"A helicopter? Why didn't you ask for a car like everybody else?" Sally asks.
"Cause a helicopter is faster and I can fly off into some woods where they can't find me."
"You're not as stupid as I thought but you still have to get out of here and into the helicopter without them shooting you. How are you gonna do that?"
"You wanna know how?" he asks, his eyes roaming around the store. "I get a large black or brown trash bag and put it over our heads. I make a small hole where I can see through. They can't shoot me if they can't see my head. How about that?"
"If you were so smart, why didn't you just stick up a bank?" she asks.
"I didn't want the hustle. This looked like a smooth, easy job. How would I have known that stupid cop was coming in?" he asks angrily.
"If you had checked it out, stupid, you would have known that Todd comes in every morning at 7:50 sharp."
"Don't call me stupid or I'll cut one of your damn fingers off."
"You got a fixation on fingers or something. The last thing I'm gonna let you do is hurt me. As far as cutting off a finger, there's no chance in hell. I'm not gonna sit here and point my finger out for you to chop it off. As you can see, I'm not a weakling. If you didn't have that gun pointed at my head, I would have already kicked your butt," she says seriously. She is not lying. Sally is in great physical shape as she exercises regularly and sticks to a healthy diet.
"Why don't you just shut up and let me get this over with," Charles says. He is getting soft on her. She is wearing him down quicker than the police.
"Tell me something, smarty. If you are so smart, how come you drove your own sorry-ass car here. I mean, that's how they found out who you are isn't it?" Sally asks.
"What do I have to do to shut you up?" Charles asks with a sigh.
"Let me go."
"You know I can't do that. If I could I surely would. You're driving me nuts with your unwanted commentary."
10:00 a.m. The sound of the helicopter makes Charles and Sally look outside. Since there is no landing pad the police had cleared out a portion of the street for it to land.
"Alright! They're going through with it." Charles speaks excitedly. "Now all I need is the money."
The phone rings. He picks it up quickly.
"Charles here."
"Charles, this is sergeant Paul Higgins. As you can see, the helicopter is here and the money will be arriving shortly."
"Where's Benito."
"He's taking a break. I'd like to speak to you for a moment."
"What's there to say. The money comes and I'm outta here."
"I know but there's the problem of the hostage. When are you going to release her?"
"When I'm safely away from you, pigs!"
"I don't know if that's such a good plan. How do we know you won't hurt her?"
"You'll have to trust me now, won't you? I mean, what choice do you have?" he slams the phone down.
"Charles, huh?" Sally says. "They were talking about me, weren't they? Do you really think they'll let you walk out of here and fly off with me?"
"They'll have to after we walk out of here under a trash bag."
"In your dreams. Maybe you haven't noticed it but I'm a black woman. The risk of letting you get out of here is greater than that of hurting me. They'll shoot through me to get to you. If I get hurt or even get killed it won't be much of a deal. I will be an innocent victim caught in the line of fire. I am expendable. On the other hand, if you get away, they will have failed, and they don't want that. They are going to do all they can to contain you in here. Right now they got sharpshooters ready to fire at command. You're in big trouble, buster."
"How do you know all that. You married to a cop or something?"
"No, but I watch them on TV and in the movies. I don't wanna get hurt. Like I said, I have two boys to take care of. I'm not married and I don't have a man living with me. If I get hurt, my kids are going to suffer. You need to give up while the going is good. If they don't get you now, they'll get you later. You deserve it but I don't. One thing for sure, I ain't getting into a trash bag with you. I'm not gonna let you drag me outta here without a fight."
"When the hell are these people bringing the money? I wanna get out of here. I'm stranded in this hole with the hostage from hell."
"Hostage from hell? What are you, a saint? You're dirty, you stink and you're holding me close to you. You think I'm enjoying this? I have to fumigate my clothes when I get out of here. I think I'll be in the bath tub for two hours at least. I hate you."
10:25 a.m. The phone rings.
"Charles."
"The money is here right on time," it is Higgins. "We want to make a clean exchange. The money for the hostage."
"You know that's gonna be difficult. I can't release the hostage until I know nobody is following me. So give me the money, I fly out of here with her then release her if nobody follows me."
"Like I said, the hostage for the money, a clean exchange. We can't risk any period of time where we are not in visual contact of the hostage."
"Higgins, it's mighty close to 10:30. I don't get the money and a finger comes off your precious hostage. What's it gonna be?"
"Okay, okay. Somebody's gonna bring in the money."
"Wait. He's gotta strip to his shorts. I don't want any tricks."
"Okay. He'll be there in a minute."
Soon there is a man in boxer shorts with a briefcase slowly walking towards the store.
"Tell him to turn around so I can see his back," Charles says. Higgins tells him and the man turns around. He does not have a weapon on him. He comes to the door and opens it slowly. The chime clangs loudly startling Charles who still holds the phone in one hand and the gun in the other. Sally is really nervous now. This does not look good. It is at a moment like this that the police try something. They sure do not want Charles leaving with her. This would be a perfect time to shoot him. Maybe the near-naked policeman has a gun in the briefcase. What if she is caught in the crossfire? She does not want to die. What would her children do? Their father is an irresponsible lout who never held down a job longer than a month at a time. She does not even bother to put him on mandatory child support because he has no money. What if she was killed? What would her children do? She keeps asking herself.
10:30 a.m. The man with the briefcase stands there in front of Charles and Sally. Charles wants him to move to the left so he could place the briefcase on the counter. Instead of talking to him, Charles waves the gun in a right to left motion. Things happen so fast Sally could not quite recall it later. The man with the briefcase ducks thinking he is going to get shot. Sally hears the sound of breaking glass then Charles goes limp beside her. That is when she feels warm blood splash on her face. She turns to look and notices that half his head has been blown away. She has seen worse in the emergency room but she knows he is dead. For a moment she thinks maybe she had been hit.
She screams and pulls away from him.
The near-naked policeman waves his hands to show that the perpetrator has been neutralized then rushes in to check on Sally.
"I could have been killed. Who's the bastard that shot him? I could have been hit!" She screams hysterically.
"It's okay, lady. He's an expert. He couldn't have pulled the trigger unless he was sure you would not get hit. You're just fine." he says holding her in his arms.
"He would have given up. I had worn him down. You didn't have to kill him. He would have given up."
"You don't know that ma'am. Furthermore he pointed his gun at me. They thought he was gonna shoot me. They had to neutralize him. You and I were innocent victims who had to be protected at any cost. Do you understand that?"
"Yes sir. I think I almost lost it there for a moment.
Thank you," Sally speaks calming down.
A lot of officers rushes into the store.
Todd is among the first ones. He rushes over and hugs Sally.
"I'm so glad you're safe, Sally."
"Thanks, Todd. I'm glad you were here at your regular time. Who knows what he would have done had I been alone," She says realizing the danger she had been in.
A photographer takes some pictures of her then tells her she could go clean up. She goes into the bathroom and looks in the mirror. There is a lot of blood on her face. Suddenly her legs feel weak. She grabs onto the sink and closes her eyes tightly. When she opens them, she feels better. She goes ahead and washes up. Right now she wants to see her children. She wants to hug them and hold them close to her. She wants to tell them she loves them and will always be there for them.
When she comes out of the rest room, they are removing Charles' body from the store on a stretcher. Somehow she feels sorry for him. Here was a disillusioned man who really thought he could get away with a kidnapping. She wishes she had not given him such a hard time. But that is what had kept her sane through that difficult time. She may have been the hostage from hell but it was all his fault.
