You have to create your own luck. You have to be aware of the opportunities around you and take advantage of them.
—BRUCE LEE
Instead of answering when I asked if she was ready, Jenny just pressed the horn. It was so loud it hurt my ears. She leaned on it over and over. Blatt-blatt-blatt. Then she switched to a pattern. Blip-blip-blip, blatt-blatt-blatt, blip-blip-blip. Three short beeps, three long beeps, three short, and then a pause. When she repeated it, I recognized the pattern. SOS in Morse code.
Soon Rex was adding to the noise of the horn, barking so fiercely it sounded like one continuous sound. A few seconds later, his nails scrabbled on the metal steps. I pressed my eye to the crack where the tarp had shifted. It was dark outside and had been for a while. I’d been in this RV for about forty-eight hours, but it already felt like an eternity.
I couldn’t yet see Sir, but finally, in between beeps, I heard his shouts.
“He’s coming!” Holding the mic and the boom box, Jenny scrambled into position next to me. With my splint, I was holding the improvised nunchuck against my body. After pushing open the door as far as it would go, I grabbed the end of the tights in my fist.
As the door started to move, Rex’s barking reached a crescendo. He thrust his muzzle into the gap between the door and the frame. Behind me, Jenny shrieked, but I didn’t budge. Rex futilely snapped his jaws just a couple of inches from my thigh. Despite the cold night air, sweat broke out under my arms and traced my spine.
Sir was coming closer, shouting, “Hier! Fuss! Platz!” I prayed that the recorder was catching every word.
At the sound of his master’s voice, Rex didn’t stop barking, but he did pull his head back.
When I spotted Sir through the gap in the door, I whispered, “Now,” to Jenny. We didn’t need him guessing what we were trying to do. The recorder landed behind the couch with a muffled thump.
Suddenly Sir was the one with his face in the gap, only much higher than Rex’s had been. His breath stank of alcohol.
“You know the rule about making noise!”
“Sorry,” Jenny said, without adding Sir. Her voice shook as she broke two rules at once, because she was also looking directly at him. “But we need to talk.”
“Not right now, we don’t. You girls need to be quiet and go to bed. It’s late, and I’m tired. We can talk in the morning.”
“We’re not going to be quiet,” I countered. “Not when you’re leaving us here to die.”
“Listen, girl, don’t you ever tell me what to do!” Sir’s hand, holding the Taser, shot through the gap. He pressed the end against the hand towel tied around my neck. The air filled with a quick snapping sound. The towel, it turned out, was no protection at all. The pain was indescribable. When I tried to pull away, Jenny was so close that I just stumbled against her.
Desperately, I swung the can over my head as hard I could and down through the gap. A grunt exploded from Sir when it thumped against his back, but he kept pressing the Taser to my neck. I felt the end of the tights slide through my fingers, the weight of it yanking it out of my grasp. But I could only think about the pain, not my lost weapon.
Out of the corner of my left eye, I saw a blur as Jenny smashed the heel of her hand through the gap and into the center of Sir’s face. She caught him just under the nose, driving him back.
Sir let out a shriek. The Taser came away from my throat, and he fell backward off the top step. He landed with a curse, but in less than a second, he had scrambled back to his feet. It didn’t seem like we had done any damage. And the nunchuck was gone.
“Go ahead,” he yelled. “Make all the noise you want. This time of night, there’s no one to hear. And if you haven’t figured out how to be quiet by morning, I’ll make you be quiet.”
And then he left.
And we were still behind the chained and padlocked door.