A Virginia cabin
Somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains
Jennifer Conner heard a woman scream, but she needed to make certain it wasn’t her own brain playing tricks on her.
“Cassy?” she whispered.
“Yes,” her fellow captive replied. “I hear it too. He’s beating her.”
As they listened with their heads covered by hoods, a door opened followed by a loud slap, like someone smacking their open palm against a tabletop.
Cassy yelped.
Another slap.
Jennifer’s hood was ripped off.
“You’re next!” Akbar threatened.
Jennifer could see him now. He was standing in between them. A black leather belt was dangling from Akbar’s right hand. He’d looped the belt in half by grasping its tip and metal buckle together. Lifting it to his shoulder, Akbar brought it down hard, striking Cassy across her shoulders. He’d already removed her hood but Jennifer couldn’t see the eleven-year-old’s face because Cassy had curled her body into a fetal position on the floor and was covering her cheeks and eyes with her bound wrists.
Another cruel whip across Cassy’s back caused her to scream. Akbar raised his belt again and brought it down with such force that the belt’s tip flew loose from his grasp. Now in a frenzy, he didn’t bother to re-loop the belt. He continued swinging it like a whip, striking her again and again.
“Stop!” Jennifer yelled.
Turning his face away from Cassy, Akbar said, “Now, it’s your turn!”
He swung, hitting her buttocks with the leather. As he pulled back his hand, she readied herself for another blow, instinctively tucking her knees against her chest as she lay on her side. She raised her duct-taped wrists over her face just as Cassy had done.
This time when he struck her, she did not scream. She was no longer on the floor in the cabin. She’d withdrawn inside the mansion in her mind. He struck her again. But she had entered a room with a window that looked out onto a happy place beyond the glass. A unicorn, bright blue with a pretty pink horn, was prancing next to a waterfall and pool of clear water.
Crack. He struck again. Slap. Another hit. Jennifer was focused on the unicorn. It turned its head, glancing up from the pool, and winked at her before it opened its magnificent feathered wings and with a single leap left the ground, gracefully soaring higher and higher, until the unicorn disappeared in pillow-shaped clouds.
Jennifer heard Cassy sobbing.
She left the room inside her mind where she was hiding, exited the mansion, and opened her eyes. The two girls were alone. Akbar was gone.
“No one ever hurt me like that,” Cassy said. “I’m not brave like you are.”
“I wasn’t here.”
Jennifer told Cassy about the mansion. She told her about the room. The one with the window. The one with the blue unicorn and his pink horn and his wings, and when she finished, Cassy had stopped crying.
“I wish I could see your unicorn,” Cassy said.
“Let’s give him a name,” Jennifer replied. “If we give him a name maybe he’ll come back and I can introduce you to him.”
“But he’s not real. He’s imaginary.”
Jennifer didn’t respond.
“There’s nothing wrong with having an imaginary friend,” Cassy said. “I had one when I was little. Her name was Kat, like Kit-Kat, and she was my very best friend. BFF. We’d drink tea in the afternoons and I told her all of my secrets.”
“What happened to her?” Jennifer asked.
“She went away.”
The door opened and both of them immediately raised their hands over their faces and tucked their knees into their chests. But it was Aludra. Her eyes were puffy and her lips swollen.
“Come use the toilet,” she said. “You need to clean yourselves.”
“He beat you too, didn’t he?” Cassy said.
“Do you need to use the toilet or not?” Aludra snapped.
“My father has never hit my mother or me,” Cassy said.
“You’re a child. You don’t know.”
“I do know. My grandfather used to hit my grandmother. All the time. My father hated it and when he got old enough, he ordered him to stop. He said it was wrong.”
“No, it was your father who was wrong for interfering and not respecting your grandfather. It is allowed,” Aludra said. “It’s written in the Hadith.”
“What’s that?” Jennifer asked, joining their conversation.
“A holy book,” Cassy said.
“The teachings of the Prophet,” Aludra replied.
“I’ve never heard about it.”
“A woman came to the Prophet and begged him to stop her husband from beating her. He did not admonish her husband, but ordered her to return to him and submit to his wishes. That is what is written in the Hadith.”
“My father says some stories are more important than other ones,” Cassy replied.
Aludra raised her hand to slap Cassy but then changed her mind. “Do not disrespect the teachings of the Prophet,” she lectured. “Do you need to use the toilet or not?”
“Yes,” Jennifer said. “I need to go.”
Aludra cut through the duct tape on her legs and wrists, freeing her. “Come on,” she ordered.
When Jennifer finished, Aludra used duct tape to bind the teen’s ankles and wrists again.
“What about you?” she asked Cassy.
“I need to wash before I pray,” she replied. Aludra cut through the tape but Cassy stumbled when she tried to stand. Aldura took her arm and helped her into the bathroom. After Cassy finished using the toilet, she moved to the sink. Cupping her hands under the faucet, she splashed water over her eyes and cheeks.
“Lift up your blouse,” Aludra ordered. Cassy was standing in front of Aludra facing a mirror over the sink.
Cassy looked at the older woman’s reflection and raised her shirt. Cassy’s back was a roadmap of red marks and swollen skin. Aludra undid the cap from a tube of ointment.
“This will help,” Aludra said. She gently rubbed the cream on Cassy’s back.
“Why did he do this?” Cassy asked. “We didn’t do anything.”
“He hit you harder than the other girl,” Aludra said, ignoring her question. “It’s because you are one of us.”
“But I’m not like him or you.”
Aludra took her hands away from Cassy’s shoulders. “You are a Muslim. You have an obligation.”
“Your cousin, Halgan, is one of the kindest persons I know,” Cassy said. “Would you let him beat her with his belt?”