A BOBBY STORY: THE YARD SALE

BY BLACKWIND

It was early June and Mommy had decided to do a late spring cleaning, and after that decided to have a yard sale to get rid of some of our old junk. We had a lot of it out in the storage sheds in the yard and it took a long time to get it all put on tables and marked with prices. Bonnie and I helped, and Mommy went and set out signs by the road so people would know it was here. After all it wasn't like they could just see from the road.

The first day went okay, we sold some stuff, mostly to people who lived around us but not a whole lot; Bonnie and me helped out. But today we weren't doing very good. Yesterday a lot of people had come by, when Bonnie was helping and I wasn't (I was in the house playing), but today it was just me and Mommy because Bonnie had gone to play with some of her friends, and maybe she was good luck because like nobody was coming.

I was wearing a light blue t-shirt, blue sneakers, and navy blue pull on short shorts; the shorts were an old pair and were about two sizes too small, and clung pretty tight to my body. Because I was outside in shorts a lot my legs were pretty tan and so was the rest of me. My hair was dark brown and had gotten kind of long, it was just past my collar and was all wavy and kind of messed up, like I hadn't combed it.

Mommy was wearing a white short sleeve blouse and denim short shorts with white canvas sneakers. She was tan too and looked really nice. She said looking nice could really help sell stuff. I guessed she was right.

Most of the day Mommy and I sat on lounge chairs and waited, or I would play and then come back. We were only going to stay out until her soaps came on in the afternoon, and Mommy told me that

Then right after lunch somebody showed up. It was two men in a dark brown sedan; one man was heavy, one was thin. Both of them had dark hair to their shoulders and the thin one had a sharp nose.

They got out and started looking over the stuff, and us. I felt kind of funny because it was like the two men were looking at me, but I always feel funny around grown men. "Weren't you gentlemen here yesterday?", Mommy asked. She couldn't remember faces too good and neither could I.

"Yes, just thought we'd come back and see if you still had some things we were looking at, maybe get a better deal", the thin man said. He looked at me. "Wasn't there a little girl here yesterday?"

Mommy nodded. "My daughter, Bonnie. She's off playing with her friends."

"I see. And who is this?"

"This is my son, Robert. Everyone calls him Bobby except for me."

"Hi Bobby", the thin man said.

"Hi", I responded softly.

"He's very shy", Mommy explained, as I moved closer to her and she put her hand on my back between my shoulders.

"He's very cute. Nice legs, too, like his mother. How old is he?"

Mommy blushed a little at the compliment. "He's ten. He's small for his age."

"I can see that. Well, he is very cute. And he does have very nice legs."

"Well, he does like to show them off", Mommy said. She quickly changed the subject. "So do you see anything you like?"

"Yeah", the heavy man chuckled. He quickly stopped. "Uh, yeah. That", he pointed to a box of casette tapes "and that." An old Snoopy lamp. "And maybe a couple of other things."

"Bobby, put that stuff in a box for the nice man", Mommy told me, and I went to do as she asked, stuffing all of it into a bigger box. There wasn't much and it didn't weigh a lot when I picked it up. "Here you go then", the thin man said, pulling out a bill from his pocket and handing it to Mommy. "That should cover it?"

Mommy stared at it. "Wow, that's a...that's a hundred. You don't have anything smaller, do you?", Mommy asked.

"No, sorry."

Mommy frowned. "Well, maybe I have some change inside. Bobby, honey, put that stuff in the man's car while I got get him some change. I'll be right back." She headed into the house and I picked up the box of stuff the man wanted, and while he held the door open for me, and I leaned in to put the box down.

Suddenly the heavy man came up and pushed me in, making me drop the box land half on the seat, face down. He jumped in, holding me down with his hand while shutting the door behind him. "Go, go, we got him!", he shouted to the heavy man, who jumped in the front seat and started the car up.

I didn't know what was happening but was instantly scared, and then when the man grabbed my hands in his I knew I was being kidnapped and started to cry and scream.

"No! Let me go, let me go, please let me go!", I begged, sobbing, as the man pulled my wrists behind my back, crossed them, and tied them with rope. That made me panic and I began to beg even louder, screaming. I thought if I screamed loud enough Mommy would hear me, but we were already out of the yard.

"Be quiet!", the heavy man shouted, smacking me across the bottom with his hand. "You're getting what you deserve!" He pulled my legs into his lap and tied my ankles together. I stopped begging and just sobbed, because I didn't want to get hit again. He pushed my bound ankles off his lap and sat me up, then took a folded blue bandana, pulled it into my mouth and tied it behind my head. Then he sat me back, pushed down so I couldn't be seen. He leaned over to me and whispered, "Later on kid, so help me, I am going to hurt you so badly you'll never forget it. You can count on it." Then he slapped my bare thigh and left me alone to cry.

I could hardly see where we were going after that, my eyes were blurry with tears and I couldn't see out over the door except up toward the sky. I didn't sit still either, I kept struggling but the ropes were too good, and all I managed to do was squirm all over the seat, while the kidnapper looked at me in amusement.

Finally we stopped, and he dragged me out. We were at a hotel, it had a lot of rooms and an awning and a gravel lot and wasn't very big, and that's all I got to see before they pushed me into their room. It was pretty big, it had two beds, a TV, a dresser, a table, and some chairs, stuffed ones and kitchen ones. One chair was in the middle and the man sat me in that. "You know, kid, we wanted your sister, not you", he told me then. "Lucky for her, huh?" He switched on the TV and turned it up loud; there were soaps on, I noticed for a second, but not the ones Mommy watched.

"Okay kid, now listen to me", said the other kidnapper, the thin man, the one who was driving. "You sit there and you behave, and do what we tell you, and everything will be okay, got it? You give us any trouble and I'll make you regret it." I quieted down a little bit then, because that's what I thought he wanted. He must have because he moved away.

"I'm going out and get some provisions", he told the heavy man. "Keep an eye on him."

"Yeah, sure", the heavy man promised. As soon as the first man left, he told me, "You stay in that chair and don't move. I'm going to take a shower. You got me all sweated up." Then he disappeared through a door into a small bathroom, closing it behind him.

I watched him go and then started looking around. I was scared to death but I thought maybe if I could escape...the man had promised to hurt me and I didn't want to be here for him to do that. I knew he would do it too.

I saw a telephone by the bed and was thought if I could get out of the chair and get to it I could call the police. I thought about it but it looked too far away and I was more scared what would happen if the man came out and I wasn't in the chair. I was tied up very tight but I struggled anyway, crying because I was scared and frustrated. I even tried to scream a couple of times but it wasn't very loud because of the gag and the TV was on too loud anyway.

Then he came back, stepping out of the bathroom while buttoning up his shirt; his hair was all damp and messed. I really started to struggle but he didn't care he knew I couldn't get away. "Stop struggling or you'll hurt yourself", he told me, then, "Stop it or I'm going to slap you."

I stopped because I didn't want to get slapped. He told me to be quiet and took my gag off, but I was too scared to be quiet. "I want to go home! I want my mommy!", I screamed. He clamped his hand over my mouth and pushed my head back.

"I told you to be quiet!", he snapped. "I think you like making me mad. I think you like this...this being tied up. I think you want me to hurt you."

I tried to shake my head. I tried to say no but his hand was too tight. I just wanted to go home.

"You are so darn pretty, so...cute", he told me. "It's all your fault you know, running around in those little shorts and showing off those legs. You wanted to get kidnapped." He removed his hand but before I could say anything, he was kissing me on the mouth, kissing me hard. I struggled but he just kept kissing me. Finally he stopped. "That's it", he said. "You had this coming."

He pulled me out the chair and put his hand over my mouth, and dragged me over to the bed. He pushed me down on it backwards and ran his hands all over my legs while I begged him to stop. He kissed them and then me. He got a funny look on his face after a little while. It scared me really bad. He told me not to scream then or he would kill me.

Then he hurt me.

The news was on the TV when the other man came back. I was tied up in the chair and the other kidnapper gagged me with a new bandana because the other gag was too wet. I was crying quietly and watching the TV, he was smoking a cigarette.

I was on the TV. So was Mommy. She was crying and telling a reporter about me, the yard sale, the men and then that I wasn't there. Then a policeman was on there saying they were looking for me. That was when the other man came in and tipped my head back. "So how's our little package?"

"Behaving", the heavy man said. "Had to set a few things straight, he was making quite a racket."

"You didn't hit him, did you?" "No way. You know me better."

"Yeah, and that's why I asked." The man let go of my chin and put a bag he'd been carrying down on the table. "Word is out all over. I had to ditch the car and get another one. His mother didn't give too good a description of us, though."

"Yeah, she was just on the TV." The heavy man got up, gave me a mean look, and went over to dig through the bag. "Ah, beer." He pulled out a six pack, then a pack of juice cartons. "Apple juice?"

"For the kid. He's probably thirsty."

"He's fine", the heavy man said, dropping the juice pack and peeling a beer out of the six pack. "So how long we stuck with the little whiner?"

"Probably another hour or so. I talked to Jack before and he's definitely interested." The kidnapper-the one who'd just come in-came around to look at me again. "There is just something about this kid...can't put my finger on it. He's so-"

"Cute", the nasty one said. "Sexy. When's the last time you saw legs like that on a boy? Or a face like that?"

"Been a while. But there's something else..." The man shook his head. "It makes up for not getting the sister."

He went and got a beer and laid back on the bed, resting his back against the headboard. "Saw a few little cuties on the way back. If things weren't so hot I might have tried to grab one. Give Bobby here some company."

The nasty man didn't answer, just kept watching the TV. After a while the other man said, "So where to after this?"

"Downstate maybe", the heavy man shrugged. "I don't care. Someplace they aren't looking for us."

"Florida, maybe", the heavy man suggested. "We haven't been there in a while."

They kept talking, but I didn't hear them and I really didn't see the TV anymore, I felt just all kind of out of it. I was real tired and really scared and then next thing I knew somebody knocked on the door.

I kind of "woke up" then, and the nasty man went and opened the door, and then there was a tall man with curly black hair standing over me. He was big and muscular and wore a white shirt with black pants and a black jacket, and he had a scary smile. "Oh my, I do see what you mean", he said, reaching down to squeeze my thigh, then running his fingers through my hair. "Yes, he's ideal. How old? "Ten", the nasty man said. "Name's Bobby."

"Perfect", the new man said, pulling out a wad of money from his jacket, which he handed to the nasty man. "As agreed, plus a ten thousand dollar bonus for your troubles. And you'll get another one if you find me another boy like this."

"You got a deal!", said the other kidnapper.

"Excellent. Well, time to take my purchase." He scopped me out out of the chair and I started to cry harder; I didn't want him to take me away. I wanted to go home. He just smiled that nasty smile and said, "Oh, don't cry now, Bobby. You'll have much more crying to do later." And with that he carried me out and put me in the trunk of a car parked just outside the door. He was still smiling that evil smile at me as he slammed the lid shut, and left me in darkness. Then the car pulled away.

My two original kidnappers managed to get safely out of the area and headed for Florida. While there they kidnapped three girls, a five year old, an eight year old and a twelve year old; all were very pretty, and all were turned over to Jack, and never seen again.

From there they moved on to Alabama and kidnapped another girl. When the one kidnapper, named Joe, came back to their hotel and found the nasty one, Mitch, hurting the girl, they got into a fight. They ended their partnership there, after turning the girl over to Jack. Joe later got caught trying to kidnap another girl; while running from the police he crashed his car and was killed. Mitch was later caught and was on the verge of revealing all he knew when he died "mysteriously" in jail before he could confess.

I was never seen again.