"Good night, Kitty."
"'night." In her singsong lilt, Kitty tossed the word over her shoulder as the glass door swung shut behind her. The young guy who worked as a guard in the Obion River Mall was cute and he pushed open the back entrance door every night when Kitty was scheduled to close up the shop. Cute, she thought, but too young. It was always "too" something with Kitty, but she recognized that in herself.
Kitty did not want to end up here in Greenfield like so many of her classmates: one baby on her hip and one in her belly, waiting on a husband who was either working another man's horses, driving a coal truck or collecting unemployment. Kitty wanted out. She wanted to find a place that was not an hour's drive to a city big enough to warrant its own phone book.
The clicking of her high-heel shoes on the pavement echoed between the stucco walls along the loading ramp and back into her head. The lingering effects of her father's stroke consumed much of the diminutive girl's days leaving few hours to devote to her studies. Determined as she was to care for her father and keep him at home, her grades had suffered.
With a B+ average Kitty knew she would have to work and collect student aid to get through a university, prompting her decision to attend Jackson State Community College in the fall and transfer, after two years, to the University of Tennessee at Martin. Till then she would have to work as much as possible and spend her free hours studying calculus and chemistry, her two toughest subjects. Plans were being finalized in the eighteen year old's head when she turned the corner at the end of the narrow lane used for unloading trucks. A hand covered her mouth quickly while strong arms pulled her off her feet.
"Keep quiet and you won't get hurt," a husky voice whispered into her ear.
A squeak of fear from Kitty's throat was muffled by the big hand.
"Shut up, I said!" The voice was menacing now.
"Kitty?" In the distance she heard the guard call to her. Inside she wished she had been more open to his advances. Her mind raced, maybe he saw what happened and would come running down here to scare off this gorilla. The unmistakable sound of the door slamming closed filled the corners of her eyes with tears. The young guard was not coming to her rescue. A tightening in her ribs threatened to choke off her breath.
"Come on." The man jerked her off her feet again pointing her body towards a van parked in a dark corner of the parking lot. It was too dark to read the license plate but Kitty knew someone would spot her car in the lot and report her missing.
Hopefully, before I get hurt, she thought.
Velcro straps bound her wrists and ankles. The straps pulled tight and a gag was stuffed into her mouth. She was unable to move or make a sound.
All her plans for school and work were pushed to the back of her mind. Survival was her priority now. A slow deep breath slowed her pounding heart only slightly.
Gotta remain calm, she thought. Give him what he wants and he'll let you go... Oh shoot! This isn't how planned to lose my virginity.
The tears that had gathered in the corners of her eyes rolled down her cheeks. Kitty wasn't religious and held no romantic notions about her virginity, she had merely been too busy taking care of her father, after his stroke, working to pay bills and getting through school to get involved with a boyfriend.
In the months after her mother died Kitty remembered her father was deeply depressed but he did not go on a drunken bender or drown his sorrows in other women. Instead he set about providing a good home for Kitty until the woolen mill where he worked went bankrupt. A week later her father had a stroke and was unable to care for himself.
Kitty was only fourteen when that happened and she was determined to care for her father as he had cared for her. Everyday since had been too hectic for romance or even sex. To Kitty, sex was "sex education" and films with sperm furiously wiggling in a petri dish in hopes of "congress with the ova." The narrator of one film actually said "congress with the ova" making sex sound—in Kitty's mind—like a highly technical act between two individuals who had entered into a legal agreement to produce offspring. "Congress" had not seemed that important to Kitty, until now.
When the van rolled to a stop she heard a garage roll shut. Kitty knew she was in deep trouble, but she told herself he can't touch your heart. Keep your wits, let him have his way and worry about staying alive!
The van door flew open and Kitty jumped when the stark light flooded into the back. Strong arms corralled her forehead, pressing her head tight into his shoulder.
"I'm gonna untie you, but if you try to run I'll hurt you. Do you understand?" the man asked flatly. Kitty nodded. Straps came free from her wrists and ankles but the gag remained in her mouth. Her arm was twisted up behind her back, in her kidnapper's grasp, not so far that it caused her any pain, but far enough to let her know it was in her best interest to do as he commanded.
Quickly the pair reached a doorway that opened onto a steep stairway leading beneath the house. A dark tunnel that led to Kitty's fate.
"Hold the rail, it's steep," he said as he released his grip on her wrist. Kitty's eyes darted back and forth surveying every detail. There was no place for her run. She figured he would not have let go of her arm if there was anyplace she could get to before he caught her.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs Kitty stood with her arms at her side in resignation, her eyes clamped shut, waiting. Waiting for this man to finish and release her: she hoped. She decided she would try to convince him that she would not even report this if he let her go without hurting her. There was no resistance in her.
"Take out your gag." The man's voice startled her and she opened her eyes slowly, pulling the wad of cloth from her mouth while her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the basement room.
It was filled with amplifiers, sound boards, a couple of guitars and looked to be soundproof. She figured any screams would not carry beyond this makeshift studio.
Kitty turned to face the man who had kidnapped her and drank in his features. He was tall with a mop of unruly blond hair and nice blue eyes. Kitty wondered why he had picked her: she thought he looked like he could get most any woman he wanted.
He stared back at her for a moment before he opened his mouth.
"You don't recognize me, do you?" Kitty blinked in confusion. "I asked you to go the Senior Dance.... you were just a freshman... you just said 'no'... and then walked away."
