At the Knife's Edge

"Looks like we hit the jackpot, Bubba."

If not for the knife that the man called Bubba held to Sara's throat, I might have screamed for help or turned and run to get away. As it was, I could not leave her in danger or put up a fight without risking her life. I felt I had to play along with them until an opportunity to get us both away from them came along.

"Please don't hurt her." I begged. I was trying to remember what you were supposed to do in situations like this. I was sure it had been covered in one of those safety film presentations that they were always showing us in school, but in the stress of the moment, all I could remember was scenes from TV shows where the bad guys stood around talking to the hostages for half an hour while the police figured out a way to rush in and save everybody. I was sure that whatever these two wanted, it wasn't conversation. It might have been a bath, though. Both of them looked and smelled like they had been crawling through a swamp. Their clothes were covered in mud and their hands were caked with it. I could just make out the orange color of the cloth underneath all the dirt. The only people I knew who wore orange jumpsuits were hunters and convicts. I didn't think these two were lost turkey hunters, and they certainly weren't after gators with that little homemade knife. They had either got muddy crawling under the fence at the county work farm or they had rolled in the mud deliberately to disguise their prison uniforms.

Leon confirmed my assumption about their need for intelligent conversation. He grabbed me by the back of the neck and said, "Shut up! Don't you say nothin'." I shut up. They were obviously brutal, desperate men, not the conflicted victims of an indifferent society or unjustly imprisoned citizens out to prove their innocence like I saw on TV.

Leon appeared to notice my cleavage for the first time. He said, "Damn, Bubba! Lookit the tits on this one. I thought she was just a little girl, but she sure ain't little where it counts!"

Bubba kicked the door shut behind him and took the knife away from Sara's neck just long enough to lock it again. He put the point back to her throat and pressed it into her flesh hard enough to make both of us flinch.

"Play with 'em later, Leon. Right now we got to git situated." He looked at me and growled, "Anybody else in the house?"

Lying looked like a good way to get Sara hurt, so I told him, "Yes. Four more kids downstairs. Nobody here will give you any trouble, mister."

"Well, I'm mighty glad to hear that, girlie. Yessiree, mighty glad. Now you just keep thinking that way and we'll get along fine. Now let's go find the others. You lead the way. And remember, your friend here will really appreciate it if you don't do nothing to piss me off."

I lead the way downstairs with Leon's filthy hand on the back of my neck. Bubba followed us with Sara in his grip. My mind was running a mile a minute trying to think of something I could do, but it was like racing a car engine in neutral. All I could think of was the scared-shitless look on Sara's face. I was pretty sure mine looked the same. I know I felt like it.

Bubba again demonstrated the kind of take-charge guy he was. He dragged Sara over in front of the French doors so that everyone could see the knife to her throat.

"All right," he said, "Nobody move, nobody talk, nobody breathe, less I say. We clear on that?" This got him a round of stunned nods from everyone except Bud. Bud got a macho look on his face that told me he was seriously thinking of doing something fatally stupid.

Leon shoved me onto the sofa and I fell into Neeka. I managed to sit back up just in time to see Bud tense his legs and clench his fists. The thought of what might happen next finally got my brain into gear.

"BUD!" I yelled, to get his attention and to make him abort any plans he might have about attacking the two men. He backed down when he realized that I had ruined his surprise attack. "Bud, don't do anything dumb. Just do what they tell you. If you want to play the chivalrous knight you can just open doors for the ladies when they need it. OK?"

Bud was too mad at me to understand what I was telling him. I looked at Jim instead and jerked my eyes toward the French doors leading to the backyard. If we were going to get any effective help, it would come from that direction. But first I had to get Bubba and Leon away from the door and then get it open. Since I couldn't do both, I needed help, but the timing had to be right or someone would get hurt. Fortunately, Jim wasn't suffering from the same level of testosterone-poisoning as his brother and he followed my eyes and then looked hard at me. His meaning was clear. He would get that door on cue, but I better not take any risks to make it possible.

Bubba was looking at me suspiciously. He now had me pegged as the leader of the group and he was thinking about something I was sure I wasn't going to like. I could not tell if he had caught any of the eye rolling and other meaningful looks or not.

"That's right Buddy, you just sit right there and be a good boy." He was still eyeing me hard while he blustered on. "Leon! Look around and find something to tie this bunch up with. I don't want to have to keep watching them all night."