Class Trip (11 page)

I sat there
quietly but my legs were bouncing around with my nervousness. I
wanted out of this country as fast as possible. I hated it here.
Nothing but pain and violence lived here. I waited and waited. The
man mistook my bouncing and pointed at a dirty looking bathroom
behind him.

I decided to go
before the translator got here. When she was here I needed to spit
everything out as fast as I could. I was afraid that they were moving
the other girls while I sat here doing nothing.

I returned to my
chair and continued to wait. The policeman looked up at me again and
again. He was trying to place me. Had we been on the news? He could
end up being a hero yet today.

I heard a couple
of cars pull up and a man came in. He looked at the policeman and at
me. He didn't say anything.

“Fifty-one
other girls and myself were kidnapped. They are keeping us just
outside of town. I can show you where. Please, my friends need help.”

“Save it,
angel, he can't understand you.” Tata came in holding onto Sarah.
His friend came in with Melina. The police officers went right to
them and started fondling them.

Tata took hold of
me by the back of my head. “If you try to runaway again. I will let
them have you. Would you like that?”

I shook my head
no. He slapped me hard and I flew to the floor. He grabbed me by my
arm and brought me out to the car. I fought to get away from him but
his fingers were pinching into my arm. He opened the door and sat me
down. Then he tied my hands together with a thin rope.

People were
walking by but they were ignoring us. How could they? I was obviously
being kidnapped.

He rolled the car
window down, closed the door and then tied my hands to the door
handle. I started tugging the second he let go. He grabbed hold of my
face and moved it so I had to look at him. “Don't,” he said in
English. He let go and went around the car and got in. He sighed and
then he reached over and rolled my window back up.

Tata started the
car and took off. He was driving very quickly. I had to hold onto the
door for stability.

“Why can you
drive a car?”

I shrugged. “Why
wouldn't I be able to?”

He pulled the car
to the side of the road and grabbed onto my face again. He hit my
head against the window behind me. “Never give me an answer like
that ever again. Do you understand?”

I nodded as best
I could with his hand and fingers pushing into my face.

“Where did you
learn to drive a car?” he repeated.

“At school.”

Again he hit my
head against the glass. Not hard enough to break the window but hard
enough to really hurt.

“Don't lie to
me.”

“I didn't. We
learn at school in America.”

“Why were you
in America?” He looked like he didn't believe me.

“I'm American.
I was the foreign exchange student. I'm not from Switzerland. Honest.
I'm from Vermont in the United States. I learned at school and I've
had my license since I was sixteen.”

He let go of me
and slapped me again. My head flew into the dashboard. He grabbed me
by my hair and pounded my face into the dashboard again.

I tasted blood.
It was coming out of my nose and from my busted lips.

He started the
car and drove off again.

He pulled up and
his brothers and mother came out and they were yelling. I wasn't sure
if it was at me or at him.

Tata didn't say
anything as he untied me from the car door and yanked me out. He
threw the keys over at his brothers. He said something to him and
pulled me inside.

Tata took me into
the cafeteria. The others gasped when they saw me.

He pulled me
right up to them so they could see how terrible I looked. “Sandra
tried to run away. Tell them how far you got.” He looked at me like
a madman.

“I was in a
town about ten kilometers from here at the police station.” I
raised my shoulder and wiped the blood off of my mouth by rubbing my
face over my shoulder. I could feel more blood replacing what I had
just wiped away.

“Tell them what
the police said.”

“They didn't
say anything. They just called him.” I motioned to Tata with my
head.

“That's right.”
He shoved me away from them. “It's time for your punishment to
start.” He picked up a cane on the way out.

I started to
bawl, to really really bawl.

He grabbed a fist
full of my hair and left the room, pushing me ahead of him. He took
me up to our room and started undressing me.

I was shaking
like a leaf as he went about his work. He untied my hands and got my
clothes off. Then he retied my hands in front of me and laid me over
the bed. He tied my hands to the bed.

“This is going
to hurt like hell. Feel free to scream out. They should know what the
punishment for trying to run away is. It's only fair for them. They
can learn through you.”

The blood from my
nose and mouth was getting on the blanket under my face. The smell of
blood was everywhere. I was gagging on it.

My entire body
jumped at the first blow. I had bigger problems than my nose now. He
was beating at me so fast and hard that all I could do was cry. I
didn't scream and I think that disappointed him.

I had decided
never to run again. I was his slave and that was what my life was
now. I had to make him happy with me. He wasn't and he was showing
how displeased he was with me.

“I'm sorry,
Tata,” I managed to say before I passed out.

I woke up right
where I had fallen asleep, tied to the bed. I moved as little as
possible. I wanted to hear if I was alone and I wanted to know if the
punishment was over.

The movement of
moving my head and looking around hurt me. My face had been sticking
to the bed because of the dried blood. My face felt so swollen but
the skin on my back hurt the whole way from my shoulders all the way
down to my thighs. That pain was definitely worse. I couldn't
remember him whipping my back but he had because I couldn't move my
shoulders either. My skin was cold and hot all at once.

It was dark out.
I could hear a TV on in the next room.

“Tata,” I
called out. I don't know why, or what I wanted from him. Even if he
untied my hands I wouldn't find a more comfortable position. Maybe if
I laid down the long way on the bed with my feet up? They had fallen
asleep and they were tingling painfully.

“Tata,” I
called out a little louder. I started to cry. I felt so sorry for
myself.

The door opened
and I heard heavy footsteps walking around me.

“Tata?”

“Yes, it's me.”
He moved to my right hand and untied them from the bed. He wasn't
saying anything. His silence was scaring me.

“I'm so sorry.
Please stop being mad at me,” I begged.

“Shh,” he
said as he untied my other hand too. He moved me so he was looking at
my face. “Can you stand?”

“I don't think
so. My feet have fallen asleep.”

He nodded and
pulled me on the bed the way I had wanted. “Sleep some more.”

He got up and
left again. He had closed the door and I could still hear the TV. The
sounds coming from it were hard in a sing sang way. The words flowed
together but they still had hard endings.

I listened as my
eyes drooped. I was still so tired.

Tata was in bed
with me when I woke up the next time. I was shivering. I tried to
move so I was covered up but the blankets were under me and I was
really dizzy.

“Tata, I'm cold
and thirsty,” I whined.

Tata woke up and
his fingers went to his eyes. He threw his covers back and got up. He
left the room and came back with a glass of water.

“Here, Tata has
something for you to drink. Raise up your head a little.” He sat
down next to my face on the bed.

I pulled myself
up on his thigh. The skin that moved with me felt like it was
ripping.

He brought the
glass to my dry torn up lips and I drank as best I could. When half
of the water was gone I laid my head down on his thigh with a flop as
my energy gave out.

He was petting
over my hair but then he came to the spot where he had hit it against
the window. He was picking blood out of my hair.

“You learned
not to do that ever again, right?”

I nodded.

“I hope so. Now
I need you to get up. I'll have to force you if you think you can't.”

I couldn't even
hold my head up. How was I supposed to stand up?

Tata got up and
got dressed.

He came back for
me and pulled me to my feet. He walked me out of the room. I saw that
the bed had blood on it again. I closed my eyes to shut out the
picture of that. He walked me to the stairs. There he slowly walked
me down them. I was seeing bursts of light. I was naked and cold.

Tata walked me
along the hallway and then up a flight of stairs. He pulled out a key
and unlocked the door. He was bringing me to the other girls because
he didn't want me anymore. He would sell me as a sex slave. I would
be a miserable sex slave and I would end up getting beaten every day.

He flicked on the
light switch and turned me so I was facing his chest. “Anyone who
tries to run will get double what she got. You have been warned.”

I heard loud
gasps as they looked at the back of my body.

He pulled me out
of their room and into the next one. He did and said the same thing.

“Everyone up,”
he called out, “Breakfast.”

I looked at him
and shook my head no.

He pulled me down
the stairs. I held on to him for dear life. My head was spinning and
I felt so sick.

He pulled me back
to our room and lifted up the covers and helped me in. I rolled back
onto my stomach.

“Next time you
wake up I'll help you wash the blood out of your hair.”

I nodded again,
wondering if my nose was broken. I was afraid to touch it to find
out.

He closed the
curtains and then he turned back to me.

I had a feeling
like he didn't want to leave me.

He reached out
and touched my shoulder for a second before he turned away.

I slept all day
and night. I couldn't remember the last time I had eaten anything and
the glass of water that he had given me had just been a drop of water
on a hot stone.

I was alone in
bed and the sun was up really high. The house was really quiet. I
slowly did a push up as a first step to getting up.

I sat back on my
heels. The skin that had started to heal was ripping open again on my
back. I had to wonder what it looked like. I was so glad that I had
passed out during my punishment. I would have died of the pain of it
if he had done all that while I was awake.

I moved so I was
on my hands and knees. Then I let one foot slide down to the floor. I
put my weight on it and then moved my other foot to the floor. I
lifted my hands away from the bed and just stood there, catching my
breath.

I slowly walked
over to the door. I had to take a bit of a break there. Once I was
ready I opened the door and moved in an ugly and ungraceful way to
the bathroom.

I closed the door
to the bathroom behind me and wished it had a lock. I felt with my
fingers over my bottom. I felt welts and lots of dried blood. I
really didn't want to sit down on the toilet. I positioned myself in
front of the mirror so my back was facing it. I looked over my
shoulder and saw red strips and again blood. I turned so I could see
it better but in the end I was like a cat chasing its own tail and
never quite getting it. The view I wanted, I couldn't see but it was
clear that I was marred for life.

I decided the
best thing to do would be to take a shower and just go in there. I
turned on the water and it was cold. I waited for it to warm up, but
it didn't. I really had to go now so I stepped in and just went. I
opened up my hair and washed my ribbon, which had blood on it too. I
shivered and scrubbed it clean. I hung it over the side of the
shower.

I got my hair all
wet and the water hit my back. I gasped in pain. It hurt so much that
I swooned and cried out. I washed my hair and worked on getting the
dried blood out but the cold water wasn't very effective.

I leaned against
the wall crying.

The door of the
shower opened and Tata turned the water off. “Sandra, I told you
that I would help you,” he scolded.

He was undressing
and he did something on the wall too. He was probably turning the hot
water on. I should have thought of that.

He came in to me
and wrapped his warm arms around me. I clung to him and shivered.

“Such nonsense.
Why didn't you wait for me?”

“I'm sorry.”

“I know, angel.
Just please never do that again. You learned your lesson?” He face
was filled with worry.

I nodded. I
really had learned my lesson. The police here weren't going to help
me. Because of me those policemen had probably hurt the other two
girls.

“Why did you
take those girls with you, yesterday.” I looked up at him.

He was rubbing my
arms. “I had to bribe them. And that they couldn't have had you was
clear.”

“But I was the
one who did something wrong.”

“Yes, but you
have Tata to teach you. No one else is allowed to touch you. I say
that a lot but I don't want any mistakes there. Do you understand?”

“You don't want
me to sleep with anyone but you.”

“That's right.
In your whole life you will only know me.”

“Why are you so
worried? It hurts. Why would I want to do that with someone else?”
I really didn't get the whole adultery thing. It was bad enough with
him.

He laughed and
turned the water on. “It's warm now.”

The water was
hitting my back and I just gave up and cried.