HE LOOKED AT ME

HE LOOKED AT ME

I was travelling along a dirt track when I came across an abandoned car with two wheels in a ditch. The passenger door and one of the rear doors were wide open

I remembered all  my security training and looked around, wary that this might be an ambush. I stopped the car further down the road and got out. I stood outside leaning against the chassis for a while, my eyes darting about for any movement.  I then paced towards the vehicle.  

On inspection, I noticed the keys were still in the ignition. The key tag suggested that the driver is a woman.  Everything in the car seemed to be normal, no slashed seats, no blood stains, no broken glass. I walked around the exterior of the vehicle looking for any signs of breakage.  Once again everything seemed to be in order.  No punctured tyres, no accident damage, not even a scratch.  I was about to walk around the vehicle a second time when I heard a whimpering sound. 

Startled, I looked around once again wary that this might be an ambush.  I saw no one.  Then attempted to discern where the whimpering was coming from.   The sound bites led me to the boot of the car.  I opened the boot. 

The first thing I saw was were a pair of pink panties below were a slender pair of legs. The skirt appeared to have  flapped up concealing the top part of a body.  I took hold of the edge of the skirt and covered the lower part of her body.  I was apprehensive as to what I might see.  Below the skirt I saw in a tear stained face, a pair of deep brown eyes that were filled with terror.  I extended a hand. "Let me help you out."

"Don't you dare touch me." she screamed.

I stood back, raised my empty hands in the air. "I am your friend, I have no wish to harm you. Whoever did this to you is long since gone.  Come, get out of the car."

She looked at me for a long time with those fear filled eyes, and then sat up and climbed out of the car.  All the time she kept me covered with her wary eyes.

"I was driving past.  I saw this car on the side of the road and I stopped to see if there was anyone who wanted help. That is how I found you.  What is your name?"

"Sandra" she replied.

"Now Sandra  tell me what happened."

I noticed she had a pale strip on her finger where a wedding ring had been. She looked around.  I assumed that there was more than one perpetrator, and I thought she was assuring herself that they were no longer around.

"I was getting into my car at the office car park." she said, "I didn't see them coming.  Suddenly someone put something over my head and I couldn't see.  I felt them snatch the car keys out of my hand, take my hand bag, and the wedding ring off my finger.  Two of them then picked me up and placed me in the boot of the car, one of them held a bit of cold steel against my head and said 'If I hear you even squeak, I'll blow your fucking brains out Okay?'"

She looked like someone who wasn't using that kind of language and pronounced the word with hesitation.  She looked at me for a response. I could see was struggling to control her emotions.  I waited for her to collect herself and then she continued.  "They drove off and after a while the car stopped  somewhere.  I heard them all get out.  There was shouting, and gunshots, and cries of protest, then they got into the car and sped off again. "

"It sound like they needed your car for a robbery." I commented.

She nodded he head .

"After that I heard them discussing how much money they had stolen.  All the time I was being jolted around while the car seemed to be taking a number of sharp corners.  Then one of them shouted There's Chalkie. I'm not sure it may have been Charlie , or Chummy.  The car stopped with a jolt and they all got out."

She then broke down into sobs.  I wanted to reach out and give her a hug , but I remembered she had told me not to touch her. 

"One of them said Go and waste the bitch." She howled some more, collected herself and then continued.  "Another replied We don't have the time, anyway she has seen fuck all."

"That must have been awful." I said. Then I set about calling the police.  Fortunately she had memorised her husband's phone number and I called him too.  Having been alerted by the robbery victim, the police had been in the area looking for the robbers, consequently they arrived soon after my call.

I also called Craig her husband.  I told him what had happened to his wife, gave him our location, and then handed the phone over to Rushdeya so she could speak to him.   Craig was far away and had to contend with traffic, nevertheless as he arrived the police were still taking a statement from Rushdeya. 

"Is there so little you can tell us about your assailants." the policeman asked in a tone of exasperation.

"They put a beanie over my eyes.  That was the first contact I had with them." Rushdeya insisted. "They were silent on the way to wherever they committed the robbery, and all they talked about afterwards was how much money they had taken. "

"Did you hear what accents they spoke with, at least we can determine their ethnic identity."

"No I was not able to discern their ethnic identity.  I think they spoke English."

"Did they mention anyone's name?"

"When they arrived at this spot they recognised someone called Charlie, or Chalkie, or Chummy.  They must have driven off in a vehicle brought by that person."

Just then Craig stepped out of his car, and Rushdeya ran off towards him, leaving the policeman rolling his eyes.

"Baby, baby what happened to you?" Craig called out "Are you alright?"  The two of them held each other tightly.  I heard her once again repeat the sequence of events which had taken her up to where he found her.  However in this account she added an additional detail.  She came to the part where I had opened the boot  and told her husband "He looked at me."

Craig eyed me with suspicion. 

"Are you the person who called me on the phone?" he asked.

"Yes" I replied.  I had been anticipating a torrent of gratitude from him but now I felt as if he was regarding me as a pervert who had encountered his wife in a vulnerable position and had taken advantage of the situation to peek under her skirt.

"What exactly happened?" he demanded.

"I arrived at the scene apparently sometime after the robbers had left.  After I had parked my car over there,  I looked over the car to try and discern what had happened.  When I heard your wife whimpering in the boot.  I opened the boot  and I saw her lying there.  Her skirt had been swept up over the upper part of her body , I took the skirt, covered the lower part of her body  with it, and offered to help her to get out of the car.  When she told me not to touch her I stood back and she climbed out of the vehicle herself."

"Is that correct?" he asked his wife.

She nodded.

I was relieved.  I hoped that would be the end of the matter but I felt that Craig seemed not to be satisfied.

"Can I finish taking the statement please?" the police man insisted. "We have a bank manager and bank teller in hospital with gunshot injuries and a dead security guard.  We need to apprehend these people as soon as possible."

I noticed Rushdeya shudder when the policeman mentioned the dead security guard.  I wondered if she had been thinking about the 'waste the bitch' comment.  I wish that the point could have gotten across to her husband that she could have suffered a far worse fate than a strange man looking at her panties.

The police concluded the taking down of Rushdeya's statement.  They asked to tow her car to the police station as they needed to collect forensic evidence.   They then turned to me and asked for more details of my involvement. 

"I had come from a board meeting."  I began

"What board meeting how many people were at the board meeting."

I was grateful for the fact that I had come from a board meeting. There were five fellow directors present who could verify where I was at the time of the robbery.  The road was on my way home so my appearance at the scene of the crime did not lack credibility. 

"I want you to visit the police station tomorrow and give us your  finger prints." the policeman asked.

"I don't think I touched anything on the car excepting the latch to open the boot, nevertheless I will  give you my finger prints."

Craig approached me again. "I must apologise for being a bit abrupt just now. I want to say thank you for saving my wife.  You stopped,  assessed the situation, called the police and called me. I am very grateful."

I shook hands with him, "Glad to be of help, I can only hope someone does the same for my wife were she to land in the same situation."

Rushdeya watched us two men shaking hands.  That seemed to trigger something within her mind. She collapsed into tears, and started to howl loudly. It was as if the full impact of the trauma had finally kicked in.   Her husband rushed to her side, picked her up and wrapped his arms around her once again.

"it's alright baby. it's over. it's all over. The police are going to find these men and lock them away forever. It will never happen again. You are safe now."

"But.. But.." she sobbed as she pointed at me. "He looked at me.  No one besides you has ever done that.  He looked at me."

The police tow truck had arrived, the police were packing up. I felt that I didn't want to be involved any further.  I shrugged, walked towards, my car, got inside, started the engine, and left.

At home that night, my wife must have found me to be unusually silent. She served the supper and we were joined at the table by my ten year old son.  Once we had commenced eating I related the events of the afternoon to my wife and son, leaving out the bit about the woman's appearance when I first found her in the vehicle,  and her husband's response.

"Oh wow. My daddy is a hero. He saved a lady who had been caught by robbers." said my son.  I was touched at the way he gleamed with pride.

Later that night when we had got into bed I filled my wife in with the details I had left out.

"I don't understand it." I said, "It was not as if she was naked.  Her private parts were covered for heaven sake.  If I had met her on the beach and she was wearing a bikini, I would have seen the same."

 "It is difficult thing  being a woman." my wife commented.  "In situations like that you feel particularly vulnerable."

I accepted my wife's testimony without further comment.  As I fell asleep that night I thought to myself,  I would never forget the sight of  that tearful woman, collapsed in her husband's arms, pointing her finger at me and stating. "He looked at me."

LESLEY'S POTENTIAL

“Good morning class.”

“Good morning Mrs. Richards.” The boys chorused in a flat monotone.”

I have marked your creative writing essays, and have returned all of them to you. There are some that reached the required standard, others that were exceptional, and others whose authors irritated me immensely.”

There was a general mumbling from amongst the boys.

“The topic was Reality versus Potential and I am going to ask some of you to read what you have written.

Michael Barrett had mixed emotions. He was happy to have scored an A plus, particularly as he was open to the possibility of receiving a reprimand.

“Um let me see... Mr Nhlapo you go first read the opening paragraph.”

“Reality is the physical thing that we see before us.  A physical thing is defined as such by virtue of the fact that ,we perceive it with one of our five senses. Potential is an element contained in that physical reality, which although it  may not be perceived exists for a future physical reality. That it may not be perceived physically does not mean that it does not exist, on the contrary its existence is real. The question therefore arises `how may it be perceived?'”

“Thank you, Mr Nhlapo that will do. Class what do you think? Mr Chetty?”

“Ms Richards I think it is too wordy. What is he getting at anyway?”

“Mr Petersen?”

“Ms Richards, I thing the reality is verbiage, and the potential is gobbledegook.”

The boys in the class laughed in response.

“Mr Petersen you are wrong.  It is not potentially gobbledegook.  If you read the rest of Mr Nhlapo’s essay you would discover that he was laying the foundations for an argument.  Mr Petersen you’re next. Read until I tell you to stop.”

“The Porsche stands in the parking lot, its reality is the metal, paintwork, leather, shatter proof glass and rubber tyres. In fact it is a piece of tin with a wheel at each corner.  Its potential is a thrilling dash down the highway at two hundred kilometres per hour.”

“And a two hundred thousand rand speeding fine.”  Mr Nhlapo interjected.

“Boys, let me remind you not to heckle until I give you permission to speak. Comment on that opening paragraph.  Mr Stevenson.”

“Ma’am I think it’s fantastic.”

“Why do you say it’s fantastic, Mr Stevenson?”

“Well ma’am it’s something we can identify with. We would all like to be speeding down the highway in a Porsche.”

“Mr Barrett I want you to come to the front of the class and read your entire essay.”

“No Ms Richards, I would rather not.”

“Mr Barrett it is not for you to decide. Come to the front of the class and read your essay. That is an instruction.”

“Do I have to?”

“Yes you have to.”

Barrett shuffled up to the front of the class cleared his throat and then began.

,”At the sound of a footfall Jake turned around.   Lesley was walking down the stairs.   Her radiant beauty took his breath away.   Her chestnut coloured hair cascaded down onto her bare shoulders below which the elegant evening gown starting just...”

At this stage he stopped and cleared his throat self consciously.

the elegant evening gown starting below the top of her little rounded breasts.”

The last comment resulted in a general commotion from the class.

“I am warning this class I will not tolerate these interjections. Continue Mr Barratt.”

“The elegant evening gown starting just below the top of her little rounded breasts flowed down to her dainty feet."Do I look Okay?" she asked a little self consciously.  "Wow " said  Jake breathlessly "You are so incredibly beautiful." She then smiled that radiant smile that made Jake’s heart leap.

Later that evening when they entered the ballroom, Jake conscious of the impression that all the men in the room turned to look at Lesley, swelled with pride.  When Lesley went up on stage to receive her prize for ground breaking research, Jake was almost unable to contain himself he felt so happy.

Later that night while Jake lay close to Lesley's soft warm body

There was another general commotion from the class.

“I am going to give you a bit of reality and, potential myself. This in reality is a pen in my hand and there in reality is a pad of detention slips under it. The next person to interject will get his name on one of them. Continue Mr Barratt and read you whole essay, do not leave any part out.”

“Later that night after passionate love making ....” he stopped reading anticipating a response from the class, in contrast there was only a stunned silence.

"Ma'am I don't mean to interject, but you have always told us to stick to real life experiences in our writing, this oke doesn’t even have a girlfriend.” Chetty said before Barrett could continue.

“Maybe a valid criticism but bear Mr Barratt out.”

"You are an idiot Chetty, that comment shows just how much you know about me."

Chetty shrugged his shoulders “I rest my case I rest my case.”

“Later that night after passionate love making Jake lay close to Lesley's soft warm naked body. I am a king, of all the world he thought.  Not only do I have as my wife

such an incredibly beautiful woman, but an incredibly brilliant one too.

,Jake’s daydreaming was interrupted at the sound of a footfall. He looked up.  I am right he thought she is incredibly beautiful.   Although her chestnut coloured hair was cut to school regulation length.   Her shoulders were not bare and on them

she wore the straps of her gym slip.   Her smile though, radiant also revealed the orthodontist handiwork Jake did not notice the stain on the skirt of thegym slip or the spot on her forehead that Lesley had been trying to hide. 

"Hi Lesley"" he said

"Hi"" she replied. 

"How was the Science exam?" Jake asked 

"The Physics section was tough, I don't think that I will make the hoped for 95 percent."  She replied. 

"I hope you do.”By the way, I wanted to ask you, Will you come with me to movies on Friday?  Exams will be over by then. My mom will come and fetch you and we will take you home again.

"I don't know"" she replied.  "I will have to ask my mom, she is very strict and doesn't like us going out at nights during term time, even on Friday nights."

,The Lesley with the gym slip, hair cut to regulation length, and the orthodontics, the Lesley who has to ask her mother's permission to go out even on Friday nights.   The Lesley who might not get another 95 percent in her science exam was the reality of Lesley.  The Lesley who was the adoring wife, and brilliant scientist admired by many was her potential.”