Caged. Caged like an animal. Caged by the same animals that had hunted her. Jen looked around the small, stark room they held her in. It was a far cry from the brightly decorated room that she had called her own. Worry began to overtake her normally calm sensibilities. Each time she allowed her mind to explore her future possibilities, the scenario grew more bleak and morbid. Would her hunters eventually have her killed? Worse yet, what would become of her baby, her beautiful, smiling little girl? She couldn’t let her mind dwell on her daughter, or surely it would drive her over the final hurdle to insanity.
Jen’s life had been perfectly normal until recently. She had worked as a maid for a very wealthy family. She had felt extremely lucky to land the lucrative position with the Petersons. They were willing to take her and her baby into their home. Considering the fact that she was a single mother, and her infant was barely a month old, she was amazed at their generosity. They had even allowed her infant to sleep in the large, cheerful nursery in their home. Jen’s room was right next to the nursery, so it made keeping an eye on her sleeping baby quite easy. Jen wasn’t expected to do any heavy housecleaning, so a good portion of her day was free to spend time enjoying the company of her young daughter. Having just moved to the area with no family or friends, Jen appreciated her employers’ kindness.
Jen couldn’t pinpoint exactly when things had begun to change. She felt the shift in small increments. The Petersons starting taking more of an interest in the baby, often asking Jen to bring her down in the evenings so they could play with her. At first Jen was flattered, but as time wore on she began to have suspicions about all the attention the Petersons lavished on her child. When they started planning the child’s future, including appropriate colleges, Jen knew things were getting out of control. As much as it killed her to leave this beautiful home by the lake, Jen knew that she must protect her baby. She had no alternative but to take her infant and sneak away in the darkness of night.
Things should have gone back to normal after that, but Jen quickly learned that the Petersons were looking for her and the infant. They wanted to claim the child for their own, and Jen knew they would stop at nothing to get her beautiful, golden haired infant. So Jen had spent the past four days on the lamb, hiding from her hunters. Jen was working on a plan to leave the area with her child, but first she had to get the baby’s much needed medication. Jen didn’t want to leave her sanctuary, but she had now choice but to venture out into the very world she was hiding from.
The trip to the pharmacy was uneventful. It wasn’t until she got to the small parking lot that Jen realized something was horribly wrong. She sensed their presence before she saw them; it was a dark, suffocating feeling that permeated her entire being. The hunters quickly surrounded her, demanding that she hand over her child. Jen fought the hunters as much as possible while still holding tightly to her now squalling infant. Eventually, they were able to wrench the screaming baby from Jen’s arms and quickly whisk her away. Jen fell to the ground, defeated. Her anguished screams echoed loudly across the now deserted parking lot.
Jen’s thoughts turned back to her present situation. She could no longer afford to dwell on the events that had led her here. She had to put all of her concentrated efforts on finding a way to regain her freedom and her baby. Looking out the small window in the door of her cage, Jen noticed that most of the people that walked past her room wore white lab coats, so when Jen saw the man dressed in street clothes, she thought maybe she had found her salvation. Surely this nicely dressed man could not be in the same league as these white-coated captors, or the blue-uniformed hunters that had brought her here. He was headed straight toward the room she occupied. Hope flared within her, and she finally was beginning to formulate a plan of escape.
News vans littered the tree-lined street in front of the Petersons’ home. The normally peaceful neighborhood was in a state of panic, and many of the residents were gathered in the street, talking about the events of the past few days. Mr. And Mrs. Peterson sat in their home, anticipation welling up within them. The watched out the window as the blue police cruiser arrived. The officer stepped from the car and walked carefully up their walkway. They opened the door to him immediately. In his gentle but strong arms, he held the tiny child. As he slowly handed her over to Mrs. Peterson, she began to weep tears of joy.
“The pharmacy stake-out finally paid off, Mr. And Mrs. Peterson. Everything went down without incident and your young nanny wasn’t injured in the exchange. We took her to the psychiatric ward where they’ll determine her mental state before she stands trial for kidnapping. ” The officer said with a strong voice.
Mr. Peterson was the first to find his voice, “We knew something wasn’t right with Jen, we just never expected her to start believing our child belonged to her. I just hope that she can find the help that she needs. I can’t thank you and your department enough for all your help.”
“We’re just glad that everything worked out for the best.” And with that, the young officer was on his way back towards his cruiser. When he reached his car, his partner was talking to the dispatcher. The young officer overheard enough of the conversation to know what had happened. His partner looked at him with bleak eyes.
“The nanny just killed herself in her holding room. She hung herself with her belt. Nobody had seen her yet to determine her state of mind because they were so busy today, I guess she was worse off than they thought.”
Both the police officers hung their heads and offered up a silent prayer for the waste of such a young life. They got back into their car and slowly made their way back to the station. The neighbors gathered on the street in front of the Petersons’ home were still cheering the homecoming. They weren’t aware of the more recent tragedy to come out of this. All that could be heard were the whispers as people continued to rehash the events that had lead up to this moment. One elderly woman was heard over all the other chatterers, “I’m so happy for them, you know how difficult it was for them to get pregnant. Why she even had to go away for a special procedure and spent the last 6 months of her pregnancy isolated from everybody. Everybody knew it was for the safety of the child, but part of me believes she didn’t want to ruin her reputation by allowing people to see her pregnant. By the time she did let others see her, the baby was a month old and she didn’t look like she had even been pregnant. Well, all’s well that ends well.”
Suddenly the wind whipped through those gathered around, it was a vicious, relentless wind that tore hats from heads, and sent leaves and dirt flying into the spectator’s faces. As it made it’s way through the surrounding trees, it screamed the anguished cry of the tortured. Some said it sounded like a woman’s screams, but others just shook their heads at that flight of fancy as the crowd began to disperse.
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