Slowly, Jeffrey’s irritation with his mother dissipated and he began to slow his pace, allowing his sister to catch up to him, without giving the appearance that it was, at all, intentional.

As Allison pulled abreast of her brother, she glanced over at him, noting the pouting look he still sported. She tossed out an icebreaker.

“Was your report where Mom said it was?”

Believing his sister was taunting him, Jeffrey shot back; “WHAT DO YOU THINK?”

“Jeffrey, why are you being such a jerk?”

Unable to answer the question, Jeffrey continued walking, head down and turned slightly away from his sister, in a subtle gesture of defiance. Allison was not about to let him off the hook.

“You know, it wouldn’t kill you to be nice to Mom once in a while. It’s not real easy for her, you know.”

“So you’re some kind of psychiatrist now?”

“You know what I mean, Jeffrey. Mom’s really got it tough, now that Dad’s not here to help he
r with us.”

“What about me, Allie? What about us? You don’t think we’ve got it tough?”

“No, not really.”

“That’s ‘cause you and Mom always do stuff together.”

Allison held firm.

“So, you could do stuff with Mom…..if you wanted to.”

“Yeah, sure…..like baking cookies?”

As Allie thought about her answer, her attention was diverted to the dirty white van, which was now moving slowly along Rosemary Avenue, in the same direction as she and Jeffrey. Her eyes followed the vehicle, watching the beading water being expelled from the tire treads and then, as if drawn by an unspoken command, her gaze was directed upward, into the driver’s compartment. Allie’s breath caught in her throat, upon looking into the front part of the van. The driver wasn’t watching the traffic, or where he was heading. Instead, he was staring directly at her! She watched, in alarm, as the driver’s mouth and lips moved. He was speaking to someone else in the van, but Allie could see only the operator. Without hesitation, the van gathered speed and drove away, slowing and turning right at the next intersection.
With her heart pounding, Allie breathed a little easier, as the immediate threat had seemingly evaporated.

“JEFFREY, DID YOU SEE THAT?”

“What?”

“YOU DIDN’T SEE THAT TRUCK? I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU DIDN’T SEE THAT, OR THE CREEPY LOOKING GUY THAT WAS DRIVING IT. HE WAS LOOKING RIGHT AT ME!”

Grinning, Jeffrey replied; “Maybe he was checking out your ‘bod’.”

With a voice that still carried the fright she felt, Allie tried to convince her big brother of the danger they faced.

“I’M NOT KIDDING, JEFFREY! And, I think they might be hiding around the corner.”

Jeffrey’s demeanor began to change, once he saw the distressed look on the face of his sister.

“All right, you wait here. I’ll walk down to the corner and check it out.”

Allison would have none of that.

“NO WAY, Jeffrey…..I’m staying with you!”

The two siblings headed slowly along the sidewalk, which, in this area, was bordered by a large, vacant lot on the opposite side of the street and an elevated stone wall, nearly six feet tall, encircling the property on their right. The wall sat on top of a tiered banking, perhaps four or five feet above the sidewalk. Further down the street, houses lined both sides of the roadway, but, the area where the anxious children walked was somewhat remote, which did not lend itself to any alleviation of Allie’s fear.

Before they reached the corner, Jeffrey was able to catch a view of a good portion of Braddock, the street that the van had entered and turned to advise Allie, who stood several paces behind him.

“You can relax, Allie. There’s no truck th…..!”

As he spoke, Jeffrey’s eyes widened, as he spotted a white van moving quickly down the street, hugging the curb and closing in on them.

“ALLIE, WHAT COLOR WAS THE TRUCK?”

Although she noticed the look of alarm on Jeffrey, Allie’s attention was captured by a new threat. A rather large man, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, with the hood in the raised position over his head, had turned the corner from the street which the van had turned onto and was now walking toward her brother, whose back was to the man.

“It was white…..Jeffrey…..JEFFREY…..”

Jeffrey turned, in time to see the man walking toward him, now less than fifteen feet away. He spun around again, to face his sister, only to see that the white van had now slowed and the sliding door on the passenger side was opening quickly. Before the van had come to a complete stop, a thin-faced man, with a pencil type mustache jumped from the open side door and hit the ground running. The very first thing that Jeffrey noticed was the long scar which ran from below the man’s left eye and down his cheek, ending at his lower jaw. Before that observation had a chance to register completely, the twelve year old boy froze upon seeing a second man emerge from the same door, this one even more evil looking than the other two men on the sidewalk. This man wore a scowl that looked to Jeffrey as if the man’s only intent was to do bodily harm to whomever might get in his way. As swiftly as the two men emerged from the van, Jeffrey recognized what was taking place and shouted out a warning to his sister.

“ALLIE, RUN!”