It was a day like any other for me. Laying on the coach, watching TV, eating some popcorn and thinking of nothing. Well , I was actually wondering why my friend Elizabeth wasn’t answering the phone. I tried to call her 300 times for a very important school assignment, but nothing. It was like she was dead. All of a sudden my phone started to ring. “Hello?” I answered with my mouth full of popcorn and still staring at the TV screen.
“Hi, I’m Elizabeth..” I swallowed the food and I sat up straight on the coach. Her voice was like a breeze in the silence, and it filled my body with chills. I knew something wasn’t right from the tone of her voice… “I can’t talk right now…” I could feel her shake from the fear, the fear of something big, very big. My heart started to pound louder and faster in my chest from the anxiety. I turned down the volume of the TV to concentrate on her low and extremely serious voice, and try to capture the only phrase I’ve never wanted to hear in my entire life…
“I’m in danger…” There it was! My bad thoughts started to run out of control from my mind in a flash. I cuddled in a corner of my coach. There was a moment of silence. I could hear my heavy breath and hers. The smell of tension in the air. Then all of a sudden I heard Elizabeth gasp. I started to imagine her turning around and looking at the one door of the dark room she was in. Her muscles and mine were very tense. She started to talk very quickly and with a lower voice… “Call for help I’m in a room, a dark room, in 16th Avenue, in a building with a few windows…” While I was trying desperately to find a piece of paper and a pen, I heard the door slam open from the other side of the phone. Some footsteps coming closer. Elizabeth panicking and trying to hide the phone. I could imagine her beautiful, determined blue eyes full of fear and tears rushing down her red cheeks.
“No! Please! Don’t! Nooo!” Her voice was trembling and scared of the evil man. My thoughts started to run again. Because of the panic I started to sweat and my heart was pounding louder and louder in my chest. I wanted to shout and run, run away to save her, but I couldn’t… My voice couldn’t come out from my mouth. I was like struggling in silence. That man was coming closer and closer to my best friend and I could hear her moving back towards the dead end of the dark room.
Then all of a sudden the beep sound of the hung up phone filled the silent room of my home. I couldn’t think of anything else except that her fate was up to me now, and I would’ve done anything to save her…
Camilla Bianco (4E – Corrispondente dell’UmberTimes dagli Stati Uniti)