Soul Hostage

by Jeffrey Littorno

  I did not say anything. I was just watching Stoaffer. A picture of the woman’s light blue eyes was stuck in my head and made this whole scheme feel somehow off balance. I watched Stoaffer and wondered what was going on in his head. He was fidgeting, and his lips trembled slightly. He started to say something but snapped his mouth shut before a word escaped his mouth. I kept watching him as he appeared ready to say something. Finally, he let out a long sigh and shook his head slightly as if to mark surrender in finding any suitable comment.

  At the same time, I was doing my own calculations and quickly realized the numbers did not add up. I was going over the details of the story Louis had told us on the way here. He and Theresa had been married six years. They had dated for about a year. Louis said he spent eight years in prison. All together that made at least fifteen years. Fifteen years ago, the woman Stoaffer had just pointed out to us could not have been more than a child much less the conniving bitch he had described earlier.

  My thoughts were once again clear to Stoaffer who asked, “Thomas, do you have a question for me?” His voice and face made his irritation clear.

  “I think you know my question, Louis,” I answered trying to keep my uneasiness from showing. “How could the woman you showed us be Theresa? Unless you got married when she was ten, she just doesn’t look old enough to be you ex-wife.”

  Stoaffer chuckled, but the sound had no humor to it. “You are certainly very astute, Thomas. However, you are not quite correct.” He paused to be sure that he had my attention. With a forced smile, he continued, “You are mistaken. The delightful young woman you just saw is indeed Theresa. However, you are correct in your conclusion that she is not my ex-wife.” He enjoyed my obvious confusion.

  “What the fuck’re you talkin’ about, Lou?” Joey spun around to glare at Stoaffer. “Is she yer ex or not?”

  I turned around to get a better look at him as he leaned back in the seat and flashed an expression of amusement and self-satisfaction.

  “Please allow me to apologize,” Louis began with the words which usually pave the way for a less than sincere apology. “I have not been completely forthright with the two of you. You see, my ex-wife’s name is actually Rebecca.” He grinned like a little boy who had been naughty.

  I could hear Joey’s breathing getting faster and knew that this signaled an eruption.

  “You fuckin’ lied about her name?” Joey was practically screaming and looked as if he was ready to launch himself from the front to the backseat. “Why’d you lie about her name?”

  “And if you lied about that, what else are lying about, Louis?” I added.

  Honestly, I do not have much of a temper, but that smirk on Stoaffer’s face made me share Joey’s notion of jumping into the backseat and beating Louis Stoaffer to a bloody pulp. In fact, I had a picture in my head of doing just that. I could feel the old man’s nose give way beneath the slam of my fist. The cracking sound was even there. There was the thud of my blows to his stomach. His jaw slid out of place with a pop as I swung my elbow full force into his face. The image brought a smile to my face as I focused once more on the grinning old man in the backseat.

  The expression suddenly shifted into one of shame as Stoaffer lowered his eyes and replied, “I deeply regret misleading the two of you. However, I can only hope that you might forgive me once you have heard the truth.” The old man suddenly appeared weak and weary as he looked at us with sorrowful eyes. “As Jesus said, ‘the truth shall set you free’.”

  “Can you just tell us the truth without mentioning Jesus?” Stoaffer’s biblical reference as distraction and excuse was irritating. “Now what’s the real reason that we’re in San Pietro?”

  Louis lifted his eyes meekly and quietly said, “Yes, of course, you need to know why we are here. Well, it’s not really too much different than what I told you.”

  “Yeah, so how’s it diff’rent, Lou?” Joey demanded impatiently.

  Stoaffer turned his eyes toward Joey and flashed a smile hoping to find it returned. After a moment, it was. Joey’s lips curled upward seemingly against his will.

  “There you go, Joey. I knew we could turn that frown upside down,” Stoaffer said cheerfully. “So here’s the full story of why I brought you to San Pietro.”

  “That would be nice.” I commented sarcastically. Joey nodded in agreement, and Stoaffer again looked down. “Okay, let’s hear it.”

  “All right,” Louis began quietly. “We need to go back to my marriage and business partner.”

  “Yeah, about yer marriage, Lou…you…you weren’t married to Theresa. So what the fuck?” Joey offered his insightful observation.

  “Please allow me to continue,” Stoaffer’s voice had an almost whiney tone. “I was married… but not to Theresa. My wife’s name is… was Rebecca. Most of the other things I told you are correct. We were married for six years and-”

  “Married for six years to Rebecca not Theresa,” I interrupted. “I still don’t get why you lied about names.”

  Stoaffer smiled condescendingly and said, “Be patient, Thomas. I understand your confusion. If you allow me, I will explain.”

  “Yeah, Lou, you got some ‘splainin’ to do!” Joey responded, and I couldn’t help but snicker at the comment.

  Louis continued, “Rebecca and I were married for six years and-”

  “And Rebecca’s the cold bitch who sent yuh to prison!” Joey interrupted again and this time the interruption brought a flash of hot rage to Stoaffer’s face for just a second before a smile forced itself there.

  “No, that’s not right. If you allow me to continue, I will give you the details.” He looked over at Joey who looked down and muttered something about being sorry. “Rebecca and I were married for six years, and our marriage was stable if not exactly passionate. Gary was my business partner, and we enjoyed a thriving business. This income allowed us to live very comfortable lives.”

  “What were yuh really doin’? Dealin’ smack?” Joey laughed and expected me to join him, but I was not in a laughing mood.

  Stoaffer glared at him until he got quiet then continued, “No, as I said, we brokered notes which involves finding people who are receiving regular compensation from a structured settlement and buying their payment series for a single lesser payment. But this not important to the story here. It is enough to know none of us was wanting for anything. We all should have been satisfied with the security of knowing money would never be a problem. Perhaps the drive to constantly acquire more and more is so ingrained in human nature that we can never be satisfied. Part of our hunter-gatherer past, I suppose,” he chuckled without humor at his insight into human nature.

  “Anyway, despite having such a bountiful existence, I don’t remember any of us being truly happy. Rebecca spent every hour seeking the latest, greatest surgical procedure or medical miracle for maintaining youth. Gary seemed obsessed with keeping up the appearances of wealth. You know, having the biggest house, newest car… Perhaps this was due to his upbringing in a lower middle-class family where happiness was directly linked to possessions. Gary’s wife Linda became forever focused upon the threat of someone stealing from her. Her paranoia caused Gary numerous embarrassing situations. I remember being at lunch with several estate lawyers. Gary gave the waiter a credit card to pay the check only to have him return a few minute later to announce the card had been cancelled. He found out later that Linda had cancelled all of the cards because she thought some of the charges were fraudulent. She was incessantly poring over every bank statement in search of any suspicious activity and then calling Gary at the office to ask him about her findings. This constant vigilance took its toll on Linda, and she always appeared tired and too thin. Perhaps the one thing we all had in common was drinking too much.” His smile was not an expression of happiness.

  “Hold on there, Louis,” I interrupted. “You mentioned the obsessions of those around you, but I didn’t hear anything about your source of unhappiness.”

  “Yeah, Lo
u, yer not holding out on us again, are yuh?” Joey flashed me a smile to show he was backing me up.

  Stoaffer suddenly looked much older than he had moments earlier. He paused for a long time as if gathering the energy necessary to continue telling his story. “Well, my obsession is not as easily described as those of the others.” A crooked smile twisted his lips. “I will, however, do my best. Theresa… the attractive young woman who you saw is the daughter of Gary and Linda. I have known her since she was born. Theresa has always been a gorgeous creature. Even as a baby, she seemed to be forever content and give off a sort of glow. Her clear blue eyes touched me all the way to my soul.” At the mention of her eyes, I could not help but to think of how I had been affected. “She grew from a baby into a child, and her beauty and strong presence grew as well. I became her Uncle Lou and made a point of being in places where I might be able to spend some time around her. Dinners, parties, other gatherings, any functions at which Theresa might be present were events I felt compelled to attend. Every single time I saw her, my heart would race, and I would feel like a school boy suffering his first crush. I must have appeared foolish around her, but I did not care. If anyone noticed my preoccupation with Theresa, they never said anything about it. Well, no one ever said anything about it to me. Things changed on that October night in 2003. It was the last time we went to Gary and Linda’s house for dinner.” Stoaffer sort of winced like the memory was causing him physical pain.

  “In usual fashion, the evening began with drinks. Drinks before dinner, drink during dinner, and drinks after dinner. Also, as usual, I had brought a gift for Theresa. It was nearing Halloween, so I brought her a shiny ceramic pumpkin with a wide grinning face and a candle inside. I remember my happiness as she opened the package and beamed at me with those striking blue eyes. She ran over and kissed me on the cheek. I never wanted the time to end. Of course, it did and she went off to find a place for the pumpkin in her bedroom.

  After the kiss, I sat there thinking of nothing else but the beautiful child. I nodded and smiled at the ramblings of the others without really listening. A little time later, Linda was telling Theresa that it was bedtime. She ran down the stairs from her bedroom and over to me. Throwing her little arms around my neck, she cooed, ‘Good night, Uncle Lou. I love you!’ She ran out of the room and back up the stairs.

  I tried to pay attention what was happening around me but was not completely successful. Gary was talking about the new car he had taken for a test drive. Rebecca was discussed the latest, state-of-the-art procedure being used for liposuction. Linda was going on and on about discovering some discrepancy between her records and a bank statement. As for me, I was replaying the moment Theresa kissed me on the cheek. Her blue eyes sparkled as she said, ‘Good night, Uncle Lou. I love you!’ In an instant she was gone. I suddenly became aware of the presence of an erection. I stood up, made an excuse about going to the bathroom, and did my best to conceal my growing erection. I stumbled off to the bathroom.

  “I was stumbling not so much from the alcohol as from my powerful reaction to Theresa. I rushed into the bathroom and sat there on the toilet trying to understand what was happening to me. I had always been infatuated with Theresa’s innocent beauty but had never felt such an overwhelming obsession for the child. I could find no words to explain this. I still cannot. My thoughts probably sound sick… no, not probably, I am sure they sound sick to the world. But what others thought did not matter to me. The only thing to matter was I needed to be with Theresa.

  “I sat there for awhile before making my way to the sink. I splashed some cold water on my face. Drying off, I stared at the image in the mirror. I appeared tired and drunk. This was certainly not the face of some low-life child molester. I smiled at the thought and realized I had had too much to drink. The sooner I got back to the others the sooner thoughts of Theresa would stop. With the courage of this rationale, I left the bathroom and headed back to the others in the living room. The sound of their loud, drunken voices and harsh laughter rattled through the house. I made my way toward the noise. Unfortunately, my commitment to reason did not last, and the path to the living room took me right past the staircase leading up to Theresa’s bedroom.

  “An idea struck me, one of those ideas which only make sense at the time in which it is conceived. My newly-arrived idea rested on the logic that if I took a quick peak at Theresa then I would see a normal little girl and stop obsessing over her. A terrible idea, but…at the time, it made sense. I could still hear the jarring laughter and loud voices of the others as I crept up the stairs. Like a drug addict, I just needed a fix then things would be okay.

  “Theresa’s bedroom was to the left at the top of the stairs. Her door was open a few inches. The glow from a nightlight glimmered through the small opening. My erection had faded, but my heart raced and the adrenalin raced through my body as I slowly approached the bedroom door. My hand trembled reaching out to push the door open a little further. It creaked a little, and I feared Theresa would wake up and scream at finding someone spying on her. The door opened further, and I heard her deep breathing and smelled her special, sweet, natural perfume. I knew everything would be okay… I don’t mean everything would be okay and I did not have to worry about being caught. I meant everything would be okay in the sense of nothing being wrong with my thoughts of Theresa. This exceptional child deserved all the special attention that I gave to her.

  Without thinking more, I slipped inside the room.

  “A Sleeping Beauty night light plugged into the wall outlet next to Theresa’s bed lit the room. The glowing cartoon character made me smile as I remembered giving the gift to her for her seventh birthday. The ceramic pumpkin grinned at me from the night table near Theresa’s head. I stood in the faint light of her bedroom listening to her breath and watching the cover on her bed rise and fall with each breath. Everything seemed so right. I am not quite sure how to explain what happened next. Perhaps it is best just to say it. I took off my clothes. The act seemed like the most natural thing to do as I slipped into the bed next to Theresa. Not a sexual act in any way. I just longed to lie next to the child and feel the warmth of her innocence. I’m sure you have already figured out what happened next.

  “At the moment I slipped into the bed next to the still sleeping Theresa, Gary stuck his head in the bedroom door. As I found out later, I had been absent for nearly forty-five minutes. Naturally, the others came looking for me. So Gary stuck his head in the door. Seconds later, his eyes adjusted to the low light, and I could see recognition flash in his eyes. He let out kind of a howl as he rushed into the room toward me. In an instant, I was yanked from the bed. Linda and Rebecca huddled near the door, and Theresa sat up sleepily in bed. Everything seemed to freeze for a second like in the flash of a camera, but the image remained burned into my memory. We were frozen like that until freed by Theresa’s quiet voice asking, ‘Uncle Lou, what are you doing?’ I looked at the beautiful child and started to walk toward her.

  “I took one or two steps before Gary tackled me from behind. His attack caught me completely off guard. My head snapped back, and the two of us tumbled forward. I am not certain, but I think my head struck the bed frame knocking me unconscious. The next thing I know is Gary stood over me waving a gun around in the air. I am no expert on guns, but the black pistol did not look like a gun a police officer would carry. There was dust on the barrel. Funny, the things you remember. Anyway, Gary had a gun and waved the thing around. My vision seemed sort of unfocussed, but I saw that Theresa no longer sat in the bed. As far as I could tell, Gary and I had the room to ourselves. I was still naked sprawled out on the carpet. I attempted to raise myself from the floor. All of a sudden, Gary was straddling my chest with the gun pressed into my forehead. I know he said or rather screamed something, but I can’t recall his words. In any case, he did not make much sense. I can still feel the cold metal of the gun barrel pressed against my forehead.” As if to support his words, Stoaffer rubbed his forehead.


  “Much of what happened next is a blur. Someone at the bedroom door kept screaming. I believe it was Rebecca. In any case, Gary turned to say something to her. At the same time, the pressure of the gun on my forehead eased, and I twisted around to get away. My movement didn’t quite win my freedom. Rather, it resulted in Gary landing on the floor next to me and both of us wrestling for the gun. You have probably seen enough movies to guess what happened next. The gun went off. At such a close range, the sound of the gunshot jarred my teeth and left me with a deafening ringing in my ears. I thought I had been shot. Checking my body for signs of a wound, I found instead the growing red stain on Gary’s shirt and the spreading pool of blood beneath him. A hand grabbed my shoulder, and I turned to see Rebecca. Her mouth was moving, but only ringing filled my ears. However, she guided me away from Gary’s motionless body.

  “I grabbed my clothes from the floor and threw them on quickly. I stumbled out of the bedroom. Theresa’s image flashed into my mind, and I had to talk to her. Somehow, amid the constant ringing in my ears, the sound of her crying broke through. I practically rolled down the stairs toward the sound. The crying drew me to the office. Through the door, Theresa could be seen sitting at the desk sobbing. As I neared the room, she looked up at me and cried, ‘Uncle Lou, what happened?’ I started to explain, but Linda appeared in the doorway. She glared at me and screamed, ‘Get out! I already called the police! Get out!’ The door slammed in my face.

  “Suddenly, Rebecca’s pulled me away from the door. I am not sure what happened next. In the next moment of which I am aware, we were in the car speeding away from Gary and Linda’s house. Rebecca was in the passenger seat. Her mouth was moving, but all sound was lost to the ringing. I remember feeling an itch on my head, raising my hand to scratch, and finding my hand covered in blood. I do not remember anything else until I woke up in the hospital.”

  Again, silence filled the car for a long moment. Joey broke the quiet with a loud laugh and said, “Wow, Lou! I like that story even better than the first one! Can yuh tell us a story with a dragon? I really like dragons!” He let go with another long, loud laugh which no one else shared.