Mara Louis; Girl of Mystery

by Timothy Paterson

We reserved two rooms at the Aspen motel, one for us and one for Scott.”

  At this point, Mr. Wilson continued with the story. “When we arrived at the motel, we noticed that there were several men in dark suits searching the hotel for something. We later learned that they were federal agents and Secret Service agents, looking for Betsy, the president’s daughter. She had been kidnapped by two men at a ski resort in Aspen.”

  “That evening, my wife and I were talking about our situation and I mentioned that if we hadn’t spoiled Scott so much, giving him everything that he wanted, we might have been able to put aside enough savings to keep our house. Scott overheard our conversation and thought we were blaming him for losing the house. He became very angry and decided to run away and go back to California. He sneaked out of the motel late that night, after we had gone to sleep.”

  At this point, Betsy began telling her story. “One of the two men, who kidnapped me, had been fired from the White House staff and blamed my father for it. He and his brother were trying to get him to pay five million dollars ransom for me. At the ski resort, they switched me with another girl and covered my mouth so I couldn’t scream and drove off with me in the back of their van.”

  “They drove to a deserted cabin in the woods, about thirty miles from the resort. Once we got there, they removed my coat, shoes and socks and taped me to a chair with duct tape. Then, they opened the window of the room I was in. They told me that it was their insurance policy in case they were caught. If the police did not make a deal with them, then they would not tell anyone where I was and within a couple of days, without food or water, in sub zero temperatures, I would die. The kidnappers had left a note for my parents, telling them that if they made the kidnapping public, they would never see me again. So, the public didn’t know that I had been kidnapped.”

  “After two days in the cabin without food or water, or heat, I began to get delusional. I thought I heard someone outside the cabin, so I started rocking my chair to make noise. Scott heard the noise and when he looked through a window, he saw me. He broke the door down and came to my rescue.”

  “Scott was dressed in many layers to protect him from the cold. Besides his boxers and t-shirt, he wore a set of long underwear, two shirts, jeans, a sweatshirt, sweater and a winter coat. He also had a hat, gloves, three pairs of socks and waterproof hiking boots. After he cut through the tape, he saw how cold I was and he immediately began undressing. After he had stripped down to his long underwear, he removed them and handed them to me. He told me to put them on under my clothes.”

  “He turned around to give me some privacy and while I was undressing, he was putting his jeans and the two shirts back on. Meanwhile, I put on the long underwear, and my shirt and jeans. Then Scott gave me one pair of socks, his boots, sweatshirt and sweater, and his coat, hat and gloves. I was starving and thirsty, so Scott took several candy bars and three bottles of water from his backpack. I ate all seven candy bars and drank all of the water.”

  “Scott told me that we had to leave before the kidnappers returned. Since he did not have any shoes, Scott layered his feet with about ten layers of garbage bags and newspapers and duct taped them around his legs to make them waterproof. Before we left the cabin, Scott took a miniature walkie-talkie out of his backpack and taped the button down. He hid it in the room and then he took another one from his pack and turned it to the same channel as the other one. Then, he clipped it on his belt. The last thing he did before we left the cabin, was to call the White House, who connected him to my dad’s cell phone. Scott told my dad where we were and said that we were leaving the cabin, but he would leave his cell phone turned on, so that they could locate us through the GPS navigation on his cell phone.”

  “Scott put the remaining pair of socks on his hands and we left the cabin. I tripped on a rock and as I fell, I grabbed a hold of Scott, and pulled a chain off his neck. As Scott put the broken chain and a large medal into his backpack, he told me that it was his good luck charm. It was a bronze medal that his grandfather had won in the 1952 winter Olympics.”

  “After we had been walking for more than an hour, the snow began coming down so fast and hard, that we needed to seek shelter. Scott led me to a dense grove of aspen trees. The trees were so close together, that the branches formed a roof to keep the snow off us, and it also cut down the amount of wind. Since I was so tired, Scott made me a bed of tree branches and leaves and I lay down and was soon fast asleep, while Scott kept watch”.

  “After I had been asleep for a while, Scott heard voices on his walkie-talkie. The kidnappers had returned and were very angry to find me gone. Since we had a three-four hour head start on them, Scott decided to let me sleep a while longer. Scott called my father, told him our approximate location, and told him that the kidnappers were on our trail. That’s when the phone went dead.”

  “At some point, Scott cuddled up next to me for warmth and he fell asleep as well. He was awakened by voices down the trail. He woke me and told me to be very quiet, because the kidnappers were very close. We got up very quietly and started walking as fast as we could. We heard footsteps behind us and when we turned around, we were face to face with the kidnappers, who were both pointing guns at us.”

  “Just as the kidnappers fired their guns at me, Scott jumped in front of me. The blast of the bullets knocked Scott onto me and we both fell to the ground. A moment later, the woods were full of federal agents, who grabbed the kidnappers and handcuffed them. Scott and I stood up and realized that the bullets must have missed us, since neither of us felt any injuries. We were both transported to a hospital where we were given warm clothing and blankets and some food to eat.”

  “My parents arrived just moments later. While my parents and I were in the room with Scott, the doctor entered the room and told us that Scott’s medal around his neck had saved our lives. She held up the medal, which had two bullet slugs in the center of the medal. If Scott had not jumped in front of me, I would have been killed. After my parents gave Scott and me a few moments of privacy, Scott started to cry. He reminded me that the chain had broken and he had put it in his backpack. We both believe that God had put the chain and medal around Scott’s neck just before we were shot.”

  Betsy started to get emotional just thinking about that moment and her mother comforted her. Scott’s mother continued with the story. “The police had located us and escorted us to the hospital. While we were in the hall talking to President and Mrs. Morgan, a federal agent brought us a mini-tape recorder that they had found in Scott’s backpack. Scott had taped an apology to both of us, telling us how sorry he was for all of the problems he had caused us. At the end of the tape, we heard a prayer that Scott had prayed, asking God to keep Betsy safe and to watch over us, after he was gone.”

  “The next day, President Morgan asked Scott what he and his wife could do for Scott to repay him for saving Betsy’s life and the only thing Scott asked for was to help me and his father find new jobs and a place to live. Scott felt responsible for my husband missing his job interview in Chicago.”

  “Well, you know the rest of the story. President Morgan helped us both find jobs and housing in Baltimore. Scott and Betsy have been best friends ever since that day.”

  Mara was glad that she finally knew the complete story. She had liked Scott before, but now she liked him even more.

  Two hours after Scott was taken to surgery, the surgeon appeared in the waiting room and informed Mr. and Mrs. Wilson that it was indeed a ruptured appendix and that if they had not found Scott when they did, Scott probably would not have survived. “He still isn’t out of the woods, though,” the doctor said. “We got most of the infection, but we have to use large doses of antibiotics to fight the rest of the infection. It will be a few hours before he wakes up. We will come get you when we get him settled into his room.”

  After the doctor left, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson both
hugged Mara again and thanked her again for saving Scott’s life. You are an angel sent to us from Heaven,” Mrs. Wilson told Mara.

  “I can’t take all of the credit,” said Mara. “Joseph, the angel in my dream was the one who told me that Scott needed help.”

  While the adults went to get coffee, Betsy and Mara went to the hospital chapel to thank God for saving Scott’s life. When they walked into the chapel, Betsy started sobbing uncontrollably, when she realized that Scott might have died. She grabbed hold of Mara and would not let her go.

  As Mara sat there comforting Betsy, she had a vision. In the vision, Mara saw a woman in Scott’s room. She was giving Scott something. Mara looked closer and saw that it was a jar filled with moldy pennies. As the jar got closer to Scott, he grew weaker. The woman kept moving closer to Scott, but she moved as if she were a robot. She said; “Come on, take this gift from your Auntie.”

  Mara had a very bad feeling about the vision. “Let’s go, Betsy,” she said. I think that Scott is still in trouble. The two of them ran down the hall and met their parents and Scott’s parents who were being taken to Scott’s room.

  Mara asked