The Boudicca Parchments

Chapter 57

“We’re going to throw the garbage away,” said May.

“What both you?” asked Bernie, their grandfather.

“Yes, why not? There Mai’s throwing the ordinary garbage and I’m taking the plastic bottles to the recycling bin.”

“Okay but stay on the pavement and watch out for cars.”

Although only eight, in the twenty four hours that they had been here, the twins had shown that since the last time they had come to visit, they had become very grown-up and helpful. It was clear from the beginning that they liked to show how they were not only self-sufficient and capable of doing things for themselves, but also ready to help around the house. They knew that grandpa Bernie and Grandma Helen were no longer as young as they used to be, and so they wanted to show their gratitude towards them by helping them and showing them that they were considerate and eager to help.

So now they were climbing the stairs chattering to each other and listening with curiosity to the sirens in the distance that seemed to be getting closer. At the top of the stairs, they closed the gate and turned right in the sheltered overhang of the buildings, past the end of the row of attached houses and into the bright sunlight.

The long street was not a bus route and in some ways could easily have been mistaken for a cul-de-sac, except that it was in fact open at both ends. But they had no intention of going to the end of the street. After the attached row of houses on the left ran out the street continued towards the green dumpster or “frog” as Israelis called it, with the wire mesh cage for the plastic bottles a few yards before it.

All this was perhaps thirty yards away from where they were. To their left was the valley and to their right the street, in which many cars were parked but few in motion. This was not a through road to anywhere else. The only cars that used it were the ones owned by those who lived there or were visiting others who lived there. Everyone else used the high road above the blocks of flats on the right than ran parallel to this street.

So there was nothing to disturb the tranquillity of the twins as they walked at a leisurely pace towards the “frog” laughing, joking and larking about. They didn’t notice the windowless workman’s van that had started just after they closed the gate and was almost coasting along in neutral behind them. But just as they reached the wire cage for the plastic bottle recycling, the vehicle came up next to them and the side door slid open.

They looked round startled as two men reached out and yanked them in. They screamed in terror, or at least tried to. But the men who had grabbed them, clamped large hands over their mouths to stifle their screams. A second later a third man slammed the door shut while the driver, gunned the engine, engaged the gears and lurched forward down the street.

While the sirens entered the street from one end, they were speeding up towards the exit, the roundabout and the road that passed Kiryat Moriah that would take them to the promenade and the heart of the city.

The driver smiled. Because it was a winding road, the police could not even see them. And by the time they had figured out had happened, they would have gone through to Derech Beit Lehem, and become lost in the city traffic.

So swift had they been, that no one had seen what had happened to give a description of their vehicle. By the time, the police figured it out, they would be long gone and they would have the children safely locked away.