Pim Somchue 1106

Katherine’s Journey

A young girl walked into a big room in her house, decorated with fancy couch and

table, there was a big window that reaches out to the vivid, beautiful garden outside the

house. The girl dressed up nicely, tugged her short sleeve white shirt inside her short navy

blue skirt. She glanced around, but nobody was in the room. She stepped around with eager

trying to look for something or someone. Without patient, she used her phone to make a call.

“Hello, mom. Are you busy? I would like a ride to the mall. I made a plan with my

friends.” A girl delightly spoke.

“Sorry honey, I am out for grocery shopping with dad. You were asleep earlier and I

didn’t want to wake you up.”

“It’s alright mom. Will you be back soon?”

“Probably not, we have lots of stuff to get done. Can you take a cap?”

“Of course, Have fun with your grocery shopping mom. Love you.”

“Love you too honey. Take care and see you at home for dinner.”

Katherine walked out of her house and locked the door. She opened the drawer and

gracefully selected her shoes. She picked out her favorite pair of colorful sneakers and put

them on with a big smile on her face because she is going to see her friends. She always

looking forward to this time of the week where she will hang out with her friends outside the

school and have fun.

In front of the main road, Katherine stood there with one of her hands up in the air

waving up and down called for attention from cars that were passing by. Shortly, a yellow car

stopped in front of her, she hurriedly went in the car and told the big, old man her destination.

“How are you, sir?” Katherine asked the driver with her friendly voice.

“So so.” A taxi driver answered with a sleepy sound.

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“Did you have many customers?”

“You’re the first customer,” a driver insisted with his stale tone.

In a little while, Katherine arrived at the mall, a group of young girls immediately ran

to Katherine. Everyone was hugging, smiling, and laughing when they saw each other.

Straight away, Katherine asked her friends, “Should we go get lunch?”

“Yes, let’s go,” everyone said with cheerful voices.

On the way to the restaurant Katherine had a conversation with her friends about their

current lives, they continued to talk until they got into a restaurant. When they sat down,

everyone ordered their dishes and started to have a new conversation. Whenever a subject

that they were talking about is serious, Katherine always pays attention to them and showed

her concern. After the girls finished their meal, a waiter came in and handed over a receipt.

Katherine offered to pay for everyone first and let her friends pay back later. They walked out

of the restaurant and went straight away to the karaoke shop. Hours passed by, the girls came

out of the karaoke shop and went to a cafe, it seemed like their conversation will never end,

they had so many things to tell each other even though they always see each other at the

school. The sun started to set, those girls were getting ready and packed up their purse to go

home. Katherine said goodbye to her friends and took some pictures together as a memory

that they had spent a day together.

Shortly, Katherine returned to the front of the mall and called a taxi. Before long, one

taxi stopped in front of her, she got in the car. Surprisingly, a taxi driver is the same person

from this morning. Katherine exclaimed, “Oh sir! What a coincident.”

“Hi again, young lady,” the same old driver answered.

“How was your day? Did you had many customers?” Katherine asked with curiosity.
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“Not a lot. I’ve been driving around here since noon.” A taxi driver answered with

frigid sound.

Katherine wanted to ask more questions, but the driver seemed to be annoyed. She

didn’t realize if she had said anything that made the driver mad. However, the driver just

prompted up and asked questions about her life.

“What school are you going to?” The driver asked.

“The school on the main street.”

“Oh! the big private school?” A man said with an interesting sound.

“Yes, It is a nice school,” Katherine answered nicely.

“I have a son who will attend his first year of school this year, so I was looking for a

school for him.” A driver told.

“Really! What school will he attend?” She asked with careless.

“A small public school in our town. I am effortless to pay a tuition for a nice private

school.” The driver said with a hopeless voice.

“It’s alright, your kid will be well educated even he goes to a public school,”

Katherine emphasized with him.

“How much money do you get for school?” The driver asked.

“Hundred dollars per week sir,” Katherine responded without hesitation.

“large sum of money for a teenager.” the driver spoke softly to himself.

At that moment they were silenced, Katherine was slowly taking her phone along with

a headphone out and opened a music application. Out of nowhere, the driver just asked her,

“Do you live alone?” Katherine wasn’t yet turned on her music instead she was stunned with

the question. It took her seconds to brought back her conscious and responded to the

question,
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“I live with my parents.” She didn’t talk much.

For a bit after she listened to half of the songs in her music playlist, Katherine looked

out of the window and noticed that the view outside looks strange, she never seen this part of

town before. She calmly assumed that the driver was using a shortcut. Although she still has a

little feeling offend the driver, so she opened a map application on her phone to see the routes

lead to the road where her house is, then she emitted a long breathe after she made sure that it

is a shortcut route. Katherine looked up to the mirror which reflected the driver face, at the

same time, the driver looked back and smirked at her. Katherine smiled back to the driver.

The strange feeling in the air and that smirk of the driver made her legs and her hands shook

even though she was holding them tightly. Many thoughts ran through her head. Finally, she

decided to takes out her phone again, at that moment she came to realize that the mobile

service was nearly gone. She got more nervous, but with her cleverness, she quickly sent a

message to her mom and friends that she is on the cap along with its license plate and brand

of the car.

“Where are you Kate?” one of her friends replied as soon as she sent the text.

“Otw with a suspicious cab driver. 2RF MS”

Katherine quickly sent her location before she ran out of the service. She prayed that

her friends were calling the police, but on the other hand, she thought that maybe they aren’t

panic as she was, maybe they might have thought that this is nothing, just she being scared

and overthinking. Suddenly the driver popped off,

“Are you calling your friends?” he strongly asked.

“No, I’m not” Katherine replied with a fine tone.

“Great, because you can’t call them anyway.” The man stated.

“What do you mean?” Katherine asked softly.

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“How much money do you have with you?” He shouted.

“What?” Katherine said with a soft, trembling voice.

“I won’t hurt you, just give me all your money.” The driver said in a deep hush voice.

“Give me all your expensive stuff!”

“Quickly!”

Katherine was scared, her mouth was partly open partly close. Her mind went back

and forth between speak out or just stay quiet. She did not let any words go through her

mouth.

Suddenly, the driver reached his hand to the front drawer and grabbed a short knife

out. Katherine saw everything, but she could not move or ask for help, her eyes were attached

to the hand of the driver, but she slowly changed her focus to look into his face. The driver

was strongly held his knife up and compelled the nicely dressed girl to answer his question.

“How much do you have!?” the driver yelled at the girl.

“Not much,” Katherine replied gently.

“Give me all you have.”

For Katherine, that day was the day Katherine brought all the money she had been

saving the entire week to spend with her friends. She knew that she can instantly save her

money again. Still, she expected to use this saving money wisely to buy a good time with her

friends.

“Give me your money!” the driver said that sentence again.

“And give me all your stuff!”

Katherine gradually handed her purse to the driver with a dazed look on her face. The

driver quickly grabbed the purse and held it close to himself with the knife in another hand,

pointed to the girl. Katherine sat still in the same position, she couldn’t move any inches of
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her body, her hands were covered with sweat. She could hear her heart pounding rapidly

inside her chest.

“Get out of my car and keep your mouth shut,” a big old man said while moving his

knife up and down pointing toward the girl.

Katherine was still wordless. Not a word came out of her throat.

The driver shouted out, “Get out of my car!”

She silently opened the door closest to her, and in a hurry, she came out of the car.

The driver quickly drove off even the girl did not close the door. Katherine stood still, her

face was paled. She watched the car drove away, she kept an eye on the car until it is too far

for her to see. She slowly lowered her head to the ground and hugs herself.

The wind was blowing, the breeze was passing away, trees were waving, everything is

in motion, excepted Katherine, excepted her. A police car drove over to her with loud siren

noise. Her eyes were still fixed on the floor, at a loss of concentration of what is surrounding

her. Suddenly, she dismissed from her tranquil thought when a man in a uniform came over

and waved his hands up and down in front of her face.

“Are you alright? What happened to you? I got an information that there is a weird

taxi driver out here.” The policeman kindly asked.

Katherine kept quiet and stood still.

“Are you fine? What is your name? Katherine?”

The police did not get any reactions from her.

“Alright then, I called your parents earlier, they are on their way to see you. Let’s wait

for them at the station.”

Katherine quietly followed the officer into his car. She sat quietly in the back seat

with her head facing down looking at her hands rubbed against each other. There was no sign
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from her at all, the police seem to have no idea of what happened to her. When they arrived at

the station, the police took Katherine to the reception lounge at the station and had a female

officer looking after her. Katherine’s parents soon arrived at the station and came directly to

her. Katherine saw her parents but did not say a word. Only transparent water came out of her

eyes, harder and harder until she made a sobbing sound.

Her mom asked, “It’s alright honey, I am here. I’m with you. Are you hurt anywhere

honey? Are you good honey? What happened to you? I was worried so much about you,

sweetheart. I love you. I’m glad you’re safe.”

Her parents eventually embraced her.

Katherine hugged her parents tightly and told them, “I love you mom, I love you

dad…I won’t make you worry anymore. I love you…”