Sands of Redemption

20

After the visitor had left, the men murmured softly to one another. She could hear Mathew quietly swearing.

Georgia pressed her fingers up against the wall. 'Aashif? Mathew? What's going on? What did he say?'

They stopped talking.

'He spoke of a ransom,' Aashif spoke through the wall. 'He wants us to write letters directly to Qasim Yousef and the Government.'

Georgia frowned. 'What about me? Why not see me?'

'I'm not sure he understands English.' He then muttered something Georgia could barely hear.

'And what?' Georgia asked.

'And maybe because you're a woman.'

Georgia gave an angry sniff. 'Did he talk to you about me?'

He hesitated. 'No.'

'So you didn't even ask about me?'

'I'm really sorry, Georgia. I should have. I guess I didn't think about it.'

Somehow, Georgia didn't believe him.

The next morning, Georgia woke much too early to the warbling cry of the Muslim call to prayer playing on someone's radio. Blinking in the gloom, Georgia heard noises coming from next door. Listening, it took the same scrape and shuffle repeated several times before Georgia realised that at least one of the men was conducting his morning prayer.

Not long later the spluttering start of a generator woke her up again. Then, breakfast arrived, and just like yesterday, two more guards came to her door, escorting her to the toilet. From then, from dawn until dusk, nothing happened until dinner plonked itself upon her floor.

And so it went on for the next couple of days. Nobody came to see her and only once did someone return to the men next door to collect their letters. If it wasn't for her food and toilet trips, Georgia would have thought the Mujahideen had forgotten about her.

On the fourth night Georgia found it impossible to sleep. A mosquito had found its ways inside and it was driving her nuts. It buzzed near her ear. Georgia brushed it away, only for it to return moments later. She waved her hand again and again but it kept coming back.

'Fuck off!' She leapt out of bed.

'Wha'? What's wrong?' Mathew spoke groggily from next door.

'A damn mosquito!' She blindly clapped around the room.

'Georgia, stop making so much noise!' Aashif hissed.

'Or what? Because God forbid they'll actually come and see me.' Tears were streaming down her face. Four fucking days. She kept clapping her hands.

'Get control of yourself or they'll kill you.'

'So? They're just going to have me die here anyway.' Nevertheless, she slumped back into her cot. Dropping her head into her hands, she sobbed.

The next morning, Georgia was covered in bites. She scratched and scratched, lifting and yanking at her abaya to get to the itch. Finally, she'd had enough and pulled the wretched thing off, throwing it across the room.

Not long after, when she heard the guards opening her door, she stood to pull it back on, then stopped herself. She sat back down again.

The two men took one look at her singlet and shorts, gesticulated and yelled something, then slammed the door shut.

Frustrated and tearful, Georgia spent the rest of the day scratching vacantly at the bites down her legs.

The guards didn't return.