The Day I was Abducted: A Memoir
How I escaped
This is a true story about something that happened to me when I was in my twenties. I am sharing it to raise awareness of how expectations can influence people using a third-person POV.
Emily had been doing well at work. The company she worked for acted like they valued her. She received regular visits from her area manager and regular appraisals. They promoted her frequently and listened to her requests, offering support and guidance as well as an autonomous role in the main.
Emily had already been promoted three times. But, it was the 1980s and a recession was looming.
Emily hadn’t yet lived through a recession, and she was worried. Her boyfriend and she were both paying for a mortgage. What if it went up?
Emily’s friend was already in a house with negative equity. It was true that they had bought their house three years ago, and it had only been £40,000. (House prices had soared since then, and her friend had bought hers at twice the price just around the corner; now the houses were only worth £60,000.)
She mustn’t lose her job, and yet her boss had just told her that the concession she was running was to close down. Nobody was interested in old department stores anymore. Stores like Principles were all the rage. People were ripping up shop façades and replacing them all over the town, and you had to keep up, that was all.
Emily had decided to apply for a shop in a different area. That meant she would have a different area manager who didn’t know her, but at least she would be with the same company.
That hadn’t gone well. She had written a letter to complain about it too. There was nothing for it but to try for any job.
Emily saw an advert in a local paper and caught a bus to the interview. When she arrived, the shop was boarded up, and it didn’t look like a shop at all. She wasn’t sure she could manage a shop that wasn’t even off the ground yet. She had only two years of management experience.
As she was contemplating taking her heels and jacket off and finding a snack (obviously the interview was not going to take place), a black Rolls-Royce drew up alongside her.
The man inside beckoned. He, too, was wearing a suit. (This must be the manager and the interview at last.)
The man motioned Emily into the car. She got in and was told they would be going to The Hilton Hotel. Emily had heard of The Hilton. She knew it was expensive.
They sat down in a plush bar and drank something. Emily was so nervous that she asked for the first drink that came into her head, and it wasn’t alcoholic. She tried to make it last and not ruin her interview by talking incessantly, but the interviewer hardly asked her any questions. Afterward, the interviewer walked her back to his car. Once again, Emily got in and was driven to a part of London she did not recognize.
As the man drove, he asked Emily whether she had driven a car before. Emily was beginning to feel uneasy because they hadn’t discussed the business at all.
The man put his hand on hers and showed her how to use the gear stick.
Emily’s mind went blank.
The man said, ‘I am going to buy you clothes. You can have whatever you want.’
The car stopped, and the man said, ‘I am just going to see whether my wife is at home.’ He got out and closed the door.
Emily found her mind racing. She wondered whether to try the car door. Would it open? This felt like something she had seen in a film, except this wasn’t a film. This was actually happening.
Emily looked out of the window, but she couldn’t see the man.
A bus pulled up in front of Emily. Emily reached for the door handle and opened the car door. The door opened. Emily slammed it and ran. The bus was still there as she approached it. She jumped on.
Emily sat upstairs scanning the streets for anything familiar. Everything looked so unfamiliar.
After being on the bus for half an hour, Emily plucked up the courage to ask the bus conductor where she was and which bus would take her home.
Emily had a lucky escape. I cannot claim to understand luck or situations, but I do know that Emily had let her guard down and had got into a car with a stranger because her expectations were altered. She expected to find a manager to interview her and so she imagined this was the man and thought that she was safe. Emily was in very real danger and had been abducted.
This story demonstrates the importance of stopping to assess any situation and setting your expectations aside in order to do so.
A memoir written by Hermione Wilds Writes
