Page 17 of A New Year Baby

We lost a lot of lives, and sometimes that’s hard to take. But saved many, too.

“Who dis?” asks one of the thugs, holding up a photograph from my wallet.

A lump forms in my throat as I stare at the picture. A beautiful smiling blonde woman.

Stella.

“Dis ya wife? Why you din text ya wife?” the thug demands, shoving the picture in my face.

“She’s not my wife,” I tell him.

“So why ya have her picta?” he asks.

“She pretty,” says the big guy. “Why she not ya wife?”

I feel the eyes of all the thugs on me, along with my own colleagues.

“Uh,” I say awkwardly. “Well, I asked her to marry me, she said no.”

“Ya crazy, man. Dat gal beauty. Did ya try again?”

“Well… no.”

“Wha?” They stare at me like I’m the dumbest moron in the world. “How many times you ask her?”

“Just the once,” I respond.

“Dumb white boy,” the kidnapper mutters. “He wan she fi say yes first time.”

“I should just shoot him now,” says the other thug. “Idiot ras.”

I can’t believe I’m getting relationship advice from my kidnappers. “If you shoot me, I’ll definitely never get a chance to talk to her again and fix things.”

“Too late. Ya gat no balls, man.” He takes my phone away, but he tosses the photograph of Stella at me with disgust, and the paper flutters to the ground. “Tink about ya shit for a minute, bruh.”

I stare down at the photo in the dirt.

“Yeah, for real,” Josh adds. “I didn’t know you kept a picture of your ex-girlfriend in your wallet, man. That’s sad. Why don’t you just talk to her?”

“It’s complicated, okay?” I tell the men. “You guys don’t understand. It’s complicated.”

The big guy steps forward and presses the cold nozzle of the gun to my head. “Is still complicated now?”

“No,” I say slowly, feeling fear creep up my spine again. “Much less complicated. I’ll definitely talk to her if I get a chance.”

“Idiot, eh,” he says again, walking away. The men take all our belongings outside the tent, and leave us just with the kids with guns.

“Well,” says Thomas, one of the other zip-tied doctors. “That was interesting.”

“I guess we’re entirely cut off from civilization now,” Josh says. “Deep, deep in the wilds of Africa. They took our phones. They took our car. We’re kinda really screwed, this time, guys.”

“At least they let us send heart emojis to our wives,” our other buddy, Rex, points out. “They can’t be that bad, right?”

“Maybe the heart emojis help them to feel less guilty when there are holes in our skulls, and our brain matter is spilling out everywhere,” suggests Thomas. “Maybe it’s easier to kill us knowing we said goodbye to our loved ones.”

“Fair point, buddy.”

“Maybe they will let us live because of all Jack’s unfinished business and regrets,” Josh suggests.

“Yes, he’s way too pathetic to kill.”

I roll my eyes.

“Ha, ha, guys. Very funny.”

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