Rachel and I were childhood friends since we were young. Although she came from an affluent family whereas I was born into a indigent one, she was not at all egotistical. We attended the same school and every day, we would amble to school together.
One day, as we were walking home from school, a red van came speeding up to us. We were aghast by what happened. Before we could respond, two burly men got out of the van, got hold of Rachel and pushed her into the van. When I saw what had happened, my eyes gleamed wide as I cupped my hands over my agape mouth to suppress my fear. Recovering from my stupor, I knew I had to save Rachel! Immediately, I scurried to the two men.
“Let go of my friend!”
“Shut up, you little rascal!” and one the abductors shoved me onto the ground and then sped away.
I got up on my wobbly feet and dashed to the nearest telephone booth to dial for Rachel’s parents. We decided to meet at their house, so I scampered there. We agreed to make a police report and Rachel’s father dialed for the police. Within a few minutes, the police arrived and I elucidated the whole horrendous event to them. Not long later, the kidnappers called us.
“Give us a ransom of $1,000,000 and we will let the girl go!”
“$1,000,000! H…how can I raise s…so much money within such a short period of time?” Rachel’s dad faltered with stupefaction.
While Rachel’s father was talking to the kidnapper, the police traced the source of the call.
“Do you want to get your precious darling killed, huh?”
“N…no, I will r…raise the money. P…please don’t hurt my girl!”
“You’d better not try any tricks!” and with that, the line was cut off.
Luckily, the police managed to trace the source and found out where Rachel had been kidnapped. We drove to the place where Rachel was and brought a bag which contained some money to let the kidnappers into believing that we had the amount of money they wanted. The kidnappers did not even check the money and just skedaddled out of the place while we hurried to untie the ropes which were tied to Rachel’s hand. As soon as the kidnappers stepped out, they were being surrounded by the police. However, they did not give up. Instead, they decided to try their luck so they fought tooth and nail with the police. After a while, they finally threw in the towel and they were pinned onto the ground. The police handcuffed them and took them to the police station for interrogation.
After Rachel had been rescued, she hugged her parents tightly and cried openly, oblivious to the police looking on. Upon seeing the happy reunion, everyone shed tears of jubilant.
The moment I got home and to my greatest horror, I found out that it was actually my parents who were behind all this!
“Dad, Mum, how could you do that! Rachel is my friend!”
“I’m sorry darling, you know we are so poor and we had owed the loan sharks money! They threatened to have us killed if I don’t pay up so I came up with such an imbecilic idea of kidnapping,” Dad elucidated in between his sniffles. “We had no choice but to do that!”
“Even so, you should not do that! Rachel’s parents treat us so well!”
My parents realized their mistakes and said that they would apologize to Rachel’s parents for kidnapping Rachel. Rachel’s parents forgave my parents and not only that, they even offered my parents some money to return to the loan sharks. Since then, my whole family was very grateful to Rachel’s parents and of course, Rachel and I were still best friends like before!!
Vocabulary and Good Phrases
affluent – rich, wealthy
indigent – very poor
egotistical – think how great and important one is – proud / boastful
abductors – who take someone away by force – kidnappers
elucidated – explain
horrendous – scary – horrifying
faltered with stupefaction – speak in a voice that sounds weak and uncertain, and keeps stopping and in fear
skedaddle – ran away in fear, not wanting to be caught
fought tooth and nail – try with a lot of effort or determination to do something
threw in the towel – surrender
shed tears of jubilant – cried with happiness
sordid – dirty, unpleasant
imbecilic – foolish, ridiculous
elucidated in between his sniffles – explained something and crying at the same time