Blog 2-Captivity Narrative

 Louis Timberlife, a young boy being held captive.

 Group of guerrillas holding main character captive.

It was a dangerous day in Colombia, it was Election Day. In Colombia, the days surrounding elections are always dangerous because of a revolutionary guerilla group called FARC. Kidnappings or attempts at kidnapping always increased during the election period.

            It was a normal day for Louis Timberlife, a ten year old American boy who had lived in Colombia for the last three years. Louis fit the rich gringo profile perfectly. He was very white and had blonde hair. He came from a very wealthy family and was extremely spoiled, he had everything he wanted and still wanted more. He never paid any attention to his family and believed he didn’t need any of them now that he was older.

            He left for school just like he did every day, always accompanied by his bodyguards. The bodyguards were mandatory due to his father’s political position. His father was the American ambassador in Colombia and he wanted the government to make reforms that would get rid of the guerillas.

            Louis was coming out of class when a friend invited him to come to his house afterschool. He said “Great, I’ll just have to wait for my car to come and I’ll meet you at your house”. Louis’s friend told him to forget about his car and the bodyguards and to just be cool and come with him in his own non armored car. Louis thought of it for a second, he was just a young boy so he did not understand how dangerous what he was doing was. He just accepted. As they were approaching his friend’s house, a gray van intersected them.  Out of it jumped about ten armed men screaming “Todos afuera! Todos afuera!”, they all went out and the armed men took Louis into the van and sped of with him inside their trunk.

            After several hours of driving, the van finally stopped. The guerrillas pulled Louis out of the car and threw him into a cold puddle of water and mud. They then threw him into a cave with a blindfold so that he couldn’t see who pushed him in, or where he was being held. He remained underground for 2 weeks without ever seeing any sunlight. All he had was a little hole on top of the cage through which he could listen to everything the men who had captured him said. He was fed only once a day. He wanted to clean himself desperately. He missed everything about his home, even the basics that he had taken for granted. He missed his bed, his pillow, the light in his room. Most of all he missed his family. He had never been so alone in his life. One day he finally heard his name mentioned through the hole in his cage. His father had delivered the money and he would be returned home next week.

            A week later he was pulled out from his underground cage. After two weeks of living in the dark, he finally saw sunlight. He was put into a helicopter and flown into the city. He landed on the roof of the tallest building in all of Bogota. It was the embassy of the United States of America. Louis was left there and saw the helicopter fly away. When the helicopter had taken off, a lot of agents started to run towards him to make sure he was ok. Behind them came his father whom he hugged like never before. He told his dad about his horrible experience, he told him he realized how blessed he was to have all that he did in his home. From that day on Louis learned to appreciate all that he had, there was nothing left of a spoiled young man that he used to be.

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