The tears that stung in her eyes caused her vision to be blurred, but still she had her foot pressed down hard on the gas, swerving in and out of lanes, cursing and yelling at motorist who were driving slowly despite the fact that the speed limit here was only about sixty kilometers per hour.
“Move it you slow poke! Get the fuck off the road!”
She cried as she gripped the steering wheel so tight that her knuckles were beginning to turn white.
“Donna please talk to me.” Her mother was saying over the phone where she had placed it in a holder on the dashboard and put it on speaker. “Donna, are you there? Can you hear me darling?’
“Mum it was horrible!” she said out loud and sniffed, blaring her horns as she maneuvered from one lane to the next, back and forth. “Just horrible mum.”
“Tell me darling, what was?”
“The pictures mum!” she yelled out in frustration and used the back of one hand to quickly wipe away her tears. “It was delivered to me in my office, wrapped nicely in a box! Bloodied pictures of my daughter!”
”Oh my…” her mother said. “…but how? Why?”
“Mum they had pictures of her sleeping, at home! At home mum!”
“Who would know about her?”
Donna hadn’t reasoned that at first, almost nobody knew she had a daughter, Keith knew but he wouldn’t ever do that, she could vouch for him. Wayne knew, but he had always only been nice to her and he loved Alix, so it couldn’t be him. She knew she had not told Jeremy about them having a child together, and even if she had, Jeremy would never bring harm to his own flesh and blood.
She could think of nobody that might want to hurt her child. Nobody except-
“Cheryl!” she screamed out. “That little insatiable bitch!”
“Cheryl?” her mother asked. “You think Cheryl is the one behind it?”
“Who else mum?” she sniffed, feeling the anger rise in her. “She is the only one who would want to hurt Alix because she sees her as a threat to her marriage with that looser, Jeremy!”
“Where are you now darling?”
Donna sniffed and shook her head, the fear in her heart was great and it gripped her painfully, she could almost feel her heart being ripped out of her chest. She feared she just might have a heart attack anytime soon.
“Donna darling, please talk to me-”
“I’m driving to Alix’s school. I’ll get her back from there and get her home!”
“But at school she shouldn’t be in any danger-”
“Mum!” she yelled and slammed her fist on the steering. “They had pictures of her sleeping at home! And you think they won’t be able to get to her in school?! mum!”
Up ahead, she could see that the road was free so she didn’t take her foot off the gas, didn’t notice the traffic light change from green to red either, she just zoomed across the road, causing the cars coming from the adjacent road to apply their brakes and screech to a halt.
And then she heard the sirens.
From the side mirrors she could see the red and blue flashing lights of the cop car trailing her, but there was no way she could stop, not now, not until she got to her daughter’s school and have her wrapped safely in her arms.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” she sobbed and drove faster. The cop car turned the sirens on fully and began to chase her now.
“Alix please be safe, please be safe.” she sniffed. “My baby, please. Mummy’s coming.”
The school was about a five minutes drive from the office, but Donna managed to get there in three minutes. Without even turning off the car’s engine, she threw open the car door and jumped out, making a run for the school building just as the cop’s car pulled over directly behind her car in a move to block her from escaping in the vehicle if they could not get her in the school.
The school was on recess and the children loitered around the premises, on the play ground and every other place. Donna needed to find her daughter quickly before the cops got to her, she looked back once to see them steeping out of their vehicle, one female cop and one male cop who had driven the car. She faced forward as she frantically scanned the playground with her eyes, all the while running for the main building. When she could not spot her daughter outside, she went in.
“Alix!” she began to yell as she ran through the halls, she could hear the cops calling out to her to stop but she would not. She knew there was no way they could pull out a gun here where children were, so she need not worry about being shot. They would catch up to her eventually and she would face the consequences then, but she would only allow that after she had seen her daughter and made sure that her girl was safe.
“Alix!” she yelled again. She knew her daughter’s class so she ran straight for the room, bursting in without bothering to knock or slow down and her heart surged with relief when she saw her daughter sitting in the class.
Alix, a couple of three or four other children and the class teacher turned towards the door as she suddenly barged in, and Axis smiled a wide grin on seeing her mother.
“Mummy!” the little girl said and stood up from her little chair, running toward her mother.
“Alix!” Donna cried and rushed in, going down on her knees to bundle her daughter up in her arms, crying and kissing her head and face as she repeatedly called her name, saying thank you.
The class teacher who had been sitting got up confused and so did the other children, the teacher quickly ushered the children out to joint their peers in the playground as she watched Donna and Alix’s display.
“Is everything alright, Miss Brooks?”