Saving Private Jeanette - Chapter Four "Whacha Gonna Do?"

By one o'clock in the middle of the night, the chipmunks, and the two chipettes were in front of the Miller house, each carrying a flashlight, while Simon, who was named the leader of the rescue party, gave out instructions.

"Alright," Simon began, "what we need to do is scan the surrounding area... Brittney, Eleanor, you girls head north until you make it to the end of the street, look for any signs that Jeanette might have been down there... Alvin, Theodore, you head south, I'm going to search right smack dab in the middle of the street here... got it?"

"Got it!" The rest of the gang responded before they split up. Brittney and Eleanor headed up the north end of the street like Simon commander, flashing their flashlights up and down the sidewalks and the street, looking for signs that might point to Jeanette's whereabouts, while Alvin and Theodore did the same thing down the southern end of the street. Simon whipped out his magnifying glass, got down on his hands and knees, and began observing the area around where he was standing. The first thing Simon spotted was a shoeprint, matching Jeanette's shoes, in the flowerbed behind the picket fence in front of the Miller house. Noticing a trail of soil and mulch coming from the flower bed, and down the southern end of the sidewalk, Simon deduced that Jeanette must have accidentally walked through the flowerbed, bumped in the fence, then turned around and headed towards his house. The trail wore off about halfway between the Miller house and the Seville house.

"This might be where the incident happened..." he said to himself, as he shone his flashlight around the spot where the trail of soil and mulch came to an end. He didn't find anything else, until he glanced up and saw on the other side of the street, tire tracks in the street. Simon walked over, and observed where the tire tracks started. Once again, he didn't find anything else, but at that moment, the rest of the rescue party caught up with him.

"You guys find anything?" Brittney asked.

"I didn't see anything." Theodore responded.

"Me neither." Alvin added.

"What about you, Simon?" Asked Eleanor.

"I saw a shoeprint in the flowerbed behind the fence back there," he told them, "there was a small trail of soil that ended right across the street there... here is where a set of tiretracks begin..."

"You think whoever might have kidnapped Jeanette grabbed here over there, forced her into a car that might have been sitting here?" Eleanor asked Simon.

"That's my deduction." He concluded.

"So now what?" Alvin asked.

"We simply follow these tiretracks for as far as they'll take us..." Simon added.

Jeanette slowly opened her eyes, after having blacked out from fear a few hours ago. She found herself tied to a chair, her mouth still gagged with duct tape, inside some kind of a dark room. She couldn't quite make it out, it looked like some kind of basement, or a back room, or something. She looked over to her left, and saw her captor sitting at his computer. She couldn't see what he was doing exactly. He was editing and cropping photos. Photos he took of Jeanette. One photo was of the one he took on his cellphone of her in his trunk, while the others were taken with a digital camera of her tied to the chair from different angles. One slightly disturbing photo he took was her skirt being lifted up, exposing her underwear. Jeanette suddenly remembered that this guy was the exact same guy she noticed staring at her in the convenient store earlier that day. Who exactly is this man, anyway? Whoever he was, he looked away from his computer, and noticed Jeanette was now conscious. He smiled, as he got up from his seat and made his way over to where she was bound and gagged.

"Have a nice nap?" He said, trying so hard to make his gravely voice sound soothing, even though he did a lousy job.

Jeanette's eyes were about to shed more tears as she shook her head. He bent down in front of her, in an attempt to make eye contact with her.

"Who'd a thunk it?" He asked her. "I have one of the chipettes... I don't want you to think I'm one of those crazy collectors... but as long as I have one of the real things, what do I need to start a collection for?"

Jeanette had no idea what this guy was talking about. Was he a fan of her and her sisters? An overly obsessive fan? Jeanette didn't think so. Her gut feeling was that this guy simply wanted her for the sake of having her, and knowing he has one of the chipettes, he's going to be bragging about it to her. The man slowly took Jeanette's glasses off, and rose his camera up to his eyes. Jeanette squinted to make out what he was doing.

"Keep your eyes open, dear..." he told her, which she did, as he snapped a shot of her eyes.

"Such lovely eyes," he complimented sickly, "like two, precious emeralds..." he continued, as he slipped her glasses back on.

Jeanette displayed an obvious expression of fear, and being upset on her face.

"Aw, what's the matter sweetheart?" He asked her. "Do I frighten you?"

Jeanette nodded.

"I apologize," he told her, "but no need to worry... you'll get used to me in time..."

What was that supposed to mean? Jeanette wondered, really freaking out by this guy. He ran his fingers through her hair, which she didn't like one bit.

"Get some sleep..." he told her, "I'll see you bright an early in the morning... it's going to be fun."

He walked back over to his computer, saved what his was working on, and turned it off, as he left the room. Jeanette was scared senseless now. Fun tomorrow? What kind of fun did he mean by that? What was he going to do to her? Hearing so much talks about child predators, and child molesters, Jeanette was so afraid that he was going to rape her in the morning. Jeanette had never been raped, but she had heard about it, and she didn't want it to happen to her. Especially since Miss Miller expressed her fear of learning that one of her daughters had been raped. Jeanette then did the only thing she could do. She cried. And she prayed. She cried and prayed.

The rescue party came to a hault just outside the neighborhood, as the tiretracks disappeared. Where they going to give up? No, they weren't. How where they going to continue with their search with no more clues? Simon was convinced there was another clue that the others didn't notice.

"Cigarette butts." Simon spoke up.

"Cigarette butts?" Brittany asked.

"None of us smoke, right?" Simon asked.

"I swear I don't know how that ashtray got in my underwear drawer!" Alvin blurted out.

"Well, that explains why our room always stinks now." Theodore said, half sarcastically.

"Alvin? You realize Dave is going to be very angry at you if he finds out." Simon told him.

Alvin didn't respond.

"Well, this might throw us off, if these butts belong to you, but I just now realized there was at least two butts, of the same brand of cigarettes, off the curb around where the trail left by Jeanette's shoes ended, and another one halfway down the tiretracks... and there..." Simon pointed down another street, "that looks like another one..."

"You think whoever kidnapped Jeanette was smoking these?" Eleanor asked.

"It's possible... let's follow them..." Simon suggested.

The gang walked down the street, each one of them growing weary, from not being used to being awake so late. They realized they were all getting tired, but they fought to stay awake. Even as the night sky slowly grew brighter, and brighter.

Jeanette eventually fell asleep again during the night, but she woke up when she felt someone run their finger down her cheek. It was her captor.

"Mornin' sunshine." He greeted her. He walked over to his desk, grabbed his chair, rolled it over in front of Jeanette, and took his seat.

"Sleep well?" He asked her.

Jeanette shook her head.

"Sorry to hear that." He told her. "I know what will make you feel better..." he said with a smirk. "You can sing, right?"

Jeanette's eyes darted back and forth, before she shrugged.

The man leaned over to Jeanette, grabbed ahold of the duct tape over her mouth, and slowly peeled it off, as Jeanette whimpered in pain. Once the tape was off, Jeanette inhaled a big breath of air, and wiggled her lips.

"Sing me a song." Said the man, as he leaned back, and crossed his legs.

Jeanette paused for a moment, before she fearfully spoke up. "No."

"What did you say?"

"No... no, I'm not going to sing for you..."

"You're not?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't have to sing for you if I don't want to..." Jeanette said, trying to be as confident as possible.

Jeanette's captor was not amused, as he stood up from his chair, and walked over to a set of lockers he had in the room. He began to rummage through one of them.

"So, you're not going to sing for me?" He asked.

"No." Jeanette responded.

"That's too bad," said the man, pulling a small ax out of the locker, "I was hoping I wouldn't have to hurt you, but..."

"I'll sing, I'll sing, I'll sing, I'll sing, I'll sing!" Jeanette cried, scared to death of the ax he was pulling out of the locking.

The man chuckled. "That was too easy," he said as he walked back over to Jeanette, holding the ax up close to her face, "well, go ahead, sing for me."

Jeanette gulped loudly, took a deep breath, opened her mouth wide, and prepared to deliver a song to her kidnapper, but faced one problem... "I can't think of a song!" She said.

"Can you not?" He asked.

"Not off the top of my head, while my life is hanging by a thread, no..." she replied.

The man grabbed the wastebasket next to his desk, turned it upside down, placed Jeanette's foot on it, and raised the ax up into the air, preparing to chop her leg off, when...

"She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes..." Jeanette belted out, "she'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes, she'll be comin' round the mountain, she'll be comin' round the mountain, she'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes..."

The man lowered the ax.

"Oh we'll all go out to meet her when she comes, oh we'll all go out to meet her when she comes, oh we'll all go out to meet her, oh we'll all go out to meet her, oh we'll all go out to meet her when she comes... and we'll all have chicken and dumplins when she comes, and we'll all have chicken and dumplins when she comes, and we'll all have chicken and dumplins, and we'll have have chicken and dumplins, and we'll all have chicken and dumplins when she comes!"

The man took the wastebasket out from underneath Jeanette's foot, and placed it back next to his desk, as she sighed in relief.

Brittney's cell phone started beeping.

"What's that sound?" Simon asked.

"Oh... I think the battery in my phone is about dead..." Brittney told him, as she pulled it out of the pocket of her skirt.

"Wait a minute... you have your phone with you?" Simon asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Jeanette always carries her cell phone with her!"

"I cannot believe we didn't think of this from the start!"

"Try calling her, see if she, or anybody answers!"

The man resumed his conversation with Jeanette.

"So, how old are you?"

"Eight." She told him.

"Smart as a whip for a girl your age..." he complimented.

Jeanette was about to speak again when her cell phone began ringing.

"What the hell is that?" He asked her.

"Uh... nothing..." she lied.

Her captor stood up, and leaned over Jeanette, listening carefully at this funky, little tune, which seemed to be coming from the pocket in her sweater. He reached in, and pulled out her phone, and saw the caller I.D. revealed Brittney was calling her.

"Brittney's calling you..." he told her, "that's your sister, right?"

"Um... yeah..." Jeanette responded.

"Well, you tell her you're alright, you got that?" He asked. "If she asks you where you're at, and you tell her, you're going to be in big trouble, got that?!"

Jeanette nodded in fear, as he opened her phone for her, and positioned it so Jeanette could speak into it.

"Hello?" Her voice cracked through the phone.

"Jeanette?!" Brittney exclaimed. "Jeanette, is that really you?!"

"Yeah, it's me alright..." Jeanette responded.

"Jeanette?" Simon spoke into the phone, as he took it from Brittney. "Are you alright?!"

"Oh yeah, I'm perfectly fine..." Jeanette lied.

"Where are you? We're worried sick about you!"

"Uh... uh... uh... I... uh... I was just... uh... uh... uh..."

The man rolled his eyes, and closed Jeanette's phone, disconnecting her from the others. "Oh, for cryin' out loud!" He exclaimed.

"I'm sorry!" Jeanette cried. "I couldn't think of how to answer the question... I... I..."

Jeanette's mouth was retaped, as the man turned her phone off.

"Never mind." He told her, as he left the room, pocketing her phone.