It was cold & dark outside. She was waiting in the car for her husband who had run into Safeway to grab some milk & bread. She hated it when he waited till 11 at night to go get something. The parking lot was pretty isolated and she was regretting not going inside with him. All sorts of crazy thoughts were rushing through her mind. She rummaged in her head all the cases she had heard over the years of women being abducted. She kept on glancing towards the entrance hoping that her husband would hurry. Where was he?

Suddenly a black car pulled up a few spaces from her. The windows were tinted so she couldn’t see inside. The door opened and a man looked at her and smiled. He started walking towards her. Her heartbeat increased tenfold and she thought she was going to faint. The man was wearing a black coat and looked menacing. She started panicking and looked around for something to defend herself with. Her handbag was lying next to her feet & she remembered putting her mini hairspray bottle in there. She instantly took it out & jumped out of the car. There had been several cases where women remained inside the car assuming they were safe, but the windows were smashed and they were dragged out. She wanted to have the advantage in this case. As soon as he was close to her, she aimed the nozzle squarely at his eyes and squeezed it with vigor. For a moment, the man looked shocked and then covered his eyes and started screaming. With one hand over his eyes, she saw him raise the other as if to strike her. At the same time she saw someone else coming out of the car and knew that she didn’t stand a chance against the duo. The last thing she heard before hitting the ground was, ‘Lady!”.

She woke up in a room done up in pastels. Her head was pounding and she could barely open her eyes. She tried to turn and winced. There was a sharp pain at her side and she realized that she had been stabbed. Tears welled up in her eyes and she thanked God she was still alive. Her husband walked into the room and seeing her conscious rushed towards her with a concerned look. He hugged her and asked, ‘Are you ok? I was freaking out’. She started crying uncontrollably and responded, ‘Where were you? Thank God you saved me and brought me to the hospital on time. That’s why I tell you not to leave me alone like that.’ He looked at her shockingly and said ‘Ria have you gone crazy?’ This brought a fresh set of tears to her eyes.
‘How can you say something like that after I have been stabbed?’
‘Stabbed?’ he shouted, ‘Who the hell told you that you were stabbed?’
‘What about the pain on my side?’
‘That’s because you fell. And what were you thinking…why did you get out of the car and charge on those people like a maniac.’
‘Saahil I can’t believe you are saying all this. You didn’t see me getting attacked.’
‘You weren’t attacked. You on the other hand attacked and almost blinded the poor guy.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘He just wanted to ask you for directions. He and his wife were lost.’
‘But….’
‘What but…you just charged out and sprayed something into his eyes. Luckily I got there and was able to rush both of you to the hospital.’
She didn’t know how to react. The man was suffering due to her paranoia. ‘Is he ok now?’
‘Yea, the doctor said he’s going to be fine. I just hope he doesn’t sue us. I have told you numerous times to stop watching and reading about abduction cases.’
She felt terrible, ‘But you know it is good to know about such things. It helps you when you are in such a situation.’
‘Yea, like it helped you today. Please take everything into consideration before you do that to someone else.’

She decided to go meet the guy the next day and apologize. She also decided that she would never ever wait in the car by herself again.