Christmas Wedding by Ellen Elizabeth Hunter

sherry.
    “ It was a Saturday night. I was dancing in the eight o’clock performance at the music hall. Then there was a party at the apartment of one of the cast. I knew it was going to be a late night so I took the BMW.
    “ After the show, I filled the car with as many of my friends from the cast as would fit and we drove further uptown to the party. I parked on the street. At about one o’clock, I’d had enough and left the party -- alone.
    “ I took Fifth Avenue downtown. Someone had set a partially-full Coca-Cola can on the floor and it rolled over and was spilling onto the carpet. Now Daddy had kept that car in pristine condition and I prided myself on doing the same.
    “ So when I spotted a bus stop on the Central Park side of Fifth Avenue, I pulled over to the curb. I was in the lower Sixties by then, just below the children’s zoo and before you reach the Grand Army Plaza. There’s a high stone wall that separates the park from the sidewalk, but there are entrances into the park spaced at intervals. No one goes into the park at night.”
    “ Oh gosh, Scarlett, you are really spooking me out,” Melanie said.
    “ Me too,” I said, remembering my days as a student in New York. I sipped sherry; it was hot and cold at the same time. Cold on my tongue, yet hot on the back of my throat. I needed that warmth. Bad news was coming, I was sure of it, and I remembered Kiki’s reading of the cards. The Queen of Cups signified conflict, aggression, a struggle. Was Scarlett the Queen of Cups? It seemed that she was the mysterious woman whom it was up to me to identify.
    Scarlett continued, “I parked at the curb and opened the driver’s side door to spill the Coca-Cola out onto the pavement. I had to put the car into park so I could open the door. The doors lock automatically when you are in drive, you see, but when you are in park, they unlock automatically too.”
    “ Oh, no,” I gasped. I had lived in New York for four years: you did not drive around with unlocked car doors.
    Scarlett continued, “Before I knew what was happening a man had jumped into the car on the passenger side. I thought it was a carjacking. I told him I’d get out. The keys were in the ignition. I told him he could have the car. Just let me go.
    “ But he made it plain he wanted both me and the car. He had a gun which he pressed against my temple and he ripped the keys out of the ignition. He said, ‘Now we’re going for a walk, girlie, or I’ll shoot you dead right here and now.’ And here’s another foolish thing. I didn’t even have my seat belt on. That might have bought me some time.
    “ With brute strength he dragged me over the stick shift and out through the passenger door. At that time I was in good shape, better than I am now. I was strong but I was no match for him. I realized that he had size and male strength on his side, that fighting him would be hard.”
    “ Gosh, that must have hurt, to be dragged across the stick shift,” I said.
    “ My adrenalin was pumping so hard I didn’t feel a thing. My mind kept racing. Assessing the possibilities. Scream, I thought, and I did. But there was no one around. It was about one thirty a.m. by then. Even the late-night dog walkers were indoors. Away in the distance I could see a doorman in a green uniform, swinging his arms and pacing, but he was too far away, and with the background noise of the city, he didn’t hear me.
    “ If any of the drivers on Fifth Avenue saw me they didn’t stop. Maybe they didn’t know that I was being forced against my will.”
    “ And he had a gun at your head,” Melanie said and rubbed her upper arms as if she was cold.
    “ The only thing I could do was scream, so I did, at the top of my voice,” Scarlett went on. “That made him mad and he struck me on the head with the butt of the gun and I blacked out. When I woke up I was in the park, lying on a rocky outcropping with the man on top of me ripping at my