A lone Marine sits tied to a cold metal chair his head covered with a wet burlap sack allowing in only small amounts of light as his entire body throbs in pain. He listens intently for the sound of foot step to signal another round of torture. For the best he can tell it has been 4 days since he was taken captive, after an RPG exploded only feet from him knocking him unconscious, but luckily leaving him with only scrapes and bruises. His thoughts are of home, as all the small thing that made him happy like women in sundresses, pizza and beer go passing by his minds eye. Oh man, how he can almost taste the Bud Light. Strangely the thought of Mrs. Mansoore his little old Iraqi neighbor kept creeping in. What would she think of this as an Iraqi, and an American. He also thought how good some of that chicken mash she would make for him when he would help her carry her grocery , would be right now. How nice of a lady she is and how much different these men are.
Then the daunting sound of foot steps echoing from down a distant corridor, causing every follicle of hair on his body to stand at attention. The steps became increasingly louder before stopping near his cell which was little more than an old dirt room in a clay hut. The crude clunky latch opened and only one man entered the room latching the wooden plank door behind him.
The Marine was trained to withstand unbelievable amounts of pain for near super human periods of time, but every man has his limit and he was nearing his. He gritted his teeth as what was left of his fingernails clinched tightly to the metal chair, his legs quivering though he tries to fight it.
The man was standing before him now, casting a shadow over the Marine, and as the man pulled the burlap sack back, the sunlight breaking threw a wooden shutter burnt the Marines eyes. The first feature he could distinguish from the foggy silhouette was a pair of striking green eyes glaring at him. This man was not one of the usual pain dealers, this one was a new guy and he looked all business.
“I know you!” the Marine coughed out as he racked his wrecked brain for an answer as to why.
The bearded man with piercing green eyes looked at him with a befuddled expression which quickly progressed to a worrisome one.
“You don't know me.” The man sneered.
Then it hit the Marine. Those green eyes reminded him of Mrs. Mansoore, and the photo albums she would show him. One of her grandsons had striking green eyes too. But to think this man was the boy in the album would be a stretch. A Hail Mary play is all he has.
“I know your grandmother, she lives next door to me in New York. Mrs. Mansoor is your grandmother right? Right!?!”
“You lie!” The man growled.
“Badi is that your name?” The Marine said apprehensively.
The mans expression spoke volumes as he stepped back in awe, his eyes jittered nervously.
“Adam, if you don't tell me now how you know those names, I will do what it is I was sent here to do. I will cut you apart until you tell me!” Badi snarled, furrowing his brow and baring his teeth in anger.
“I swear to you it's true. I carried her groceries up 7 flights of stairs when ever the lift was broken. I fixed small things around her apartment on a regular basis, please Badi she cooked me lunch and dinner all the time. Her favorite dish is that chicken thing.... Keema she called it! Please look at my right wrist, she made me a good luck charm before I left, please just look!” Adam became sure this man was the one in Mrs. Mansoor's photo albums.
“I will kill you if you have lied to me.” Badi said as he cut Adams right hand free.
Badi immediately pulled up Adams sleeve exposing the gift she had given him, a woven Hamsa purple in color the size of a silver dollar with a tigers eye stone in the center. Badi clutched his breast where an identical hand made charm hung, then he taped Adams wrist back to the chair and made a quick exit, not returning until hours later.
Badi quickly entered the cell locking the door behind him. He carried a stern yet worried look as he set out a small folding table next to Adam and began to arrange his implements of torment.
“You don't have to do this, look at me I have been prodded, lacerated had salt poured in the wounds then sown shut. I'm not going to give in so kill me now you heartless troll.” Adam pointed with his eyes to the maggot covered gashes, that were cut into his thighs and sewn shut with the maggot still inside.
Badi took and dirty torn piece of wool cloth and stuffed it into Adams mouth and sealed it shut with duct tape.
“I was sent here to torture you, but when you said my Jaddah's name I could not. I now know what you say to be truth.” Badi held out the last photo he received from his grandmother, which showed Adam and Mrs. Mansoore standing in front of the apartment building they lived in. “I have already sent a message to your government telling them where you are. Know that I want nothing to do with this life. I have studied to become a surgeon, to save the people these extremists hurt. These evil men, they told me they would kill my loved ones if I did not do as they said. I ask that when your friends come and take you, that you do not tell my Jaddah what I have done here. Only tell her I love her dearly.” A single tear fell from his emerald eye as he proceeded to tell Adam of his most cherished memories of his grandmother, in place of the torture he was ordered to preform.
Before long their was a great commotion as Adams captors yelled, and began to rush about. Frantic knocking and yelling from the other side of the wood plank door. Then came gunshots and the oscillation of helicopter blades slicing the air, as a Seal team worked its way closer and closer until reaching his cell.
The door flew off it's hinges from a mighty military boot and 6 Navy Seals stormed in. Badi quickly jumped behind Adam holding a scalpel near his throat, staring down the Seals' challenging them to shoot. They did not hesitate putting one in his head and two in his chest. Adam tried to scream out in horror as the man who saved his life was shot dead. When Adam's hands were free he ripped the sticky gray tape from his bloody and bruised mouth, spit out the cloth and screamed out in joyful remorse.
“You fools, he was the informant!” Adam looked down at Badi and could see from the smile on his face that he was free from the extremist grasp that forced him to cause so much pain and death.
One month later Adam returned home and sat across from a weeping Mrs. Mansoore, taking her hand to return the charm she had made for Bandi so long ago.
“I'm so very sorry that he gave his life to save mine, I would trade places with him in a heartbeat. Mrs. Mansoore, I owe you and Badi my life and for that I thank you. But know, he loved you so dearly he gave his life so I could be here to help you, where he can't.” She only took his other hand in hers, smiling through the tears and nodding her head in acceptance.
