Operation Rescue Brother

It was my thirteenth birthday. The house was full of police, both with uniforms and detectives. Out in the road, there were so many journalists, all filming our house for the news. My little brother Thomas was gone. It was my fault. We were playing in the front yard. We were playing soldiers, and I was mad at him because he never fell down when I shot him. Explaining to an eight-year-old how to play war was impossible; at least it was with Thomas. He could have just fallen, as he was supposed to.

A white van pulled up and these two men ran out. They took Thomas and put him in what looked like a pink bag. I just stood there as he was thrown into a van and then it drove away. I stood there staring at the van. I was frozen. I couldn’t move. It was unrealistic and like something I saw in a movie. I mean who would want to steal my brother? He was annoying.

Mum came out and she quickly found out was happening. She looked at me with a very angry but face full of fear.

“Where is Thomas, Where is your brother?” she screamed

“Some men in a white van took him”

“Why are you just standing there like a statue? You should have run in and told me. It’s your fault. You did nothing!”

Maybe a thirteen-year-old shouldn’t cry. But I did. I could have jumped on the two men. I could have run in and told Mum straight away. I could have remembered the number plate. All these possibilities and yet I did nothing.

The next few hours were a blur. The police came and asked a lot of questions. The press came and our house was under siege. It was like we were the centre of everything. Mum and Dad didn’t even have time to cry. They were speaking to police and the media. They were begging through the media for the kidnappers to return Thomas.

The next few days were hard. Mum and Dad hardly spoke with me, and mum was afraid to let me out of her sight, as she thought I could be kidnapped. Mum apologized for blaming me, but it was too late. I thought it was my fault. I knew it was my fault. I missed Thomas. I missed the chance of saving him from the kidnappers.

Things went worse as the weeks went on. Thomas was not returned. The Press lost interest in the story. The Police were at a standstill. The only thing left was an empty chair where Thomas sat when we ate, and silence. Silence is the worst thing. When Mum would look at me, I would think what she was thinking. Sometimes I wished that it were me that was kidnapped. It is not because I wanted to; it was just hard watching Mum miss Thomas. It was hard to see her cry. It made me feel no guilty and convinced that it was my fault that Thomas was kidnapped.

A few weeks after the kidnapping, I got a letter. I rushed up to my room to read it. I was excited because I never got letters. When I opened it, my heart stopped. I think I got a panic attack. It was a picture of Thomas. His hair was in a ponytail and he was sitting with a teddy bear in his arms. There was writing on the back, “Don’t show police, only you can save him. It’s too dangerous to involve the adults.” The picture shocked me. It was Thomas however he was wearing a white dress with a blue ribbon. He had white tights on and shiny shoes. He looked like a pretty girl. No one could ever see that he was a boy. I only knew he was a boy because he was my brother. His hair was long enough to be in a ponytail. Come to think of it, so was mine. Mum didn’t have time to cut my hair. I suppose she had the time, she just had lots of things to think about. I stood before the mirror and tried to fix my hair in a ponytail. I stared in the mirror. It was a girl staring back at me.

I was confused for the next few days. Why was the picture sent to me? How could I save Thomas? Why was it dangerous if I told Mum? She would be happy if she saw that he was alive and not dead. She would be as confused to why Thomas was now a girl. Maybe it was to hide his identity. I decided to do what the letter said. If I told anyone, Thomas would be in danger, and so far everything was my fault.

That meant that I had a new problem. There was just a picture. It was Thomas and a grey background. How was I to find out where this picture was taken?

This meant that the next few days I went around thinking about the photo, which brought me, relief knowing that Thomas was alive, and confused about where he was. It was a dark secret. Every time I saw my mother cry, I wanted to show her the picture. Every time I saw Dad leaves the house because he could not stand the emptiness that Thomas left behind, I wanted to ask him to help me.

A week went and I was still confused by the photo. I was on my way home from school when a black car stopped and opened the door. I thought it was a perv and kept on walking. The car followed me with an open door and this voice told me to get in. It was a woman’s voice. A woman can’t be a perv unless she is working for one.

I sat in the car, thinking that I was no being kidnapped. Tears flowed out of me. I remember the time that I wanted to be kidnapped, so I wouldn’t see the pain it was causing my parents and it wouldn’t be my fault.

We drove for an hour or so. The woman in the car said nothing. I just looked out the window remembering the road and where I was.

After an hour, the woman said, “I am the one that sent the picture.”

“Am I being kidnapped?”

“No, no, no. I am going to tell you where your little brother is.”

“Thomas? How do you know where he is”?

“I know where a few children are. They are all boys. They live in a house and all I know is that they are dressed like girls.”

“Why are they dressed like girls? In the picture you sent me, Thomas has a dress on. Why does he have a dress on?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why don’t we just ring the police and let them rescue Thomas?”

“The house where he lives is very strange. I have seen many men there. Some look like they could be members of the mafia. To be honest, I am afraid of them. I am afraid that I will be hurt. It took a lot of courage just to send the picture to you. Someone must have lost it on the path outside the house. It took me a lot of courage to pick it up. I recognized that the girl was the boy that was kidnapped. I tell you this much. From picking the picture up to sending the picture to you, I was very afraid. I thought I would be shot at any minute.”

“I can’t help Thomas. If he is kidnapped by the Mafia, then I can’t fight the mafia down. I am afraid of them too.”

“Then you and I have to work on a plan. The first thing you have to do is a ring to your parents to say that you are at a friends house or something.”

We came to the woman’s house. We looked out the kitchen window where we could see the house where Thomas was. I couldn’t believe it. The house was so close. I could nearly feel his presence, but I couldn’t see him. I wanted to run over to the house and kick all the mafia men where it really hurts. I paced back and forth. I was never so afraid in my life. Why don’t we just call the police? No, I decided. It was my fault that he was there. I would find a way to save him. I would find a way without us being shot to death. My heart was in a gallop every time I saw the house.

The woman’s name was Laura. We decided that I had to get a good night sleep and then tomorrow I could peek through the windows in the house to see if I could find where Thomas was. Then if it looked OK, I could call the police and save my brother. It seemed like a good plan.

I didn’t sleep that well. I had dreams that I was like James Bond, bursting in the house, dodging bullets and fighting huge Mafia men. Then I would wake up in a sweat and cry out to my Mum. The next day was either going to be the best day of my life or the worse day...

When I came down to breakfast, I heard Laura was talking on the telephone. She was obviously talking to a friend, “He is here… He will be looking at the house today… he is sweet but quite feminine in the way he looks… yes I understand, I owe lots of money.”

I listened to every word but was confused. I didn’t know that Laura owed a lot of money. How was I to know? I just met her yesterday.

She was happier when we ate breakfast. She told me the best time to look at the house was in the morning, that is when the house was mostly quiet. She also reminded me that Thomas could be dressed as a girl, so I had to remember this when I was looking for him.

The time came when I was to walk out and look for Thomas. I went through a hole in the fence. My heart was beating quicker and quicker as I came closer to the house.

I peeked through one window. It was an empty room.

I went to the next window. There was a man in a chair smoking. There was a mess on the floor like it was a bar or they had a party or something like that.

I looked through the next window. It was like a theatre. There were a stage and a pole. This house was quite weird. I was getting more confident now as a spy.

The next window was the kitchen. Then my heart nearly came out of my mouth. I saw Thomas sitting on a chair eating breakfast. He was dressed in a nightdress. It was quite cute actually. It was a Barbie one. Barbie was a princess. He looked like a little girl in it. He wasn’t handcuffed or in ropes, as I imagined he would be. He was just eating his breakfast. He did look tired though.

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my neck. It was one of the mafia men. I tried to run away, but he put his arm around my stomach and told me not to try to escape. I tried all I could, but he was too strong. He dragged me into the house and threw me on the floor.

“Thomas, I see that your brother is here. Now you have your family here.”

Thomas jumped off the chair and ran to me. He gave me a hug and said that he missed me. I hugged him too and said I missed him and sorry I couldn’t save him.

“Why are you sorry,” he asked

“Because I wanted to save you.”

“You can’t save me. You can’t take me home. I’m here because mum and Dad don’t love me anymore. I am so happy that you love me.”

We both hugged each other and there was silence. I knew that Laura would notice that I wasn’t coming home and then she would finally ring for the police.

The Mafia man told me to come with him and said doesn’t think about Laura. She works for them. My will to fight and save my brother plummeted. I suddenly became submissive at the thought that an adult was betraying me. I walked into her web.

I was led up to a room with two beds. I was now kidnapped and nobody would look for me for a few days or they would just think I ran away. The window was barred so I couldn’t escape. I just walked back and forth. I was excited that I found Thomas, but I failed again. I failed to save him.

Then I was called down to the sitting room. I was told to strip. I refused. I was not going to be naked in front of these men. But when one of them slapped me across the face, I slowly started taking my clothes off. Within a few minutes, I stood there naked as the day I was born. The men smiled saying that I have potential. Whatever they meant by this. Then Gianno, who was the boss, took my clothes and threw them in the fireplace.

I was given some panties. They were light pink with a red ribbon and frilly. I slowly put them on. The material was so soft, that I immediately had problems with staying soft in my private area if you know what I mean. The men laughed at this saying that I was a born sissy that liked the feel of girl clothes. Then I had to put on these tights. They were white and they looked so thin, I thought there would be a lot of holes in them. It was a bit embarrassing that Thomas told me how to put them on. For a boy that never wore tights, it was a strange feeling. It was like a feather was caressing my legs. I think I let out a small groan. Once again the men laughed. Then I put on a nightdress the same as the one that Thomas had on.

I was told that some men would be coming tonight. My job was the same as Thomas. I was to dance around the poll. Gianno explained that many men liked children to be sexual, and many men like sissy boys. From now on, we were sissy boys.

All that day, I practised on how to dance around a pole. This was hard. I had to look at the audience that was empty chairs and lick my lips. Then I had to let my but swing in all directions. It was hard being sexual as the mafia men called it. After all, I never had a girlfriend yet. I didn’t know what it meant to flirt with others, especially men. I was not a sissy. I was not gay.

We had some time to rest before the show. Thomas was resting on the bed with me. We whispered back and forth. I told him that Mum cried all the time because she loves and misses him. I explained that this was not our house and we would have to escape when we could. It took me little time explaining that our plan to escape had to be kept a secret.

Nighttime came, and Gianno came with a dress for Thomas and for me. Mine was a light blue dress that was very petticoat like. It was so wide at the bottom and it had lots of frills. I put it on with my tights and shiny shoes. Then I fixed my hair into a ponytail. I looked in a mirror.

I was a sissy. I was a girl. It was hard to conceal how well the clothes felt on me. It was like I was dancing with clouds. It was hard to conceal that I felt like a girl and that I liked it. If I didn’t have a crying mother at home, I would have no problems staying here and living as a girl.

The Show came. Twelve men sat down in the chairs in the room that looked like a theater.

The lights dimmed

Thomas and I came out and started dancing innocently. The men were yelling and whistling. They obviously liked seeing two boys in dresses. Our dance became more and more seductive. I am sure that the people reading this story would gasp at how seductive it was and say it was for the extreme. I was being seductive on the stage. I swung around the pole, looked at the audience and smiled and raised my dress sometimes. I just wanted the whole thing to be done. If this was my future, then I didn’t want it.

After the show, we were in our room again. We changed back to our nightdress. Gianno came in to see if we were there. He was very drunk. He said goodnight and left,

Thomas and I looked at each other. He did not lock the door. This would be a chance. We decided to wait for a few hours so the moon was very high. The mafia men would be by then asleep. It was so hard waiting and waiting. We were shaking, not because it was cold, but because we were afraid.

The time came when it was to try to escape. We tiptoed out of the bedroom. We peaked into the sitting room. The Mafia men were snoring. Then we walked to the backdoor in the kitchen. My hands touched the doorknob. We looked at each other. The door opened and we ran. A minute after the door opened, an alarm went off.

We ran past Laura’s house. Then we ran down the street as fast as we could. It’s not easy running in a long nightdress.

As it was a film, a police car was on patrol. We stood before the car and told them whom we were. We sat in the back of the car and were driven home. I wish I could tell you about a more dramatic escape, but that is what happened.

That night we were with Mum and Dad.

Mum came into my room and asked did I want to change to my pyjamas. I said no, I would like to sleep in my nightdress. It was beautiful and felt nice.

I didn’t know that Thomas said the same.