I have always thought I had surrounded myself with good people throughout the 34 or so years in my existence in this world, that is until I met wife number 2. My mind however, cannot rationalise why anyone would lie or tell stories, so when someone tells me a story that I personally can't understand or fathom, I try to break the story up so that I can make it ... more digestable and then convince myself the story could be true.

Now here's once again a story that only fools or drug users / addicts may believe. I swear the story I'm about to tell you was told with the people involved believing everything as the 'honest to God' truth and may also perhaps explain the intelligence levels of those involved or perhaps just the twisted imagination of people who are high.... judge for yourself.

So one night I felt like just doing something fun but seeing as I was tired from a 10 hour shift as a retail store manager, I needed to just unwind and relax. I decided to take my wife to drive-in. Now as I've explained before we lived in different parts of Gauteng. My wife lived in Johannesburg with her parents and 3 kids, from her prior marriage and I lived in Centurion, Pretoria or Tshwane as it's now known. She also had to have her 'best friend' Reza fetch her and drop her off by me.

Anyway so this night we were on our way to the drive-in. As I drove my wife decided to tell me why she had reservations about going to the drive-in now as opposed to the many times before that we had gone there together. She then proceeded to tell me the strangest, well let's just say fantasy story I had ever heard in my life and as you know she had many such stories. This story ranks up there with the best of them.


I looked at her and asked her where she had heard such a ludicrous story because we had been there so many times before without seeing or hearing about any incidents at all? I had not read a single newspaper article or seen anything on television about such a story. Such a story would be huge global news, I'm sure. She then said that Reza had told her this. I shook my head in amazement, truly shocked. What a totally wild story. Anyone who has ever heard a story like this knows you should call the bluff or risk the other person believing such crap so when we finally arrived at the drive-in in Randburg, I asked the cashier at the box-office if he had ever heard such a story before.

The cashier, shook his head in disbelief and then said in all the years he had worked at the drive-in he had never encountered any problems or even heard of such a thing. I then turned to my wife and confirmed with her whether or not she had heard what was said and she nodded. That night she jumped at almost every sound she heard outside the car.

Just goes to show you how gullible drug addicts / drug users are and to be honest, this was one of the least incredible stories I was ever told but to these idiots, this was the gospel truth! Geez!

Some stories are harder to tell as I think I still am making heads or tails of them. At that moment when things don't make sense, you get lost in all the confusion caused by an explosion of emotion, anxiety and the puzzle of soul - tearing pain. It seems the old adage that hindsight is 20/20 rings true because it is only when we distance ourselves from these events that the underlying truths start getting revealed. So without further ado, here's Running, Screaming, Hostage Taking and of course, The Police.....

June 2011
I phoned my wife and told her we've got to talk. She had been vanishing recently, coming home late and a whole lot of other things were not making sense. The conversation was not going well and suddenly instead of the arrogant sound in her voice, I detected a faint tinge of fear and reluctance. We had to sort things out, things were getting out of control and I honestly needed to piece things together before they flew totally out the window.

I finished work and drove home to my townhouse in Centurion, Pretoria I was tired when I entered the house. My wife was busy making something in the kitchen and our baby daughter lying drinking her bottle in her cot in the other room. I then decided to voice my opinions and start the process of figuring things out. I pulled a chair into the middle of the lounge and told my wife to sit down. I then locked the front door and said we were going to sit down and have a serious conversation about our lives because thing were definitely wrong between us. I put the house keys in my pocket.


It was then that our baby daughter started to cry in the bedroom. My wife went to the bedroom but the crying continued. She turned to me and told me that the baby was crying for her favourite toy which had been washed and was hanging on the washing line. I gave her the keys so that she could fetch the white rabbit.



Distracted by the crying child, I hadn't noticed that 10 minutes had passed since my wife had said she was going to fetch the toy. Eventually when the baby had calmed down, I walked to the washing line outside. No one was there. I walked into the yard and no one was there. I walked the entire circumference of the house with her not anywhere. I then walked into the house and checked each of the rooms ensuring that perhaps she hadn't walked back into the house and I hadn't noticed.

Nope, she was nowhere to be found. I then called her cellphone but got no answer. Where was she? I had no idea what was going on. I then dressed my daughter warmly, put her into her car seat, strapped her in and climbed into my car.

I drove around the estate in which I lived. Around in circles. Checking everywhere. I tried calling my wife over and over but the phone rang. This continued for a while until I decided to give up because I had no idea where she was. I then went to the security gate where 2 security guards had been stationed and asked them whether or not they had seen a woman come by on foot. At that moment I saw a police van stop and didn't give it much notice until they asked the guard about the address I stayed at.


I then told the police officers that I lived at that address and they said I must drive to there and that they're coming with. Now I was totally befuddled and immensely confused. I didn't have the faintest idea what was going on or what was about to happen. I drove to my townhouse, then took my daughter out of her car seat, all this while the police watched. I then opened the door and invited them in. Putting my daughter in the cot, I then asked the police officers what the problem was.

One sat with a rifle while the other stood. The one sitting then told me that we all are going to wait. Wait? Wait for what, I thought to myself. I then offered them coffee but they then asked only for water. At least 10 long minutes passed and then another police van pulled up. My wife arrived in the other van with another police officer and like the others had his weapon drawn also.

It was at this point that I asked her: