Only that one time when the man yelled at her through the door, had Mrs. Learella Kingston heard any sounds from outside the filthy bathroom, that was her prison for three long weeks.
Inside the bathroom the sound she could not shut out was the eternal drip..drip..drip of the faucet. The sound and the dark kept her from sleeping.

Afraid of the dark since childhood, afraid now to sleep even if she wanted to because of the horrible dreams.

In one nightmare her three sons where trying to murder her, she awoke screaming in a panic, “Please boys, don’t hurt Mommy, don’t let Mommy die.”

She began to bargain with God to save her. “Spare me and I will treat everyone better, even my rotten daughters-in-law.”

She would be reborn, a new less selfish person, if only her sons would pay the ransom to these awful thugs that kidnapped her from her own yard.
Why would someone kidnap her? She wondered. Sure she was rich, but so was everyone else she knew, why come after her. Who stood to gain by this?
Not my three sons?