I wanted to leave as soon as Zack and Jade came back. In reality, I wanted to leave much sooner than that. Why didn’t I? Surely I didn’t really care about this whole issue. I just needed to know the outcome. Why was that? It must have been pure curiosity. Or maybe because Zack was my best friend and if he cared about something I had to at least pretend I cared too. Blech. Being a good friend was exhausting.
The moment they walked in the door I could see something had changed. Where each of them were acting anxious before they left, unsure whether they could make a difference for the better in some stranger’s life, the moment they stepped through the door upon arrival I could see that things had, as Zack had put it, go according to plan.
“How’d it go?” I asked, this time not because I cared about Jori, but because Zack was proud and I legitimately wanted to hear his success story. But not because of Jori.
Zack’s face lit up as soon as my question met his ears. “I think we’re going to be friend’s Kenny!” Either this Jori girl was denser than I imagined she would be, or Zack was living in delusion. Some people find happiness in delusion so I try not to pop the bubble. Personally, accepting the cold, hard truth was a better option for me. I let Zack dream.
Once in his room he didn’t sit down once. His hands were waiving in the air as he told me about his heart to heart with her, “…and then I just told her the truth! I blatantly said that we were spies and that her dad was the bad guy!” There was a reason when we went on spy missions that it was my job and not Zack’s, or anyone else’s for that matter, to do all the talking. Aside from knowing more languages than everyone else, and my ability to mimic most accents with ease, I was the one who could read everyone like a book. Lying to get the job done. That was what I was good at. Everyone else on my team was way too honest for a spy: Zack included.
“… But then that didn’t work and she got really upset and angry and started yelling at me and crying!” He was peaking about these awful things with enthusiasm and excitement. Why? “So then, I did what you would do, and I figured out her motive. You said that once, right? That everyone has a motive, something that drives them, and once you find it you’re in! Right?”
“Well I took a guess, and her motive is the same as mine! It’s family! She loves her mom. Deep down. So I offered her answers. I told her we could prove what happened, because really, no one wants to feel like they’ve been abandoned.”
Remember how I said Zack lives in a delusion? It’s because he and Jade are very honest, very caring people. They both carry a heart of gold. And because she’s his only immediate family in the area, she’s his only influence. He’s convinced that everyone in the world is as good hearted as they are. If it wasn’t on the surface, than it was hiding deep down. Deep, deep down in some cases.
In all likelihood, being raised by a lying criminal with cheep tricks and dirty ploys, she was a spoiled brat who knew absolutely nothing about the world beyond her perfect castle. She was a princess. She was thrown into a world and told that her knight in shining armor was the dragon and she refused to believe it. She didn’t care about family. She cared about stability. In one day, the world she had always known was turned upside down. She didn’t want the truth. She wanted the opposite. If Zack offered a chance to prove that he was telling the truth, she’d be on the look out for anything she could possibly use to disprove his claim. She still believed her captor. She was still loyal to him. Zack wasn’t going to change that.
“…so she agreed to come to the Agency with us tomorrow! Isn’t that great? We can show her the library and she can meet Ian and Nicole!”
“Yeah, uh huh.” More than likely she was jus saying that to shut him up before she could come up with a better plan. There’s no way she’d legitimately agree to a tour. Not that fast. Not after he’d dropped the bomb. There was an ulterior motive, maybe one she hadn’t even thought of yet, but it was there nonetheless.
“Well that’s great to hear Zack! Maybe you two will be friends after all.”
He smiled and sighed, finally allowing himself to calm down. “I hope so Kenny. I really want this to work.”
Sometimes I wonder how it feels to live a lie like Zack and Jori do. Zack’s convinced that everyone can be reached with reason and good intent. Jori’s convinced her life is perfect and nothing could ever happen to fuck it up. The look in his eyes when he said, “I really want this to work”, was genuine. He honestly cared, probably a whole lot more than I had anticipated. I felt bad for not caring as much as I did.
“Well, maybe it will.” It was the best bit of comfort I could give while being true to my own feelings. Against everything I believed, there was an ounce of hope left and I offered it out to him with an open hand. Maybe it would work out.
“I hope so.” He smiled. It was at that point that I thought about making up a story about needing to go home. I could have said that Jack wanted me home for a family dinner Sarah was cooking up.
It would have been to get away from all this.
I was desperate for a change in topic, but maybe not desperate enough. In reality, Sarah would probably be out for dinner and drinks with her fancy friends. Jack would be passed out cold on the couch and I’d have to sneak past him to make it into my room where I would have a granola bar for dinner and fall asleep early.
Lucky for me, Jade came in then with something I was happy to hear. “You boys hungry? I’m about to cook up some food on the grille. Vegetables and kielbasa. Sound like something you’d be interested in?”
“Sounds good to me,” I replied. I’m always interested in good food and my mouth had already began watering. Unlike Sarah, Jade actually knew how to cook. This was my real home.
“Thanks mom!” Zack said cheerfully.
I was happy to get back into my usual routine: hanging around Zack’s family and wishing it were mine. After dinner Jade went to do her own thing while Zack and I played Super Smash Bros in the living room, Jupiter waiving his tail in excitement.
The day flew by faster than I had expected and before no time it was ten and I knew Jack would be up and wondering where I was. He doesn’t care what I do most of the time, but if I ever miss curfew he gets really angry. Even if it’s for work.
“I gotta go,” I told Zack as I grabbed my jacket and hopped on my bike. “Sorry bro, but Jack’s not gonna be happy if I get home any later.”
He nodded and his eyes met mine. “Good luck.”
If I had any luck I would make it home before he noticed I was gone and could sneak into my bedroom window which I had taken the screen out of months before. Coming in and out of the house secretly was always easier without dealing with screens. Not impossible, just easier.
My house was halfway across town from Zack’s, but Hanson was a small town and I got within view of the yellow eye sore in no time. It was then when my phone started to ring.
“Yeah? I’m almost home.” I spoke in a hushed town and backed up a few feet so Jack wouldn’t see or hear me outside.
“Hi. Yeah. Um. Jori’s gone.” Zack said winded. I could hear muffling noises coming from the phone, he was running.
“What do you mean she’s gone? Did she go home?”
“That’s just it. We don’t know where she went. She ran away and we’re going out to find her. We need your help.”
“Are you kidding Zack? I didn’t want to be dragged into this! I’m in enough trouble as it is, what makes you think I can, or will, just throw everything to the side to help this chick? Why is she so damn important?”
“Please?” He had stopped moving and was still. This was so not cool. I had a choice and I needed to make my decision quickly. Go home and find out if Jack’s awake yet, or go search for some girl who’s a thorn in my side without even having met me. If I go find her, I may be looking at a bad situation at home to come back to. But if I go straight home I might still be looking at a bad situation to come back to.
As much as I didn’t like Jori here, I supposed she might as well give Karla a shot. She was a good person and no doubt would be a good mom- given she had a good daughter. It was all she’d ever wanted since the day I first met her at eight years old. It was really unfair for Jori to dismiss her so early.
This wasn’t even for Jori.
Besides, I knew where Jori was.
Sure enough, she was there, at the park down the street from Karla’s house. She wasn’t in plain site at first, but I could see her eyes glimmer in the moonlight as she watched me from those small holes in the crawling tubes just large enough for children to get their hands stuck in. She didn’t know me, she’d never seen me before. I probably looked like some drug dealer hangin’ around a children’s park at night ready to sell some dope. I smiled wondering if I should fuck with her first, teach her that running away was a bad idea. Was she gullible enough to think I was the dangerous sort? I would bet on it.
But it was late at night and I was tired. I didn’t want to deal with any of her whiny crap so I figured I might as well get things over with.
“Alright, Jori, it’s time to come out of hiding now.” I couldn’t see her anymore, but I knew exactly where she was. I also knew what her facial expression would be. Jaw dropped wide eyed. Like a deer in the headlights. She was kinda like a deer in some days. A fawn. Delicate and innocent.
“How’d you find me.” Her voice was timid but strong. If she wanted to show assertiveness she should have come out of hiding. She sounded like a little kid hiding from his mom so he wouldn’t have to go home. Ha, that’s almost exactly what she was. A scared little girl hiding from mommy. Although I was surprised she didn’t ask who I was, it surprised me how fast she caught on. Did Zack tell her about all of us in that brief time he’d met with her?
“I followed a hunch,” I said. It wasn’t like I had never run away before. I remembered each and every time I made a run for it, and on my first try I ran away to the park. I didn’t know where I was and knew I’d get nowhere at night. Sleeping in a covered slide would provide shelter and cover for anyone looking for me, and when daylight came I would be able to devise a plan and hide in plain sight amongst the strangers not knowing who I was or where I was from.
Jori on the other hand probably didn’t even know which town she was in or where that was in relation to Crowns, the city she lived in with her father. Hanson was only one, very small, town away but it was small enough that anyone living in a more urban area likely wouldn’t have even heard of us. That, and I was willing to bed her dear old daddy never told her about the town she was born in, or maybe made up a lie.
She crawled out of the tunnel slowly and cautiously, testing the waters first rather than jumping in with both feet. She may have guessed who I was or why I was there, but she still didn’t know me.
“Pretty good hunch.” Her words were as cautious as her footwork. She was trying to figure me out in the same manner I had already figured her out. Good luck to anyone trying to uncover what makes me tick. I’m a locked safe, one with a lot of pins. I didn’t really know what a good safe meant, but I was one of those when it came to all the blah blah blah parts of me and my feelings.
“Yeah, well,” I shrugged. I was coming off as friendly rather than aggressive and she ventured even closer to me. Instead of showing off her quills, Jori came across as more human, which almost made me feel a tinge of empathy before I flicked it away. She would have to prove herself to me.
“So how did you find me anyway?”
“It doesn’t matter how I found you. What matters is where I’m taking you.”
“Not you too!” Instantly she threw up her walls again. The quills were out and they were sharp. “I can’t believe she’s got so many of you trying to keep me caged like an animal. I don’t want to be here and it’s illegal to keep me here.”
“Technically, your mother stole you back. And you’re not eighteen yet so as your legal guardian she has every right to have you here.”
“No. No, no, no, no, no. “
“Ha, yes, and don’t make me say that more than once.” She opened her mouth but I continued before she could get a word in. “Here’s my general consensus to who you are as a person: you’re a spoiled brat. You’re selfish and refuse to believe that you could be any worse off than you’ve always believed yourself to be.” She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest. “You think that you and your way of living is so damn perfect that none of this shit could possibly be real, right? Well guess what princess? It is. You’re fucking mother spent your entire life searching for you and Maurice-“
“I know your fucking father’s name because I know your entire fucking story so shut up and listen.” Her eyebrows lifted and she slightly opened her mouth but stopped speaking. “He took you away from her and all she’s ever wanted was to see her baby girl again. Imagine how she fucking feels finding out that you are what she got for a daughter. A selfish brat who locks herself in her room and refuses to hear anyone out when they try to explain themselves. We all have the same story to tell you, sweetheart. This isn’t some big conspiracy to fuck with your puny little brain. This is real life. Welcome to it.”
Jori’s eyes were filling up with tears fast and in seconds they were spilling over and running down her cheeks, which were already slightly puffy from all the crying I heard she’d done earlier in the day.
“Haven’t you ever wanted to run away?” She wined and it almost hurt my ears. Of course I wanted to run away. I almost succeeded too a couple times.
But that’s not what I told her.
“Well it’s not a good feeling.” No shit it wasn’t a good feeling. She continued, “I just want this nightmare to be over. Why is that so hard for you to fucking understand?”
Damn. I wasn’t expecting such language from a princess. I must have really ruffled those peacock feathers of hers.
“Well welcome to your real life. The one who your daddy dearest hid from you all those years. He’s the one who held you captive. Not us. Not Karla.”
“Stop it!” Jori screamed and came at me with her fists. I let her pound into my chest for a bit before she sank to the ground. She was stronger than I had imagined and I wondered where she got it from. Was it in her genes, or did she do some girly boxing in her pink short shorts and bleached white sneakers? In any case, I’d been punched by much stronger hands many a time. She felt like nothing compared to that.
I looked down at Jori crying into my knees. It was weird. I wasn’t good at comforting people. Especially when I’m the one who made them cry in the first place. I knelt down and looked at her. Man, her crying face was ugly.
“Look, maybe I exaggerated when I said I’d never thought about running away before.” She looked at me and I fought to keep her gaze. “The truth is I’ve been meaning to leave this place.”
“So why can’t you let me leave?”
“Because everything I told you is true and I know your mom to be a wonderful person. Don’t you think it’s unfair for you to abandon her without a second thought?”
“What choice do I have? I just want to go home.”
“Would you be able to go home without doubting everything at this point?”
She thought about it for a minute before sighing.
Checkmate. “How about I propose a deal?”
“What kind of deal?” She was curious, but still cautious.
“You stay here. For one week. Next Thursday night you and I will meet here. If you’re still not happy living here than I can help you run away. I’ll run away with you. I can show you how to get back to Crown’s-“
“I know where you live because I know you’re story. Anyway, I can show you how to get back to Crown’s, and maybe you could provide me with a place to crash the night before finding my own way the next morning. Your closet should be big enough for me to camp out in right?”
She laughed before falling silent. I could see the wheels turning in her head and wondered if they were turning in my favor or not. What was my favor anyway? Did I want her to stay here with Karla? Maybe not, but I wanted her to at least give it a try. Did I hope she decided not to stay? Maybe I did. It meant a runaway partner. Someone who could keep lookout, or someone for general conversation.
Even if Jori was a princess, she was better than nothing.
“One week? That’s it? And you promise you’ll take me home?”
“It’s a deal then. I’ll see you here on Thursday then.”
“Actually, you’ll see me tomorrow. You need to see Karla’s job, which also happens to be my job. Come to the agency tomorrow. Like you promised Zack.”
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