“Fine.” he said pulling a chair next to me “You remember our agreement don't you?”
“What agreement?”
“If you're going to do anything, we do it together.”
My eyes narrowed as I glanced at him through the corners of my eye. Surely he doesn't intend to help me find Q, I thought. “I just want to make sure we're on the same page here.” I said slowly.
“Probably not, Claudia.” he sighed, “I'm not planning to help you get revenge on Q or anything stupid like that. But I will help you find out as much as you need know and I'll be there to make sure you don't do anything stupid!”
“Gee thanks.” I said sarcastically.
“You are most welcome.” he responded.
I put the USB key into the computer and went through the various files I'd downloaded starting with the information I'd downloaded from my page. I found that I was born in St Vincent's hospital and handed over to the orphanage a few days later. My mother was found in a car wreck, heavily pregnant and in a state of coma. I was delivered via caesarean and my mother later died due to a brain haemorrhage. They had no personal information of mother as no identification had been found and she was named simply as Jane Doe.
I casually skipped over the words 'cause of death' as if we were reading a newspaper article and not information about my actual mother. It wasn't that I didn't care, but I'd always known she had died and in light of the other information that I'd found, it wasn't anything new. However, the guilt that swept through me when I glanced over to Charles as I closed the page, confirmed that I should have at least acted a bit more emotionally invested in the news.
Charles was no longer looking at the screen; instead he was staring down at the corner of the table lost in thought, but it was the sadness of the expression he held that hurt the most. I put my hand on top of his, and gently stroked it until he looked back up at me. A small cut tore deep into my heart as he stared back, his eyes dark and glazed, whispering the sad story of his loss. I forced a light smile not sure if I should continue looking through the files or not. Sensing my hesitance he smiled back and looked up at the screen nodding his head slightly.
Trying to get through the rest of the files as quickly as possible, I flicked from one page to the next and swiftly took down as much information as I could. I scrolled quickly through the page on the orphanage and the connections that they had with local hospitals or laboratories, and all the information about Mrs Maple and the girl that she adopted after I left. There was no information on Regina De Giorgio who the file said I was later put under the guardianship of.
The information that I had downloaded about Wendell’s Research facility didn't match up to anything that I actually knew of the facility that I'd stayed at, but I wrote down all the names of the staff that were listed regardless.
“Are you okay?” I asked Charles as I folded up the papers of notes I'd taken. He hadn't said much since we'd read up about Denise's death and I knew this would have been the first time he had found out exactly how she had died.
“Yeh, of course. Why do you ask?” he said, clearing his throat.
“You just haven't said much.”
“I was just thinking.” he said and gave me a reassuring smile.
“I'm sorry you had to find out about my mother like this, I was little bit too focused on my own issues I guess, but honestly I didn't know that was on there.”
Charles shook his head slowly “It's okay Claudia. It just .. I don't understand what she was doing all the way up in Vincentown and where was she for all those months before the car accident.”
I nodded and sighed loudly. I guess that's one question Solomon's computers won't have the answer to, I thought suddenly realising the implications of the news. Just like Charles, I had understood that the two of them were deeply in love. So why would Denise suddenly flee the city and never contact him to explain why, she was obviously still conscious and able 7 months after disappearing.
I put my hand back on Charles' and squeezed it gently, I knew I wasn't the best person when it came to consoling someone, but I wanted him to know I cared.
“I'm sure she had a good reason for leaving like she did, if that's what really happened.” Charles put his free hand on top of mine and held it in between his.
“At least I have you now, right?” he said. I smiled at him and nodded. “Good, should we go and get something to eat?”
We went into the kitchen to join Rachael and Veronica, who, assuming I hadn't eaten, had already served out a huge portion of roast chicken with rice and vegetables. Charles ate quietly with an expression on his face that showed he was clearly not attentive to anything that was happening around him, so when Veronica asked me how the day had gone, so as to keep the attention away from Charles and allow him to contemplate without the distraction of his family, I told a much longer version of the story than I'd originally told Charles and focused more on my argument and subsequent lunch with Michael.
“I almost forgot he gave me a bundle of cakes and biscuits.” I said at the end of the story.
“Mmm, they will go great with a cup of tea later. Andrea definitely knows how to bake.” Veronica rubbed her hands cheerfully, she could make anything into an excuse to have a cup of tea and biscuits.
“So what will you do with the names you got from your research?” Rachael asked.
“Look them up obviously, I don’t really know how though.”
“You know, I spoke to my cousin the other day. Her new boyfriend is a Journalist; maybe he knows how to look them up.” She said.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” I asked “I mean won’t he want to know what it’s all about?”
“Being a journalist he probably will, but we don’t have to give him specifics. I know how to make up a cover story when I need to.”
“Ok, just give me a night or two to think on it. I still haven’t really decided what I want to do myself.”
“No problem.” she said and then, after a short silence, she resumed a conversation she had been having with Veronica.
* * *
A few days went by and I decided to give the information to Rachael’s friend to see if he could find out anything. I wasn’t too sure about getting strangers involved but if he really could help it was probably worth the risk.
I still hadn’t spoken to Solomon since the charity event, which I thought was strange as I would normally have had a phone call by now or he would at least have sent a text to say he was thinking of me and we would speak soon. I gave myself the excuse that he had been busy rather than simply ignoring me, but something about his behaviour the last few times I'd seen him and the fact that he hadn't returned any of my calls, which he always let ring through to voicemail, made me fear otherwise. As the days went by I found myself thinking more and more of Solomon and missing his company a lot more than I usually did.
Susanne had told me that Solomon and Michael weren’t on speaking terms at the moment. She didn’t know why as Solomon never explained and when she had asked Michael about it he had only told her that Solomon needs to grow up. I couldn't help chuckling as Susanne told the story; it sounded so much like Michael to pretend he didn’t care when I knew he was probably just as upset as I was sure Solomon was. I did try to get more information on Solomon and his whereabouts from Susanne, but even she hadn't seen much of him which gave me the hope that he really had been too busy to return my calls.
The week after the charity event Michael turned up at my house, dressed in his usual attire. He was someone who loved everything to do with football and his wardrobe made no exception from that rule. His jeans were the only piece of clothing that had nothing sports-related on them. As for the rest of his outfit, his dark red t-shirt had his number in the football team etched on it with large white numbers and his trainers were coloured in the team’s tones.
Michael barely smiled as he greeted me, indicating that his visit wasn't of the usual social type.
“What’s up?” I as
ked after we sat down in the living room.
“I spoke to Emily today” he said “she told me Solomon was fired from his job.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Well, apparently there are records of his pass code being used to access files on their system that he wasn’t supposed to access.”
Oh no, I thought knowing exactly what he meant. My head dropped into my hands as I closed my eyes tightly. Why does having friends make everything so difficult? I scolded myself remembering my plan on leaving the facility to live life on my own terms, but knowing that truthfully I would rather have the friends along with the difficulties than not have them.
“Don’t worry; he didn’t say anything about you. Emily said he doesn’t know what happened.” Michael said.
I looked back up at Michael and scowled, does he really think I'm that selfish? “I’m not worried about that, I’m worried about him. I didn’t want him to get into trouble.”
“Yeh? Well, he is.”
“So what do we do?” I asked.
“I don’t know Claudia, that’s why I came here.” Michael sighed and looked around the room slowly before looking back to me “I really don't want to get you into any trouble, but Solomon's my best friend.”
“I know.” I said as I tried to think of the best way to get Solomon out of trouble. I went through everyone I knew and tried to imagine how they would react to a situation like this. But apart from Charles, who would definitely just go and confess, I couldn’t think of anyone’s solution. Susanne would probably be able to think of a good solution, I thought, but then I decided against telling Susanne. What about Emily and Stacy? I imagined Stacy in one of her sweet girly outfits and hair bow trying to explain the mistake to Mr Robbens and an idea suddenly came to me. “Wait here one minute.” I told Michael and ran upstairs.
I was definitely going to confess I decided, but I didn’t want to get into any trouble, nor did I want them to know what I was really doing. So what better way was there to convince them that I simply didn’t have a clue myself, than to act like a complete airhead?
There was an old trunk in the back of my closet that I remembered Rachael talking about which had a lot of the clothes she used to wear when she was younger. I knew they were still fashionable as Rachael had offered to go through them with me, but as I didn't really have the same fashion sense as Rachael I had never bothered.
I rummaged through the trunk as quickly as I could and eventually found a few items I could match together as an outfit. My new outfit consisted of; a black and white plaid mini skirt, a pair of black knee high socks and a red low cut V-neck cardigan, I also found a black handbag to go with the whole ensemble. After quickly running the iron over them I put them on and ran back downstairs, grabbing Rachael's make up bag on the way.
At the bottom of the stairs I stopped to look in the mirror, what would Emily say if she saw me like this? I thought and couldn't help but laugh.
“Err, Claudia.” Michael said from the doorway of the living room. He was leaning against the door frame watching me with a bemused look on his face. “I'm not quite sure what's happening right now, but I thought we we're supposed to be thinking of a way to get Solomon out of trouble.”
“Like, duh.” I said mimicking the way Emily and Stacy spoke. Michael frowned and straightened himself up in the doorway.
“I'm not going to say I'm not flattered, but seriously, are you having some kind of girly crisis right now or something?”
“Come on Michael, focus.” I said in my usual voice “This is my plan.” Michael frowned again, obviously not able to understand what I was suggesting. “Don't worry, I'll explain in a moment. For now, do you know anything about make up?”
A small embarrassed smile appeared on Michael's face and he shrugged his shoulders.
“Come on Michael, I've never put on makeup before.” I urged assuming, by the look on his face, that he knew a lot more than me. He didn't move.
Fine, I thought and I pulled an eye shadow case out of the makeup bag.
“Green?” I asked. It goes with my eyes right? I picked up the various brushes one after the other, giving them a quick examination to decide which one to use and then choose a long thin bristled brushed.
“That's the wrong brush.” Michael said walking over slowly. He took the eye shadow case from me and then took out a small brush with a round fluffy tip. “Close your eyes.” he said in an offhand manner.
He applied two layers of eye shadow in different tones of green, the first layer being a darker green, closer to brown and then a lighter green shadow was applied above it. Then he took out an eye pencil and began to apply it inside and around the rim of my eyes. It tickled when he tried to apply it to the rim of my bottom eye lid and I kept laughing until he made the most annoyed face I had seen him do and told me to stop moving. So I did my best to hold my laughter and watched him through one eye as he applied the make up to the other.
His eyes glowed as the light from the hallway window reflected from them. They were a mix of brown and gold with random streaks of green along the edges.
“I never noticed that your eyes were hazel.” I muttered, more to myself than him.
“Shhh.” he whispered, a small smile attempting to break the serious expression he held as he concentrated on making the lines as straight as possible. “Don't ever tell anyone I did your make up or you're dead.” he said when he handed me back the eyeliner.
“You like make up! So? Nothing to be embarrassed about.” I laughed.
“Stop it.” he said jabbing me softly in the arm, “All of my cousins are girls. So there wasn't much 'Cops and robbers' going on when we used to get together on family occasions.”
“Don't worry Michael, your secrets safe with me.” I said jabbing him back quickly in his arm and then, to avoid a retaliation raised my hands in surrender and turned to look back into the mirror.
I quickly brushed my hair, sweeping the top of it back and sticking it in place with some booby pins, leaving the curls to fall down the side of my face. “How do I look?” I asked when I was finished.
“Kind of cute! I'm a little jealous actually.” he said.
“Jealous?” I asked as I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion “You're quite welcome to borrow the outfit when I'm finished if you want.”
Michael sucked his teeth and shook his head, obviously not impressed with my suggestion.
“I don't get it.” I laughed.
“I don't mean the outfit Claudia. It just would have been nice if I'd met you first.” he said and then look away uncomfortably.
Small spasms of anxiety fluttered inside my stomach as I looked at him feeling even more confused than before. There was definitely a compliment in there. What would have been nice if he had met me first? And... “First before what?” I said.
“Nothing.” he said abruptly, shaking his head dismissively.
“Well, thanks anyway.” I said picking up a pair of Rachael's mid high heeled shoes and putting them on. “Maybe we should go to visit Mr Robbens now.”
Michael narrowed his eyes and looked at me for a few seconds before giving me a big smile, “Ah, I see where you're going with this.” he said as he pulled the door open for me.
I giggled quietly to myself as we walked out of the house. He really only just worked it out! What had he being thinking of this whole time?
“You think you can pull this off?” he asked as we neared the compound where Solomon had worked.
“I don't know, but I don't know what else to do and I really don't mind embarrassing myself if it will help Solomon.”
“What if you get into trouble?”
“I don’t know, yet. But like I told you, I didn’t exactly access anything top secret.”
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