QUANTUM

by Imogen Rose

“Arizona, are you hurt?” he asked, visibly shaken.

  “No, Dad. I’m fine. Anyway, I was put in the back of a van and driven to Mountain View in California.”

  “You were kidnapped?” He was now gaping.

  “Yes, Dad. Know anything about it?”

  “What?”

  “Well, think about it, Dad. Why would anyone kidnap me? You and your gambling debts could be the only reason,” I said angrily.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Arizona! I don’t gamble with kidnappers! Have you called the police?”

  “No. Dad, do you gamble with Raj Sen?”

  “Never heard the name. Who’s he?”

  “He’s the one who kidnapped me. He is also Simla’s dad.”

  “Simla?”

  “Oh never mind! Don’t you pay attention to anything I say? I’ve mentioned Simla hundreds of times before. She’s the girl who got bullied at school. Remember the bathroom incident with the cell phone camera?”

  “Vaguely,” he muttered unconvincingly.

  “She’s a friend of mine, sort of.”

  “What do you mean, sort of?” Dad asked.

  “Well, she’s not a buddy like Ariele or Monica. Simla is a bit distant and very shy. She’s hard to connect with. She doesn’t have a lot of friends, any friends, really. I’m the closest she has to a friend at school. I look out for her, make sure that people know not to bully her. And she helps me with math.”

  “Ah!” Dad said knowingly.

  “No, it’s not like that.”

  “Arizona, are you telling me that your friend’s dad kidnapped you? That’s bizarre. Why? Did you fall out with Simla?”

  “No! I assumed it had something to do with you.”

  “Call her.”

  “Simla?”

  “Yes! Who else? I want to talk to her dad. Wait, we should probably let the police deal with this.”

  “Yes. Dad, where’s Gertrude?”

  “I don’t know. She was here with you when I left, Arizona.”

  “No, I left first, Dad! Anyhow, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we find her! Maybe Raj Sen took her. She wasn’t here when I got back. Maybe he did something to her so she wouldn’t bark and wake me up when he was breaking in. Dad call the police, we need them to find her.”

  We spent the next few days talking first to the local police and then to the FBI. I told them everything–even about Dan and Sophie, even though I had promised I wouldn’t. The police couldn’t find Simla or her dad. The whole family seemed to have disappeared. That was a big concern, if Raj was in hiding, he might try something stupid again. The FBI put a watch on our house. Dad was beyond pissed off that he missed his poker game.

  He left for AC the first chance he got, two days after I came back home. I wasn’t ready to be left on my own, but couldn’t get myself to tell him. Not that he would care. My next-door neighbors, Raymond and Beth, insisted that I stay with them during the nights at least. Normally that would have been a total drag, but I was grateful for it. They were both horrified that I had been kidnapped right under their noses.

  “I’m so glad you decided to stay over,” Beth said, showing me to her son’s old bedroom. “This is yours for as long as you need it.”

  “Thanks, Beth,” I said, looking around at the room. Beth’s son played college football now but he must have started off young by the looks of all the football gear in his room, including the tiny cleats. “When did he start playing?”

  “Oh, he’s been playing all his life, probably was about four when he got his first cleats,” she said, pointing at them.

  “Awesome.”

  She smiled and gave me a hug. “It’s awesome having you stay over.”

  Early next morning, as I was having breakfast–Beth cooks a wicked breakfast–with the Goldens, their doorbell rang.

  “A bit early for visitors,” Beth remarked, as she went to the door. She looked slightly perturbed when she walked back into the kitchen.

  “Beth? Everything okay?” Raymond asked, getting up.

  “Yes, dear. It’s a visitor for Arizona.”

  Not the FBI again? This early? What did they want now? Maybe they had tracked down Raj Sen or Simla.

  “It’s that boy who visited with you. The boy on the motorcycle.”

  “Who?”

  “He’s waiting for you in the living room. Don’t be too long.”

  I couldn’t believe my eyes as I entered the living room.

  ~

  Sophie looked at the TV screen as she cleaned up the bar area. How could she have ended up here? A year ago she’d been working at Ames, earning a good salary. Now, she was cleaning up after a barrage of drunken customers in a bar–The Hurler, nice name, it aptly described the clientele–in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The clientele was a mix of the local drunks and the surrounding college kids who couldn’t afford the nicer establishments. It was also frequented by a bunch of dealers, who kept the place running financially. The only women who came in here were, well… never mind. This was the only job Dan and she managed to get on short notice after their misadventures with Raj Sen. They’d had no money at all. Thankfully, the owner of the bar, Al–who had a fondness for body glitter–had taken pity on them and liked Dan for a bouncer. So, she did the hard work, while Dan sat outside chatting mostly.

  She changed the channel to watch the local news. Sophie froze. There on the screen were artist’s renderings of Dan and her–with the offer of a reward. She hastily changed the channel back to sports and went to find Dan. They had to get out of there.

  ~

  David! I couldn’t believe my eyes! David was in Beth’s living room! I flung myself at him. I was in his arms–practically slobbering all over him–when I found myself again and hastily drew away from him. Sheesh, way too enthusiastic, what had come over me?

  “Arizona, what? Did I do something wrong?”

  “No…. I’m not usually like this; this is awkward. I didn’t mean to jump you like that,” I apologized.

  He smiled and gathered me back into his arms. I didn’t resist.

  “Arizona, that’s inappropriate in my living room,” Beth said, wandering in and looking at us sternly.

  We let go of each other instantly and stepped back. “I’m so sorry, Beth. I let my excitement get the better of me.”

  “It’s okay. I do know you like him,” she smiled. “I guess you’ve come to take her to school, young man. What’s your name?”

  Introductions. I can be so inadvertently rude sometimes. “David, allow me, please. Mrs. Golden this is David, a friend. David, this is Mrs. Golden, my neighbor and this is Mr. Golden,” I said, as Raymond walked into the room and shook David’s hand.

  “I came to take you to school,” David said, looking at me with amusement.

  “Now, David, you have to understand that Arizona here has been through a lot. She is being watched by the FBI and they are going to drive her to school this morning,” Beth informed him tritely.

  I could see the confusion in his eyes.

  “It’s okay, Mrs. Golden. I’ll go and let them know to follow us instead,” I said, ushering David out the door before Beth could protest. Once the agent said it was okay, we walked over to David’s bike.

  “I take it you informed the police that you were kidnapped?”

  “Yeah,” I answered. “I kinda had to, once I told my dad about it. I didn’t say anything about Raj and what happened to your dad, though. Do they know?”

  “The local police do, but the FBI was not brought in. How long are they going to keep watch on your house?”

  “I don’t know, at least until Dad gets back,” I said.

  “Back? I thought he was back already? I wouldn’t have left you on your own–who was the man at your house when I dropped you off? I assumed it was your dad,” David said, clearly perturbed.

  “David, it was. We spent the last couple of days being questioned and he was desperate to get to a poker game in AC, so he left yesterday, once h
e got the all-clear to go.”

  “And he left you here, all by yourself?” David asked, his brows furrowing.

  “Not all on my own. The agents are here, so are Mr. and Mrs. Golden. I stayed with them last night.”

  “Can’t you see how wrong that is?” David asked angrily.

  I didn’t want to see how wrong it was. If I allowed myself a journey into that thought process, I was sure to come out of it emotionally scarred. So, why go there in the first place? Denial has worked well for me for years.

  “David, can you take me to school now? I’d better not be late, I’ve missed so much already.”

  “Is this your first day back since you went to camp?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Have you spoken to any of your friends?”

  “Nope. Well, I spoke to Monica–she’s my BFF–briefly to let her know that I didn’t need a ride to school this morning, but that’s all. Been too busy with the police.”

  “Ah,” he said, furrowing his brows again.

  “What’s with all the furrowing? You’re going to need Botox if you don’t stop!”

  He chuckled. “That’s one thing you don’t have to worry your pretty little head about. Jump on, I’d better get you to school.”

  Pretty little head. Yup, I guess there was a first time for everything. David’s bike was wicked. I would have to rethink the whole Dodge Charger–my dream car– thing. I may want to go all out and get a Harley instead. I’d have to ask him how he got his hockey kit to school. David dropped me off right outside the main entrance.

  “Arizona, have a good day. Can I pick you up and take you to dinner after school?”

  “Yeah, there’s no hockey practice tonight, so that would be great. What are you going to do all day?”

  “I have a few things to organize, tell you about them after school. See you later,” he said, and kissed me goodbye before he took off.

  “Still into David?” Christian asked, walking up behind me.

  “Still?” I laughed. I guess Monica must have updated him with the David news. I hadn’t been able to stop myself from blabbing about him to her during our very short conversation this morning. I still had to tell her about the kidnapping!

  “Early days?” he winked.

  “Yeah,” I rolled my eyes at him. “Very early, so don’t go around starting annoying rumors, or I’ll have to thump you.”

  “Back to normal,” he muttered, as he thumped me really hard. He was getting himself up from the floor following my well-placed shove when Noah and Brandon came walking up to us. “She’s back to normal, guys. Don’t mention the h-a-i-r,” he said, and rolled on the floor laughing. I sighed and left them in the hallway acting like idiots.

  “A?”

  “Hey, Mon, wassup?”

  “Um, not a lot. Wassup with you?” she asked, grimacing in a bordering-on-ugly expression.

  “Too much to get onto right now,” I said, rolling my eyes, “I’ll catch up with you later.”

  “After school?”

  “No, I’m spending time with my friend, David, after school today. Tell you all about him tomorrow.”

  “Figures,” she said. “Say hi to David from me.”

  Nope, I was keeping David all to myself. The day dragged. The classes were numbingly boring. I just narrowly missed detention, thank goodness, I had after-school plans. The other kids were behaving odder than usual, but I just couldn’t be bothered with them enough to figure out what their problem was. Even Mr. Harvey acted oddly concerned and didn’t wake me when I nodded off in his class. He even asked if I was okay once class ended.

  I was glad to see David waiting for me after school. I nodded at the agent who was watching us from his car. Then I got up on David’s bike.

  “Where to?” David asked.

  “Let’s head over to my place. It’s empty.” Too empty. Gertrude had mysteriously disappeared. I looked for her everywhere. The police had helped, as well. We called all the rescue centers and put up flyers. There wasn’t a tree in the neighborhood and the surrounding area without her picture on it. I felt empty knowing I may never find her again. I hoped she hadn’t been run over or murdered by that insane Raj Sen.

  “I noticed all the posters of Gertrude missing,” David said, as we sat down in the kitchen for a snack. “Any ideas where she went?”

  “No. She was gone before I got back, so I think Raj may have taken her to stop her waking me up when he broke in. I don’t know what he did with her, though. I hope he didn’t kill her,” I whispered, my eyes welling up.

  David pulled me in and held me tightly, allowing me to saturate his shoulder with my tears. I blubbered for quite some time, until I was all cried out, but still miserable. I loved Gertrude. I needed her. She was my one rock.

  “Arizona, I am here for you,” David said, comfortingly as he stroked my hair. I lay face down on his chest, feeling totally despondent.

  “I need her back, David.” I lay listening to his heartbeat as it lulled me to sleep.

  I woke a few hours later, almost stuck to David’s chest, my tears having glued me to his skin where it peeked through his shirt. I could hear that he was fast asleep so I tried getting up without disturbing him. He stirred and stroked my head.

  “You up?” he whispered.

  “Yeah, stay. I’m going to take a shower and get decent before you take me out somewhere awesome for dinner.”

  “Like where? I don’t know this area yet. Where’s a good place?”

  “Let’s go to Sho Gun and get some hibachi. I’m hungry.”

  “Sounds good,” he agreed and closed his eyes again.

  Dinner was good, but it was even better being back home with David. He didn’t say much during dinner. He seemed ravenous, though. I wondered when he’d last eaten. Must have been some time ago, so I let him enjoy his meal in silence, mostly. I did ask him about his father and I gathered, between his mouthfuls, that he was doing a bit better, but he was still in the hospital. His dad was going to be released in a few days, so David had decided to pay me a visit before then.

  Once we got back to the house, David was back to his usual chatty self.

  “How was school? And don’t just say good. I want to know everything.”

  “Well, it was kind of good, in a sense, I guess. Nothing bad happened. People were acting a bit strange.”

  “Strange? How?”

  “Well, Mr. Harvey, one of my teachers, was actually nice to me in spite of my falling asleep in class. I usually just get handed a detention slip. And everyone looked at me a bit strange.”

  “Did anyone say anything weird?” David inquired.

  “Weird? Why would they?”

  “It’s just that you said that they looked at you strange….” He shrugged.

  “You know, it’s nothing. Just stupid high school stuff. Who cares? Whatever it is, it’ll be forgotten by tomorrow.”

  David nodded.

  “Tell me about you now. I’m really glad to see you. How long are you staying?”

  “I was going to travel back tomorrow, but I think I’ll stay for a bit longer, at least until your dad gets back.”

  “That’s great, but he may not be back for a few days, can you stay that long?”

  “Yeah, Dad’s not due to be released just yet and Mom’s over there anyway. She’ll look after him until I get back.”

  “Are they divorced?”

  “Yeah, for quite a while now. They are still best friends, but I want to go back and look after him when he moves back home. It doesn’t feel right to have Mom do it. She has her own life.”

  I nodded. I knew exactly what he meant. I wish my parents could have at least remained friends. I don’t think they ever were to start with, though.

  “Arizona, how would you feel if I transferred to your school? I really don’t like being so far away from you.”

  “That would be awesome, David! How? When?”

  “I’m not sure. It depends on how quickly Dad recovers. A couple of mon
ths, maybe.”

  “How did this happen, David? Are your parents moving here?”

  “No, I’m moving here on my own.”

  “Get out! Seriously?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How come? My dad would never allow me to do that–live on my own.”

  David nodded and sighed. “It wasn’t easy convincing them. They do think this is a slightly out-there decision on my part. However, I promised that I would be sensible, and they’ve always tried to let me follow my dreams. Mom, in addition, feels you’d benefit from having me around. She really took to you, and is worried about you.”