by Sarah Rubin
In the front row, Della stuck her fingers in the corners of her mouth and pushed her lips into a grin, telling me to smile. I wiped my palms against the side of my dress and tried to ignore the feeling that the room was starting to spin.
Mr Delgado’s hand on my shoulder brought the world back into focus. I blinked and caught the end of what he was saying.
‘. . . and I have this brilliant little girl to thank for bringing Dr Learner back to us.’ He smiled down at me like we were best friends, but I could see the threat behind his eyes and feel it in his too-tight fingertips.
I caught Dad’s eye as I stood up. Everyone else looked like they were buying Mr Delgado’s story, but not my dad. He might have had to write a puff piece, but he’d never stopped digging for the real story. That was my dad all over. One man on a mission to find out the truth. I smiled for real this time and nodded slightly. Dad wiggled his eyebrows in anticipation. It felt like I was five years old all over again, staring out at all the parents and judges of the Little Miss Friendship pageant. Dad knew I was about to pull something then, and he knew it now.
Mr Delgado kept right on talking. ‘And now, on behalf of Delgado Industries, I am very happy to present this reward to Miss Jones.’
A man from Mr Delgado’s bank stepped forward holding a large cardboard cheque, the kind you always see on TV. Mr Delgado held out his hand, waiting for me to shake it. Flashbulbs popped and whirred as the photographers clicked away, and the reporters who weren’t taking pictures tucked their notepads under their arms so they could applaud. I caught a glimpse of Sammy beaming from the front row, looking at me like I was some kind of hero.
For a moment, I hesitated. Would it really be so bad to let Mr Delgado get away with it? No one got hurt, not really. Sure, Andrew and the men from Chronos R&D would go to jail, but they deserved it. They broke into our house, kidnapped Dr Learner and taped me and Kevin to chairs. I looked at Mr Delgado, and then at Sammy. It wasn’t fair. I wanted to stick my head in the sand and leave it there until this whole mess went away.
But I couldn’t. I’d solved the problem and I couldn’t hide the truth, even if it was just by keeping quiet. I knew what had really happened. Saying nothing was just as bad as telling a lie.
I took a deep breath and looked Mr Delgado square in the eye.
‘Sorry,’ I said softly. ‘I gave you a chance.’
Then, before he had time to react, I turned to the members of the press and made my statement.
‘I can’t take this cheque. The whole thing was a scam. Mr Delgado set it up himself to fool everyone into thinking Dr Learner had finished the invisibility suit. He hasn’t. There is no invisibility suit.’
I tried to squeeze as many words as possible into one breath, because I knew as soon as Mr Delgado realized what I was doing, he’d try to stop me.
And I was right.
I’d barely got the last word out of my mouth when I felt his hand close around my arm, his fingers digging into my flesh so hard they’d leave a mark.
He was trying hard to stay cool, but I didn’t know if he’d keep it together. He looked like a bull getting ready to charge. I could almost see the steam coming out of his nostrils.
Mr Delgado glared at me and opened his mouth. I jerked my head to the side, reminding him we had an audience. He turned his head and stared at them blankly. At least fifty members of the press stared back, waiting to see what he’d do next. I’ve never seen a room full of reporters so quiet in my life. Mr Delgado swallowed. Hard. He let go of my arm, nervously smoothed his hand across his hair and tried to paint the smile back on to his face. It came out a little crooked.
‘Now, Alice, it isn’t good to make jokes like that. People might think you’re serious.’
‘I am serious.’ I turned back to the press. ‘And I can prove it.’ I pulled the Delgado file out of my bag and held it high over my head. Dad looked shocked that I had it, but I was pretty sure he’d let it slide. I was about to hand him the story of a lifetime.
The reporters couldn’t keep quiet any more, and the room erupted into questions. Mr Delgado held up his hands for quiet, but no one was paying attention to him any more. At the back of the room the group from the government scowled as they got out their phones and started making important-sounding calls.
Mr Delgado watched the room crumbling around him, and then he looked at me. The person who made it crumble. I don’t know what I’d thought was going to happen. I hadn’t planned that far ahead. I figured someone like Mr Delgado would handle it pretty well.
But he didn’t. He didn’t handle it well at all. In fact, Mr Delgado completely lost it.
He lunged forwards, trying to grab the file out of my hand. I stepped sideways and ran to the other side of the space-age desk. I wanted to put something large and solid in between the two of us. I didn’t like the look in Mr Delgado’s eyes one bit. I hoped that Mr Delgado would remember where he was and get a hold of himself. But he didn’t, or he couldn’t.
He followed me around the desk, faster and faster, it was almost funny except I wasn’t sure what would happen if he caught me. His eyes were bulging now, and no amount of make-up could hide the way his face twisted with rage.
‘Stand still, you little brat!’ he shouted. ‘Do you have any idea who I am? I’ll ruin you. You and your whole pathetic family. And your friends. You’ll have nothing. Now give me that file, you worthless little—’
I never found out what name he was going to call me. Mr Delgado’s high-polish shoes weren’t meant for running. He tried to take the corner around the edge of his desk too quickly and wiped out spectacularly, taking half the contents of his desk on to the floor with him. The oversized cheque went down too, snapping with a loud crack.
I bent over with my hands on my knees and tried to catch my breath. Kevin was right, I did need to work harder in PE.
‘You OK, sweetie?’ Dad asked. He’d got out of his chair and stood next to me. I nodded. Della was there too. And she had her fighting face on.
Mr Delgado’s hand grabbed the top of the desk and I tensed, ready to run again. He pulled himself on to his feet and brushed the dust from the front of his jacket, sniffed and gave me the coldest stare he could muster. Then he reached up to smooth his hand over his hair, and froze.
Mr Delgado’s slick black hair had flipped open like the lid of a trash can, revealing the very smooth, very pale dome of his scalp. The room started to giggle. Mr Delgado blushed deep red, and hastily pushed his hair back into place.
‘Stop laughing,’ he said. ‘And turn off those cameras. All of you. I do not give permission for any of you to use anything you filmed today.’ His voice rose to a shriek. He kept one hand glued to the top of his head, holding his hair in place. No one stopped laughing, and no one turned off their cameras either. News was news, and there was nothing Mr Delgado could do about it.
‘I said turn them off! Don’t you know who I am?’ He picked up the nameplate from his desk and waved it in the air. ‘I’m Samuel Delgado!’ He raised the nameplate high over his head and then smashed it to the floor. ‘I’ll sue you. And you. I’ll sue all of you, for defamation of character and lost income! I’ll have all of your papers shut down!’ With every threat, Mr Delgado picked up another object from his desk and threw it. And with every item he threw, he looked more ridiculous and the laughter in the room grew louder.
His eyes fell on a shell-shocked-looking woman standing at the back of the room. That must have been his new Personal Secretary. She looked like Andrew version 2.0.
‘You,’ he shouted at her. ‘What do you think I’m paying you for? Make them stop recording.’ Mr Delgado’s voice shook her, but it was too late for her to do anything now. Instead, she slipped out the back of the room. Mr Delgado practically howled as the door shut behind her.
Mr Delgado looked around the room wildly, like an animal caught in a trap, and with one last crazy effort he leapt into the audience, charging like a rhino towards the nearest cameraman. But he d
idn’t make it.
The Personal Secretary reappeared just in time, with Bruno and Brutus right behind her. The two henchmen rushed across the room and caught Mr Delgado in mid-air, and then dragged him kicking and screaming out of the room, leaving the rest of us in silence.
Dad came to his senses first. I saw him whisper something to Kevin’s mom and she nodded, grabbing Kevin and his father by the arms and moving to the back of the room while Dad got everyone’s attention. Kevin looked at me, confused, but I waved him on. This was their chance to escape without getting mobbed by the press.
‘Hello fellow reporters,’ Dad said. ‘Well, that was something, wasn’t it?’
The room laughed appreciatively.
‘Now, I know a lot of you, and a lot of you know me. And I know how much we all love a good story. But I’m afraid, even for a reporter, family comes first. So I’ll be taking my two lovely girls home with me and they won’t be answering any questions.’
He held up his hands before they could protest and we all edged towards the door. ‘Alice will release a statement about the case, along with all of her proof, after she speaks with the authorities. And, of course,’ he grinned, ‘after she speaks to me.’ He grabbed my hand, and Della’s. ‘OK, girls,’ he said, ‘now we run.’
We bolted out of the room through Mr Delgado’s antechamber. Dad shoved a chair in front of the door to buy us some more time, and then he led us into the white entrance hall and out the front door. Dad heaved it open and we sprinted across the driveway. We were almost at the car when Sammy caught up with us.
‘Alice!’ he shouted. My heart sank.
I waved Dad and Della to get in the car as I ran across the gravel drive to meet him halfway. I didn’t know how he’d beaten the reporters, but we didn’t have much time before they caught up.
‘Alice, why’d you do that?’ he asked. He looked confused and hurt all at the same time. I felt awful.
‘I’m sorry Sammy. I gave your dad a chance to tell the truth, but he wouldn’t do it. I didn’t have a choice.’
I couldn’t tell if I was trying to convince him or myself.
‘But he’s not lying. There was an invisibility suit!’ Sammy said. He grabbed my hand and started pulling me back toward the house. ‘You need to tell them you were wrong.’
I pulled myself free and crossed my arms tight against my chest. ‘I’m not wrong, Sammy. There is no suit.’
‘There is!’ he said, stamping his foot on the gravel driveway. ‘You have to believe me!’
I looked at the door over his shoulder. Behind me, Dad honked the horn.
‘Sammy, if you’re so sure there’s a suit, where is it? If there’s a suit, all your dad needs to do is get it out and prove me wrong.’
Sammy mumbled something and looked down at his shoes like they were the most interesting things he’d seen all day.
‘What?’
‘I said he can’t! I lost it!’
Dad honked the horn again. I held up my hand for him to be patient.
‘I don’t understand.’
Sammy kept staring at his shoes. His shoulders heaved a few times, then he took a deep breath and started to explain.
‘Dr Learner was supposed to help me with my science project this year. But when I went to his apartment he wasn’t there. I knew he was really busy, I just wanted to help . . .’
‘What happened?’
‘I tidied up for him, that’s all. I just wanted to help. He was so busy and the apartment was such a mess. I just wanted to help.’
‘I get it, Sammy.’ All Sammy ever wanted to do was help.
‘No, you don’t. The next day he didn’t come to work, and when I went to see him, he was searching his apartment. He was really angry. He kept saying he couldn’t find it, or that someone stole it or hid it. Don’t you see? I must have put the invisibility suit away somewhere when I was cleaning. Maybe I even threw it out. I took out so much trash.’
And there it was. I knew Sammy had been hiding something from me, and now it all made sense. Sammy thought Dr Learner’s disappearance was all his fault. He thought he had lost the suit and made Dr Learner run away. I shook my head. Poor Sammy. It must have been awful, especially with a dad like Mr Delgado. No wonder Sammy was so desperate for me to find Dr Learner. He thought if I found him, I’d find his research and no one would ever know Sammy lost the suit. The problem was, Sammy was assuming the suit was real. And I knew it wasn’t.
‘Look Sammy. Dr Learner—’ I stopped. Dr Learner didn’t want anyone to know he had Alzheimer’s disease. But it didn’t seem fair to let Sammy keep thinking Dr Learner really finished the suit. Especially if Sammy was blaming himself for losing it. ‘Dr Learner is sick. He never made a suit. He was just confused because you moved things around. You’d have known if you saw something as important as that. Besides, I was in his apartment, there wasn’t any suit there. And if someone else found it, we’d know by now.’
‘But it’s invisible! How are you supposed to find something you can’t see?’
He stared at me so intently, I knew there was no arguing with him. And he did have a point. But an invisibility suit that was invisible all the time – that would be an awful design. It would be impossible not to lose it. No one in their right mind would invent a suit like that, would they? Sammy kept on talking.
‘You were supposed to find him and the suit. You were supposed to make everything better, not get my dad in trouble.’
The door to the Delgado Mansion opened and the crew from Channel 5 spilt out into the driveway, pointing in my direction. Dad honked the horn hard. I was out of time.
‘I’m really sorry, Sammy. I really am. But I couldn’t lie. I just couldn’t.’
I left Sammy standing in the middle of the driveway and sprinted back to the Plymouth. As I jumped into the car, I got one last glimpse of him, running past the reporters and back into his house. I knew I’d done the right thing, but that didn’t stop me from feeling like the worst person on the face of the planet. Whoever said the truth will set you free should get hit by a bus. Dad slammed his foot on the accelerator before I closed the door. It swung open dangerously as he sped round the Delgados’ circular drive, and then slammed shut on its own as we swerved the other way into traffic.
We drove home in silence. Dad didn’t ask any questions but I could hear him tapping his fingers against the steering wheel as he drove. I tipped my head back and just stared at the ceiling. The fabric above me was starting to pucker and loosen as the old glue gave up its fight with gravity. I knew how it felt – worn out and saggy.
When we got to the house, I followed Dad up to his new bedroom-office and I told him everything.
I told him about finding the medicine in Dr Learner’s apartment and what it meant, and how Mr Delgado had planned the whole thing and why. I told him how Mr Delgado had threatened me, and how Sammy thought it was all his fault. I told him how Dr Learner wanted to keep his disease a secret. And I told him how telling the truth would hurt just about everyone involved: not just Mr Delgado who deserved it, but the people who worked for him, and Dr Learner too. Something sharp twisted in my middle as I remembered the look on Sammy’s face when we drove away. He’d never forgive me. But if I’d kept Mr Delgado’s secret, if I’d lied . . . I fumbled for the right words like they held the solution.
Dad didn’t say a thing. He didn’t even move except to hand me a box of tissues. He just listened and looked sad.
‘There must have been a way, right? A way to make everyone happy?’
Dad put his arm around my shoulders. ‘There’s never a way to make everyone happy,’ he said. ‘But forget about everyone else. What will make you happy? Will you feel better if I kill the story?’
Dad’s question was such a shock I stopped crying and just stared at him. There was no way Dad would pass up the scoop of the century just like that. He must have seen my disbelief.
‘Look sweetie,’ he sighed, ‘I’ve been a reporter all of my life. Believe
me, I know how hard telling the truth can be. Sometimes people get hurt, people who didn’t do anything wrong. If you don’t want to be a part of hurting Sammy, I understand. Everything you told me is off the record and I won’t print a word of it.’
I sniffed hard. It was tempting, but it was no use. I already knew what I had to do. I finished crying and wiped the snot off my face.
‘Write it,’ I said.
‘Are you sure?’
‘The truth will come out.’ I took a deep, shuddery breath. ‘I’d rather it came from you.’
‘That’s my girl.’ Dad put his hand on the back of my head, pulled me tight against his chest and kissed the top of my hair. I sniffed a few more times, but I didn’t cry. It hurt, but at least it was a clean kind of hurt. Not the gnawing pain of keeping a secret that’s too big to hold on to.
Dad waited until I’d calmed down again before he started writing. At first I watched him type, then I just lay back on the bed and listened. The keys clattered so quickly and close together they sounded like rain, like my dad was typing a storm that would wash the whole world clean.
The story ran on the front page the next day. And a week after that, I saw Mr Delgado on the news being arrested. Dad had tried to be sympathetic in his story, but facts were facts. Mr Delgado had tricked the government into signing a contract. The government was not amused.
As they led Mr Delgado away, he did his best to look dignified. His suit perfectly pressed, shoes gleaming and all of his hair in the right place. But it wasn’t much use. Someone had posted the footage online of him falling over his desk and coming up bald. It took less than an hour to go viral. The only thing people like to watch more than a man in a suit falling over is a man in a suit falling over and then having a massive temper tantrum about it. Even if Mr Delgado didn’t get convicted, no one would ever take him seriously again.