Framed

Chapter 3: New Beginnings

When Elizabeth woke up the next morning, all she heard was was the cows mooing fom the pasture and the chickens clucking from their coop. She sat up and stretched before the smell of waffles flooded the air. When she got downstairs, Butch was back at the stove again cooking away. He turned and smiled at her.

"I was thinking we could go to the city today, I have some errands I need to run and you could check out your mom's work for anything the police missed. They work fast so I'm sure everyone is focused on finding you."

"That sounds great...." She shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Butch gave her a side glance. He flipped that waffle before sitting down at the table next to her.

"whats wrong Elizabeth?" He looked so confused and worried.

Elizabeth sighed and looked up at him. "I'm just worried about getting caught and taken away and then no one could find her."

"Hey, if you do get caught, which you won't, then I, personally, will finish the search for her, I will clear your name. I promise." He gave her a reassuring smile.

Before either of them could blink, there was a knock at the front door. They looked at each other, both equally confused and equally worried.

"Stay here," Butch commanded before he got up and went over to the door. He looked out the peephole and then suddenly he relaxed.

'Wait, why is he relaxing?' she thought as she watched him.

When he opened the door, a boy stood there. The boy wasn't much older than she was. Butch motioned for him to come in and then led him to the table where the boy sat down like he was in his own home.

Finally the boy spoke, "Hi Gramps, who's this?"

"Oh how rude of me," He finished the waffles. "This is Elizabeth. She will be staying with me for a little bit."

"Hi Elizabeth, I'm Jack, Butch's grandson." She just smiled at him.

"Sorry about this awkwardness but I wasn't expecting you to stop by, Jack."

"Sorry,I would've called but I knew you would be here so there was no point really. My bags are in my truck. I hope it's alright that I stay for a bit? My real question is, why did you lookout the peephole? You never do. Are you in some sort of trouble?"

"Yes you can stay. You know where your room is. And no I'm in no trouble but I will explain in a bit what is going on." Elizabeh gave him a look like 'Don't get me arrested now'. He laughed a little at her before passing out the plates of waffles.

After breakfast, the three of them gathered in the living room around an old radio. Butch turned it on and searched the channels for the news.

"Wait, how often do you listen to that?" Elizabeth was suddenly scared that he had already known about her.

"Not often, a lot of times I'm too busy outside to even turn it on." he sighed.

Suddenly the sound of the same news reporter from before filled the small room.

"Hello and welcome back to channel 6 news. I have a police update on the search to find 15 year old Elizabeth Jones. As you all may know they didn't find her anywhere in the house and they searched the whole city looking for her with no luck. Well now they are searching north of the city and they will scan from north to east to south to west until they are north again before they move out further. They will search every house and every building no matter how big or small or run down it is until they find Elizabeth. Remember if you see her or know anything, please call crime stoppers a 555-9111. This is Jenny Sparks signing off." Butch turned off the radio and turned around and then he went pale. She realized why really fast. Jack was gone!

Butch and Elizabeth ran to the kitchen to find Jack on the phone. Butch ran over and took it from his grandson's hands and put it up to his ear. It was the police!

"I'm sorry ma'am everything is fine, my grandson just got back from the hospital and he is all drugged and confused, he doesn't remember where he is. Yes everything is fine. Sorry about this. Thank you...bye."

Butch turned and looked to his grandson.

"What are you thinking?!?!?"
"She's a criminal grandpa! We have to turn her in!"
"I should've explained before we listened to the news. She's innocent. She was falsely blamed and she has been on the run ever since. Someone kidnapped her mom and she has to find her and clear her name. She did nothing wrong! You have to believe me Jack." Butch looked suddenly desperate. Elizabeth looked at Jack who was staring her down. It wasn't a stare like 'You criminal' but it was more like 'how can people assume something before they even have facts.' Elizabeth turned and ran upstairs to her room and sat in the chair by her window and just stared out into the distance. Everything almost ended. She was almost caught. She seemed to zone out for a long time.

Just then there was a knock on the door. She turned and Jack opened it and stepped into the room. His black hair was a mess and his ocean blue eyes looked so sad.

"Hi, I just brought in my bags and got settled in and I figured I should probably come apologize for almost turning you in." He gave her a half smile.

"Thats alright. I probably would've done the same thing."

Elizabeth's chocolate brown hair was up in a bun and her brown eyes were trained on Jack's blue ones.

"Oh please, come in and have a seat." She motioned towards the bed and he slowly walked over and sat down.

They sat there in silence for a few moments. And then Jack spoke.

"Gramps wants to go to the city after lunch. He's going to go take care of the animals before he cooks. He wants me to go with you when you are investigating the hospital. Is that alright?"

"Yeah that's fine. I'll need a disguise though."

"I have just the thing, follow me."

Elizabeth followed Jack down the hall to a couple doors down. It looked like a little old lady's room.

"This was my grandma's room, look around. I'm sure you can find something."

Elizabeth started looking around. She found a pair of dark sunglasses and a ton of makeup. She got to work and when she got done, she could barely recognize herself. She turned around and Jack jumped a little.

"Nice! So if anything happens you could be my blind twin sister." They both started laughing.

They hurried downstairs when they smelled the food and got there just in time for Butch to set the plates on the table. He noticed the make up and glasses and smiled. They ate their food and then they all piled in the truck and headed for the city.

'This is it' She thought to herself.