It All Started with a Sticky Note

Chapter 11: Ice Cream Anyone?

We hung around the diner a few minutes, waiting to see if anyone was following us, then we headed to the ice cream shop. If it looked fifty years old in the darkness of night, it looked absolutely ancient in the daylight. Because the lights were unwired and without light bulbs we opened the curtains, unleashing a gust of dirt and dust; which caused each of us to cough for a few minutes. Inches of dust piled up in the corners, the furniture looked even worse then we thought, the lights were beyond help and the menu was unreadable.

     The only evidence that a person has been inside within the last decade was the distinct path of footprints, leading around the room.

     I thought aloud, walking behind the counter, “Why were we able to hide if our footprints lead straight to us…?” I waited for a reply, which ended up falling on deaf ears. While I was searching for clues behind the counter Mac and Stefani went straight below the stool to the sewer. Despite the fact it had only been opened a few seconds the stench was already wafting into the air.

     Again I questioned, “If this smell was hanging in the air…does he have no nose or what?” After being ignored again I decided to drop myself back into the stinky, smelly sewer.

     Mac closed the entrance and looked at me expectantly as if they were waiting on me, “C’mon” he motioned as he crawled deeper into the stinky tube.

     “Hold on,” I protested, which was weird because I expected Stefani to show the first sign of wariness. “We should probably cover our tracts from upstairs, you know if any one comes back…”

     “It wouldn’t make a difference, they already know we’re here and we need to get some distance between us.”

    I just stared at him blankly, but emotion was soon washing over my face, “So this isn’t about Tracy, is it? You acted like it was so I’d think you were some adventurous hero. But no…this is all about you and I have no idea what’s going on but I’m through with all this top secret stuff and you’re either going to explain or I’m calling the men back and doing this the ‘easy way’.” Before they could question me I went on, “I have no idea…I just don’t understand. All I know it you’re some fake…Justin.”  

    Stefani just sat there, looking between the two of us; she was wise enough not to make any witty comments. But I can’t say the same about Mac.

     “Oh, so not I’m the fake one miss ‘Let-me-keep-all-i-know-about-my-friends-away-from-them-so-that-there-in-danger.’”

    Before I could come up with some dramatic thing to say as my ‘farewell’ to the mission Mac grabbed my arm. I was about to yell at him when I realized that someone was in the building.

    “We have to run.” He mouthed at us and put a finger to his lips, motioning the need for silence –but he didn’t need to warn us.

    A million thoughts rushed through my head as I crawled through he stinky tunnel, with a backpack Mac threw at me on my back.  We crawled for about two hours in complete silence, not for safety as much as for choice. Mac absent-mindedly muttered to himself the whole time, and I wondered if we were ever going to get out—had he been here before? There were so many turns and backtracks I don’t think I could get us back if my life depended on it. Finally, Mac slowed down and sat to rest in the water filled pipe.

     It felt really good to stretch my legs after crawling on my numb knees for two hours, and the water didn’t bother me since I was already damp and smelly.

     Then Mac said something that surprised me, I couldn’t tell if I was flattered or hurt. “I know about the calls Avery. I wired my phone so that it gets everything you get…and more because I kind of redirected some numbers straight to my phone.”

     Once again Stefani just sat there, I couldn’t see her expression since it was basically pitch black, but I knew she was concerned about us—again.

     I decided to feel hurt. “Seriously? You are such a creep—the least you could do is tell me about it…sometimes I wish I didn’t tell you about this at all—oh but then you probably have some other way to find out.” Mac sat up and started crawling again, which saved me from spitting out other bratty, selfish words. How could I respond to his protectiveness with disgust? As we crawled through the tunnels for countless hours my mood slowly matched my appearance. 

     **********************************************************************************************

     Around four-o’clock—my watch had a light up face which not only helped me keep bearings on the time but helped light the way–Mac made a sharp turn in the tunnel and started climbing up a ladder, which was harder then it looked on the slippery stairs. I couldn’t see how, because Stefani was between the two of us, but about fifteen steps up Mac opened an opening and we saw the afternoon sky.

     It felt really good to stand up after crawling on the wet pipe for hours, but climbing was no fun with wet shoes on a wet ladder. I couldn’t see how since Stefani was in my way, but Mac opened a door and led us out of the manhole and onto a small neighborhood street. Only then did I realize how badly we stunk. I mean think of rotten eggs, old laundry and a clogged toilet and imagine wearing that as lotion—all over your body and in your pores. Eww is right.

     We walked through the neighborhood for a few minutes before spotting a McDonalds joined with a truck stop.

     “You guys go on and shower,” He spoke with a softer voice while handing us some cash to pay for it with, “I’ll go and find out where we are.” I wanted to finish our argument but I decided to give him a quick hug instead, he responded in a playful tone, “Hurry up and clean because whew you stink to high heaven!”

   Stefani and I walked to the cashier and paid for a key to the showers. Feeling clean and being clean are two different things, because when we were done we felt clean but I could tell it’d take a few more showers to permanently remove the stench from our skin. When we were done we decided to toss our old clothes and start with fresh ones Stefani and Mac threw into the backpack I was wearing when I was still looking around in the shop.

     Stefani was the first one to speak, “So, what changed?”

     I gave her a quizzical look and she explained.

     “How did you go from ‘Miss Friend Deceiver’ to ‘hahaha you stink to high heaven’? Are you finally starting to like him?”

     I sighed, not that I wanted to talk about Mac but I was afraid she was going to ask about everything I was keeping away from her.

     “I don’t know. I didn’t know what to say…you know?”

     “Well,” She smiled at me, which made her eyes even brighter, “I’ll take that for now but I’m going to get the truth from you yet.”

     “Alrighty,” I smiled, I knew Mac wasn’t the only thing she wanted an explanation about, “C’mon Mac’s probably waiting for us.”

     With newfound energy we skipped out of the gas station and went off to find Mac.