Metal Man

Chapter 2: I replace the entire police squad

Chapter 2

I replace the entire police squad

"Rosemarie, just take them off, for heaven's sake. You don't need to untie them all the way."

The airport smelled like a thousand different kinds of restaurant food. I was bending down to untie my shoes to put them in a tray so they could be scanned, and was trying to take as long as possible. I didn't want to leave this country.

"Honestly," Aunt Elisa continued. "You're lucky your mother gave you a passport, otherwise we couldn't catch this plane. Very smart, that was. She probably knew that we'd come to find her in Italy, and so assigned you a passport. Very clever, that was."

"It wasn't clever," I said, finished with my shoes. I plopped them in a tray and began to empty my pockets. "It was so she could escape the country if she ever was going to get arrested and so she didn't have any guilt about leaving her daughter behind." I slipped a few pieces of string into the tray and set it on the belt.

"Your mother will never get arrested. She's a very honest, pure, lady."

I snorted. "She wasn't. You can tell from the thousands of parties she went to."

"But all of them with a good heart."

I laughed and walked through the scanner, beckoned by a lady in uniform. Aunt Elisa rushed through it and grabbed her bin. She took out her watch and muttered something incomprehensible.

"We need to hurry!" she said, her voice an octave higher than usual. "They're boarding in ten minutes!" She grabbed my hand and dragged me along toward our terminal.

An intercom voice spoke over the airport. "Elisa Ford, please report to security desk, Elisa Ford."

Aunt Elisa grabbed me by the wrist and sprinted towards security. A guard took her arm and led us into a cubicle where a stern-looking man was sitting at a desk.

"Yes, I've been through this before," said Aunt Elisa, squirming out of the guards' grasp and sitting down. "I am not the terrorist Elisa Ford."

"We'll see about that," said the man. "Where are you traveling?"

Aunt Elisa's back straightened. "Italy."

"And why?"

"I'm rescuing Andrina Carpenter with my niece."

"I'm sorry?" The man frowned.

"My sister and her mother," said Aunt Elisa haughtily. "A man on Yahoo said she was in Italy." I groaned inwardly and covered my face with my hand.

"I used to work in the police force and I worked on Mrs. Carpenter's case... She's dead, ma'am." His expressions formed something close to sorrow.

"That's what everybody thinks, but she is quite alive, I assure you." She slapped her hand down on the table. "I'm going to miss my flight. May I leave now?"

He shook his head. "A few more questions, please. Have you ever been to China?"

"Why would I ever want to go to China?"

He turned to me. "How long have you been in your aunt's care?"

"Three and a half years." I muttered, staring mutinously at my socked feet.