Metal Man

Chapter 4: I drag a bartender

Naturally, my morning started out bad.

"No. I refuse to touch another croissant." I glared down at the pastry.

"Well, then, eat your pizza." Aunt Elisa planted her hands on her hips.

"It's almost as bad as the croissant!"

"Well, starve then."

"Can't I get some soup or something at that restaurant?"

"No."

"Well I'd rather die than eat another croissant."

"Then eat the pizza."

"I'd rather puke."

Aunt Elisa groaned. "Rosemarie Carpenter, you are a handful. Fine. We'll get soup. But if you don't like it, you aren't getting anything else."

"Deal."

The restaurant was more of a cafe, but called itself a restaurant. Maybe that was how they did things in Italy, I don't know. All I know is that if I ever come here, I'm coming alone, so I can order from American restaurants.

"One broccoli cheddar soup and one orange croissant, please." said Aunt Elisa, leaning over the bar. How could she eat another croissant? Especially when we were probably going to get them on the way back. I sipped the broccoli cheddar soup, which wasn't half-bad. That meant it took the prize for best tasting food I've had in Italy.

I heard a kind of hissing sound come from the hall of the restaurant, but I didn't think much of until I saw the bartender take a deep breath and collapse on the floor.

"What in..." said Aunt Elisa, staring down at the bartender. She took a sniff of the air and turned white. "Poisonous gas," she whispered. "Poisonous gas!" she screeched, and ran out of the restaurant, along with all the customers. She didn't even bother to grab me. She had a fear of dying via suffocation.

The last person passed me, walking calmly towards the door. What was wrong with him? He passed by me, just close enough to spill my soup over the counter. I frowned after him.
I was about to follow his lead and run, but the bartender was just lying there. I couldn't leave him. And then the place would be locked down to take out the gas for who knows how long if it kept going and he'd have no job for maybe weeks.

I grabbed the hem of my shirt and held it over my mouth and nose. Then I went behind the bar, grabbed the bartender's ankles, and dragged him out the door. Aunt Elisa didn't even notice me and began to see if he was alive.

I ran to the hall where the poison gas leak had no doubt started. Off course, my brain wondered, Why do they even have a poisonous gas pipe in their restaurant? but I forced myself back to the task at hand.

I found the gas leak relatively easily, and grabbed an old piece of scrap metal I had in my pocket. I forced it over the hole in the pipe, and tried to concentrate. What would hold it on? I looked around and wondered what the bartender had behind the bar. 

I dropped the scrap metal and ran towards the bar. By now, Aunt Elisa had noticed I was gone. I could hear her hammering on the door, screaming. 

I searched the bar and found exactly what I wanted. I grabbed three of them and ran back. Then I put the metal over the pipe again and tied the rags around it. Not stopping to see if it had worked, I ran out the door. My lungs felt like they were collapsing from holding so much air for so long. Aunt Elisa screeched like a banshee and sobbed all over me.

"I thought you were dead! Are you alright?" she asked frantically.

I was going to nod but the world started spinning. It spun faster and faster, and blurred to black.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up with a blinding headache and a man with a light brown beard leaning over me.

"As I said earlier, I can't say for sure. She consumed a lot of the gas. But I think she'll be fine." His voice was only slightly accented.

"She can hear you." I groaned.

He leaned away from me, surprised. He paused and then said, "I think she'll be good. She's already woken up."

"Oh, she is?" said another voice, which I easily recognized as Aunt Elisa's. She cupped my face in her hands. "Oh, Rosemarie, are you alright? We're at a hospital, and the doctor just said you'd be fine. You breathed in some gas, but not much."

"I heard him. How long do I have to stay here?" I asked.

"Not long. Maybe a few more hours, just to make sure you're fine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a patient with a severe asthma attack waiting for me." The doctor disappeared out of my field of vision.

I endured a little more coddling from Aunt Elisa, and to my surprise, she didn't even get mad. She was just glad I was safe. As a downside, though, I doubted I would ever be able to do anything on my own until I was eighty years old.

Finally, I had taken a little too much of her babying and pretended to fall asleep. It worked, but I had to stay that way until I heard the doctor say that to Aunt Elisa that I could leave now, and to make sure I got plenty of sleep.

When we got home, Aunt Elisa did her daily routine of checking her phone. Her face went white, then rosy.

"What?" I asked, perplexed.

"He replied!" she hollered. I blinked once, then twice. He had? He must just want money. "He replied and said to meet him tomorrow in Venice!" She jumped up and down a few times. "Rosemarie, we're going to get your mother back!"