Brother of Mine

Ch. 9

“Why would someone hide tons of children in Mount Rich?” Mrs. Jones asked Julia and I when we approached her with our theory. “Mount Rich has been internally destroyed for years.”

“Yes, we know that.” Julia said, slightly annoyed. “But it doesn’t hurt too look. I mean seriously, Mount Rich is only about four hours away from here. They could have been hiding under our noses this entire time and we didn’t even know.”

“It’s worth a shot.” I mentioned.

Mrs. Jones looked back and forth between the two of us. Then she sighed.  “Alright. You two win. I’ll talk to my chief, and try and convince him to take a party out there and explore the mountain. But I can’t guarantee anything.”

Julia and both smiled at Mrs. Jones. “Thank-you so much, Mrs. Jones. If the police were right, and Mount Rich IS deserted, then you can always say, “I told you so.”” I told her.

She smiled, shook her head, and went back to filing papers. I could tell she was also very tired. She had faint traces of bags under her eyes, and her movements were very slow. She probably was up all night long thinking about her son.

Julia and I had gone straight to the police station after we had both gotten showered and ready for the day. We wanted to talk to Mrs. Jones, most likely the only officer on the work force who would listen to us, and that’s only because she knew us.

We decided to leave Mrs. Jones to get her work done and go out for some hot chocolate.

(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)

We were sitting at Starbucks, and enjoying each other’s company and our hot chocolate when Drake Bloater came over.

Drake Bloater was in our grade, complete with straight A’s and captain of the football team. He was Julia’s former boyfriend, after she had broken up with him due to his cheating on her, but the two managed to tolerate one another, usually.

He had short, spiky blond hair, and despite being the captain of the football team, he wasn’t very muscular. He just happened to run fast and throw far. He was taller than I was, which probably gave him an advantage in the game. He was wearing a dark red t-shirt and khaki shorts.

He placed his hands on the table we were sitting at.

“What do you want, Drake?” Julia asked with a small tone of contempt.

“I just wanted to come over and talk about the news last night. Apparently Farcher’s little brother was kidnapped, and I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help.” He said in an innocent voice.

I rolled my eyes when Drake wasn’t looking. Every time the three of us were together, Drake pretended to be extra-nice to me. I think his motives were that Julia stood up for me, and would attack anyone who threatened me or her. Drake was trying to suck up to me to get Julia to like him again. Yeah, some friend.

“Thank-you, Drake, but I think I can handle it.” I said, trying to get him to leave.

“Oh please, Farcher. (He seemed intent on calling me by my last name for some reason.) I saw the way you looked on that news report last night. You were a wreck. You obviously need some help from a good friend.”

“I have had some help from a good friend. As you can see, Julia is sitting right across from me.”

“Yeah, but you need more help. Two is better than one, remember.”

“Not in all cases.”

Suddenly, Julia’s phone rang. It was Mrs. Jones.

Julia answered it. “Hello? Yes. Yes. Uh-huh. What? Why? But, they have to listen! They can’t just-……uh-huh. Fine. Alright, thank-you.”

She hung up the phone with an angry look on her face. “The police wouldn’t listen to her.”

I gaped at her. “You’re kidding me.”

“The police wouldn’t listen to who? What’s going on?” Drake asked, still standing in between us.

We ignored him.

“Then what do we do?”  I asked her.

Julia shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Drake asked once again.

Once again, we ignored him.

“Who else can we get a hold of that can possibly help us?” I questioned.

She shook her head again. “I have no idea.”

“Guys! Come on! I want to help! Can ANYONE explain to me what’s going on?” Drake asked, getting rather angry.

For once, the two of us gave him our attention.

“You want to help, Drake? Then give us someone who can go to Mount Rich and explore is to see if that’s where they’re keeping the kidnapped children!” Julia told him, a little harshly.

“So that’s what this is about. Well, why don’t you two just go by yourselves? You’re both seventeen. You two are perfectly capable of going to explore by yourselves. And it’s only four hours away. How long could you be gone?”

Julia and I shared a surprised look. Obviously we’ve never thought about that notion before.

“My dad is a certified mountain climber. He has equipment that we could use if we need it. Though I’m not sure we will, but you never know.” He included.

“Wait, We?” Julia asked her former boyfriend. “Who said you’re coming with us?”

Drake glared at her. “If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t have this idea in the first place!”

“He’s got a point.” I told Julia.

As much as I hated to admit it, Drake DID come up with the idea. He should be able to come with is if he wanted to.

Julia looked back and forth between the two of us. She probably was trying to figure out the consequences that might result from this little excursion.

Drake was right. We were all seventeen, we could all drive, we were all capable of CPR and we all had phones. We were pretty much certified to go out for about a day and explore Mount Rich. It wasn’t even that big. Compared to other mountains in the world, it was tiny.

Finally, after several moments of thinking and decided, Julia, after looking at the two of us in turn, sighed and said, “Sounds like a plan. Let’s do it.”