Emily's Secret

14. Staten Island

Staten Island was an ugly place. Full of run-down houses crammed together so that they were attached to each other. Many of the houses looked like they were designed by people who flunked out of architecture school. The ugly houses were mixed in with many small and decaying strip malls. I thought that New York City would be this beautiful and glamorous place, but Staten island was the opposite of that.

At an abandoned gas station, Mercedes made a right turn onto a local street, and drove three blocks. "We have arrived at our destination," announced Mercedes. Luckily there was a parking spot available in front of the house. Mercedes proceeded to parallel park. Strangely, this was the first time I was inside a car while it did that maneuver.

For a long minute we sat silently in Mercedes. From the backseat, I looked in out the window in trepidation. Finally, I said, "what do we do now?"

"We all go investigate," said Rob. "Wear your hat and sunglasses."

Rob, Cherry and I got out of the car, and walked up to the door. I noticed that there was statue of the Virgin Mary in front of the house. That struck me as odd. I guess there weren't many religious Catholic people where I lived. I supposed that Staten Island was different.

Rob rang the doorbell. We heard a man's voice shout "coming" from inside. The door opened. There was a man wearing an undershirt, holding a beer. "What can I do for yous," he said, with a funny accent, which I later came to understand was the local accent in Staten Island. The guy looked like someone who had walked out of a mafia movie.

"I was told to come to this address," I said.

The man looked me over then looked at Rob and Cherry. He smiled with evident delight when he gazed upon Cherry. "Wow," he said, "what's a gorgeous girl like you doing in a place like this?"

Cherry just smiled silently.

But then he turned to me again. "Why don't you take off that hat and sunglasses so I can get a better look at you."

I looked at Rob, and he nodded that it was OK, so I took them off. He looked me over carefully.

"If your name is Emily," he said, "I have something for you."

"Yes, that's me," I said.

"I'll be right back, you wait there," he said.

I waited, for what seemed like a long time. I worried that he would come back with killer robots, or something like that. But instead, it was just him again, holding a small card in his hand. "This is for you," he said, handing me the card.

I looked at the card. It was an address. Another address.

"What's this?" I asked.

"That's all I haves for you," he said. "Take care of yourself, now." And with that he closed the door.

We went back to Mercedes. After we were inside, Rob said, "whoever sent you to this address is being cautious. I think that it's not a trap, otherwise it would have already been sprung. Let's go to this next address."

"How did he know my name?" I asked. "I never told ROARK1943 my real name."

"Your identity is known to whoever is after you, and also to whoever programmed me to protect you, so you didn't do as good a job of protecting your identity as you thought."

We gave Mercedes the new address, and she said it would be about a fifteen minute drive. We drove again through the streets of Staten Island. Eventually we came to a street which took us up a hill into a much nicer neighborhood. The houses were larger and more spread out. They had front lawns, many with trees. Everything looked prettier here. Mercedes stopped in front of one of the houses, which matched the address on the card I had been handed.

This time, I left the hat and the sunglasses behind. They seemed pointless, it was obvious that whoever lived here knew who I was and was expecting me. Otherwise, we did the same as last time. Rob, Cherry and I walked up to the front door, and Rob rang the bell.

Very shortly afterwards, a man opened the door. He was a fat man. He looked to be about six feet tall and 300 pounds.

But he wasn't just any random fat man. He was my father!

"Daddy?"