AncilChapter 17: The Trip
I gulped. No matter how tough I sounded, I was still terrified of Vince.
He quickly walked up to me, grabbed me, pushed me on the bed, and rose his hand to punch me but then I shouted, “Wait!”
He stopped mid-punch. “What?”
“I’ll tell you where she is. I have the directions on my phone.”
“And where’s your phone?” He asked.
I pointed to my bag on the floor and said, “It’s in my bag. Just let me get it.” I didn’t think that he would have fallen for my trick but he did. He let me get my bag and as soon as I picked it up, I threw it over my back and then darted towards the door. Vince was able to catch me before I opened the door but I threw my head back, hitting him in his face and sending him to the floor with a bloody nose. It slowed him down allowing me to scamper through the door and down the stairs to the hotel lobby.
I looked back every so often and I saw Vince rampaging behind me. He chased me all the way out into the streets of Port of Spain and luckily he wasn’t very fast. However, the big and heavy bag strapped to my back slowed me down a lot, so much so that the possibility of him catching me was actually pretty high. I ran through the city and almost got run over by a car but I eventually was able to escape, jump into a car, and head back to the shelter.
When I got back to the shelter, I tried my best to pretend like nothing had happened. I wasn’t too good at keeping a straight face but Kate was too caught up with Juliet to even take notice. Luckily, I was an expert at keeping myself company with my book and a continual supply of coffee from the shelter’s kitchen. I spent the rest of the day working on my book, spending time with my characters and my laptop; old reliable. It was a surprise that the laptop was even still functioning with its half-cracked screen, broken hinge, and letter-less keys.
As the night came, Kate abruptly entered the room and threw a book against the wall angrily. “Arghh!!!”
“What did the book ever do to you?’ I asked, raising my head from the laptop screen.
“You know what’s the worst way to end a book?” Kate asked. I remained silent allowing her to answer the question on her own. “By not ending it. If you’re going to have Jed fall unconscious for the entire end battle the least you could do is let us know who was walking up the stairs in the end.”
“Who’s Jed?” I asked. The name sounded familiar but I couldn’t recall where I heard it. Kate stormed over to the book on the floor, picked it up, and said, “The main character of this book. I got so caught up with it while reading to Juliet that I couldn’t stop reading it only to find out that it doesn’t end. This was clearly a plot by the author to get people to buy the second book.”
“Maybe it was an artistic choice,” I said. I had recognized the story as The Midnight Robber and I knew exactly what Kate was going through. I felt the same way when I read the book for the first time but then I had thought about the ending from the writer’s perspective.
“An artistic choice?”
Before I could have given my explanation Tanty Mavis stormed in the room. “What happen? I hear screaming.”
“It’s nothing, Tanty Mavis. Kate was just ranting over the ending of The Midnight Robber,” I answered.
“You know we have the second book here right?” Tanty Mavis said.
“Really?” Kate asked, shocked. “Like, here, now?”
“Yeah,” Tanty Mavis said.
“Oh my God! I need to read it.” Kate turned to me then said. “We’ll continue this conversation later.” She then left the room, almost too excited.
Tanty Mavis laughed a little then left behind her. I sighed. I wasn’t sure why I sighed but I let out a really loud sigh. The thought of the hefty offer by Tom suddenly came into my head but I shook it out and said aloud. “No!” I tried to focus my attention on my book but I couldn’t. I was just too distracted to write so I grabbed my phone and began to skim through my missed calls which were mostly from my mother. It’s a known fact that I wasn’t the most famous person in America so the only person who really cared that I left was my mother. I really didn’t want to have to talk to my mother but it was the right thing to do and I decided to do the right thing.
After the third ring, my mom picked up. “Ronald!”
“Hey, Mom.”
“How could you just leave without saying goodbye?” She didn’t sound angry but concerned. “I thought I meant more to you than that.”
“Mom you know you mean a lot to me. There was just so much going on at the moment and all my decisions were rushed.”
“When are you coming home?”
