Sixteen

Oscar finds what he's looking for

Oscar drove his car with such speed back to the hotel that both he and Lucy could hear the wheels screech. He knew arriving back at the hotel faster would make little difference eventually but the spark of excitement he felt when he’d looked at his phone was forcing him to drive this way. He rounded one last corner and saw Lucy staring at him with those big eyes. She opted not to say anything and allow him to drive on �" hoping that part of his training had been a driving course. As he roughly parked the car Oscar looked over at Lucy once more to see her expression soften as the car came to a stop. He jumped out immediately leaving Lucy to chase him into the hotel and through to their rooms. Sitting down at the desk with his laptop on, he began hammering away at the keyboard furiously. He was searching eagerly for the address that had gone missing from the list. At last his home-made software gave him the answer he was looking for.

‘It’s there!’ He exclaimed before he could stop himself.

‘What’s there?’ enquired Lucy, standing peering over his shoulder.

‘What I’ve been waiting for’ Oscar turned around in his seat to face Lucy, whose expression had hardened with worry.

‘And what does this mean?’ she asked, probing what would lie in store.

‘I need to speak to my people but then I’ll know’

‘You already know. Just tell me’

‘I said I need to speak to my people, Lucy’, with this unsatisfactory response Lucy turned and stormed into the other room slamming the door behind her. Oscar was startled by this show of attitude, but ignored it, he had bigger things to be getting on with. Turning once more to check the address his computer had given him he took his phone out of his jacket pocket and began dialling the number for Station. As he dialled he became tense with expectation as to the conversation that was to follow, a voice answered.

‘Code’, Oscar replied immediately,

‘6442, put me through’

‘One moment’, then another voice,

‘Yes?’

‘It’s Bockscar’ Oscar replied quickly again, ‘I’ve found him’. The voice went quiet for a few moments,

‘You’ve found him?’

‘That’s what I said’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes’ another long pause, then,

‘Give me the address’. At this Oscar read out the address written on the screen, proud of his own investigating and waited for a response.

‘Alright, we will be in contact with instructions. In the meantime stay put’

‘Affirmative’ and with that the call was over. Oscar sat down on the edge of the bed, phone in hand. He doubted it would take long for the call to come back in, but none the less was anxious at how he’d left Lucy. He didn’t want her to do anything stupid. He spun the phone around in his hands as the time went by. 5, 10, 20 minutes. Maybe he was wrong and station needed more time. Then just as he was about to go into the next room the phone went off. He answered quickly,

‘Yes’

‘Listen carefully’ a new voice, equally as unrecognisable was now instructing him. ‘About a mile down the street we will park a car, a blue BMW. The keys will be in the front left wheel. You are to get in the car and wait for a text. When it comes you must drive down to the end of the street, outside the property and break suddenly’, the instructions were very strange, and overly specific. Oscar asked confused

‘Break suddenly?’

‘Yes’

‘Why?’

‘There will be protection, but we have a man inside. When you break suddenly Dr. West will run out with our man and jump in the car �" then the rest is up to you.’

‘You want me to get them out?’

‘Yes’.

‘If you’ve got a man inside why did you need me to find it?’ they ignored the question,

’32 hours, at 8pm, get in the car’

‘What are you up to?’

‘The girl’ Oscar held his breath ‘she’s pretty’, then the phone went dead. He knew the final sentence was a threat and an order rolled in to one. Don’t ask questions he remembered. He would do this job, then figure out how he was going to save the girl.

Suddenly the doors flung open, to reveal Lucy standing, having let her hair down and taken off her jacket.

‘What did they say?’ Oscar bit his lip and stood up,

‘I need to show you something’.

‘What?’ questioned Lucy. Oscar gestured for the girl to follow him into the other room, he walked slowly, deliberately, dwelling momentarily on the fact he hadn’t shown anyone else this. As he approached the cupboard and opened the door he pulled out the unassuming rucksack he had carried around. He dropped to his knees and opened it, inside were a few pieces of clothing and some toiletries and a phone. ‘I don’t understand’ probed Lucy until Oscar held up one finger, and felt his other hand along the bottom of the bag before finding the seal and ripping it off. With the sound of the Velcro a layer of dollar bills was revealed, neatly and tightly packed as could be in small but definite wads.

‘My mother and I’ Oscar began ‘We always used to entertain each other. Every week we’d find more and more exotic places we’d go one day �" all of us. She’d e-mail me some place and I’d e-mail back, try and top each other’ Oscar smiled to himself at the memory, ‘But there was one time I showed her this place. And normally she just laughed or nodded along at me but this time, she just couldn’t take her eyes off it, and I saw. I saw how badly she wanted to go there and I promised myself I’d take her’, Oscar looked up and deep into Lucy’s eyes ‘this is five million dollars’ Oscar said simple. Lucy inspected the bag and shook her head.

‘That doesn’t look like five million dollars Oscar, I’ve got to say’

‘It’s not just the bottom layer Lucy’ she frowned as he pulled the bag off the floor, ‘It’s the whole bag’. She considered this for a moment before her eyes widened,

‘You mean the bag is literally made of…’

‘Yes’

‘Wow’. Oscar put the bottom of the bag back in its place, zipped it up and stuffed it back in the cupboard, then he turned to face Lucy again.

‘I don’t know who I can trust at the moment, or what might happen to me. I know I have to go to San Francisco and you can’t come with me’

‘Why are you telling me this’ Lucy was beginning to worry.

‘The place… I showed my mum. It’s called Isla Mujeres, it’s an island off the east coast of Mexico. If I’m not back in four days, you take that bag. You use the phone inside, call ‘Eddy’, tell him I sent you. Then you use the money and you go there’

‘Oscar why won’t you be…’

‘There’s a hotel called The Lost Memories. You should stay there. I hear it’s beautiful’ Lucy didn’t reply to that last comment for a few minutes.

‘When will you meet me’, Oscar looked at Lucy but didn’t reply. ‘When will I be able to come back’ she probed again. Oscar grabbed her.

‘Promise me Lucy’, he said seriously, ‘If I don’t come back, you’ll go’. Lucy nodded, her green eyes wide and staring into his. ‘Good’. Oscar let her go. ‘I’m sorry’ he then walked into the bathroom to get ready. After he’d closed the door Lucy sat down on the bed, trying to think through what he had asked of her. Deciding the easiest thing would be just to forget about it she reached into the mini fridge and pulled out a small bottle of spirit. She ripped off the cap and poured some in before throwing it in a hurry down her throat.

 

As Oscar walked out of the bathroom he saw Lucy sat on the bed with the bottle in one hand and cap in the other, he could see she hadn’t drunk much. ‘Are you allowed to do that?’ he asked as he leaned against the door frame, sliding his grey t-shirt over onto his torso.

‘What are you gonna call the police?’ she retorted, to which Oscar laughed. He walked over to the desk next to the bed, pulled the chair out from under it and sat down.

‘I’m sorry’ he said sincerely, ‘about all of this’. Lucy didn’t reply, instead shaking her head and offering the bottle to Oscar which he took and recapped.

‘No’ she said quickly, ‘I’ve got an idea’ Oscar raised an eyebrow,

‘You mean like the bowling?’

‘No’ she said again, ‘Let’s play never have I ever’, Oscar shook his head. ‘It’s a game where…’

‘I know how to play it Lucy, it’s just a stupid idea’ he stated as he began to turn back to the fridge to return the bottle. But before he could Lucy snatched it out of his hand.

‘Fine!’ she shouted at him. Oscar couldn’t tell if she was already drunk or just being difficult. ‘I’ll start’. Resigned to the situation Oscar sat back and gestured to the girl to start.

‘Alright then’ he said ‘go for it’. With that Lucy suddenly seemed to become far shyer and began twiddling the bottle around in her hands. After about thirty seconds of this Oscar prodded, ‘Go on then!’

‘I’m thinking!’ she replied back quickly. ‘Ok’ she went on, ‘never have I ever killed someone’. She looked very seriously at Oscar, who stared straight back, took the bottle and took a swig. The liquid burned as it went down his gullet.

‘If that’s how you want to play it’ Oscar said, ‘I have never been kidnapped’, with this Lucy grabbed the bottle off Oscar and with a smile took a swig.

‘I have never kidnapped anyone’ with this Oscar shook his head and grabbed the bottle back. This continued for another 25 minutes and as the bottle began to empty the two became slightly drunk until there were only a couple of fingers left.

‘Alright’ said Lucy, slightly slurring her words, ‘I’ve got one. I’d never been hit, before I met you’, Oscar laughed and took a swig,

‘What?!’ he shouted disbelieving, ‘I’m the first person to ever hit you?’, Lucy nodded. ‘Right then’ he continued, ‘I had never saved a girl’s life before I met you’

‘Woah’ argued Lucy, ‘You don’t know you saved my life’

‘I also don’t actually know if you’re a girl’ he joked, to which Lucy’s response was to hit him. She took the bottle and drank, to Oscar’s surprise.

‘I had never really liked a guy before I met you’, Oscar laughed, but Lucy didn’t.

‘Are you trying to tell me something?’ He said this jokingly but Lucy only smiled. Oscar took the bottle and looked back at Lucy.

‘I never regretted doing my job until a met you’, Lucy looked down at the bottle and back up.

‘It’s empty Oscar’

‘I know’, he replied, after a short pause. Then in an instant he looked at the clock on the desk and with a deep inhale stood up.

‘I’ve got to go to sleep now because I’ve got to go in the morning’. He tucked the chair back under the desk and walked over to the other bedroom.

‘Alright, let me just get ready for bed’ Lucy said as she herself got up and went into the bathroom, wobbling slightly, to change and brush her teeth. As she walked back out and got into bed Oscar, having returned from the other bathroom flicked a switch on the wall and turned the lights out.

‘Lucy’ Oscar said ‘You’ll be ok you know’.

‘Yeah, sure’ she replied, and that was the last thing they said before they both fell asleep from the alcohol.

Author's Note

Trying to put Lucy into the story a bit more. How's it work?