Chapter Nineteen: Permission Granted

Chapter Nineteen

Gavin and I woke up abruptly; we had been asleep hand-in-hand on the bed. You can’t keep me here!” A door slammed in the corridor outside our room. The voice that had shouted was enough for Gavin and I both to creep to our door. I knew we could only watch from the doorframe, but I was curious.

Miraculously, the bars that had held us in place were gone. Gavin and I both stepped out of the Paraplegic Recovery Suite to see what had transpired.

Sir Harold banged on a door; he seemed as defeated as a losing sports team. When he saw me, he perked up. “Sruun, maybe Jade will listen to you!”

Jade! Had she come back or had she been taken back? On second thought, I realized that Jade wouldn’t return on her own.

Sir Harold’s guess had been right, though it took some time for Jade to come out of her room. Only after she made Sir Harold promise to let Gavin and I join her did Jade agree to let Sir Harold talk to her. Sir Harold led the three of us, Gavin and I still in pajamas, to his office.

“I believe I owe you an apology.” He started. “I may have been too sudden in my approach.”

Jade nodded, waiting for him to continue. He didn’t.

“I think what Jade’s getting at is that neither of us anticipated being adopted by a complete stranger so soon after such a tragedy.” I explained. “We really don’t know anything about you.”

“Fair enough,” Sir Harold shrugged. “I’m Sir Harold McLeod, billionaire clairvoyant extraordinaire. I-”

“Save it,” Jade snapped. “Sruun’s right but first we have to set things straight.”

“What sort of things?” He wrinkled up his nose.

“For starters, you can’t expect us to obey your every command, and being our guardian, you have to give us time, but until then, we need some freedom.” Jade didn’t look at him as she spoke; she focused on two paperclips she tied together.

“Very well,” Sir Harold propped his feet up on his large beautiful desk. “I agree to your demands. I give you free roam of the castle, and provided a few conditions are met, you may leave McLeod Manor.”

Jade looked at him without moving her head. I didn’t think she wanted Sir Harold to see her interest. “What kind of conditions?”

“If you’re to leave McLeod Manor, you will agree to a tracking chip, you will return to McLeod Manor in time, and you will not leave the planet.” He instructed clearly. The next thing he mumbled as an afterthought. “You leaving the planet would surely spell death with a capital K.”

“Why all the precautions?” I asked.

“Not only am I your legal guardian, but also your protector. Erma claims the two of you are of great importance to the war.”

“What war?” I didn’t think Gavin liked being excluded from the conversation, hence his prodding question.

“A war you will never know.”

Ignoring Sir Harold’s mysterious answer, I looked at Jade. Seeing her tired exasperation, I spoke on her behalf. “We agree to your terms.”

“Good,” Sir Harold commended my words. “I’m pleased.”

“How long will it be before we can leave?” I prodded. “Do we see one of the Servants to get our tracking chip?”

“In such a hurry to leave?” His tone changed to smug. “Very well,” He withdrew a two-inch high green plastic pill bottle from a desk drawer. The pill bottle’s contents rattled when Sir Harold slammed it on the semi-reflective surface of the desk, making a soft “chink”. The noise also made Jade look up without twitching her rigid neck muscles.

With two fingers and a thumb ready to grab the translucent cylinder, I leaned forward and reached for the bottle. Before it was in my grasp, Sir Harold spoke again; I froze where I sat with my nose dangerously close to the decrepit boot Sir Harold wore to complement a blew sports cleat on the other foot.

“Only take two from the bottle; one for you and Miss Cataye—Erma only knows how much the CIA would want for another bottle.”

“Don’t I need one?” Asked a confused Gavin.

“No, I’m not going to waste any on you or that Gestapo fellow. Besides, technically I’ve abducted you, so why would I want the authorities to have traceable proof?”

“Fine,” Gavin leaned back in his chair. “I didn’t really want one anyways.”

The pills were tiny as pills went. They were transparent capsules that each had a miniscule electronic device in them. Probably because I didn’t have my glasses on, I had to squint at the pills when holding them up to the light to see any of what was inside.

Handing one to Jade and the bottle back to Sir Harold, I rose from my seat to leave.

“Excuse me, but those pills aren’t leaving this room unless you’ve swallowed them.” Sir Harold scolded.

I popped my and barely felt it slip down my throat. Jade glared at Sir Harold before putting the capsule in her mouth, swallowing, and thrusting her tongue out for Sir Harold to see the pill was gone.

Jade followed Gavin and I back to our room. It was still too early for Alexia to deliver breakfast, but that didn’t stop me from telling Gavin to summon her. He sat down at the desk and fiddled with the radio Alexia had given us while I brought Jade into the closet and shut the door.

“I’m glad to have you back.” I admitted. “I almost thought you weren’t coming back.”

“I wasn’t.” Jade chuckled. “I wanted to apologize though so it’s kind of convenient Sir Harold dragged me back.”

I shook my head because of her apology. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Thanks, I still feel bad though.” She stretched her arms. “He hasn’t done anything to you, has he?”

“Who? Gavin or Sir Harold?” I was having trouble forgiving myself for platonically sleeping with Gavin after I’d decided not to. It just sort of happened during the night; I remembered waking up groggily and Gavin hugging me, accepting a kiss, and laying next to me.

“Sir Harold, has he raped you or anything?” Jade questioned.

“No, why would he do that?” Bewilderment was a state of mind that described me well at that point.

“You heard what the old pervert said as we left his office! My earlobes have sex appeal! I’m surprised you didn’t wake up one night to find him brushing your teeth with his tongue and baking soda!” Jade inhaled quickly. “I’m glad to see you again.” She hugged me out of nowhere. I wasn’t quite sure what to do but figured it out eventually.

After a moment, I suggested a few things. “Lets at least change clothes, and you could get a shower if you wanted.” Jade desperately needed both things done; she was wearing baggy male jeans and an oversized tee-shirt that barely covered purple plaid boxers that were revealed by her sagging trousers. For her to stand—let alone walk—she had to clutch the bottom of the pockets of the plus-sized pants. On top of that, she was beginning to smell like a duffel bag in a gym locker. Needless to say, it wasn’t pretty.

“I’d like that.” Jade concurred. Before I let her go to the shower I would miss, I handed her an assortment of the clothing I had. Our being nearly identical in shape and size made life easy.

Alexia arrived the moment Jade shut the bathroom door. I wasted o time in giving my demands. “Forget about breakfast; bring us a bag to put some stuff in. We’re going on a trip.”

She blinked twice, rubbed her eyes, and yawned before being conscious enough to comprehend my statement. Ten minutes later she rushed back with a cherry red two-strap backpack with two large pockets and a smaller one on the front. Snatching the bag from her hands, I dashed into the closet and accidentally slammed the door.

I’d been in such a hurry, I started changing and packing at the same time. If anyone had seen me, I would’ve looked really silly standing in a poor lighted closet with my pants a crumpled ball at my feet and my pale legs bare. I stuffed all of Gavin’s clothes , all of the adjustable underwear, and three day’s worth of clothing for Jade and I into the bah. I wasn’t sure where we were going but I knew for sure that we’d stop by the apartment where Jade and I could get more clothing. Finally, I packed every trinket Jade, Gavin and I’d had with us at the mall in the smallest pocket of the bag.

I touched the door handle, so lost in thought, I almost showed Gavin and maybe Jade and Alexia my lower half. Hurriedly, as if Gavin were going to barge in at any second, I pulled a pair of jeans on and slung the bag over my shoulder so I could stroll out of my privacy.

Jade and Gavin were both ready to leave, so I picked up my glasses and followed Alexia out of the room; she was going to take us to the train car garage. During the walk, I couldn’t help but be a little high-spirited.

Alexia turned a corner with Jade and Gavin right behind her. I was at the end of the pack but wasn’t worried until a predator attacked.

A pair of strong hands seized me and yanked me into a dimly lit room. One hand covered my mouth and the other jerked my shirt so hard, I was afraid it would tear off.

At the other end of the hands, was an old face with scraggly white hair. It was Sir Harold; all of a sudden I remembered what Jade had said about him raping me. If that was what was coming, then if he could still have kids, then he wouldn’t be able to when I finished.

“Shh!” He placed a finger to his lips. “Relax, I’m not going to hurt you.” It took him a few minutes to get me to calm down, yet he couldn’t slow my pounding heart rate. “Erma told me about your leg when I asked Erma why you favored one leg over the other. Erma also told me you won’t see a doctor for it, so I wanted to help.”

“How did you know I hurt my heel?” My injury had healed enough to walk on, but that was after changing the way I walked; walking like I did before bashing my heel at the beach aggravated my foot to no end.

“I just said Erma told me.” He stated matter-of-factly. “Here, take this cane. I pray it will benefit your health in more ways than one.” He winked at me and handed me a cane.

By the looks of it, I expected the cane to be heavy but it wasn’t. On the top of the walking stick was the figurine of a spider monkey leaping. The figurine contoured to my palm and arched over enough, I could hang the cane on my arm. The tail of the monkey seemed unusually long as it swirled down around the first eight inches of the cane. The monkey, along with a decorative four inches covering the bottom of the cane, was silver. The rest of the cane was a burnish black metallic substance.

“It’s made of carbon nanotubes, so it’ll never break, rust, or deteriorate. You can have confidence in its strength.” It was like Sir Harold had read my mind when he told me what it was made of. “Even in the sculpture there are carbon nanotubes but the sculpture itself isn’t made of carbon. The sculpture and that bit at the bottom are made of platinum.” He explained. “The sculpture does have carbon in it, but not only in a manufactured form; some of it is crystalline. Do you see the eyes of the monkey? They’re natural diamonds.” I looked at the monkey’s face. Apart from a snarl portraying unfittingly sharp teeth two profound blue eyes twinkled.

“Thank you” was all I could find to say. Sir Harold kissed my forehead; I winced but decided that after such a generous thoughtful gift, he deserved to kiss my forehead—that was his last one for the year.

I sort of felt weird accepting such an expensive gift, but I tried to interpret it as an act of attempted love. I wanted it to be a token of good will or a type of house warming present. In that mindset, accepting the gift was almost easy. Almost.