Chapter 9
“Marie, you were kind of close to the crime. Do you have a clue or a lead about where she could be?” Claire asked.
“No.” I said, shaking my head. “I was buying her a gift with Charlotte while it happened, remember?”
“I think we are back to square one.” Peggy commented.
“Charlotte was kidnapped.” I said, staring at my favorite fuzzy bunny slippers. “Then I rescued her.”
Bob literally jumped up in his seat. “How did you outsmart him?”
“There were two of them.” I said. “She was hidden in the theater. It was the old one that was abandoned. We pretended to be the phantom of the opera, whatever that is.”
“You mean the theater that broke down a few years ago? I was the leading actress in it. I starred in Cinderella.” My mom commented, with a dreamy, faraway look on her face.
“Maybe Odette is there!” Charlotte concluded.
We jumped into the limousine and headed for the theater. “Ok, so let’s split up to find her. It’s what the spies did during the war. They found it clever. Fewer of them died.” Bob said.
“Wow,” my mom said, staring at the hanging sign and the cobwebs that covered the windows. “So this is what happened to the mighty grand theater.”
“Come in!” my dad waved to us, already in the doorway.
We tiptoed into the theater. I would have sneezed from all the dust, but I held it back. The same feeling of fear dominated me again. “Okay. We will split up here. Charlotte, you go with Marie and Claire. Claire, make sure they are safe. Go backstage. And remember, they could be hiding anywhere.” We left before he could assign the roles to the adults.
“Follow me,” Claire ordered us. We listened, for the first time. We tried to keep the door from creaking as we entered. Claire flicked on the light, and we heard a noise above us, in the rafters. It was as mysterious as the Bermuda Triangle.
“See? Look! The Guillotine was actually a prop! It’s fake! The kidnapper was too dumb for us!” I said to Charlotte. We started laughing.
“Shut up, you two!” Claire snapped.
At that very moment, the kidnapper jumped down from the rafters and started to attack us. Claire shrieked in her loudest voice, and the adults ran to help us. Bob pulled out his Swiss Army Knife, and started to sharpen the blade. I picked up a chair and flung it over my head. It was a good thing I played volleyball at school. It hit him squarely on the back, for he was trying to choke Charlotte. The chair bounced off and we dodged it. I knocked the breath right out of him, so he fell for a split second. He suddenly changed courses and grabbed for my mother’s waist. He had lost one of his arms, so his grip wasn’t too tight. Suddenly I saw two more hands wrap around her waist, and then I knew that his partner was there to back him up. Luckily, my mother was wearing stilettos, and she held one foot up to me. I read her mind, took it off, and whacked the one-armed man with it. I had accidentally hit his head with the heel, so now there was a hole in his head. As much as I felt sorry for him, I couldn’t stop. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as I tried to smack the other guy with the shoe.
Sadly, he seemed to flick me away like a fly. “Oof.” I said, crashing into the wall. Everything seemed to focus on my mom as she kicked her other stiletto heel into his stomach. He lay on the ground, unconscious. Everyone was staring at the defeated men on the ground. I brought up a good point by saying, “Now that they have been defeated, we have to find Odette!” Everyone seemed to have forgotten about her.
“We have to check the basement. And the attic.” My mom pointed out. She surely mastered the theater.
“Okay, we will have to cover that. Claire, you take them into the attic.” Bob said. We walked obediently, wary of the fact that there could be any danger lurking in the attic. But my parents seemed to find her first.
Before we even took a step up on the ladder leading to the attic, my dad hollered, “We found her!” we scrambled into the basement, and we found Ms. Odette, locked up in a cage like a lion. She was chained to a chair. A bowl of dog food was put in the cage, and she was snoring. Her clothes were reduced to tatters. Her still-calm face was smudged with blood and mud.
“Where is the key?” I wondered aloud. Odette stirred from her sleep, and then woke up. She opened her eyes as wide as the moon, and she gripped onto the bars like it was her life. I fished out the granola bar from my pocket, and handed it to her.
“Mmmm,” she said. “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had real food?” she finished the granola bar in a matter of seconds. She licked her fingers and then asked for more.
“I’m all out,” said Charlotte, turning her pockets inside-out.
“Here’s a piece of celery, and a chocolate chip cookie, and a can of soda, and here’s a cup of yogurt.” Bob said, grinning from wall to wall.
“Does anyone have a paperclip?” I asked.
“No, but here’s my barrette.” Claire handed me her pink, sparkly, jewel-encrusted barrette. I felt like Nancy Drew. I knelt down and stuck the barrette into the lock. I felt it go in deeper, and deeper. My hand turned it and then the cage door hit me in the face!
“Marie, are you okay?” my mother asked in a very concerned voice.
“Mom, mom, I’m fine,” I assured her. “Let’s just get Odette out of here.” I unchained her from the chair. Odette, who fell asleep once more, was carried into the limo and raced down to the hotel.
When we got back to our room, we put her onto the bed. She was still snoring! I wondered, how could she sleep at a time like this? Bob took a washcloth and washed her face. I put bandages on the spots that didn’t quite form scabs yet. My mother went back to Forever 21 to buy new clothes for her. It seemed like she had money that doubled every time she spent it! Claire called service, for it was getting close to dinner.
When Odette woke up, she was wearing a brand new set of pajamas my mother had bought from the store. She stood there rubbing her eyes, watching us eat dinner. “My darling!” mom cried, hugging her. We all sat down for dinner and Odette explained to us that the kidnapper wanted people from our family, so that he could hold us for ransom. We all agreed that we should have a celebration the next day.
While I was brushing my teeth, I thought of everything good that happened in my life and everything bad that happened in my life. I finally agreed that they were fair, and I climbed into my bed, dreaming of tomorrow.