EMIT (THE EMIT SAGA) (21 page)

“
It’s for you safety, while we figure out how to keep these guys from getting to you again,” Daniel said presciently.

“Did you say again? They’re coming
after me again?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know that?”

“
We know.”

“
How? Oh, it’s classified!” I said snidely. I stood there feeling trapped in some sick prank.

“Please tell me, what’s going on!” I begged.

“I can’t say anything more than what I’ve already told you. I won’t let anything happen to you.” Then he looked at me and asked, “Why did you scream?”

“Why did I
scream?” I was still trying to comprehend what Daniel had said about those goons coming after me again. His question jogged my memory and I motioned for him to follow me outside since Carl was returning.

As we walked towards the park,
I turned and handed him the photo and asked, “Explain this to me. You must be at least twenty-seven years old now if you were nineteen when this picture was taken. You look exactly the same as you do today. I was eight in this picture.”

He stared at the photo, his face went white and
he looked visibly stunned. After a few moments, he said, “Can we go to my apartment, so I can talk to you? I can’t have this conversation in the street.”

“
I’m not going anywhere with you? How old are you?” I grabbed the photo from him and stuck it in my jeans in case he tried to destroy it like Lily’s photo.

Daniel answered slowly, “I’m nineteen.”

“How old are you in this photo?”

“
I’m sorry, but that’s classified.” Daniel glanced sideways and I noticed one of those cars parked across the street.

“I’m sorry
. I can’t do this,” I said loudly, but lowered my voice when people passing stared. “You are clearly lying to me.”

Daniel tried to speak, but I turned and
walked quickly away from him.

He called out,
“I’m not lying to you.”

I stopped and waited for him to catch up.
“Then how old were you in this picture?”

Daniel looked away
. “I can’t say.”

I
wanted to scream. “Well, don’t call me until you can.” Daniel grabbed my arm as I turned, but I shook free. “Please, just leave me alone.”

H
e followed me to my building. I went upstairs and didn’t know what to do. Should I tell my parents? I really did trust Daniel, in theory, but I knew something strange was going on. How could he look exactly the same as he had nine years ago? I stared at the picture. If he was nineteen now, he would have been ten years old then.

My head was spinning
and I didn’t know what to do. This was impossible, yet somehow I believed Daniel or wanted to. Did he have an older brother he never told me about? I never asked if he was an only child. My phone rang. It was Lily but I didn’t want to talk, so I ignored her call. Then Daniel called, but I didn’t answer his call either.

I took Amber for a fast walk in front of the building, knowing that the doorman would see if anything happened and then ran quickly inside to get away from all the craziness. My heart was breaking and I began to sob. Suddenly, I realized my room was bugged and I had no privacy. I needed some noise, so I turned up the volume on my radio and filled my pillow with tears.



I found
a note in the kitchen from my parents saying that they’d gone for a walk with Amber. There were fresh bagels on the counter so I took a cinnamon raisin one out of the bag. On my way to the refrigerator, the house phone rang. Who keeps calling?

I answered and heard a Fr
ench sounding male voice, but there was static on the line.

“I’m sorry
. What did you say?” I asked, hoping this was a call for dad.

“
Meet me in the lobby in five minutes. Bring the envelope and no one will get hurt, girlie.”

I slammed the phone down. I
reached for my cell to call Daniel. It didn’t matter that he lied; I still thought he was inherently good. As I fumbled for my cell inside my jean pocket, it started ringing and it was Daniel.

“
We heard everything. Do you know what envelope he’s asking for?”

Hearing his voice made me question my decision to tell him anything. He’d been lying to me and I really didn’t know what to do anymore. “No,” I lied
.

“Listen,
I’ll be in the lobby. Go find out what he wants,” he instructed.

They wanted me, a seventeen year-old girl, to meet some goon. Were they crazy? Who were the good guys and who were
the bad guys? Maybe I should call the FBI or the CIA. I was in such turmoil and my head was spinning.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I answered
, slowly recovering from the frightening call. “You go and meet him and arrest him. Then, you can find out everything you need.”

“We can’t. We need you to do it.”

“Are you crazy?” I screeched.

“I won’t
let anything happen to you. I promise. You’re safe, and you’re going to be safe,” Daniel said, trying to reassure me.

“How do you know that? Are you God? No one can say that. You never know what can go wrong
. I don’t want to be involved in this. Please stop bothering me,” I snapped.

“
These people are looking for something and you’re the key.”

“I’m not doing anything
until you tell me the truth because I don’t trust you.” I hung up. Ten minutes later my house phone rang and when the machine answered it was a hang up. That continued until my parents got home and then it stopped. All those previous hang-ups were for me I realized. These people were watching me and knew when I was home alone since the landline only rang when I was by myself.

Daniel didn’t
call back and I was miserable. I had hoped that he would keep trying, but the faster I accepted that I was just a job, the faster my broken heart would heal.

I overheard
Mom talking about dinner and had totally forgotten it was Dad’s birthday.

“Dad
, I’m so sorry… Happy Birthday.” Giving him a hug, I ran upstairs to get his gift.

After he opened it, he seemed really impressed and said he had planned on buying the book this week.

While I sat on the couch, I started feeling really queasy. I put my head on a pillow and closed my eyes. Mom asked if I was okay.

“I’m just tired.”
I really wanted to say I was feeling sick, but I didn’t want Martin to cancel dinner. Anna had just gotten better from some bug.

I
went to my room and wondered what to do. Nothing made any sense. When I heard the doorbell, I ran downstairs and saw Anna burst out in laughter as Mom tickled her. She handed her to me when the oven timer went off.

We sat in the dining room, my favorite room in the apartment. T
here was a beautiful mural painted on wallpaper affixed to the walls. Mom said she wanted to take the mural with us if we ever moved. Flowering trees adorned the corners and the limbs reached out with leaves and flowers, which extended across the four walls. Painted in pale hues, the effect was very romantic and dreamy. The curtains were a pale grey dupioni silk. Mom found the antique crystal chandelier in a Parisian antique store and had it shipped home.

Right after cake, they left. Martin carried a sleeping Anna in his arms.

Dad looked at his watch and said there was time to catch a foreign film that he wanted to see. I didn’t want to go and shortly after they left, the phone started ringing. I silenced the ringer and crawled into bed. I just wanted to hide.

Lily called and
I knew I had to talk to her so I answered the cell.

“
You’re not returning my calls. What’s going on?” she asked.

“I’m
sorry. I’m just frustrated about Daniel and…” I suddenly remembered they were listening. My God, I kept forgetting the whole house was bugged.

“And what
?” Lily asked. “How was your date? Did you go to Shakespeare in the Park?”

“No we didn’t go.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Nothing happened. H
e’s been playing games and I don’t like him.”

“What are you talking about?” Lily asked totally confused.

“He’s been lying to me and I don’t trust him,” I ranted so that all the listeners heard.

Lily was so confused. “
I’m coming over tomorrow night and I want the whole story.”

Part of me
was hoping that Daniel would call and tell me I was wrong, but there was no phone call. I just didn’t know what to do or think anymore. Nothing was the same. Everything had changed; my life was now not my own. Everything that I held absolute was slowly being undermined: my privacy, my decisions, my views and most importantly my word. I wasn’t being truthful with anyone now, not my parents, not Lily and not even with Daniel.

I glanced around my room and decided to search for the bug.
An hour passed and I had no idea where it could be. As I eyed the computer suspiciously, I realized the NSA’s expertise was in computers so perhaps it was hidden in there. Since I had no idea how to find and remove it, destroying the computer was the only solution. I couldn’t believe that I was standing there actually contemplating ruining my computer. I’m going insane. When I glanced at my laptop, I realized that it was probably bugged, too.

Feeling d
efeated, I gave up and decided to go online and see what I’d been missing with my friends. I couldn’t deal with any more of this garbage. Everyone was having a great summer except me.

Looking at my emails, there was one from Eden. She
was throwing a party and since I hadn’t RSVP’d to the first invitation, she sent me a second invite.

I
got my cell and called her. “Eden, it’s Paige. I’m sorry. I never got the invitation.”

“
That’s weird. I also left you two voice mails and you never called me back. I thought you were mad at me. I was going to call Daphne and Grace and ask them what was up.”

How many messages or emails had I missed because of their surveillance equipment? Didn’t it defeat the whole purpose? Or were they listening to my messages and because of that they got deleted?

“Can I bring Lily?”

“Sure, that’ll be fine.”

I needed to get out and be with people. If Daniel didn’t care about me, what was the point of moping? He never told me he cared; only that he was keeping me safe.

I still needed to figure ou
t what to do with the envelope though. It obviously wasn’t for Dad since he hadn’t mentioned that something was missing. Then again why would he tell me? He’d tell Sonia. I sat on the floor and used a letter opener. If it was something important, I’d didn’t want to destroy it. Inside, I found a folded piece of paper and on it there were a bunch of handwritten numbers. I hid the envelope under my mattress.

Reaching for my journal, I wrote what happened the last few days. I made a copy of the Statue of David photo and placed it inside the journal. Now I had two photos of Daniel from my past. I hid the jour
nal in the bottom of my closet.




I opened my eyes and it was morning,
the thought of leaving the apartment scared me to death. When I got downstairs and Mom told me that Dad had already left, I told her I felt really sick. There was no way I was going to work alone. I called Maria and left her a message.

Mom wasn’t sure it was a good idea
for Lily to stay over, but I said that I was just under the weather and didn’t have a fever. Mom looked at me like she knew I was up to something.

“
Lily can come over, but if you’re still sick tomorrow, I’ll babysit Anna,” she offered.

“I’m
fine,” I kept repeating.

Mom looked at me suspiciously.
“I just walked Amber, so you don’t have to go out. I have to go. I’ll come for lunch and check up on you.”

Shortly
after she left, the house phone began ringing. I was relieved that they didn’t have my cell number. Daniel said I was safe, but how did he know that? Was I just making the situation worse by not giving Daniel the envelope? If I did, he might leave and I didn’t want that either.

Mom
came home and I saw from her expression that she was worried about me. She took Amber out for a walk. When she got back, she made me a turkey sandwich.

As I ate, she asked,
“What’s going on? You seem off somehow and I don’t mean ill. Is this about Daniel? You haven’t mentioned him recently.”

“
Daniel and I aren’t seeing each other anymore, so you should be happy.”

“
I’m sorry. My only concern about him was that we didn’t know anything about him.”

“
Give me a break. He’s nineteen. What else is there to know about him? I think we know enough. He went to boarding school, his parents are dead, he has a trust fund, and his uncle has an apartment in the Dakota. You make it seem likes he’s a criminal. It’s so crazy! ”