American Heroes Series - 01 - Resurrection (30 page)

“Are there any more ruins around here?”

Joseph continued to smile. “Tons.”

“Like what?”

“A bunch of stuff,” he said as a taxi pulled up and Nat yanked Olivia towards it. “We’re in Rome; everything is old.”

Nat had Coral get into the car first, followed by Olivia.  He followed and put Joseph in the front seat with the driver.

“Hotel Columbus de Roma,
per favore
,” Joseph told the man who smelled heavily of cigarettes.

The taxi pulled away from the curb and in spite of the harrowing circumstances, Olivia couldn’t help but get swept up in the glory that was Rome. 

There weren’t any major roads like freeways, just medium sized roads that branched off in all directions. The taxi driver took them through a series of streets, like a maze, and every other block had a ruined basilica or other ancient ruins that Olivia found fascinating.   At one point, they passed right by the Pantheon with its massive size and time-worn pillars.  Tourists were clinging to the steps, like flies, taking pictures of the ancient glory.

“Wow,” Olivia bumped into Coral as she strained to get a look as they drove by. “That’s really cool.”

Nat ignored her as did Coral for the most part. Coral was still stinging from the fact that Olivia had run from her, making her look very inept in the eyes of Nat and the Cardinal.  But Joseph watched her from the front seat, grinning at her enthusiasm.

They crossed over the Tiber River on a massive bridge, past the General Hospital of the Holy Spirit, and neared Vatican City. Olivia could see the horrendous traffic up ahead and the top of St. Peter’s Basilica gleaming in the muted sunlight. But before they got to the City proper, the taxi driver suddenly pulled a sharp right and entered a driveway with a terra cotta colored building along side of it.  Curious, Olivia watched as they pulled up to the entry of the very large hotel.

Nat looked at Joseph. “Get back here and sit with her,” he instructed. “Don’t get out of this car and don’t let her out of your sight.”

Joseph nodded, climbed out of the front seat, and sat alongside Olivia when Nat got out of the car.  Joseph smiled at Olivia when Nat slammed the door and, to his surprise, she smiled back.  She inched closer to him so she didn’t have to sit so close to Coral, drowned in some wretched perfume that was undoubtedly quite expensive. It made Olivia sneeze.

They sat in the taxi for quite some time while Nat checked them in to the hotel.  At one point, Coral began rummaging around her massive Gucci purse, spilling half the contents on to the dirty floor of the taxi. Her makeup bag exploded, much to Coral’s displeasure, and Olivia watched disinterestedly as she scrambled to pick everything up.  She wasn’t going to lift a finger to help the woman until she noticed a black eye pencil next to her white sneaker.  It had just rolled there by chance. As Olivia stared at the eye pencil, a thought occurred to her. 

Coral was scrambling to pick everything up from the hundreds of items now strewn over the floor and Olivia suddenly felt like helping the woman pick up her mess.  She bent over, grabbing a handful of stuff and making sure to slip the black eye pencil inside her shoe. 

“Thank you, Olivia,” Coral said as the teenager dumped handfuls of makeup back into the purse. “This is very nice of you.”

Olivia’s heart was thumping, praying that Coral didn’t inventory her makeup bag and know every single little piece that was in it. “You’re welcome,” she replied.

Coral smiled at her with her stenciled-on red lips. “You’re a good girl, sweetheart,” she said.

Olivia smiled without meaning it. But, at the moment, she was cooking up a plan and needed to be in Coral’s good graces.  She turned to Joseph.

“I don’t want to be pain, but I have to go to the bathroom really bad,” she said. “Do you think the hotel has a restroom in the lobby?”

Joseph wriggled his eyebrows. “I’m sure it does,” he said. “But we’ll have to wait until Nat gets back.”

Olivia began to shake her leg. “I don’t think I can. I have to go really, really bad.” She could see Joseph’s reluctance and she sought to ease him. “I swear I won’t run away. I promise. Can I please go?”

Joseph gazed at her a moment, deliberating. Olivia fixed him with a beseeching gaze. “Please, Joe,” she begged softly. “I really need to go and I swear I won’t run.”

He met her stare a moment longer before reluctantly nodding his head.

“All right,” he opened the door and pulled her out after him. He had her by the wrist. “Coral, get out. You’ll need to take her into the Women’s restroom.”

Coral, looking extremely reluctant, climbed out of the cab with her askew purse.  Joseph, now holding Olivia’s hand very tightly, led her into the truly gorgeous lobby.  The architecture was classic, the colors muted shades of gold, orange and yellow.  Olivia trotted after Joseph as Coral brought up the rear until they came across a sign that read
Gabinetto di Womens
.

“This way,” Joseph said.

Olivia almost got whiplash as he pulled her after him in their quest to find the bathroom; she was still reading the odd sign.

“What does
Gabinetto di Womens
mean?” she asked as she scooted behind him.

“Women’s bathroom,” he pointed up at the door that had it posted in lovely gold letters on it. “Hurry up, now. We don’t want to piss off Nat.”

He opened the door and thrust her inside, followed by Coral.  Coral stood uncertainly near the sinks as Olivia raced inside one of the stalls and slammed the door, locking it.  The truth was that Olivia really did have to relieve herself, but she had a more self-serving goal in mind.

 Removing the eye pencil from her shoe, she sat on the toilet and wrote on the stall door in big black letters.  Then she flushed the pencil down the toilet to get rid of the evidence. There were no words to describe her relief as she exited the bathroom, completely calm and completely subservient.

Nat checked them into two adjoining rooms.  Olivia behaved herself completely, at least for the time being.  Sitting on one of the beds, she kept her head lowered so no one would see her smile as they went about their business around her. They seemed so busy with phone calls and other things that they no one gave her a second look.  Olivia just sat on the bed, still as stone.

 Please God, she prayed over and over again.
Let the next person who sits in that stall read English.

***

Tyler was bouncing off the walls the next morning. Having slept eleven hours, it was close to noon by the time he awoke and he wanted to go sight-seeing right away.  Other than a big lump on his head, he showed no ill effects from the previous day. Ethan was already up, working on his laptop, when Tyler bound into the living room and demanded, very nicely, breakfast. He threatened to eat the fake fruit on the coffee table if his father didn’t feed him right away.

Ethan called room service with his son reading the room service menu and rattling of his breakfast order. Ethan ended up ordering pancakes, bacon, eggs, a roast beef sandwich and steak fries, plus oatmeal, fresh fruit and a cheese omelet.  Cydney still wasn’t up yet and he wanted to have something waiting for her when she woke.

The food finally arrived and Tyler ate his breakfast while watching cartoons as Ethan answered emails and sipped his Espresso.

“Dad,” Tyler announced with a mouth full of pancake. “They have Scooby Doo cartoons in French. They call it Scooby Doo et le Mystère Usinent.”

Ethan grinned as he looked up from his computer, over his son’s head to see the 1970’s cartoon on the television in full color.

“Weird,” he commented, looking back to the screen.

Tyler was laughing loudly at the cartoon dog speaking French. Ethan told him to hold it down a couple of times but eventually gave up; Tyler wasn’t listening to him, anyway. Sometime around high noon, the door to Cydney’s room creaked open.

Ethan looked over to see her walking towards him fully dressed.  She was wearing jeans, a tank top with a zip-up hoodie over it, and her lovely hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail. She smiled at him and Ethan felt like a giddy idiot; his heart was thumping and his palms began to sweat. He returned her smile as she walked over to him, leaned against him, wrapped her arms around his big shoulders and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her waist, his face pressed in the valley between her breasts.

“Good morning,” she said softly. “I’m sorry I slept so late.”

“No worries,” Ethan gazed up at her as if she was the most beautiful sight in the entire world. “Sorry if Junior over there woke you up.”

She looked over at Tyler, who was glued to the television. “I’m glad he did,” she said. “Otherwise, I would have missed
Scooby Doo et le Mystère Usinent.”

Ethan laughed softly. “Cet aurait été dommage.”

She snorted, kissing him again and noticing the food on the table. “I’m starved,” she looked at it with interest. “What did you get me?”

He put the laptop aside and pulled out a seat for her.  After yesterday, he wasn’t sure what kind of mood she would be in and was pleased to see that she seemed happy and calm. It already made the day better.

She was hungry, too, a good sign. Cydney sat down and devoured the grapes, oranges and strawberries. Then she moved onto the oatmeal, now cool, and piled it with raisins and brown sugar.  Ethan had already eaten the omelet and he sat and watched her as she ate.

“So how are you doing this morning?” he asked her softly.

She nodded as she took a bite of the oatmeal. “I’m all right,” she replied, meeting his warm gaze as she wiped her mouth. “And you?”

He reached out and took her right hand, kissing it. “I’m awesome,” he murmured.

She smiled sweetly at him and held up her left hand, inspecting the beautiful ring for the hundredth time that morning.  Ethan took her left hand and kissed the ring. Now he had both hands trapped and he kissed them again.

“Did you tell Scooby Doo over there yet?” she whispered.

Ethan shook his head and let go of her hands so she could eat. “There hasn’t been the opportunity,” he responded quietly. “But I will today. Maybe we should do it together.”

She shook her head. “No,” she said. “Do it alone. He barely knows me and if he has something to say about it, he probably won’t say it in front of me.  This will be a surprise to him; with the two of us telling him, it looks like an ambush.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “Point taken.”

“Dude!” Tyler exploded over on the couch. “It’s Scooby Doo meets the Monkees!”

“The Monkees?” Cydney’s face screwed up. “That’s a name from the past.”

Ethan chuckled. “I wasn’t a fan.”

Cydney smiled, watching him react to his son’s delight. “I loved watching them as a kid.”

He looked at her, cocking his head. “It just occurred to me that I don’t even know how old you are.”

“Fifty-seven.”

He snorted because she had dead-panned it so well.  But she eventually broke down into smile. “I’m thirty-six. My birthday is May tenth. And you?”

“I’m afraid, my dear, that you are going to be married to an older man.”

She feigned dread. “I
knew
it. You’ve got one foot in the grave, haven’t you?”

He smirked. “Sometimes I feel like it. Thirty-eight seems pretty old sometimes.”

Suddenly, the television went off and Tyler was bounding into the kitchenette with his dirty dishes in hand. He slammed them down on the table in his haste.  Ethan caught a spoon before it could flip off the table.

“Take it easy, man,” he admonished softly. “Don’t break up the joint.”

“Can we go to the Louvre today?” he asked enthusiastically. “And then can we go see the Eiffel Tower?”

Ethan opened his mouth but Cydney spoke first. “I think that would be great,” she looked at Ethan as she spoke. “Tyler had a pretty rough day yesterday. I think the Louvre would be a perfect place to spend today.”

Ethan gazed at her over the tabletop and she could tell that he had something more to say to that. But he spoke to his son instead.

“Go get yourself together,” he told him. “We’ll leave in a bit.”

Tyler was rushing back into the bedroom he shared with his dad with the grace of a runaway train.  Cydney shook her head and grinned as he smacked into the dresser and tried not to use curse words to describe the pain.

Ethan just rolled his eyes. “It’s like a stampede every time with that kid.”

“And I’m sure you were perfect at that age, right?”

“Of course I was.”

She made a face letting him know what she thought of that statement as he picked up her right hand again and kissed it.

“Are you sure about sightseeing today?” he asked softly. “I can’t go with you. I need to go back over to the Prefecture of Police.”

“I know you do, but Tyler doesn’t have to and I don’t think there’s anything I can do over there to help find my daughter that you and J.D. aren’t already doing,” she sighed, watching his fingers as they played with her own. “I woke up this morning and realized that all of this is completely out of my hands. You’re my daughter’s best hope and I need to let you do your job without having a meltdown every five minutes.”

He smiled sadly. “You’re her mother. I would worry if you weren’t having meltdowns once in awhile.”

It was apparent that she was trying to be brave. “I think spending the day with another teenager at the Louvre is just what I need right now. I’m really glad he came.”

He smiled gently, stood up, and kissed her on the forehead. “All right, honey,” he said softly. “Whatever you want.”

She watched him walk into the bedroom he shared with his son.  With a sigh, she stood up and went back to the bedroom to get her purse and money. She slipped on her walking shoes and put on her big hoop earrings. Taking a look at herself in the mirror, she suddenly felt very different.  The Cydney Hetherington from eight days ago was light years away from the woman gazing back at her in the mirror.  So much had happened that she was still trying to process it all.

She collected her purse and went back into the living room area.  Fiddling with her earring, she barely heard the cell phone go off in her purse. Then she heard it again.  Because of the situation with Olivia, she had changed her phone plan before leaving Los Angeles and now had an international plan through an international carrier.  Ripping open the purse, she yanked out the cell phone.