Chapter 36: Doing it for Love

Tuesday 9-Oct 2007

They left the TV on with the sound down for the rest of the evening, turning it up for any news bulletins, but there was nothing new for a while.

They sat on the bed, talking, holding each other, and decompressing. It had been a momentous day. Alyssa was the first one to start crying, and then Maria and Hassan followed her. Eventually Shahia followed them, though she managed to hold herself off until they'd largely settled.

Again, she was wrapped up in her envelope of love. All of them were holding her. Chris could see just how strong the bond was between her and her siblings, and how much comfort she took from them.

As for Chris, he felt ... well, actually he felt this bubbling joy inside. It didn't make sense, he knew. They'd broken the law, they'd run, the authorities were obviously as angry as Lisa. Their money was running out quickly, and their uniforms marked them out. Probably it would be all over tomorrow, and everyone would be laughing at their childish stupidity. But he just couldn't be sorry. He'd held true to this promise, and he'd saved them, done what he had to. He wanted to go out and run around in circles, shouting and screaming. He really needed to give his dad a big high five right now.

Take a deep breath. Face your problems, work through them.

Shahia turned to them. "Chris, it's getting cold."

"Yeah, I know. I checked: we've got lots of blankets."

She looked at him sadly. "That's not good enough. It might be fine for us grown up kids, but Maria will be sleeping in her stroller, and it won't cut it for her."

"Oh." That was a huge problem. He tried to think it through, but he couldn't see any solutions. "Have you got any ideas?"

"I know we have a huge problem with money, but all I can think of is to go to that other caravan. We just don't have any choices."

Chris paled. More money ... they were going to run out in a day or two. But he looked into Shahia's eyes and knew that she was right.

That was the thing about being a kid: neither of them ever had any choices. Reluctantly he went out into the cold to see if he could find the manager. Cold. It really was, perhaps already down to freezing temperature, or close. He shivered. They weren't dressed for this.

When he walked into the reception, the guy was sitting at his desk watching a news bulletin. They were just at the school uniform bit, and the guy turned and saw Chris. Chris froze; it was too late to back out, and the guy's eyes had widened in recognition.

"Chris, right? Come over here and sit down."

Resignedly, Chris went over and sat down opposite him. Warily, he regarded the guy. He'd been kind, but what would he do now?

"So, you're Chris, the girl is Shahia, and those kids are the ones you 'kidnapped'?"

Chris breathed again. There might be some hope after all. He nodded.

"Are you actually dangerous?"

"No," Chris replied softly. "Only dangerous to my own future."

"What's your plan?"

"We don't have one, never really did. Hassan and Alyssa escaped, so we just ran with it. We talked about me getting a job, we'd hide somewhere up here for a while. But that's all gone to hell. I don't know what we're going to do. I don't suppose we can hide for long, if they're chasing us for kidnapping them. We haven't even got any clothing other than our school uniforms."

The guy considered him for a while. "You're up the creek without a paddle aren't you?"

Chris nodded. Yeah, that was pretty much it.

"What did you come see me for?"

"Well, that caravan is cold. We wouldn't mind, but we've got little Maria, and she shouldn't sleep in the cold like that. So we were hoping that you'd let us move into the other caravan, the one with a heater, and we'll pay you the difference."

"You have money?"

"Well, only just, but we have to look after the kids."

The guy seemed to come to some decision. He turned to his old computer, and tapped away at for a while. Then he opened his cash register, pulled out sixty dollars, and handed it to Chris.

Chris looked at it in shock. "Why?"

"I'm not taking your money, and you're not even staying here anymore. Now, come with me." He stalked out of the office. Miserably Chris followed him out of the office. Surely he wasn't throwing them out in the middle of the night?

But instead of leading Chris to the tiny caravan, he led him to the big one. He unlocked the door and gestured for Chris to follow him in. He turned the heating on, and then said, "It's not much, I know, but it's better than the other one."

Chris looked around. It didn't have that much more floor space, but it did have one more bed, a proper table, the double bed was actually big enough for two people, and he'd be able sleep on the floor. The guy handed him the key. "Oh thank you, thank you, I can't thank you enough."

"Tony, that's my name," the guy said, as he smiled at Chris.

It was more comfortable in this caravan; more than one of them could move around at once. They'd finally gotten Maria off to sleep just before the ten o'clock news. There was really only two new pieces of information. One was a mention for commuters to be aware that there might be some disturbances tomorrow, since the road Lisa had threatened to block was also a tram route.

It seemed to Chris that they'd only say this if they had some suggestion that there was going to be support for Lisa. That was important. He suspected that his future, and that of Shahia and the kids, rested with Lisa now. And he couldn't think of anyone he'd rather depend on right now.

The second new item was an interview with Geno as he was released from the police station. The reporter spoke to him in the chaos at the door.

"Is it true that you claimed prisoner-of-war status?"

Geno drew himself up, looking rather self-impressed. "Yes, I did."

"So how come you're being released? Did they break you?" Chris was pleased to see the reporter getting into the spirit of things.

"It was terrible! They tortured me with a cruel and unusual punishment!"

The reporter looked shocked. "What did they do?"

"They made me watch the news, and told me that they wouldn't be able to release me by tomorrow if I didn't 'assist them with their enquiries'. And I want to go join Lisa tomorrow. Did you hear that, Mum? I actually want to do schoolwork tomorrow." With that, he turned to the cop just inside the door and gave him an appreciative thumbs up.

They were all still giggling quietly when the segment finished, trying not to wake Maria up.