Chapter 4: Little Sister

Tina Smith waited in the school's office. She should have passed Tony and Rebecca in the hall on the way to English. When she got to Mrs. Finch's room she found out that Tony had taken Rebecca out of class earlier. Getting information from the office was like pulling teeth; there seemed to be no one here. What two police officers were doing leaving the office as she came in was a mystery for another day.

She was about to head to Tony's trig class, if she could find it, and see if he was there when the intercom buzzed. That brought the secretary out of an adjacent office. The call on the intercom was Tony's teacher reporting him absent from class. The secretary, Mrs. Peterson, Tina thought her name was, confirmed that Tony wasn't at school and asked the teacher to send him to the office if he showed up for class. Well at least she was getting somewhere.

"Young lady why aren't you in class?" snapped Mrs. Peterson when she was done with the intercom.

"I'm looking for my brother Tony, Tony Smith. I need to talk to him about Rebecca Harris but both of them seem to be gone somewhere. Did Tony leave with Rebecca and her mother?"

"No young lady. Your brother took Rebecca without anyone's permission! He said he was taking her to the hospital but I don't believe that for a second!"

OK thought Tina, definitely not like Tony unless he thought it was really important. That meant something was terribly wrong with Rebecca. Or at least Tony thought there was and that was all it would take for him to do just what Mrs. Peterson said. All that added up to a sick Rebecca and one really freaked out brother at the hospital. Tina knew Tony and this couldn't be good. She turned back to Mrs. Peterson and said, "I need you to call my mother, I need to leave school as well. Please call her now."

"Now young lady don't start with me, I've already been through this with your brother."

"Yeah, and I see where that went." Tina turned and left the office and went straight for the payphone outside.

"Tony!"

Tony looked up as a blur that was his little sister came flying into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug. "Are you OK? How is Rebecca?" she asked breathlessly.

"Hey sis," Tony said as he returned Tina's hug. "I don't know how Rebecca is. She didn't look so good when I brought her here. No one has told me anything yet. I'm hanging in there, or at least I was until my new friends showed up." Tony pointed at the police officers. "Meet Officers Murphy and Barret. They're here to arrest me for kidnapping Rebecca." Tony looked up at the police officers and said, "Meet my sister Tina".

"KIDNAPPING!" Tina exclaimed. "Kidnapping? Oh, that is rich! You really stuck your foot into it today didn't you bro? But kidnapping? You kidnapping Rebecca Harris is like, well I'm not sure just how ridiculous that is." She looked back to the officers and said, "Assuming Tony did take Rebecca Harris ANYWHERE and I mean ANYWHERE AT ALL, believe me she would have gone willingly. She's got it BAD for my big brother here. So no, no kidnapping I think, assuming you mean he took her somewhere against her will."

"What are you talking about Tina? Rebecca and I are just friends, you know that." replied Tony.

"Please Tony, trust me on this." She looked back to Officer Murphy. "I've lived with this lug for nearly fifteen years and I've seen a lot of girls with a bad case of 'Tony'. Rebecca Harris is definitely the worst, by a LOT. When those two are in the same room you can feel the poor girl quiver from the next county!"

Officer Murphy chuckled, "The boys are always the last to know aren't they?"

"Yep," Tina replied, "and he has it just as bad for her. Not that he's going to admit it. But anyway, the thought of Tony here hurting a hair on her little red head is pretty ridiculous. He may have done something dumb but definitely not anything against her will."

"Now Tony, would you please tell us what happened at the school. It's got to be a pretty good story if they sent the cops after you." Tina was smiling at Tony now. The police officers were completely disarmed by Tina's interruption. Tony, for his part, was a bit astounded by his sister's revelations about Rebecca and himself. She was right, he wasn't going to admit it, but he wasn't going to deny it either.

"Well," he began, "as I was about to say before you came in, Rebecca was sick. I took her to the nurse but she wasn't in. No one was in the office at all except Mrs. Peterson and she wasn't exactly being helpful."

"What do you mean she wasn't being helpful?" asked officer Murphy. Tony decided that Barret's job was to just stand around and play the heavy; he still hadn't spoken.

"I asked her to call Mrs. Harris. I didn't have the number. Rebecca was out of it by then. She didn't make any move to look it up for us either. I grabbed the phone and called the doctor."

"Wait a minute, what doctor? She didn't tell us anything about this."

"I called Rebecca's doctor, Dr. Marcus. I told him she was sick and described what was wrong with her. He said bring her here. He said do it immediately."

"And what was Mrs. Peterson doing while you talked to the doctor?" Murphy asked.

"I'm not sure. I kind of tuned her out. I was talking to the doctor and checking on Rebecca. I'm pretty sure she was bitching at me for using the school's phone."

"And what did you do then?" Murphy prompted.

"I took Rebecca and brought her here." Tony shrugged at Murphy. "The doctor told me to do one thing. The secretary was trying to stop me. It didn't seem like that hard a decision to make at the time."

"And where can I find this Dr. Marcus and why would you know the number for the girl's doctor in the first place?" asked Murphy. Tony's impression of her went up a notch, she sure didn't miss anything.

"He's in with Rebecca, he met us over here. As to how I know that number it's because my sister is Dr. Marcus' nurse. I've known her work number for a lot longer than I've known Rebecca. That's how we met her, our sister asked Tina and I to look after her in school while she was in the wheelchair. So, yeah, I knew her doctor's phone number. I don't think you are going to get to talk to him until he comes out though. I'm pretty eager to talk to him right now myself."

Tony and Tina's mother had parked the car and entered the waiting area. Tony spotted her coming toward their group seated now in a corner. "Oh God," he said, "now I have to go through this whole thing again."

"Tony!" started Mrs. Smith "do you want to tell me what this," she waved her left arm to encompass, as far as Tony could tell, the entire world, "is all about?"

Tony closed his eyes and laid his head against the back of the seat. "Weell maw, it's kinda like dis. I busted da dame outta dat dere hoosgow on account a' she needed to see da doc here right? Den da evil lady dere at da hoosgow calls da coppers out on me! Da noive of some peeples!"

Mrs. Smith, trying hard to look stern, could barely contain herself. Tina didn't even try and burst full out into her tinkling laughter. "Oh God! He's finally lost it completely!" She stood up and grabbed her mother by the hand, "Come on Mom lets get something to drink from the cafeteria. I'll tell you the whole story. Officer Murphy, will you come with us, there's more I need to tell you. Tony will you be all right?"