Deprived of the outside world

Prologue

         The sirens were getting closer. The gang ran to their limits, but it wouldn’t be enough. People can’t out run a car, especially a police car. The gang wasn’t trying to outrun it, they were trying to get to the alley that wasn’t big enough for a car. They were almost there, just a little farther and they’d be home free.
         They reached it, but it was a dead end. Too late to turn back, the police were already out of their cars and heading toward the alley.
The more athletic boys in the gang got over it with ease; the rest had more difficulty.
One dark-haired boy’s foot slipped, and he went down.
         “Freeze! Put your hands up!” shouted the fastest police officer. The boy got up and muttered compliance. The police officer shined a flashlight in the boy’s face while the rest of the officers joined him.
         “Aaron Franchez, why are you out again so soon? Do you ever take a break? Why don’t you try sleeping at night for once? It might do you some good.” Aaron glared at the officer, but said nothing. “You know the drill, put your hands behind your back. Anything you say can and will be used against you . . . ”          



Chapter 1

         My Mom’s old car dragged itself up the long drive way. At the end of it stood a Victorian style house. On the lawn a little girl was playing soccer. The sound of a piano playing came through an open window.
         Normally I wouldn’t be able to hear it because I’d have my music on too loud, but my Mom was being all strict just because I got into a little trouble with the law. She said I should be grateful to Mrs. Clodagh for being so generous.
         The cops brought me to court after I got caught and said I’d go to Juvie for sure this time; I get no more warnings. Mrs. Clodagh, the owner of the store I stole from, heard the little sob story of my life from Judge Carmen. She said going to Juvie wouldn’t pay off the money I stole. I didn’t have the money that was stolen; my buddies did.
         She proposed that I work for her to pay off the money I had stolen instead of going to Juvenile Hall. She, however, lives on the outskirts of the city. Our city is very big, and it takes an hour and a half to get to her house from mine. My school is even farther from her house. I would have to go straight to Mrs. Clodagh’s house from school, which is unrealistic. The solution, I get to live with Mrs. Clodagh until she’s paid up. Oh joy, I thought sarcastically as I recalled the memory, It’s what I always wanted. I had thought that the one good thing was I wouldn’t be able to go to school. I was wrong. Turns out that Mrs. Clodagh home schools her kids, and I get to join them. Double joy.
         So here I am, on the out skirts of nowhere.
         We reach the end of the mile long drive way. Mrs. Clodagh comes through the door. She has a large smile on her face like she’s having a friend stay over instead of the criminal she is getting.
         “Hi there! Come in, come in.” She ushers us in.
         Their house is the strangest I have ever seen, and I haven’t even seen the whole thing yet! The Entry Hall is Victorian style  room. The office, or what I think is the office, has a large aquarium for one of its walls. In the tank is a lot of exotic looking fish. There is a lamp on the desk that looks like the fish with a light dangling on its forehead from Finding Nemo. The walls are painted blue, with silhouettes of different fish. Mrs. Clodagh catches me staring at the office walls and says, “Don’t let my husband catch you staring or he will start going on about all the different kinds of fish that are there and everything else about them.”
         We pass a tall boy around eighteen years’ old. He has acne and a Star Trek T-shirt on. Mrs. Clodagh stops and asks him, “James, could you get Aaron’s bags and bring them to your room?”
         “Sure,” he answers, and he’s off.
         Mrs. Clodagh turns to me, “We don’t have an extra room, unless you want to stay in the barn. So you will be staying with James in his room.”
         Mrs. Clodagh leads us into the tearoom. “Care for some tea?” Mrs. Clodagh asks. My mom and I both decline. Mrs. Clodagh pours herself some tea and takes a sip. “You are familiar with all the terms, right Ms. Franchez?”
         “Yes,” my mom answers. “I will check on his progress weekly.”
         “Are there any other concerns?”
         “Will he be working for food, board, and education?”
         “No, that will be free. Unless he gets himself into trouble, then he’ll have to pay that also. After he has atoned for his misbehaver, all three will become free again. Any other questions?”
         “No.”
Mrs. Clodagh turns to me and asks. “What subjects did you do at your old school?”
         “I did Art, Music, Physical Education, Computer Science, and Study Hall.” I reply with a straight face. “My teachers took me off the other subjects. They said that I’m so smart that I got bored in those classes because I wasn’t being challenged enough.” My mom slaps me.
         “Aaron!” My mom says exasperated. “I’m sorry Mrs. Clodagh. My son has the tendency to . . .  exaggerate the truth. He took Math, Science, English, Social Studies, and he did have Study Hall. His teachers say he is smart, but unmotivated. He’s always bored in class.”
         The two women talk more about me for a while longer. I tune out most of the time. From what I do hear, it sounds like my mom is telling Mrs. Clodagh what she has gotten herself into.
After far too long, they stop talking. Now it’s time for my mom to give me her little speech.
         “Aaron, you better not screw this up,” my mom lectures me. “These are nice people, and they are giving you a second chance. This is your last chance. Judge Carmen can’t give you any more chances. You pull another stunt like last weeks and you’ll end up in Juvenile Hall. Do you understand me? Juvie!” My mom sighs exasperated at my unconcerned face. She grabs my shoulders and looks me in the eye. “Honey, don’t get into trouble, ok. Do it for me.” She lets go of me and says, “Bye honey, I’ll see you next week.” She thanks Mrs. Clodagh one last time and leaves.
         “Let me show you the room you will be staying in with James,” Mrs. Clodagh says. We move out of the tearoom and go upstairs.
         James’ room has Star Trek posters all over the walls. He has a few intricate star ship models and a computer. I’m sharing a room with a treky!
         “Live long and prosper,” James says with his hand up and fingers parted two on one side, two on the other.
         “Riiight,” I start backing toward the door. “Mrs. Clodagh still hasn’t given me the tour, see ya!” I quickly move out the door. Man, I think gloomily, I’ve got to spend who knows how long with him?! I hope this ends soon.
         I bump into someone in the hall, stopping my escape. It’s a tall girl around 17 years old. She’s wearing camouflage pants, combat boots, and a stern face. It looks like she just got back from the military. She looks me up and down.
         “The work will toughen you up. If I were in charge of operation Pay Off the Money You Stole, you wouldn’t be able to make it to your room at night. I hope they don’t go too easy on you.”
         She walks away from me. I thought about retorting, but thought better of it. She probably wouldn’t just stand there and take it from a kid. She probably would still go at it with me if I were twice her size.
         Mrs. Clodagh walks up then. “Ah, looks like you’ve met Emma. You’ll meet the rest of the clan as I show you the rest of the house.” She brings me down stairs and I see her very Victorian style kitchen. The dinning room, which has a huge, ten seater table at its center. We enter the school room next.
         The schoolroom has a large table, shelves of books, and papers everywhere. There are a lot of good pictures up. I wonder who drew them?
In one of the chairs sits a boy an eight-year-old boy playing the violin. He stops as I come in.
         “Aaron, this is Sheldon, Don for short. Sheldon this is Aaron.” Mrs. Clodagh introduces us. Don stares at me with wide-eyes. His eyes particular rest on the tattoos on my arm.  “He’s shy at first, but once he gets to know you, he’s quite talkative.” Once we leave the room, Don begins playing again. He’s quite good.
         Next we go outside, where a little girl around ten years old is playing soccer still. Her name is Ruth. We move to the left where tucked behind a line of trees is a barn. Mrs. Clodagh thinks that the barn ruins her Victorian air, so she hid it by planting some trees there. In the barn, we find Sylvia, a girl with a permanently perched parrot on her should.
         “If you ever need to find Sylvia,” Mrs. Clodagh said, “look in the barn first, she is usually found there.”
         As we exit the barn, a girl rides up on a horse. Her Long brown hair flows in the wind.
         She’s around my age. She’s really pretty even though she’s wearing a T-shirt and jeans. She’s not the type I usually go for though. I prefer girls with short shorts and belly shirts. The stuff this girl has got on isn’t even tight.
         As she gets next to us she jumps off the horse and lands gracefully beside us. She’s around my age. I put on my most seductive deep voice and say eloquently, “Hey.”
         “Hi,” she replies cheerfully, unaware of my efforts to look cool.
Mrs. Clodagh introduces us, “Aaron, this is my daughter, Victoria. Victoria, this is Aaron.” She holds out her hand to be shaken. I take a step toward her to shake it.
         “Vicky, for short,” she says. She looks down at my feet. “You can clean that up at the hose over there.” I look confused, but then I look down and see the crap I’m standing in. I swear. I sure impressed her with my talent of stepping in manure. Not too many guys can pull that off! Not!
         Mrs. Clodagh looks at me sternly and says, “You’ll have more then just your shoes cleaned today. I will not tolerate swearing.” When we get back to the house, I learn how bad soap tastes.
         This family is kind of freakish, except Vicky. I might want to get to know her. Maybe I’ll stick around a little while.
Eventually, the day gets around to ending. I try to sleep over James’ snoring. He wins this battle, but not tomorrow night.



Chapter 2

I finally get to sleep, and then a wake up call on a horn sounds obnoxiously into my dreams.
         “STOP THAT #$%&* NOISE! I’m trying to sleep here!” I yell at the noise. I put my pillow over my head to drown out the noise. I fall back into beautiful sleep, in which I dream about Vicky. Only in my dream, I don’t step in any manure.
Mrs. Clodagh pulls me off the bed, forcefully ripping me from my wonderful dream. I hit the floor and groan pitifully.
         “Couldn’t you wake me up in a less painful way?”
         “Well I tried many gentler ways, but you wouldn’t wake up!” Mrs. Clodagh replied. “I wasn’t even sure if you would wake up if you dropped off the bed. Luckily, you did wake up. Next I would have tried dosing you with the hose. I already dumped a little water on you.” I looked at my hair. It is wet. “Most heavy sleepers wake up after the covers are ripped off them, but not you. You are undoubtedly the heaviest sleeper I have ever seen.
         “Breakfast is ready downstairs,” she says before going downstairs.
         I get up and get ready for the day. I put on my large cargo pants, a sleeveless shirt so my tattoos are showing, and a spike collar, one for my neck and one for my wrist. I slip a pack of cigarette in my pocket. Just in case I hide a pack of cigarettes under my mattress and behind James’ Star Trek curtains. I spike my brown hair that is blond at the tips.                    
         As I go downstairs, my mouth begins to water at the delicious smell of bacon and eggs. In the dinning room, there is a plate left on the table that has bacon, eggs, toast, and orange juice.
         Mrs. Clodagh is washing dishes and says, “Everyone else has eaten already. Eat and then you can get started with school and work.”
         I finish what could quite possible be the best breakfast I’ve ever had. I almost want to lick the plate, but don’t for the sake of my image. I get up to leave when Mrs. Clodagh commands, “Hand me your plate.” I don’t like people telling me what to do, so I just stand there. “Aaron, hand me your plate or you can wash it.” Something in her voice tells me I should listen to her or I will regret it. I make sure no one is watching before I hand her the plate. “Did you make your bed?”
         “No,” I reply.
         “Then go make it. You are here to work of your debts by working for me and I won’t clean up after you. You will clean up after yourself like everyone else in this family. While you are here, you will be part of the family. You will get the same privileges and responsibilities.”
         I grumble under my breath, but I make it, sort of. I’ve never made my bed before, so it isn’t as neat as James’. Oh well.
         I go back downstairs where Mrs. Clodagh is now teaching Don. Next to his books is a recorder. Is this kid never without an instrument in hand?
         “You will be learning with Victoria, since she is in the same grade,” Mrs. Clodagh says. “Join her in the schoolroom.” Maybe this won’t be so bad.
         When I walk in the school room, Vicky is in the reading chair in the corner. Her legs are draped over the armrest as she reads. Other kids are also there in various places and positions.
         “Hey,” I say to get her attention that is fully focused on her book.
         “Your up!” She closes the book. “ Now we can begin. I’ll catch you up on what I’ve been learning and then tomorrow we will really begin to learn.”
         So she catches me up on what she has been doing. When I was listening and not just staring at her, I found out that the some of the stuff she has learned is more then what I was learning at my old school. In other subjects though, she is behind me.
         At lunch, Mrs. Clodagh has Don play his trumpet to get everyone at the table. I learn a lot about the Clodagh’s by listening and talking with them at the table. I learned that Emma plays the trumpet in the morning because she’s always the first one up. I wonder if she heard me cuss at her in the morning. Would she be mad at me for that?
After lunch I only have one subject, then I begin my work.
         Mrs. Clodagh starts me off with cutting the lawn. One never knows how big a lawn is until one has to cut it all! I would say it’s about the size of a football field. I cut lawns one summer to get some doe. I got pretty good at it. I got their lawn cut in about ninety minutes flat! Which I think is a pretty good considering how huge their lawn is.
         Mrs. Clodagh allows me a fifteen minute break before she puts me too work on vacuuming. Emma discreetly comes in the room I’m vacuuming. She sits down with a book, but I know she’s watching me, making sure I do a good job. I half expect holes to be in her book so she can see through it or the book to be upside down because she’s not really reading it. I think she wants to be a spy as well as be in the military. I check to see if the book does have holes or is upside-down, but it’s not. She’s too good a spy to make such mistakes.
         Like their lawn they have a BIG house. As soon as I’m done with vacuuming, Mrs. Clodagh puts me to dusting. On the mantle is a family photo, I pick it up and dust it. Mr. Clodagh is wearing goggles on top of his head. Vicky looks really hot in the picture. I wonder if I could get a copy of this picture?
         By the time I’m done with that, It’s supper time. Again, Don plays his trumpet for the dinner bell. What is it with these people and trumpets?
         I listen to their talk; some of it is actually interesting. After a while I put my question out,
         “How long before I’ve paid you up?”
         “Well if you keep this pace up, a few months.” Mrs. Clodagh answers.
         “MONTHS! I can’t stay here months!”
         “Why not? Do you have a busy schedule of stealing from people?” Emma ask disgustedly. Something tells me she is mad about me cussing at her in the morning. It’s her fault though for waking me up so early in the morning. I’m not a morning person.
         “Emma!” Mrs. Clodagh exclaims.
         “What! He just insulted us!”
         “Did not, I just don’t want to impose on your hospitality for so long.” I say politely and stare evilly at Emma. She glares at me.
                   “That is enough,” Mr. Clodagh says in a calm, commanding voice. Emma and I don’t exactly exchange friendly looks, but we don’t say anything more. Mrs. Clodagh decides to tell me my new schedule.
         “You’ll get up at 6:00 A.M. every morning. You’ll feed the cats, dog, rabbits, chickens, and our iguana each and every day, twice a day.”
         “What about your horses?” I ask.
         “Sylvia will take care of the horses. She doesn’t let anyone else touch them. You will be mucking out their stalls though. You will also be repairing parts of the barn and fence each day. I’ll think of more when you’re done.”
         “I’ll work real hard so I can get more work!” I say sarcastically.
         After supper, Sylvia teaches me how to “muck out the stalls.” It takes me a hour to get all the crap out of the stalls. Then I feed all their animals. I get a few scratches doing it.
         James’ snoring isn’t a problem anymore, I ‘m always too sleepy to be kept awake. It wasn’t what I had in mind when I thought ‘but not tomorrow night,’ but it works. Even if I had a plan, I would be too tired to do it.
         I don’t put on my flaming skull pajamas, I just plop down on my bed. I’m asleep before my head hits the pillow.



Chapter 3

         Six o’clock in the morning is way too early. Emma sneaks into my room, puts her trumpet next to my ear and blows... hard.
         “WHAA!” I scream as I fall onto the ground with a thump. You cannot imagine how irritating a trumpet is in the morning, especially one blown in your ear. They should be ban. 
         Emma has a satisfied, grin on her face. I would blow up at her, but it’s too early so I just put my meanest scowl on. She is unaffected by it.
         “Time to get up, sleepy head,” Emma says in a oh-so-infuriating voice. She leaves the room almost skipping. I’m too awake to fall back asleep, so I get ready. Chuck one up for Emma.
         James is up already and his bed is made. When do these people get up? It’s 6:20 when I go down stairs. Everyone is wide awake and talking noisily.
         I eat breakfast with them. The food is even better then yesterday’s food because it’s warm this time. Talking and listening to them was... fun. Lots of laughter went around the big table. We all laughed so hard at Ruth who spewed water all over the table because of one of Vicky’s jokes.
         The fun ended and I had to get to work. School doesn’t start until 9:00. In the mean time, I have to get my morning chores done. I take care of the animals and go on my way to the barn to do whatever Sylvia assigns me.
         Vicky trots out of the barn on a chestnut horse. At her side is a decorated book bag. She sees me and waves; I wave back. Vicky is soon hid behind the trees of “Getaway Forest,” as the Clodagh family named it. I continue going to the barn.
         Inside, I ask Sylvia, “Where is Vicky going?”
         “Same place she always goes, I guess,” Sylvia answers with a shrug.
         “You mean she does this a lot?”
         “Everyday, actually,” she corrects as she brushes Tagar, her horse.
         Sylvia assigns me jobs and I half listen. I’m to busy trying to figure out where could Vicky go everyday. Maybe she meets her friends out there. She’s too embarrassed by her family to invite them over. Or she goes into the forest so she can smoke and drink beer. Packs of cigarettes and beer are what she’s really carrying in that book bag, or maybe both meeting friends, smoking and drinking. I keep coming up with wilder ideas, each one is crazier then the last.
         Vicky comes back ten minutes to nine to do school with me. She takes out a large book from one of the cluttered shelves. She opens it where a bookmark was placed. The bookmark is hand drawn onto thick paper. I listen to her gentle, singsong voice, though it has a touch of boredom in it, as she reads the science book. After reading a page, we have to do an experiment. Vicky really seems to hate this subject.
         The day passes with the same routine as yesterday. When the dinner horn is finally blown, I am completely ready to eat another of Mrs. Clodagh’s meals.
         They say grace and then everything is passed everywhere.
         “Where are we going for are field trip this year?” Vicky asks her mom.
         “Can we go to the American Military Museum in Charleston, South Carolina?” Emma asks excitedly.
         “No, we went to see your museum last year! We should go to Sea World, right Dad,” Sylvia looks at her dad as she says this. Her eyes are quite big.
         “I’d love to go to Sea World, Sylvia, but it’s James’ turn to pick,” Mr. Clodagh responds, a little disappointed himself.
         “But James will just pick a Star Trek convention or a space museum!” Sylvia wines.
         “Sylvia, you’ll like the New Mexico Museum of Space History,” James assures.
         “Does it have animals?” Sylvia asks.
         “Well, no, but-”
         “Then I won’t like it!” Sylvia counters. James sighs.
         “I don’t want to see a museum of space history!” Vicky adds. “That will just be a bunch of science, facts, and other such boring stuff! There is no art in it!” She really looks disappointed.
         “Children,” Mrs. Clodagh soothes, “we will all agree upon a museum, OK. Wasn’t it cool seeing all those tanks and weapons? Sylvia, didn’t you learn a lot when we went to that Military Vehicle Museum in California last year?”
         “Yeah,” Sylvia responds reluctantly.
         “Wasn’t it fun learning new things? We all need to broaden our horizons. That’s why we take these trips each year.”
         “How much money do we have for the trip so far?” Vicky asks.
         “About six hundred dollars.” Six hundred dollars! They have six hundred dollars just lying around somewhere! I could use that money to get out of here! My mind starts scheming about what I could use it for. First I’d have to find it, but that’s not much of a problem. I’ve gotten pretty good at finding where people hide their money. I’ll search for it when no ones around.
         The Clodagh’s talk more about which museum they will go to. Who really wants to go to a museum anyway? I’ll be doing them a favor by taking the money. I’ll be stopping them from doing a social don’t. I reason with myself to justify what I’m about to do.



Chapter 4

         The next morning the cruel horn of Emma sounds its ruthless tune. It reminds me I have yet to plot my revenge on Emma. I’ll have to get her before I leave. I’ll have to do something that will really get under her military skin.
         This is the first time I’ve gotten up on time, and everything is quite. Everyone is in some chair reading his or her Bible. I’ve never seen so many people at one time read their Bible, then again, I’ve never seen anyone read their Bible before.
         After breakfast and some chores I go to the barn. Again I see Vicky riding out of the barn. If I’m ever going to know where Vicky goes, I’ll have to follow her today. Sylvia doesn’t know I’m there yet, so I can take off for a little while.
         What was I thinking when I went after Vicky, who is on a horse, while I’m on foot? Luckily for me, Vicky goes the same way everyday, so the path is well beaten with hoof prints.
         I reach a clearing where Vicky is sitting on a rock with her horse tethered to a tree. The rock she is on is at the edge of a pond. A creek, with crystal clear water, flows down to feed the pond. Her back is turn to me, but it looks like she is drawing on a pad of paper.
         I sneak up behind her and say, “Boo.” She jumps and almost loses her pad of paper in the water. She’s obviously not use to people here with her.
         “You scared me, Aaron! What are you doing here? Did you follow me?”
         “I wanted to see where you go each morning, but now I’m more confused.” Even with my far fetched ideas, I did not imagine this.
         “I go to Mystic Creek, that’s what I named this place, each morning to draw.” She shows me what she was working on. She has the outline of the creek and it’s surrounding plants, animals such as deer, squirrels, many kinds of birds, and chipmunks. Hovering over the water is a woman with fairy wings. Some of the picture is shaded sensationally. It is truly amazing!
         “You’re incredible! How did you get so good?” I ask still awing over the picture.
         “I come out here everyday.”
         “So those pictures in the school room are yours. You did the bookmark in our science book too, didn’t you? Those are incredible!”
         “Yes, I did,” She says looking down, blushing a little. We talk until her watch alarm goes off. “It’s time for school. We have to go back.”
         “Can’t we play hooky today?” I ask pleadingly. I don’t want to leave, I’m having to much fun talking to her.
         “No,” she says as she packs up her stuff. She gets on her horse and I get on too without asking her if it’s okay. I enjoy holding on to her the whole way back.
         I know I’ll have to face Mrs. Clodagh for not doing all my work, but I think it was worth it. I catch the sweet enticing smell of Vicky. Yeah, it’s definitely worth it.
         I get a lecture and more work from Mrs. Clodagh when we get back. I relish doing school with Vicky and I’m sad when the dinner horn blows its tune.
         


Chapter 5

         It is six o’clock by the time I’m left alone for a little while. I begin my search for the six hundred dollars. I check the usual places, but it isn’t in any of them. I’m not too surprised. This family isn’t normal.
         I look for longer then I have ever searched for money in someone’s house. I began searching Mr. Clodagh’s office. I turn the large toothed fish light on to have more light in order to search his desk. My hand dropped down and my sleeve caught on one of the fish’s large teeth. I pulled on it and the mouth opened! Inside its mouth is the six hundred dollars! Mr. Clodagh definitely hid it well. I would never have found it if it wasn’t for my lucky accident
Figures I’d find it in a most unusual place.
         I hear foot steps coming my way so I quickly take the money out of its mouth, stuff it in my pocket, and close the mouth.
         I turn around, trying to look normal. Mrs. Clodagh is standing there, looking stern. Did she see me? She doesn’t speak for a little while. I get more nervous with each passing second.
         “Why aren’t you doing your work?” She asks, a sour look on her face. “Do you not have enough? I can easily change that.”
         I involuntarily sigh in relief.
         “No, you don’t need to give me more work. I’ll get to it right now. I was just taking a small break.” I slip past her and quickly get to work. That was close! Now I just need to get Emma back and wait until I’m alone so I can leave.
         As I work in the barn I think about what I’m going to do. How am I going to use this money?
         Ruth, with a football in her arm, comes in the barn and talks to Sylvia.
         “Keep on working, Aaron,” Sylvia says, “I’ll be back.” Sylvia and Ruth both leave together.
         I continue my thoughts uninterrupted. I can’t catch a bus outta here; no buses come this far out. I’ll have to pay extra for a taxi because I’m so far from everything. Where will I go? I can go to Jake’s house, he’s my friend, he’ll take me in. If he doesn’t, I have enough money to stay in hotels for a while. I can get a job if I need to. It’ll all work out.
         At supper, everyone looks gloomy. After the meal prayer, moments pass before anyone speaks. It reminds me of home.
         Mr. Clodagh is the one to break the silence. “I have sad news to report: Are museum money has been stolen.” The food I had in my mouth suddenly causes me to choke. I cough. In situations like these, it’s best to play dumb.
         “Who could have stolen it?” I say with my best appalled voice. Mr. Clodagh is silent for a while.          
         “We believe it is... Vicky!”
         “What!” Vicky exclaims, “I didn’t take the money!” Everyone looks solemnly at her.
         “You didn’t want to go to the Museum of Space History at all.”
         “Sylvia didn’t want to go either!” Vicky counters.
         “Yes, but she doesn’t hate science, you do.” Mr. Clodagh says pointedly.
         “She didn’t take it!” I defend her without thinking.
         “How do you know? Do you know who did?” Mr. Clodagh asks. I don’t say anything for a while. “Well, how do you know?”
         “I... don’t know. I just think she couldn’t have done it.”
         “It is shocking that Vicky would do such a thing, but sometimes people disappoint you.” Mr. Clodagh says sadly. “Vicky, give back the money.”
         “I can’t,” Vicky responds, “I didn’t take it!” Mr. Clodagh sighs.
         “Then I’m afraid I must punish you. For not giving back the money you will have to work like Aaron. You cannot go going to Mystic Creek and you won’t get your turn to decide which museum we will go to next year.”
         “But that isn’t fair!” Vicky says through sobs. “I didn’t take the money!” She starts to cry and runs off to her room.
         “Poor girl,” Sylvia says in my ear, “going to Mystic Creek meant SO much to her. It was the one time of day where she could be alone doing what she loves to do.” I don’t eat anything after that.
         I feel crummy. Vicky’s crying face keeps on going through my mind. How can I let HER take the blame? She would hate me if she knew, heck I would hate me.
         I no longer care about getting back at Emma.



Chapter 6

         Breakfast the next morning is quite with thick tension. Vicky just sulks on a chair after breakfast. She can’t go to Mystic Creek so she doesn’t know what to do with herself.
         “I didn’t do it,” She says with out spirit.
         “I know,” I respond reassuringly. “I mean, I believe you.”
         “Thanks, but that doesn’t do me any good. I wonder who really stole the money? Who would do such a thing?” I remain silent.
         “The pain will go away as soon as I’m away,” I lie to myself.
         I can’t get alone so I can leave. Someone is always around.
         The sun goes down, and I come in from my work. Mrs. Clodagh is solemnly sitting in the tearoom drinking tea. For some reason, I go to her.
         “Hello, Aaron,” Mrs. Clodagh says to me as I walk in. “Do you want some tea?”
         “No,” I say dejectedly and I sit down.
         “What’s wrong?” Mrs. Clodagh says, noticing my manner.
         I lean forward so I can concentrate on my hands better. My eyebrows furrow. “Well... yes. I... I... don’t think Vicky stole the money.” I couldn’t tell her that I took it, I just couldn’t.
         “I know you don’t want to believe it, but she is the only one who knew where it was and had motive. It couldn’t have been you. If you stole it, you would have to go to Juvenile Hall.” Her words hit me hard. Usually everyone assumes I took whatever is missing. I’m guilty until proven innocent. Here, they don’t jump to conclusions, even though they know I have a criminal record. I leave Mrs. Clodagh without saying anything more.
         My dreams are haunted by Vicky’s crying face. I don’t get much sleep.
         At breakfast all that can be heard is the clanging of forks on the plates. Vicky isn’t even at the table. This is not the same family I came to live with.
         All day I look for a chance to escape, but none come. I can’t get my mind off what I’ve done to Vicky. Or what will happen to me if I tell that I stole the money.
I occasionally see Vicky moping around the house.
         Another dreadfully quite dinner encroaches upon me. Halfway through the meal, I can stand it no long. I slam my fork down and shout, “I DID IT! I took the money!”
         A huge sigh of relief goes around the table. This isn’t the response I was expecting. I was expecting something around the lines of calling the police.
         “I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever tell us the truth,” Mrs. Clodagh says.
         “YOU KNEW!” I exclaim.
         “Yes, I saw you take it. I thought it would be better for you if you confessed on your owe. If I turned you in you would’ve gone to Juvenile Hall. I didn’t want you to go there, so I gave you a chance to confess. I called a family meeting and we all agreed to give you time.”
         “It was my idea to put the blame on Vicky because you seemed to have a thing for her,” Don says bluntly.
         “That’s why I couldn’t get alone, you knew I’d run away.”
         “Yes, I did. You would be just running away from the problem. You might have lived the rest of your life on the run.”
         “Would you please give us back the money now?” Mr. Clodagh asks. I reach into my pocket and hand the money over to him.
         “Thank you, Mrs. Clodagh, for believing in me. Even though that sounds really cheesy, I truly mean it.”
         “You will have to be punished for stealing, but it won’t be as severe as it would have been. If you want you can join us on our trip to the museum.”
         “I’d like that,” I say, overjoyed by the guilt going away.