Somehow They're Alive (part 5)

Welcome to part 5 of "Somehow They're Aive"! A new character is introduced. After you get done reading tell me what you think of her. Also, the five...

of them get put in another bad situation. How do they get out of it this time? Well, you'll have to read to find out. Please tell me what yo think of Jay too. I need some feedback.

Created by: Topaz
  1. ***Ryan's Point of View*** I'm exauhsted. After reading Sapphire's note I stayed up half the night thinking about it. It was so hard to honor Jaslina's request and not tell anyone about it. Do you have any idea how hard it is to not tell your best dude friend something that you really want to tell them? I wanted to tell Jay that Sapphire and Landon are here so bad! Luckily I managed not to. Hopefully seeing my mom's friends will get my mind off of my sister and her boyfriend, and back on the mission; finding Jaslina's family must come first. Besides, this is only Sapphire and Landon. My mom and Akmal aren't with them like last summer. We should be able to handle the two of them just fine if we're to run into them.
  2. ***Jaslina's Point of View*** This morning Ryan said that his mom’s friends live in Killarney. That’s a long ways away from Belfast. Just to give you a mental picture, Belfast is in Northern Ireland and Killarney is in Southern Ireland; that’s about a four hour trip. We wanted to start out earlier, but it took us forever to get a car rented. Since we’re both under age and foreigners it took some phone calls and a lot of convincing to get the car rental man to loan us a car. We started out at eleven o’clock, and now it’s going for one o’clock. Jay is driving and Rayla is navigating. The car rental man gave us an older car without a GPS. In order to make up for the lack of technology, he gave us a map. It feels like we’ve been in this car forever! Tammy taps on Rayla’s shoulder. “Rayla, what city are we stopping in? I’m hungry, and I have to go to that bathroom.” Looking down at the map, she says, “We just crossed over into Clonmacnois. Since we’re at the halfway point we’re stopping for lunch.” “It’s about time!” says Jay. “Once we start driving again somebody else is taking over. I can drive no more.” We pull into the parking lot of a simple fast food place. It isn’t hard to tell that it’s not a chain restaurant. Once we get out we take time to stretch. Eventually we walk inside. Tammy runs to the restroom and the rest of us stand in line at the front counter. The older couple standing in front of us is taking their time ordering. Bored out of my mind I examine the décor.
  3. There are rows of white and blue booths lining the walls. The center of the floor is filled with matching square tables of various sizes. The white and dark blue tiles on the floor set off the whole color scheme. To make it even better, the floor and the tables look like they’ve been scrubbed and waxed to perfection. The walls are pretty much bare except for the black and white picture of a young man and his family; probably the restaurant’s original owners. “Jaslina, it’s your turn to order,” says Rayla. I apologize and step up to the counter. The girl standing at the cash register has long, curly, brown hair and blue eyes. She looks to be nineteen, and has bags under her eyes. How many double shifts is this girl working? “May I take your order?” she asks. I order a hamburger and fries, and then go sit down between Ryan and Tammy. Twenty minutes later the girl comes to our table with our food. “Audrey!” somebody yells from across the room. Startled, she drops our food all over the floor. The person who yelled walks over to the curly haired girl. It’s a tall skinny man in his fifties wearing a tie. He must be the owner of the restaurant. “Audrey,” he says to her, “didn’t you mop these floors earlier?” Looking flustered, she responds, “Yes. I mopped them and waxed them just like you asked. What’s wrong with the floors?” He shakes his head at her as if she’s an idiot. “Don’t you see how many scuff marks there are over there? Mop it again.” He starts to walk away, but then turns around. “Oh, and clean up the mess you made and get these people some more food!”
  4. Audrey bends down and starts to pick up our food. She looks like she’s about ready to cry. Unable to watch this, I go and help her. Picking up fries, I say, “Here, let me help you.” She smiles up at me. “You don’t have to. After all, it’s my job.” “I don’t mind helping you. Besides, you look exhausted.” She manages a chuckle. “I am exhausted.” “Is this job hard?” I ask. “Extremely hard; especially if the owner is your father.” My eyes are wide. “The owner is your father?” “Yup. He’s had me working here since I’ve been thirteen, and he’s never let up on me.” “Oh, I’m sorry.” She laughs. “Don’t be. I’m used to it. My name’s Audrey by the way.” “I’m Jaslina. It’s nice to meet you.” We shake hands as she picks up the tray with the floor food on it. “I’m sorry about your food. I’ll go back and get some more.” “You don’t need to apologize. My friends and I have been sitting in a car for two hours. It gives us more time to stretch our legs.” She smiles and walks off toward the kitchen. I go back to my seat between Ryan and Tammy.
  5. “You helped that girl. That was nice of you,” says Ryan. “Her dad was yelling at her and she looked like she could use some cheering up. That’s all.” “That was her dad?” asks Rayla. “Yes. The owner of this place is her father.” “Wow. I feel sorry for her,” says Tammy. Finally Audrey comes to our table with our clean food. “Thanks, Audrey,” I say. “You’re quite welcome.” Feeling relaxed for the time being we eat. We stay for about an hour altogether. It would’ve been less time, but Jay and Ryan had to order a bunch of hamburgers and see who could eat the most. Rayla, Tammy, and I didn’t get in their way. It was too amusing to disturb them. Jay would’ve won, but when he got to nineteen he actually ran outside and threw up in the parking lot. Ryan stands up and yells. “Victory!” “That’ll bring down the number of customers,” says Tammy staring at Jay through the window. We start to laugh. Normally I’d be upset about somebody throwing up, but Jay brought this on himself.
  6. Audrey walks over to us laughing. “I think that the boys in your group will be tied for customer of the month.” Once she gains control she says, “You have accents. I take it that you’re Americans?” “Yes, and we’re proud of it,” says Tammy with a smile. Jay finally walks back inside. “Although, I find it hard to be proud after seeing that,” Rayla says teasingly. “Hey, I don’t have a stomach of steel like Ryan’s,” says Jay in defense. Ryan’s about to say something, but something distracts him. For a moment all he does is stare out the window. After a second he runs out the door like his legs are on fire. “Hey!” he yells. “Come back! You can’t do that!” We all run out the door after him without any idea about what just happened. “What’s going on?” asks Rayla. Ryan points to the parking lot. “See for yourself.” I look at the slot where our rental car is supposed to be parked. It’s nowhere to be seen.
  7. Tammy is jumping up and down angrily. “I can’t believe someone stole our car! Now how are we going to get to Killarney?” Ryan says, “To make it even better our cell phones were in there! Now we can’t drive anywhere, and we can’t call anyone.” “What do we do now?” I ask nearly in tears. How are we ever going to find dad and Josephine without a car? “Let’s go inside,” says Ryan. “We can at least try to figure something out.” Together we trudge inside the restaurant. What can we possibly do without a car and without cell phones? Finding dad and Josephine is being made more impossible by the minute. Seeing that we’re distressed Audrey comes over to us. “What’s wrong?” she asks. “Our car got stolen,” I say. “We were planning on visiting some people in Killarney, but now it’s impossible.” She raises her brow. “Killarney? We go there a lot to visit relatives. My family knows a lot of people there. Who are the people that you were planning to meet?” The rest of us stay quiet and let Ryan do the talking. We have no idea who those people are. “Their names are Tom and Rosie. They used to live in America, but they moved here about fifteen years ago. My mom used to bring us here to visit them.” “Tom and Rosie? Those are the names of my dad’s friends’.” Rayla chimes in. “Really? They can’t possibly be the same Tom and Rosie.” “I know that. I just think that it’s an odd coincidence,” says Audrey. She starts to walk away. “Let me go get my dad. He’s sometimes sympathetic to people in bad situations. He might be able to help you out.” She runs off down a hallway next to the order counter. If our car had to get stolen, at least it was at a place with helpful people.”
  8. ***We’ve been at the restaurant for many hours now. About twenty minutes ago we got in to talk with Audrey’s father. We told him about our situation. It ends out that he was planning to take his wife and Audrey to Killarney sometime this month. With our current situation he’s actually agreed to let us ride with them. He said that his brother-in-law has a big van that he can borrow, and that we can start off tomorrow morning. Yes he’s a little rough around the edges, but he’s actually nicer than I thought. “Wow, you’d really do that for us? You don’t have to!” I say. “No, I insist. You children are in a foreign country; your rental car got stolen along with your cell phones, and you’re trying to budget your money. Also, your schools and parents trusted you enough to come here without any adults. With the circumstances why shouldn’t I give you a ride?” “Stranger danger,” says Tammy. Rayla elbows her in the side and gives her a glare. “Sorry.” “It’s quite all right. That’s a good attitude for young people to take. If you don’t want to come with us, then I’ll try to get you a cab or tickets for the train.” “Sir, can me and my friends have a moment to think this over?” asks Ryan. “Sure. I’m in no rush.” We walk out of his office and back into the main part of the restaurant. There’s tension in the group. I can already sense that there are going to be a lot of words being said.
  9. The first one to open their mouth is Rayla. “Ryan, are you insane? Why should we let a complete stranger help us?” “Because we don’t have much of a choice. Like he said we’re five American’s stuck in a foreign country. To add to the problem our car got stolen and our cell phones are gone.” Jay adds a comment that only makes the tension thicker. “Now that I think about it, most of our money was in that car, too.” Tammy rests her head in her hands. “Let me guess. All of our bags were in the trunk weren’t they?” “Actually, that’s where the positive side comes in. All of our baggage got shipped to Tom and Rosie’s house,” says Ryan. “Well, that’s one piece of good news, anyway,” I reply. I’m about to says something else but Tammy interrupts. “So what’s the plan here? Do we spend the night sleeping on a sidewalk, and then walk the rest of the way to Killarney in the morning? If we walk two miles an hour we’ll be there in two-and-a-half days! That’s okay, right?!” Jay says, “Tammy this isn’t the time to be getting sarcastic. We need to stay calm. We’re in a situation!” Tammy sighs. “Right. I’m sorry. I’ll ask nicely this time. What are we going to do?” Finally I speak. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think that we should take Audrey’s dad’s offer. We have hardly any money left besides what we have between the five of us. There’s no way that that’ll be enough to get us a rental car, a hotel room, and gas money.” “What if we didn’t get a hotel room? We could sleep in our rental car. We always slept in the truck back in the Middle East last summer,” suggests Rayla. I’m on a roll right now, so I continue. “I don’t think that’ll work. Even if we did scrape together enough money for a rental car, there’s no way that it’d be big enough for all of us to sleep in.” “We could just drive all night. It’s almost nine right now. I’m sure we’d be in Killarney by eleven o’clock,” says Tammy.
  10. “Yeah,” says Ryan, “Then there’s the matter of finding the house. I know that I went there a lot, but mom always made Sapphire and I get down so we wouldn’t know how to get to the house.” “Then how do you know that it’s even in Killarney?!” exclaims Rayla in anger. “Because Rosie always called their house ‘their own little corner of Killarney’, and I have their address.” For about five minutes nobody says anything. Then Tammy decides to say something. “Alright, Ryan, you’ve won me over. I think that it’s a stupid move for us to make, but I also think that it’s our best bet. Let’s go tell Audrey’s father that we accept his offer. If Rayla and Jay agree, of course.” Jay just shakes his head in amazement. “I’ll go for it. Things can’t get much worse.” With her head buried in her arms on the table she says, “Let’s do it. It sounds better than walking one-hundred and twenty miles.” All of us together, we walk back to his office. Hopefully Ryan is able to locate Tom and Rosie’s once we get there. He has their address. All we have to do is hunt it down. Hopefully the rest of our time here goes smoothly.

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