She left the chain on the door and opened it just slightly.
“Oh, thank goodness,” she said, opening the door for whoever it was to come in.
The same woman from last night who had to have been my grandmother walked through the door, and then my mom closed the door and slid the chain into place.
“Were you able to find what I needed?” she asked.
My grandmother lifted a small, brown paper bag. “I did.” She handed the bag to my mom, and she smiled. “I know. But you are just so easily spotted. You’ve got to do it.”
“I know,” she said, looking in the bag and frowning.
“Better get to it. I’ll sit with William.”
“Okay. Mommy will be just in the bathroom.”
“All right,” I said and continued to eat my granola bar while Captain America and I watched cartoons.
When my mom shut the door to the bathroom, my grandmother smiled at me. “I also got something for you.” I perked up with excitement. “Here you go,” she said while she pulled a McDonald’s biscuit out of her purse and handed it to me. I could smell the bacon wafting from the wrapper. I felt my mouth salivate, and I reached for it. She chuckled and handed it right over. “That’s my boy.”
I tore open the wrapper and saw there was more bacon than normal. My nose was going crazy sniffing all the delicious scents. I felt like I could have eaten at least six of them. I was so hungry. My grandmother sat and watched as I devoured the entire biscuit.
“What have you and Captain America been up to this morning?” she said with a smile as she pushed my shaggy hair out of my eyes.
“Mom said I could watch cartoons.”
She looked at the box TV and smiled again. “I like The Jetsons too.”
We sat there for another hour before Mom came out of the bathroom. When she did, her hair had changed. Her hair now a dark brown and cut to shoulder length. She immediately started to pick things up around the hotel room and stuff it into her backpack. “We’ve got to get going. She’s expecting us in late tonight.”
“This is Nantosuelta…she will be able to protect you and William?” my grandmother asked.
“She said the prophecy is coming. We have to keep him safe.”
“I want to keep him safe, but I want you to stay safe too. She will be able to protect you?”
I looked over at my mom when she didn’t immediately answer the question. She came over to me and scooped me up into her arms as she sat on the edge of the bed. “I promise we will do everything possible to keep everyone safe. That’s why Grandma is going on a little vacation while we get where we need to be.”
“You get to go on vacation? Like to the beach? I love making sand castles,” I said with exuberance.
“Something like that,” she said and went to help clean up my things off the bed and put them into the same backpack my mom had already crammed her things. “I will take pictures when I see the beach.”
“Promise?” I asked.
“Promise.” She said.
Knock. Knock.
All of us whipped our heads to the door. Grandma looked at Mom and she mouthed, “Bathroom.” Grandma took me from my mom’s arms and hurried to the bathroom and shut the door with barely an audible click. She set me down and motioned for me to get into the bathtub. She kept her ear to the door. I could hear everything perfectly.
“Who’s there?” I heard my mom’s voice. She sounded worried and anxious.
“Sheriff’s Department.”
I heard a sigh from my mom, and then she answered the door. I could hear the chain on the door as it pulled tight. She hadn’t undone the chain to speak to the man at the door. She must not have trusted him.
“How can I help you?” Mom asked.
“Do you mind?” the officer said.
“I do,” my mom said.
BANG! THUD!
My body jumped with the racket. Tears started to run down my cheeks. I put my hand over my mouth to keep myself quiet.
“What are you doing? GET OUT!” Mom screamed.
“Where’s the boy?” the man yelled at her.
“There is no one else here,” she pleaded.
It was silent for a moment and then the man said, “He’s here.”
“NO!” Mom yelled.
Grandma moved the shower curtain across the bar and blocked my view of the man breaking down the bathroom door.
“Where is he?” the man called out.
I peeked out from the side of the shower curtain and saw the man’s hands gripping my grandmother’s clothes, bringing her close to his face. His eyes were like my dad’s when he got mad—a violent emerald green. They glowed just the same.
“Is he in there?” another man yelled from the bedroom area of the hotel room.
He sounded like he was close to the floor. I stretched out my senses and could see the man holding my mother to the ground with his knee in her back and her arms trapped. She couldn’t move, and he was hurting her.
“I don’t see him,” the man said. He pushed my grandmother up against the door and growled, “Where is the boy?”
“He’s already gone.” She spat at him. “Franco will never get him back.”
He growled in her face. Off in the distance, I could hear sirens starting to get louder. They had to be coming to help. The real police. These men were from my father and not from the Sheriff’s Department. They weren’t even dressed like police officers.
“Fabrizio is going to be pissed,” the man holding my grandmother called out to the other man.
“Let’s take them both. Fabrizio wants his property back.”
I heard my
