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Chapter 9
(Petal)
______
It’s been three weeks since Taj has been gone. And almost one week of no contact. I’m pacing the length of the living room and trying hard not to cry.
At first, a few days after he left, Taj tried his best to make regular phone calls. At most twice a week, we could always make contact with him and he assured us that he was slowly gaining the robbers' trust but he could only call when they allowed him to go out. Thankfully, Matthias had taken special care to give him a watch that could make phone calls. One of Alan’s designs.
Alan tried to track down his location but something seems to be jamming the signal in that entire area. We don’t know how but the location seems untraceable. The best we got is that it’s somewhere in America. Taj assured us that the hideout is in a big city but it's somewhere underground.
Before we lost contact he gave us information on the robbers. There are about a dozen of them. They all seem to be related to each other and they all seemed to have migrated from Spain. There aren’t any women among them. He gave us some names but looking the names up led to nowhere. The best we can hope is for Taj to get out of the house somehow and tell us where exactly he is.
That was all a week ago. The last time we heard from him, he was excited because he had convinced a guy named Marco to take him out of the house. Marco was the guy he saved and is the only reason the other robbers hadn’t killed him. And since he told us that, there’s been nothing from his end. We haven’t heard anything from him at all. I’m going out of my mind with worry.
“He’ll be fine, Petal,” Roman says walking toward me and placing his hand on my shoulder. He’s trying to comfort me. It’s not working.
“You don’t know that! No one knows that. Matthias was the one that sent him there and he has literally nothing to say.”
I’m shaking from the fear and worry. What if something has happened to him? What if he’s dead?
“Taj isn’t dead,” Roman says with conviction like he’s reading my mind. “He’s going to come back to us, you’ll see.”
I can’t even summon the energy to say anything, I collapse on the couch beside Alan. He’s been working tirelessly day and night to find out where Taj could be.
“Come on guys, let’s think about this. Petal, use your big brain. Let’s try to remember what Taj said when describing his surroundings,” Brock says.
“He said he was in a bunker, that’s not going to help us pinpoint his location,” Alan replies.
“I know. I meant what he heard. The noises that made him so sure he’s in a city.”
“Oh, he said he was hearing some sort of festival going on. Loud music, parades,” Roman says.
“Okay guys, a festival. How many states in America have festivals with loud music?”
We all know he’s trying to give us hope and encourage us but I just don’t have the energy to be thinking of festivals right now. Tons of cities have festivals. Taj could have even been hearing a carnival, an amusement park, a rally. It could have been anything. Loud music does not connote festivals.
“It could be Hawaii. They have festivals there, right?” Phil suggests.
“Yeah but Taj said he heard the noises of a big city. Hawaii isn’t a big city, it’s an island.”
“Coachella?” Alan says but his heart is obviously not in it.
“Maybe, but Coachella happens in April, Lan. That’s next month.”
That gives me an idea.
Why hadn’t I thought of it before?
“I know,” Alan says with a groan. “I just wish Taj would call.”
“You guys, we should look up festivals that happen in March!” I say.
At that moment, Roman’s phone rings. The phone is on the table in the middle of the living room. We all look at each other, then we lunge at it. It’s possible Alan’s wish worked.
I get to the phone first. It’s an unknown number, not Taj’s watch. My spirits sink but still I answer it.
Then I hear his voice, “Hello.”
