Escape

Bailey sat in the back of the Uber driver's compact car with the backpack in his lap. He wasn't feeling relief like he expected, instead he was nervous. He had left mostly everything he owned behind, he would have loved to take his laptop, but with the child guard system in it, the thing was close to worthless. He hoped after a good night's sleep he would feel like a freed man, instead of a prisoner out on the lamb. One that very much needed to get to safety to plan their next move.

The hotel Bailey had chosen was a cheap location close to the airport. Climbing out of the car he put on the backpack and handed the driver one of the twenties he got from Amanda. Looking at the place he expected less, it didn't look like a hole in the wall at all. Stepping forward he had to shuffle his feet a little to keep the shoes on. The one size difference wouldn't have been a problem if the shoes had any laces. He wished Mandy had left out some of her running shoes for him to take, but these were a lot better than the six inch heels he wore earlier. The very idea of going from being turned on by a girl wearing the come fuck me pumps, to wearing them was insane. When Bailey came up to the double glass doors they didn't open like he expected and he was worried for a second that the place was closed. "What can I do for you?" Bailey looked around for someone for a second before it dawned on his tired brain that it was an intercom. "Ah, I need to get a room for the night." The doors didn't slide open so he just looked around before the voice came back. "You need to hit the intercom buttons, you know what, never mind." The doors slid open and a blast of cold air-conditioning washed over Bailey as he made his way into the small lobby.

If you kept walking forward you would end at an elevator, to the right was some seats and an ATM, and to the right was a counter that went almost to the wall so workers could walk around. Walking up to the counter Bailey put his bag up so he could dig a round in it for his wallet. "One room for the night, Mr. umm." Bailey looked for a name tag, but found none. "Mr. Manager." Bailey said looking at the slim white haired man who looked to be somewhere in his sixties. Bailey handed over the card as the man started to type something into the computer. The man was looking at Bailey in a way that said he didn't trust him and it only made him feel more nervous.

"The name is Frank Santiago. Did your parents send you in to check in while they get their bags?" Frank watched the young teen girl shift nervously from one foot to the other, arms crossing her chest. She seemed scared to him, and seeing the blonde hair sticking out from a hat advertising a company she wasn't old enough to go to, it reminded him of his granddaughter. "Parents, my parents are dead and I'm twenty five!" Frank looked the person up and down at his counter. Black female flats, jeans that were too long he guessed from the rolled up legs or maybe it was just fashion, he long since stopped paying attention, but they were tight in other places. The t-shirt she wore was much too large for her and tucked into her pants. He figured it was her father's or an older sibling. She didn't have much of a chest and many girls today seem to have larger chests than when he was a kid, so she had to be young. Her claim of being twenty five was maybe generous by ten years. Her nails were long and red, she looked to be wearing minimal makeup like he would expect from a younger girl. It did not add up and he wondered why.

On his screen a declined insufficient funds popped up. Taking a look at the card he read the name out loud. Bailey Andrew Smith? Seems the card was declined" He said holding the card up and looking at the teen girl. "Yeah that's like me!" She said back to him. She was really trying to stick to her story, but the girl didn't even try to fake a more grown up male voice. “You don’t sound like someone with the middle name Andrew to me. The girl snatched the card and glared at him. “I do too!” Bailey said in irritation, but it suddenly bothered him a lot what the man said. Bailey had been talking in the fake girl voice for the entire week and at some point hadn’t had to keep trying to talk that way. He wondered when the fake voice started to sound normal to him. “How is this, that better?” He said in a deeper voice that sounded way too **** and comical. ‘Fuck, I will have to practice my own fucking voice to be normal!’ With the card in hand he moved to the ATM. In her haste one of her shoes came free, giving him a look at the girl's painted toes.

Bailey was about to slide the debit card into the slot when the older man grabbed him by the biceps and dragged Bailey to one of the chairs. "Owe! Let go of me, that hurts!" Frank kept his firm grip on her arm until he had her in the seat. "You stay right here young lady, I'm going to get your bag and we are going to talk about what is going on." He was trying to be firm, but not yell. She was nervous enough that he didn't want to upset her too much. He needed to find out what was going on, and if she was a runaway someone was probably missing her. Frank couldn't imagine how he would feel if his granddaughter just went missing in the middle of the night and wanted to make sure this was handled the best he could.

Walking to the counter he took the bag in time to see the girl try to run, losing one of her shoes again as she made for the door. When it didn't open she slammed on it with her fists. "Come on, sit down. Those don't open at night unless I tell them to. The way she glared at him pouting didn't waver his resolve. Grabbing her once more he sat down with the blonde girl and looked in the bag. Inside he found a stuffed bear, two pill bottles, some nail polish remover, a bottle of wine, a pink key and a woman's wallet. Taking that out he saw a few twenties and a single id from a local water park, but no state id. "Bailey Ann Connors Best, minor. Well little lady that is a good photo of you, but you sure are not a Mr Bailey Andrew Smith." She didn't reply to him, only sat looking at the ground. ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck’ Bailey’s mind went. How had this all backfired> what happened to his id? He wasn’t sure if going to a more upscale hotel would have been much better, the hard still would have been declined, but they wouldn’t have locked doors. Wasn’t this against fire code or something?

"This." He said pulling the debit card from her hands. It took more effort than expected, she really didn't want to let go it it. "This here is not yours. Sweetie, you can get in big trouble for this, that is identity theft, fraud and just plain wrong to take money from someone. I am going to have to call the police I'm afraid." That got the girl's attention, she looked up to him with real fear in her eyes. "No please. Don't do that. I'm Bailey… I'm him I swear." Frank gave the girl a level look and sighed. "How about we talk about this first." He said pulling the bottle or wine out. " You have more than a handful of years before you can smoke let alone drink. Now tell me true, none of this nonsense. Were you going to meet someone, maybe an older man at the hotel tonight? Was it this man?" He held up the debit card on the last question. Bailey shook his head vigorously, enough to move the hat a little askew. Frank reached up and removed the girls hat. Letting her long blonde ponytail fall down. She looked even more scared than before.

With a heavy sigh he reached into the bag and gave the girl her stuffed toy and put the hat into the bag. Holding the bear tight Bailey put his face into the stuffed animal and breathed in deep. It smelt a little of the perfume he got sprayed with earlier that day and it made him think of Mandy. The scent didn’t bring thoughts of desire, just of regret for his action in running away from her tonight and a bit of comfort. Like the it was a tether that could leed him back to her, at least in his memories after the events of tonight.

He really should let the police handle this, but she should at least have a family member present for it. "Tell you what. If you can call an adult to come pick you up I will wait for them until we get the police. You did something bad tonight. But at this point I don't know if some guy online put you up to this, and I will not have my place used as a meet up place for a man like this." He said waving the card around. "Take advantage of some fourteen or fifteen year old girl." At this point he saw the girls eyes water up as she pulled the bear tight to her chest. " I'm not fourteen…" He could tell she was going to keep talking, but he needed to hurry this along. Get this girl's parents or guardians if her parents really are dead out here and the police before this guy showed up or ran off.

"Who are you going to call sweetie?" Not only had Bailey not looked enough like himself to pass as a man, but this guy thought he was even younger than he had been pretending to be. The doors were only going to open to some adult he called or for the police and he could only imagine them trying to book him as a female minor until the strip search. That couldn't happen, but who would he call? He had just left in the middle of the night, stolen money and the clothes of Mandy. If she came she would even find out about the card and learn about his money. His mind got distracted by that thought, why the hell was the card declined? He had more than enough for this shit place. Bailey pursed his lips as he pulled out his phone from his back pocket, just looking at the dark screen. Mandy was out, he couldn't call her. He couldn't call Chuck for help, even if his number hadn't been deleted. That left April Gates, Derrick Connors and the wicked bitch of the west.

April seemed to know someone everywhere and there was a chance she could get him out of this, but she was also Mandy's best friend, so she was out. Bailey remembered how Derrick was able to make a single phone call and sort out the guard at the park, having one of the owners get involved. He had no doubt he could help, but what story would he tell the man. Megan would either tell him to get fucked and enjoy everything that fell upon him or help, but at some price. Needing the help he said. "My Aunt Megan, I will call her." Thinking Derrick was the back up choice. "I will talk to your Aunt, adult to adult." Not being spoiled for choice Bailey unlocked the phone and pulled up the contact card before handing it over the man.

Tanking the phone he patted Bailey on the knee. "We will have someone you can trust here soon." He said looking at the scared teen as she held the bear in one arm. Stepping away he held the phone to his ear, the girls Aunt didn't pick up till the fifth ring. The voice on the other end was a tired and sleepy one. "Bailey it is the middle of the night." That was the last thing Bailey was able to over hear as the man walked away. Bailey looked to the doors again, wishing he wasn't literally trapped. When the older man came back he handed a Bailey his phone and he saw the flower case. Another thing he had missed and put it back into his pocket with a sigh.

Sitting down next to the girl he tried to smile at her reassuringly. "Your Aunt says she will be here to pick you up as fast as she can." He can only imagine the spike of adrenaline the woman got from what he told her and just hoped when she held the girl in her arms she would feel relief. "My son has a daughter about your age, her name is Emily. She invited me to one of her tea parties with her dolls.. that must have been a few years ago now that I think about it." He laughed at the memory and at the idea of time passing so quickly. 'What is the name of your doll, and do you have tea parties?" Bailey rolled his eyes, how young did this boomer think he was. He tried just shrugging to see if he would leave him alone and wait for his fate to play out, but he seemed hell bent on being friendly to cheer up the young girl his failing eyes saw. "President." He said thinking it would be a better name than Teddy. "Oh, I like that. A pleasure to meet you President Bear. I hope the first lady here is treating you nicely." He said, reaching over to shake the stuffed toy's hand. "I'm not married to him." Bailey said exasperated in irritation, but to Frank it just sounded like when Emily said things she thought were obvious. "Well Mr. President, you have a pretty little lady here. You better make your move or some other lucky bear will have her first." The old coot was crazy, but the craziness of it made Bailey giggle a little. Quickly Bailey regained his composure, but there was no covering it up. "I saw that smile, no fooling me. Now I know there is a happy girl in there." Franked looked at his watch and at the front door. "Tell you what, I have a TV in the back room. Why don't you sit back there and I will put something on for you while we wait." TV was a much better option than talks of tea parties and marrying stuffed animals, so he took the man's offered hand and followed him behind the counter and into a break room.

When Megan arrived she found Bailey sitting Indian style in an old threadbare recliner chair with a stuffed animal in his lap. Eating chocolate chip cookies with milk while his eyes were glued to a cartoon she vaguely recognized about a yellow square sponge that lived under water. "Bailey Ann, do you know how worried I was!" She said marching across the room and pulled Bailey into her arms for a long embrace as he stood up. While holding Bailey she whispered. "You better play along and agree to everything I say here if you don't want to leave with the police." Bailey nodded knowing whatever this woman was going to do would be lesser to prison. “Now I am going to go talk to the nice man pumpkin, you sit back and watch your cartoons.” Bailey watched Megan walk out of the break room and start a conversation with the old man. When she caught him watching she shut the door, leaving him in the break room with the company of the now named toy, and a childrens cartoon. “Well at least I have cookies.” A few minutes later Megan came back into the room alone and sat on a well used sofa, sitting as close as she could to Bailey. “The police are going to be here soon, just do as you are told and you will get to leave with me, if not. Well.. best not think of that and enjoy the cartoon while you can.”

When two officers came in they scanned the room, seeing the blonde, blue eyed woman wearing yoga pants, a tank top and flip flops and to who they were told was her niece. Megan stood up and walked over, waving Bailey over as well once she stood in front of the night shift police officers. "My niece here, Bailey Ann Best, was telling me what happened. Apparently last night my sister, her mother just got into a serious relationship with a man and my Bailey here wanted to go find my sister's ex-boyfriend. She had found an old debit card of his and a bottle of wine." Megan glanced at Bailey before she returned her attention to the officers. "Because she knew he liked adult drinks. She thought because they shared a first name she could use his card and that would allow him to find her." This more adolescent look made her smile inwardly, the call from the manager gave her the chance to help Amanda. Before bed she hoped she could talk her out of her plan to throw herself on the train tracks in the name of truth. Now though, she had an idea of how this could work out.

The story was ripe with the type of plan an adolescent might come up with and he hated it. But when they asked him if it was true all he could do was nod and say yes. Before adding a little to play along as it were. "I miss Bailey." Megan put one arm around Bailey and kissed the top of his head. "I know you do pumpkin, but your Mommy's new boyfriend could turn into a new Daddy for you and I know how much you want that. The officers walked off to talk to the manager in private for a while before returning. "Well Miss Bailey, we are going to let you off with a warning, you have to give a big thank you to Mr Santiago. He was really concerned you had run away or worse. You need to let your family know when you want to go somewhere. If you can promise to be a good girl from now on we can let you go." Bailey swallowed hard at the indignity. "I promise to always be a good girl from now on." It was said in a softer voice than Bailey often spoke in, but it was enough for the officers. "Now young lady I think Mr. Santiago deserves a big hug and a thank you for all he did, don't you?" Megan's voice was sweet, but he saw the unspoken words in her eyes. Bailey went to the old coot and gave him a hug. "Thank you Mr. Santiago for being kind, and giving me cookies, and, and yeah." Bailey thought he had a list to say thank you for just so Megan had nothing to come back to him on. But his tired brain seemed to be failing him. "No problem at all, if you want to thank me just name your next doll Emily after my granddaughter. I think she will like the idea of another girl that I helped having a doll named after her.

With that Megan carried the book bag in one arm and held Bailey's hand in the other as she went back to her SUV, once the police had finished collecting information for their report. Not a word was said as she put Bailey in the back seat. The day was just too long and he was pretty sure the pills just weren’t strong enough to give him the energy for so much. Bailey looked out the side windows up at the star filled sky, wondering what Megan was going to say to Mandy. Whatever it was, she expected him to agree. It was just all too much and slowly his head slumped to the side as he drifted off to sleep.