I had everything I needed in my bag, but it was big enough to not seem packed. Going downstairs, I luckily didn't see Thomas and went outside. The driver was speaking with the gardener, and as I closed in on them, their conversation stopped.
"I need a few things; can you bring me to a shopping center now, or do you have something to do?" I asked him while looking at the gardener. Trying to appear haughty and super nonchalant, I masked my uneasiness.
The printed-out flight ticket was in my bag and felt like a hot potato. The driver looked at me sternly and walked to a car, opening the door for me.
Breathing a silent sight of relief, I sat in the back seat as we made our way to a shopping center. A little while later, we were there already.
Stepping out, the driver followed suit, and I did not comment on that, taking him with me.
Then I agonized him by shopping for perfumes; the sickening sweat smell in that part of the beauty store made everyone, including myself, dizzy. Continuing with reading slowly over cream-indigents, I noticed that the driver's will was nearly broken, so I engaged in a long talk with a store clerk, turning back with him to the perfumery again.
Seeing that after three hours his soul had shattered, he told me he would visit the restroom and pick me up again in front of the store. Giving him the right amount of disapproval, I turned back to the clerk.
When he was away, I left the store and went hurriedly inside another shop instead. I bought hair color, a T-shirt, sweatpants, sunglasses and a towel, before I headed for the restroom on the rooftop. There, I found an out-of-order sign and put it in front of the door.
I put the hair color in my dry hair and waited for it to do its magic. It would wash out naturally after some time, so it had no pungent smell and was not complicated to use. Just slapping on the hair without mixing indigents together, I waited for twenty minutes.
I got my cat out in the mean time so that it could stretch a bit, and it walked in a circle, patrolling the empty toilet cabins.
Now I was my relaxed self again, and after washing my hair, I appreciated the change. My clothes were replaced as well, after I dried my hair as thoroughly as possible. My cat was pocketed again, the sunglasses were on my nose, and we were ready to flee.
I left the toilet and made my way out of the shopping center. On one side, I was cautious, but I still stopped here and there just as a normal person would.
Two buses later I arrived at the airport. My flight was only to another city and didn't leave the country, so there wasn't much of a check-in, and I sat inside the plane faster than I thought.
Leaning back, I stroked the cat in my bag, getting hissed at, but ignoring it. I closed my eyes and thought about how to proceed after landing in the new city when someone tapped my shoulder. Thinking it was the person who would sit by the window, I was ready to make way when I met the eyes of the driver through my sunglasses.
He smiled at me,
"Madam, have you finished your shopping trip?"
My heart nearly jumped out of my chest. What the hell?Whatthehellwhatthehelllwhatthehell.
I nodded in a daze and was escorted outside by the driver and a few flight assistants.
In silence, I was brought to the car, heading back.
I had been so pleased with myself; just how could they have found me? Had they placed a bug on me?
Opening my bag, I checked my little wallet, and in a hole in the fabric at the edges, I really fished something out that looked like a microchip.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm down, putting the bug back in place. As long as they wouldn't place a new one on me, I at least now knew where it was.
I contemplated when to make a new escape, but resolved to lie low for now.
Misjudged. I had completely misjudged my importance in Thomas's eyes. Why the hell was he so adamant on keeping me if he would let me go after a year anyway? Or was that a lie tocoax me into staying?
The butler-dude said that Thomas was an admirer of my mother; is this some crazy substitute play where I stand in for her?
I was raised by a grandmother who had pocketed me after seeing me wander around, and have lived with her until she died. She was open about having no clue who I am or where I came from.
When the butler found me, I was not really curious about these allegedly birth parents, and they hadn't shown up in the half an hour I was in their home, busy with getting threatened with my cat's life.
Now, it seemed that I had to contact them.