An Extra-Ordinary Beginning

  Chapter 24 – House Arrest

  For as long as he could remember, Eric had hated the end of winter. The snow was grey and had turned to slush; the skies were grey, and grey rain drizzled down. Spring was on its way, and the delights of summer were just around the corner. However, the fact that they were close just made it even worse; so close yet so far.

  This year Eric hated it even more. He was stood in his room peeking at the world, through a thin gap in his curtains. It was Sunday evening and even though the sun was setting the light was brighter than at any point during the day. The grey clouds that had thrown down rain for two weeks solidly had begun to separate. They drifted across the horizon like gigantic ships, leaving open patches of sky. Golden rays spilled through the gaps, making buildings shine as it touched them. Eric wished he was outside.

  Moving away from the curtains, he approached a Formula 1 calendar on his wall. A sleek, racing car dominated the sheet and printed on top were the days of the year, listed out under each month.

  In the middle of January, he had taken a thick, red marker and drawn a big cross over one of the dates. He had repeated this at the end of each day since then. Each cross marked another day of his house arrest as a prisoner in his own home.

  From his pocket, he pulled out the marker and put a cross through the sixth of April. This was the last day of the sentence forced upon him by Andrea. A luminous green circle ringed the seventh - the date of their freedom. His time under house arrest had seemed to last forever.

  The two weeks until the end of January had passed reasonably easily. It was like being on holiday and, as he felt he had not experienced a truly relaxing Christmas vacation, he had welcomed the break. He had read, played on his computer, learnt a few more songs on guitar and had come to terms with a lot of the events that had happened. During this time, he had stayed out of the way of Dr. Johansen, or Alexander as he was now called.

  When freezing February came, however, Alexander kept bothering Eric. He would ask Eric if he needed something or wanted anything or if he would like to play a game, any game, any game at all.

  It was about this time that Eric started looking forward to Ursula coming home from school. Even though he wouldn’t admit to it, Ursula’s arrival home was more often than not the highlight of his day. They would talk together, play tricks on the adults, practise reading each other’s minds and chase each other around the house like two lively kittens. The best part of his entire imprisonment was Ursula’s half-term holiday when he had a week to spend with her.

  Once Ursula had returned to school, Alexander started to bother him again. Within a few days, Eric lost his temper with the man who had kidnapped him. He said a number of things he shouldn’t have and called Alexander a baby for biting his nails. Alexander tried to say nothing back but in the end he called Eric a spoilt brat who didn’t appreciate how much people cared for him.

  It had not been a pleasant experience for either of them, but it had cleared the air. Over a cup of tea, Alexander apologized for ‘kidnapping’ him, Eric reluctantly apologized for the things he had said, and they agreed to start afresh.

  Alexander began to teach Eric as he was not in school. When they weren’t learning, Eric discovered a chess opponent who was not easy to beat and a drummer who was happy to beat out any rhythm for Eric’s guitar. To work off their energy, Andrea installed a small gym in one of the spare rooms. As well as running on the treadmill, rowing and pushing weights, Alexander taught Eric some more martial arts. They also, and most importantly, worked on a way to recover the CDs and the pod without being detected by the OSS or anyone else.

  Over the following weeks, they studied maps and internet sites of Pompeii, proposed countless plans and then found ways their plans could be foiled by the OSS. Surprisingly, they worked well together, bounced ideas off each other and were finally able to select the best plan.

  Even though they were both irritable at being stuck indoors, they tried hard not to take it out on the other. This was probably the reason they had spent the last three days of their sentence apart and in their own rooms. Gradually they had both become fed up with the other, a little stir crazy and were feeling like bears in a cage.

  Eric looked at the calendar again. The green circle around the seventh shone like a bright star. The plan was ready. Tomorrow they would be free.

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