A/N: One shot, written for the Fox Forum Friday Night OC Challenge, with the prompt, "Family". With thanks to Soules for brilliant beta job.
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My family vacation
by Angela Rothwell, aged 8
On my vacation I met a top-secret spy and I saved my sister's life.
It all started when Mom told me to go down to the lobby to get more towels. Elise is such a baby, she's only three years younger than me, but you'd think she wasn't even in kindergarten the way she behaves. She got water EVERYWHERE in the bathroom and by the time Mom cleaned up, there were no dry towels for us to take to the pool.
When I got back to the elevators with two nice, clean towels, a man was waiting there. He'd pressed the button already, but I pressed it again. It's so much fun pressing elevator buttons and this time I didn't have to fight with Elise for who got to do it. It took ages for the elevator to finally arrive, but when we got inside, he pressed the button for floor two. I felt sorry for him because he walked with a cane and also because my room was on floor twelve. I know that the higher the floor you are on, the better your room is, because the penthouse is on the top floor and that's always the best room in a hotel. I also knew we would have a much better view than him.
"My name's Angela," I told him. I smiled, but he ignored me, which was pretty rude.
Then, when the elevator doors opened at two, he stepped out, but only halfway. He looked at me and I could tell by his face that he was going to do something naughty, because he just looked exactly like Elise does before she does something that usually results in me getting into trouble too. Just before the door closed he reached inside and pressed ALL the buttons!
"Have fun, Angela!" he said.
I knew it was a very bad thing to do, because Mom and Dad got cross with me once because Elise and I pushed a couple of extra buttons when we were in a hotel in Los Angeles.
I yelled at him, "Hey!", but he probably didn't hear, because the doors shut pretty fast.
Of course then I had to wait while the elevator opened at all the floors right up to twelve. An old lady got on at floor eight and when she saw all the buttons lit up, she frowned at me. I didn't say anything, because I knew there was no way she'd believe me if I told her that a grownup had done it.
I'm eight, so I should be too old to get excited about button-pressing, but I can't help it. I've stayed in more hotels than all the kids in my class. My Mom and Dad own a furniture store, so I know a lot about furniture too. I know you should look sideways at a drawer to see if it's got dovetailing: that means it's good quality. I also know that you shouldn't walk up to a customer and say, "Can I help you?" You should find a way to start a conversation or talk about the piece of furniture they're looking at.
Because of Mom and Dad's store, they go to visit furniture shows in all different states to look at new products and what Mom calls "design trends". Mostly, Elise and I go along too. We're very responsible kids. Mom and Dad often let us stay in hotel rooms by ourselves and we watch movies and only answer the door for room service and no one else. Dad says that one day I'll talk myself into a situation I can't get out of, but he just thinks I talk too much. It's only because I need to practice. When I grow up I want to be a news anchor on TV, and those people talk A LOT.
It took ages for Elise to get organised, but finally we got to go up to the pool. Pools are my favourite part of staying in hotels. Some kids in my class have one at home, but we don't. And besides, hotel pools are mostly heated and they have spas as well, which are the best bit. Dad came up to the pool with us because Mom was doing some research for their day at the furniture exhibition tomorrow. We were allowed to swim while Dad watched us and then we had to go back to the room because Mom and Dad were going out to dinner. Elise and I were going to order ANYTHING we wanted from the room service menu. Elise said she was going to order lobster, but she doesn't even know what lobster is.
We had to go right up to the rooftop to get to the pool. I got to press the button for "23" – Elise and I fought about it for a bit but then Dad said I could press it on the way up and Elise could press it on the way down. I won! It's much better to press 23 than 12.
There was no one else around on the rooftop, probably because it was raining a little bit. But the pool was heated, so it didn't really matter. Dad sat under a big umbrella and read his book, while Elise and I practiced doing handstands underwater. I'm much better at it than she is. After a while I noticed that someone had got in the spa and then I realised it was the guy from the elevator. I was still PO'ed that the old lady thought I was the one who pressed all the buttons. I got out of the pool and went over and climbed into the spa.
He was drinking wine and he was sitting right under a sign that had a picture of a wineglass with a red line through it, like a no-smoking sign. He didn't look happy when I got into the spa too, but it's not like it was his or anything. It was on the rooftop and anyone was allowed to use it.
"Uh, kid, I think you better get out," he said to me, looking grumpy.
"Why?"
"Some people frown on grown men and little girls sharing baths."
"Why?"
"Ask your father."
"Dad!" I called out.
He looked up from his book. "Don't annoy the man, Angela." My Dad smiled at him. "My daughter can talk the leg off a chair, let me know if she bothers you."
"I won't bother you," I said.
"Yeah? You already—"
"You were the one who pushed all the elevator buttons."
"And this is my punishment?"
"Why did you do that?"
"I like pushing buttons."
I'd never heard an adult say they liked pushing elevator buttons. They mostly tended to act like it was such a kid thing to do. In fact, now that I was getting grown up, I decided it was probably time I stopped doing it too. I made a vow right then that from now on I'd let Elise push all the buttons. She was still a kid.
"That's not very grown up."
"I'm not really a grown up," he said.
"Yes you are. You've got grey hair."
"So? I've seen kids with grey hair."
I knew that was a lie. It's not nice to tell lies. "Well I haven't. And you've got hair on your chest like my Dad. Only grownups have hair on their chests." I knew that grownups had hair in other places too, but I wasn't going to say that.
"Not shy, are you?"
That wasn't true. Sometimes I was shy, like when our cousin Daniel came over to stay with Aunty Sarah.
I saw that his cane was leaning against a chair near the spa. "Did you break your leg?"
"No."
"My grandma broke her leg and now she has a cane like yours."
"Lucky grandma."
"I broke my arm once. I was doing long-jump at school and I heard it crack when I landed."
"Cool."
"It wasn't cool. It hurt a lot."
"Did you cry?"
I cried heaps, but I didn't want to tell him that. "A bit. It really hurt."
He closed his eyes and laid back in the water. I kicked around for a bit but it wasn't much fun. He took up a lot of room and if he hadn't been there I could have made really good waves in the spa, probably enough to send water over the paving and into the pool, but I knew Dad would yell at me if I did it while there was a stranger around. I wanted him to leave.
"Why don't you want to be a grown up?" I asked him.
He opened just one eye and looked at me. I wasn't sure if he was cross with me or not.
"Why do you want to be a grown up?" he asked me.
"I can't wait to be an adult," I told him. "Then I can do anything I want and no one can tell me what to do."
He opened both eyes and then nodded and looked very serious. "Yes, that is definitely the best part."
"And I won't have to do homework or go to school. I know I'll have to go to work, but then I can watch cartoons all day on Saturday if I want. And besides, I'm going to be a TV anchor and I'll be at work at night. My kids will have a nanny and I will have a chef who cooks my food for me like Oprah."
"You've got it all planned out."
"Yeah." I was pleased, lots of adults used to laugh at me when I told them what I wanted to do. He didn't laugh, he still looked serious. "It's important to have goals," I added. I'd heard my Dad say that to my Mom sometimes.
He smiled at me, but it was kind of a scary smile and I wasn't sure if I liked it. I wondered what he was doing in the hotel and whether he was on vacation or going to the furniture show like my Mom and Dad. He wasn't wearing any ring, but people can still be married and not wear a ring.
"Do you have kids?"
"Angela! Time to go!" My Dad called out to me.
The man looked happy that I was leaving. I guess I would have been too, if I was him. Now he could make really good waves.
My Dad came over to me.
"We'll let you get some peace," Dad said to the man as he reached down and helped me out of the spa. "I'm Mark Rothwell, Angela's Dad." My Dad is very friendly. He always introduces himself to people. "Are you here for the furniture show?"
"Greg House." He sort of looked like he didn't really want to say his name, but if would be very impolite if he didn't. He and my Dad shook hands. I thought House was a very funny name. Almost as bad as Vanessa Hore in my class – a hore is a lady who has lots of sex with boys. She says she's going to change her name as soon as she's old enough.
"No, I'm here for the conference." I watched the man carefully as my Dad rubbed me with a towel. I was old enough to dry myself, but it was nice to let Dad do it and then wrap the towel around me and give me a hug.
"Oh, yes, there's a medical conference on in the hotel too, isn't there?" Dad said. "It was a killer trying to get accommodation."
"Yeah. My room sucks, no bath."
Dad picked me up and gave me a big smacker kiss on my cheek. "Dad!" It was embarrassing when Dad did stuff like that in front of other people. Mr House looked kind of sad. I wondered if he was missing his kids.
"Come on, waterbaby, we're already late. Mom will be getting worried."
Dad put me down and went over to get Elise, she was lying on the chair that he had been reading in. It looked like she was going to sleep, so Dad picked up her up and put her over his shoulder like a fireman.
"Bye Mr House," I said. "I hope you have a good conference and your leg gets better."
"Bye, Angela. Good luck with that TV career."
When we were in the elevator – I let Elise push the button, but she wasn't that grateful – Dad said to me, "That man didn't look like a doctor, did he?"
"I don't think he's really a doctor," I said. I remembered the doctors I met when I broke my arm. They were all neat and polite. None of them would press all the buttons in an elevator. "I think he's a spy."
"A spy?"
"Yeah. He's going undercover as a doctor to investigate smugglers." My Mom has a collection of Trixie Belden books. They're a bit faded, but I like the stories, and Mom likes reading them to me. Trixie is a girl detective who has lots of adventures. In the last one we read, Trixie investigated smugglers. I wasn't exactly sure what a smuggler did, but it sounded like just the sort of thing a spy would investigate.
My Dad laughed. "Angela, sometimes I wish I had your imagination."
--
Mom and Dad argued a bit before they went out to the dinner. Elise wasn't feeling well and Mom said she had a fever and so they should stay. Dad said she'd be fine and she had been playing around in the pool so much, it was no wonder that she was hot. Eventually they decided to go, but not stay too long. I thought Elise was probably putting it on, just so she could order lobster after Dad told her she couldn't have it.
I ordered a club sandwich with fries and Elise grumbled a lot and then got a hamburger. Mom and Dad were gone by the time the room service guy arrived, but I did just what they told me to – I pulled a chair up to check in the peep hole to see who it was before I opened the door, and then I gave him the two dollars Dad left for a tip.
We put on our PJs and ate our food on the bed, while we watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp. It's one of my favouritest-ever movies.
Mom said we could each have ONE chocolate from the minibar after we had dinner and when it got to the bit where Augustus gets sucked up by the giant pipe I decided I wanted my chocolate. I went over to look in the minibar and I asked Elise what she wanted. She didn't answer and I noticed that she'd fallen asleep without even eating her fries. I knew she wouldn't want to miss out on chocolate, though, so I called out her name louder but she still didn't wake up. I was sure she was faking it, so I went over and pushed her because I was annoyed with her for pretending. She still didn't wake up. That's when I started to get a little bit scared, because her face was all red and she was breathing kind of funny.
Mom left us with her cell phone number in case of emergency. I wondered if this was an emergency. Once I rang her because Elise and I got in a fight and Elise wouldn't come out of the bathroom even though I really, really had to pee, and Mom got very cross with me. But I thought this time it was an emergency. I pushed Elise, pretty hard, just to make doubly sure she wasn't pretending. All she did was groan like she was gonna puke.
I rang Mom's cell phone but she didn't answer.
I knew from school and from what Mom and Dad had taught me that I had to dial 911 in an emergency so that the police or an ambulance would come. But what if Elise wasn't that sick? If you dial 911 and it's not an emergency you can get in big trouble and you can even go to jail.
I tried Mom's cell phone again, but it still didn't answer. I just got her voice asking me to please leave a message.
It was turning out to be a not-very-nice night and I'd already missed the whole oompa-loompa song about Augustus. I was starting to get really scared and I decided that maybe I should go downstairs and see if I could find Mom and Dad. If I couldn't find them, maybe the nice lady who gave me the towels before I went to the pool would help.
My Mary-Kate and Ashley PJs are new and they still look pretty nice especially when I wear my matching pink slippers, but it wasn't until I was in the elevator that I realised I probably should have changed into proper clothes. When I got to the lobby it was filled with people all dressed up like my Mom and Dad had been. I wondered if maybe they were still in the lobby and hadn't gone to the dinner yet, so I decided to have a look around to see if I could find them. Then, if I couldn't find them, I would go up to the desk and ask someone there.
I had walked around almost the whole lobby when I saw Mr House again. Lots of people had smiled at me or asked me if I was lost, but I just told them I was fine. I didn't think strangers would be good to ask for help, but I wondered if Mr House might help me. Dad thought he was a doctor, but then I remembered that I thought he was a spy. What if I asked him for his help and he wasn't really a doctor? He could hurt Elise! Or worse – what if he made a mistake in front of the other doctors that blew his cover? Then he'd have to kill me for wrecking his mission!
I thought about Elise's red face and I thought about Mom's cell phone being turned off and I thought about whether I should just go back to the room and try calling 911. All that was a lot to think about and it made me feel like crying. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to just ask him. If I did it away from other people so that I wouldn't blow his cover, he might let me go without killing me.
I walked up next to him and called out, "Mr House?". No one heard me. I grabbed his jacket and tugged it a bit. "Mr House?" I said, a bit louder. A pretty lady he was talking to with long curly hair looked down at me.
"House – I didn't know you were bringing a date." She had a really nice blue dress on, but she was silly if she thought I was his girlfriend.
"I'm not a date," I said to her. Mr House looked down at me. "I need to talk to you," I whispered.
"Angela, right?" he asked me. "Shouldn't you be in bed? Where are your parents?"
"I need to talk to you," I said, pulling on his jacket again.
"Okay, so talk." He sounded angry.
"No, it's a secret. I can't tell you here."
"Look kid," he said, and he sounded like he was going to tell me off.
The pretty lady interrupted. "House, if a small child in pyjamas with no parents in sight needs to talk to you, then I think it might be a good idea to hear what she has to say."
He looked at her and then made that annoyed sighing noise that my Dad makes when I've done something naughty.
"Okay." He reached down and I took his hand then he turned back to the pretty lady. "Cuddy, keep an eye on us. I'm positive this is some candid-camera-catches -a-paedophile set up. I need you as a witness if it goes to court."
He took me over to a couple of chairs and sat down. He leaned forward, with his elbows on his knees, so he could look right at me. "Right kiddo. What's so secret?"
"I know you're not really a doctor," I said quietly.
"Oh-kay." He sounded confused. "Why?"
"I know you're a spy who's working undercover as a doctor, but I wondered if you met any actual doctors at your conference today. I promise I won't tell anyone your secret identity."
"Good, good. We wouldn't want my secret spy identity getting out. Why do you need a doctor?"
"My sister is sick. My Mom and Dad are at dinner and my Mom's phone won't answer and Elise won't wake up." I could feel tears in my eyes, but I tried really, really hard not to cry.
"Right. Well, you're in luck, because I do know a doctor." He waved a hand to the pretty lady and called her over. Just before he stood up, he leant over to me and said, "Don't let her know my secret."
"I promise," I said and spat on my hand and I crossed my heart, which is the ultimate promise-keeper.
"That's disgusting," he said. "But I'm glad to know I can trust you." The pretty lady came up to us and he talked to her. "Cuddy, Angela's sister is sick and she can't find her Mom and Dad. Can you take a look?"
"I have my room key right here and it's on the twelfth floor," I said and I showed her the white plastic card. The lady looked worried. "Please," I said, and I couldn't help it, but I started to cry just a little bit. I was starting to worry about how long Elise had been by herself.
"Of course, sweetie. Come on, let's go."
The nice lady took my hand and we started to walk towards the elevators. Mr House didn't follow us and I held back. "Aren't you coming too?" I asked him.
"Come on House, I might need your help anyway."
He looked like he didn't want to come, but that now that the nice lady had asked he had to. I was worried then, because what if he gave away his cover in front of the real doctor? Would he have to kill all of us?
"Maybe you can help find my Mom?" I said. I thought that perhaps if I gave him a job that wasn't doctoring, that would be okay.
He grumbled, but came along. In the elevator he offered to let me push the button, but I let him do it, because I realised that it wasn't that much fun if Elise wasn't there to fight with about it. In the elevator they talked about stuff, but I wasn't really paying attention – I was wondering about Elise. I heard Mr House talk about the swimming pool and my Dad and the furniture show.
When we got to my room, I suddenly got really nervous. This was exactly what Mom and Dad had told me never to do. Never, ever, let strangers in the room. It was okay if they were wearing a hotel uniform and bringing us room service, but no one else should ever be let in unless Mom or Dad was there. I put the key in the slot, but then I turned around.
"I don't know if I should let you in. Mom and Dad told me not to let in strangers."
Mr House the spy shook his head and made that annoyed noise again. The pretty lady knelt down and then took a card out of her purse. She handed it to me.
"Angela, my name is Lisa. This is my card, I work as a doctor at a hospital. You can keep this card and show your Mom and Dad when they get back, so they know who was here."
I took the card and thought maybe that would be okay. The card had her phone number, so Mom and Dad could check up on her later, and my Dad had already met the spy.
Lisa stood up and put a hand on the door. "How about we see how your sister is doing? If she's all right, then I promise we'll leave right away and go back downstairs and you can watch a movie or something."
"I was watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," I said. "Okay."
I opened the door and let them both in. I was half expecting that Elise would jump out from the bathroom and say "boo!" because she tricked me and then I would look like an idiot and the spy might kill me just because he felt like it.
But she didn't – she was still lying on the bed. Her face wasn't so red, but she was still breathing funny. Lisa went over and sat down next to Elise and put her hand on her forehead, just like my Mom does when we have a fever.
"What's your sister's name, honey?"
"Elise," I said. I noticed that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was already up to them being in the boat and going through the tunnels past the whipped cream, so I'd missed all of the bit where Charlie remembers his Dad. I didn't actually mind, because I don't like that part so much. Besides, I've got it on DVD at home.
"Elise? Elise?" Lisa was shaking Elise and trying to wake her up. But it was just like when I tried to wake her up, she just kind of groaned and wouldn't open her eyes.
"House? She's burning up and unresponsive. I think we should get her to a hospital."
The spy went over and touched Elise's forehead too, then he snapped his fingers in front of her face and said her name loud, like my Dad does when he's cross. Elise must have thought that's who it was, because she screwed up her nose and said "Daddy" really quietly, but she still didn't open her eyes.
"Yeah, call the paramedics," he said. He didn't have to do much to pretend to be a doctor, I thought. Lisa seemed to believe him, because she pulled her cell phone out of her purse and dialled. I was just glad that Elise was getting help from a proper doctor and that I didn't blow his cover, because now he wouldn't need to kill anyone.
It was pretty scary when the ambulance people came, there was a lot of people in hotel uniforms with them too. The ambulance man put a mask over Elise's face and listened to her heart with a stressoscope. Lisa talked a lot to one of the ambulance men and she held Elise's hand and brushed her hair back like Mom does if we throw up. I thought Elise might think it was Mom and that might make her feel better.
I just stood back in a corner, near the TV. I was sort of watching Charlie, but only because I didn't want to listen to what all the adults were saying. Some of them were saying mean things about my Mom and Dad.
Mr House the spy came over and sat on the bed next to me.
"I'm going to the hospital with your sister and Cuddy's going to stay with you until your Mom and Dad get back, okay?"
"Okay," I said. "I hope Mom and Dad won't be mad."
"Why would they be mad?" he asked me. Then he whispered, "If you were a spy, you'd get a medal for this."
"Really?"
"Really. You were very brave. It's called service above and beyond the call of duty."
I figured he'd know all about spy medals. "Can you put spy medals on your jacket like my grandpa does?"
"No. Spy medals are secret. I've got about fifty, but I can't show them to you."
I nodded. It made sense. "You'd have to kill me, right?"
"Yep."
"I promise to keep it secret. And I should call you Dr House not Mr House, so no one knows?"
"Sure, kiddo, whatever."
Just then my Mom and Dad got back. My Dad started yelling, asking what was going on, and my Mom saw Elise and ran over to the bed. Lisa was telling Mom what happened and then Mom started crying and hugging Elise. Then the ambulance man said that Mom had to let go, because Elise had to get put on a stretcher so she could go to the hospital. Mom let her go and then she started hugging Lisa. I don't know why.
My Dad kept saying, "We were only gone for an hour." Dr House went over to my Dad and said something about dehydration and fever and that because Elise is little she gets sick fast. I know that dehydration is when something gets all the water sucked out of it because I learnt about that in science this year. I didn't know why Elise would be dehydrated when she'd spent the afternoon in the swimming pool though.
Dad was still yelling, but he was shaking Dr House's hand and saying thank you a lot. Dr House said that I had probably saved Elise's life and that I deserved more chocolate. Then he said that he'd left his drink in the lobby and he left. I think my Dad might have hurt his hand, because he kind of had to pull it away from him.
It was a weird night after that. My Dad went in the ambulance with Elise. Lisa left after a little while; she gave me a hug before she went. Mom stayed with me, and made me sleep in the big bed with her. She kept saying sorry and she plugged her cell phone into the charger – her battery was dead and that's why she didn't answer when I called her. My Dad rang a few times to tell Mom what the doctors were doing and to say that Elise was going to be okay.
The next day, Elise got out of hospital. She got spoiled, just like I had when I broke my arm, but I didn't really mind. Especially because I got spoiled too. Dad said that I was very brave and that I deserved special treats because if it wasn't for me being smart enough to go and find two doctors, Elise might have got much sicker. I didn't tell him that there was only one real doctor.
I never saw the spy again. I had secretly hoped that he might find a way to get me one of those spy medals, but he didn't. I guess they really were as secret as he said. Sometimes, although I know it's not very grown up, I pretend that I have a secret spy medal and no one else can see it. And I wonder whether Mr House the spy ever caught those smugglers.
And that's how I saved my sister's life this vacation. And met a spy.
The End