I Think My Dad Is a Spy

by Sognia Vassallo

  Partly that was the truth, I had forgotten my bag. It was still sitting in the hallway where I had left it.

  “Really!” said Dad sounding unconvinced, “I’m still confused though. What were you doing under the kitchen window in the first place?”

  Now I was confused, didn’t he just hear what I said?

  Dad was looking at me suspiciously and I could tell he was trying to read my expressions.

  I did my best to keep a blank look on my face but it was hard. I couldn’t help but feel I had the words ‘liar, liar, pants on fire’ written boldly across my forehead. I felt a lump grow in my throat. I tried swallowing but it was too dry, instead I just gagged and made a choking sound.

  Luckily Chelsea felt sympathetic; she rushed to my aid and helped me onto my feet. Dad, however, didn’t move a muscle. He just looked down his nose at me crossly with his arms folded tightly.

  “This still doesn’t explain anything Sophie. To be under the kitchen window you must have run directly past the front door, which is where you would need to go to get your bag. Yet, you were around the side of the house. So, what were you doing there exactly?” Dad asked me suspiciously.

  Chelsea interrupted him and told him to drop the silly subject and to help get me inside to be cleaned up.

  After a lot of whining and crying about my ruined jeans, sprained ankle and bleeding arm, they shuffled me into the house and sat me down at the kitchen table. As soon as Chelsea left the room to fetch the antiseptic for my ‘grazed’ arm, Dad began firing a bazillion questions at me, like:

  “How long were you under the window?”

  “Why didn’t you come straight into the front door?”

  “Did you see or hear anything that maybe you shouldn’t have?”

  I was being grilled and it was pretty scary. Dad sure knew how to interrogate somebody. I started to panic, but lucky for me his mobile phone rang just in time.

  That’s when a really odd thing happened, after Dad answered ‘hello’ his voice sounded angry. “Why are you calling me?” he spat as he darted out the front door so fast he looked like a blur.

  A few seconds later Chelsea scurried back into the kitchen with her usual bright cheery smile but it quickly fell away when she asked where Dad had gone. Then when I told her that he took an important phone call outside, her face turned red with fury.

  “THAT’S IT!” she screamed. She slammed the first aid box down so hard the lid flew open causing the cotton balls and band-aids to scatter across the kitchen table.

  Journal entry:

  Saturday, 8:32pm

  The giant oak tree at the park was our hangout and it had been for years. Janice’s brother had spread a rumour around the town that it was haunted so other kids wouldn’t go near it. The tree was over a hundred years old, with a giant split at the base which meant you could walk inside the hollow tree. It was quite a large space as far as tree rooms go; it was almost the entire size of my bathroom.

  Janice’s brother Damian and his friends had already done the hard work for us. They had dragged in logs, stumps and a tree branch for us to use as chairs and tables; it was the best hangout ever.

  By the time I finally arrived at the oak tree I was fifteen minutes late. Janice was already in a bad mood as she hated to be kept waiting. She quickly changed her mind as soon as I showed her the band-aids on my arm and I told her how I got them. I also described the rest of my morning which finished with Dad getting another weird phone call and then Chelsea losing the plot.

  “OMG Sophie, are they going to split up?” Janice asked.

  “I don’t know, but it’s not looking too good. Dad is definitely up to something and I have to find out what it is soon or they just might be heading for splitsville.”

  “Maybe that isn’t a bad thing; at least you’ll have Michael McClain out of your life forever?”

  Janice had a point, Chelsea’s son was a real pain in the butt and the thought of him becoming my step-brother made me want to puke. But the more I actually thought about it, the more I realised it wasn’t about me; it was about Dad and Chelsea being happy and they made each other happy…until recently anyway.

  “Unfortunately they’re good together and love doesn’t always came in a nice neat package, sometimes there are major obstacles in the way, like Michael. I am just going to have to deal with that problem later; right now I have to concentrate on Dad and Chelsea. It’s up to us to find the truth and solve it, before it’s too late,” I said.

  “Okay Soph, if that’s what you want, what do we do first?” Janice asked taking out her notebook and pen from her orange overnight bag. We both sat down at the log table and began to think.

  Theo had just arrived, still wearing his dance clothes. Janice looked up from her notebook and rolled her eyes at him.

  “Couldn’t you have at least changed your clothes before you came here?” she scowled rudely.

  “As a matter of fact, no! I ran the whole way here because I have some great news to tell my friends!” He said the word ‘friends’ sarcastically. Janice moved uncomfortably on her log.

  “So what’s your news?” I asked Theo quickly hoping to lighten the mood.

  It turned out Theo had come first in his ballet semi-finals and next Saturday he was going to compete in the state finals. Janice and I told him we would be there cheering him on. I was so proud of him that I gave him a big hug.

  While Theo was putting on his tracksuit over his dance outfit I told him the story of how I ruined my new jeans.

  “Oh no! They weren’t the light denim pair with the studs on the side your grandmother bought back from New York were they?” he gasped utterly beside himself.

  I nodded slowly, still feeling very sorry for myself.

  Theo’s eyes rolled back in his head and he looked as though he was about to faint. Quickly he pulled out his asthma inhaler from his black leather satchel and sucked in two deep breaths.

  “Don’t worry about me I’ll be okay in just a minute or two,” he gasped holding his hand out as he patted the air.

  To tell the truth I wasn’t worried about him at all, he could be such a drama queen at times. His overacting had made Janice roll her eyes at him.

  My friends were such opposites. If they could swap bodies I was sure they would get along much better than they did, I thought while looking at them.

  “Okay you two we have wasted too much time already but I think I have an idea about what we can do next. What’s the time now Soph?” Janice asked me quickly.

  I looked at my empty wrist and realised I had taken my watch off when Chelsea washed the blood off my arm. “Err, my watch is at home sitting on the kitchen table,” I said looking at Janice disappointed.

  “Oh never mind my mobile phone is in here somewhere,” said Janice scouring around her gigantic overnight bag. Out flew her pyjamas, slippers, two bags of chips, a packet of lollies and her toothbrush…all the essential items that made a comfy sleepover at my house.

  “It’s precisely 10:15 am,” Theo announced calmly flipping the leather case back over his phone with a SNAP!

  I saw Janice clutching her old pink phone in her hand but she quickly dropped it back into her bag.

  “Nice phone, is that the new i-one?” she asked Theo curiously.

  “Yeah, Father bought it back from Dubai for me last week, it’s all right I guess,” Theo said sounding very uninterested. “Here you can take a look at it if you want?” he said casually holding it out to Janice.

  “No!” she snapped. “Why would I want to look at your phone when I have one the same?” she fibbed angrily as she furiously shoved her clothes and things back into her bag.

  Janice zipped it up and threw it hard onto the dusty ground, making a big puff of dirt.

  I didn’t know why she was so angry; I didn’t even have a mobile phone. Dad said I didn’t have a reason to need one until I was older. I must be the only kid in high school without a phone, it was really quite embarrassing.

  By the time
the dust had settled we were putting our plan into action. We were on our way to Tony’s Taxi Station. I knew Dad must have taken a taxi to the airport for two reasons:

  1. Dad’s car was getting serviced this weekend.

  2. After their argument this morning there was no way Chelsea would be lending Dad her car—not without her going along with him.

  Luckily for us Tony’s Taxi’s was the only taxi service in town.

  Before our long walk to the other side of town we stopped off at Mrs Wong’s Deli. I needed some supplies, which included a bag of chocolate frogs and some black liquorice straps.

  “Why are you buying liquorice straps, you hate liquorice?” Theo reminded me.

  “I know, but they’re not for me, I like chocolate see!” I said showing him my mouthful of chocolate frogs.

  “Eeww you’re so gross sometimes Sophie,” he said storming out of the deli.

  Sometimes I forgot how many good manners I lacked when I hung around Theo.

  “What’s up his nose?” Janice scoffed as she stuffed several more lolly snakes into her over loaded mouth.

  It had taken us what felt like forever to walk to the other side of town and now I had a really bad stitch. Theo said it was because I had eaten the whole bag of chocolate frogs myself. That wasn’t true, I had offered them one frog each.

  “Hey look there’s Tony’s taxi,” Theo yelled excitedly, as it pulled into the taxi station. What great timing. Theo and Janice rushed over the road towards the station while I hobbled behind them holding my aching side.

  Janice was the first at the scene and she began bombarding Tony with questions before he had even opened his car door. As I had suspected Tony was a little reluctant to talk at first but after bribing him with his favourite black liquorice straps, he invited us into his office and soon told us what we wanted to know.

  (Spy rule 121:

  Bribing usually gets

  you what you want!)

  I borrowed this spy book from the library and found these really cool tips, so I’ve started to use them. Theo said I shouldn’t put too much faith in them as the book was written for kids, plus I found it in the fiction section.

  So we found out that by the time Dad got to the international airport there was already an extremely beautiful European woman waiting outside the terminal for him. (Tony thought she could’ve easily been a model.) She had one small suitcase which she refused to allow anyone to carry but herself. She didn’t want Tony to put it in the boot, so the shiny black case sat between her and Dad in the taxi.

  From the airport they went directly to the Stirling Hotel, where they both got out and went inside.

  These are some of the questions we asked Tony:

  Q. “Did you notice if the case was handcuffed to her wrist?”

  A. “No I didn’t notice, but she was very protective of it.”

  Q. “Were there any destination stickers on her case? If so where had she just flown in from?”

  A. “The only tag read from ‘New York City to Australia’.”

  Q. “Do you think they knew each other or was this their first meeting?”

  A. “Yes and no…” Tony thought for a moment. “Joseph went to shake her hand but she pulled him in and kissed both of his cheeks, it was like they sort of knew each other.”

  Q. “Did Mr George follow her into the hotel?”

  A. “Yes!”

  Q. “Did they say or do anything that made you suspect there was something more going on?”

  A. “No, um, well, yes, sort of.”

  Q. “Well which is it ‘yes’ or ‘no’? This is very important Tony.”

  A. “Okay yes! Joseph’s…I mean your father’s mobile rang several times and he kept ignoring the calls. Just as we pulled up to the hotel it rang again. She told him to answer it and he said, ‘Oh it’s not that important,’ and turned the ringer off. Then the woman, said in an accent which I think was Russian, ‘Darlink she is sure to suspect you have been up to no good, yah?’”

  I heard the gasps of disbelief from both Janice and Theo and I must admit my heart sank a little bit as I heard what Tony alleged.

  “Just one more question before we go please. Was Dad acting a little suspicious to you?” I asked.

  Tony thought hard for a moment because his bushy grey brow had wrinkled.

  “Not so much suspicious…but he was kinda’ nervous and all jumpy, like maybe he was being watched,” Tony said walking over to his desk to answer the office phone that had started to ring.

  We quickly thanked him and scurried outside the taxi station to discuss what we had learnt.

  “Whoa, what do you make of that?” I said to my speechless friends.

  “I-I don’t know what to think of it,” Theo said slumping down on the taxi stand bench.

  “I do, this just proves what I’ve been saying all along—your dad’s definitely a spy Soph and now we have proof,” Janice said gleefully.

  Journal entry:

  Sunday, 11:03am

  Janice is sleeping over and she is still trying to convince me my father could really be a spy, even more so now after what Tony told us yesterday. I don’t want to believe her. There just has to be another explanation.

  Why would my dad meet a strange woman at the airport and not want me or Chelsea to know about it?

  BUT THAT WASN’T MY ONLY QUESTION ABOUT DAD’S BEHAVIOUR…

  It all started this morning with Janice, who had hogged my bathroom for over twenty minutes. I needed to go to the loo really badly and tried hanging on as long as I could. But when I heard her starting to sing (out of tune) in the shower, I couldn’t wait a minute longer.

  Dad didn’t like me using his bathroom without asking but he was too busy cooking breakfast and this was an EMERGENCY!

  “Aaghhhhhhhh!”

  Feeling so much better I was washing my hands in his teeny-tiny sink, when I saw Dad’s shiny briefcase in the reflection of his bathroom mirror. It was just leaning there against the chest of drawers; I had never seen it just lying around before. I was drawn to it like I was under a magic spell. I knew I shouldn’t open it but it was unlocked. I really didn’t mean to snoop, but…I just couldn’t help myself.

  I already had so many unanswered questions, and if I could save Dad and Chelsea’s relationship then I had no other choice than to take a look.

  Oh heck, I’m shaking too much; I’m going to ask Janice to write the rest down for me…

  Hi Janice here, Sophie’s too hysterical to write at the moment. Anyway she found two tickets to Saint Petersburg in Mr George’s briefcase. I just looked up Saint Petersburg on Sophie’s computer and we found out it’s a city in Russia. Sophie also found some pamphlets on famous buildings including GOVERNMENT buildings in Moscow!

  (So now if this doesn’t prove your father’s a spy then I don’t know what will convince you Soph!)

  Janice Voyce (soon to be lawyer extraordinaire)!

  Signing off,

  P.S. I wasn’t ‘hogging’ the bathroom and my singing isn’t that bad!

  Okay Janice, you might have a point about my dad, but not about your singing,” I said re-reading what she’d written.

  “Maybe we’re going on a holiday and taking me with him!” I said enthusiastically.

  “To Russia! I doubt it. No Sophie I see it all now, they are both spies and are going to Russia together on a mission.”

  “Who Zoe?” I exclaimed, the thought of her going with him hadn’t even crossed my mind.

  “Yep Zoe, if that’s even her real name. I bet you a million bucks it’s not, it would be something more like Nadia Havarishnaokov.”

  “Really?! I sort of like the name Zoe,” I whispered staring off into space.

  “Anyway, all I’m saying is your dad’s got two tickets to Moscow dated next month and I doubt he’s taking you,” Janice said sternly.

  Suddenly there was a loud knock at my bedroom door.

  “Sophie you haven’t taken anything out of my briefcase have you?”
Dad asked through the door. My heart pounded loudly.

  I couldn’t speak because I was too scared to open my mouth. I looked over at Janice with panic; her usual pale speckled face had instantly turned a sickly green colour.

  “Sophie!…Janice! Are you two still in there? Dad asked thumping harder on the door.

  I could feel my own face turning green. Somehow I managed to yell the words out, “No, I haven’t Dad!”

  Technically I wasn’t lying; the truth was I never took anything out of his briefcase, I just looked inside it.

  “Hmm, I was sure I had some really important paperwork in there and now I can’t seem to find where I put the darn thing?”

  “Sorry, we can’t help you,” Janice shot back nervously.

  “Oh…um…that’s all right, I just thought I’d check,” he replied sounding distracted. Janice and I stood like statues for a few seconds until his footsteps faded off down the corridor.

  “OMG! Do you think he knows I was in his briefcase?”

  “A-ha, it sure sounds like it. Did you touch anything?” Janice asked with a serious stare.

  “Of course I did. Why?” I asked swallowing hard.

  “Did you wear gloves?”

  “NO! Of course not, where would I have got gloves from?” I blurted nervously.

  “Well maybe you should have thought of that before you touched everything. I bet he’s going to test his briefcase for fingerprints to see if you’re lying to him.”

  “NO WAY!” I gasped, “He wouldn’t…could he?”

  I paused…

  “Oh you nearly had me there for a minute Janice,” I giggled nervously, “how could he test me, the police don’t even have my fingerprints on file?”

  “Duh! The police aren’t the only ones who can take fingerprints Soph. It’s a well known fact that spies are way smarter than the police. I’m sure your dad has a record of all our fingerprints on his laptop,” she said with certainty.

  “But h-how could he and without us even knowing?” I asked confused.

  “Well, he probably took your fingerprints while you slept, and probably got Theo’s and mine from a drinking glass—oh and you know what else I just thought of?” she exclaimed excitedly, “he probably has samples of our DNA on file too!”