Our Record Breaking Time
Last year, we found out that we are not ordinary kids. Yes, we are adopted. But, not every adopted kid finds who their birth parents are. And on top of that, people don’t normally discover that their parents are actually spies.
My twin brother Steven and I are very close. We have the same class schedule, we do homework together, and we even have the same circle of friends. We were walking back home from school one day when it happened. We had just exited the ice cream store when they took us. First they grabbed our arms and tied them. Before they put the knapsack over our heads, I saw a glimpse of them. They were big, bulky men. They had all black ski masks, shirts, shorts, and Converse on. Well at least they had style.
We were then carried to the back of a van that was in an alley. They threw us in and to no surprise, both Steven and I were screaming.
“Shut up, we are not going to hurt you. We will explain once we get to headquarters. Please don’t get the van dirty. I just cleaned this baby out from the last mission. I didn’t know that a person could bleed so much.” The man sighed. I am guessing he was the head of the group. He then slammed the door in front of us.
That set me off. I wasn’t just screaming now. I was screaming, banging, and kicking to save my life. That’s when Steven brought his wisdom into play. He lightly touched my shoulder.
“Julie, you need to calm down. There is no way that we can get out. You heard the man. They are not going to hurt us. We need to wait to freak out until after they have explained everything to us.” Steven had always been the calmest one between the two of us.
“Ok, you’re right, Steven. Thanks, I needed that.” I sat back down, crossed my legs, and started praying. The only person who could keep me safe right now was God. At that moment a certain verse came to mind. In Psalm 23:4 it says “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil…” this verse brought me to a more peaceful state of mind.
It seemed as though we were in the van for hours, but it was only about thirty minutes. When I finally felt the van come to a complete stop, I crawled to the back of the van, just in case I needed to get out quickly. But instead, the man opened the door, came in, and took the knapsacks off of our heads and untied our hands. He then got out and stood there.
“Are you coming or not. Once we get inside I will explain why we had to go to such great measures.”
We paused and looked at the man. We finally jumped out of the van and stared up at the building that was in front of us. It was about three stories high and was made of all glass. There were a lot of people hustling around inside.
“Where are we?” We were definitely not in New York City anymore.
“This is the International Agency of Youth Spies, or IAYS. We are currently ranked number one in the industry of youth spy agencies. I am Sawyer, the head spy.” The guy looked about fifteen years old. He was actually pretty cute. He started leading us into the building.
“Why are we here? I never signed up for this. I have homework to do. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson are not going to be happy about this. I am going to…..”
“Julie, you are okay. I brought you here at your parents request.”
“So you’re saying Rose and Herb Peterson wanted you to kidnap us. Bring us to this place with our hands tied and bags over our heads.” My anger management classes obviously had not paid off if it had been five minutes since I met this guy and I was already yelling at him.
“No, your birth parents wanted me to bring you here. We actually have your first mission ready, if you follow me.” We walked into the first room on the left. I was speechless.
“My…my…my birth parents?”
“Yes. You will get to meet them if you complete your first mission.” Was he being serious? We had to complete a mission to meet our real parents? We should have a right to see them, without doing anything for it.
“Awesome! Julie come on, we are getting a chance to be spies. Real life spies Julie!”
Steven seemed super excited. I have to do it if Steven is this excited. It would break his heart if I didn’t go through with this. Plus, I have gotten this far, I can’t go back now.
“Fine, what is the mission, Sawyer?”
“Well, there has been a large sum of money stolen from Barack Obama's bank account. We have traced these transactions to a man named Todd Lawrence.” As Sawyer was talking, we had moved in front of a screen that showed a picture of our Algebra teacher. “Obviously, we don’t have him contained, or else we wouldn’t be asking you to arrest him.”
“Hold up! That is not Todd Lawrence. That is our Algebra teacher, Mr. Richfield.”
“He changed his identity so he would not get caught.” Sawyer put a file on the table in front of us. “These are his files. We will take you back to your house. If you do not finish this by next Wednesday you will never see us or your real parents ever again. Once you have finished the mission put a letter underneath your door mat and that will mean that we will come to take you again. So, off you go. Get back in the van. See you later!”
We walked back into the parking lot where the van was still idling. Nothing was said. There was a lot to take in. We got in and sat down. The whole car ride back I was stuck in a daze of thoughts like “What do my parents look like?”, “How long have they worked with IAYS?”, and “Why did they give me and Steven up?”.
When we got to school the next day we went through with our daily routine. We acted like nothing was going on. After school we entered Mr. Richfield's classroom. As we walked in, he greeted us.
“Why, hello, Julie and Steven. What brings you two to my room? Are you having trouble with the homework?”
In my mind I wanted to say we were here to arrest him but I couldn’t because that is just common sense. So I had to improvise. I looked at Steven. He saw what I was going to do. He gave me a very vague nod.
“Actually yes.” I put the homework paper on the table.
“You see, I don’t really understand the concept of absolute value on number eleven.”
As he tried to pick up my paper Steven grabbed his hands. I then grabbed the handcuffs Sawyer had given me from Steven’s pocket and tightened them around Todd's hands.
“Kids, what are you doing?”
“Isn’t it obvious? We are arresting you. Just because you change your name and get a job doesn’t mean you can get away with crime. Running from the law doesn’t work.”
As we took him to the police station, I started writing the note that we were going to put under the door mat.
Sawyer-
We took him to the county jail. Please kidnap us soon, I want to meet our parents really badly.
I woke up the next morning in a limo. It had black interior and tinted windows. This was the first time I had ever been in a one.
“Good morning Sunshine.” That was a familiar voice. Sawyer?
“Yes! Thank you. I am so excited to meet my parents. So, how did we do on our mission?”
“Yeah! How did we do?” Steven jutted in.
How long had he been up?
“You guys did fantastic. You two work fast. You set a new record for the agency.” We pulled into the headquarters' parking lot, then got out. The first thing I did was stretch and yawn.
“Wow! I didn’t think we were that good.” Steven came out of the car right behind me. We walked inside and went up the stairs.
Right before I got up to the final step I saw them. Steven was a spitting image of my mom. And I, oh, I was a direct match to my dad. I knew who they were even before they came running towards us. We all wrapped each other in a small, tightly packed huddle. I am never leaving them again. I can tell already that they are sorry for giving us up and have missed us so much. They must have had some good reasons.
I had so many questions to ask, but that could wait. All I wanted then was to stay in their arms for as long as I could.