Chapter 3: In which Peter and Leah meet David and Mary

"I'm David and this is Mary," said David.
"My name is Peter," Peter responded.
"I'm Leah, nice to meet you!" said Leah brightly.
"Likewise," Mary responded.

Leah looked at Mary wheeling her chair. "You get along like a pro in your wheelchair. Your arms must be as strong as an ox."

"I don't know about that, but yes, they are strong." Mary said with laughter in her voice. "I was born with cerebral palsy. It's amazing how many people think it, the cerebral palsy, affected my brain and made me totally without a brain!"

"Tell me about it!" responded Leah. "I don't have any disease and my parents think I'm totally clueless!"

"In my case," David added. "It's my mother who's clueless. She completely ignores me and yet she fought to win custody of me. It's my dad who takes care of me - long distance!"

Peter's jaw dropped. He came to and commented sympathetically, "That must be awful! So why did your dad move away?"

"He was offered a lucrative position that I told him he couldn't refuse."

"CEO?" Leah asked.

"Yes. Plus he owns 2 other companies."

"My word," exclaimed Peter. "How does he even have time for you?"

"It's called 'delegation'. He is very good at assigning his work load to other people. He makes the final decision on most things, of course. And it helps that he is an extremely fast reader with nearly perfect photographic and auditory memory. It is almost like he has a computer for a brain."

"So is David's brain. His teachers hate him!" Peter and Leah smiled broadly in a knowing sort of way.

"So,I take it teachers hate both of you too," David commented matter-of-factly.

"Precisely!" Leah answered.

Peter asked, "So, what do you guys plan on doing with your money?"

"Maybe go into business for ourselves when we are older." David answered. "And you?"

"Don't know yet, " Peter lied.

"Well, this is where I live." said Mary."David, coming in for awhile?"

"Sure. We'll see you two later." Said David.

"Bye!" Peter and Leah said in unison.

David helped Peter set up a Swiss bank account on Monday morning. All of the checks were handed over to the Swiss bank agent and put safely away in their Swiss bank accounts. Afterwards, they went their separate ways. David had homework to do, and Peter and Leah were anxious to get home and plan. They merely commented that they had homework too. Peter and Leah rode their bikes quickly to Leah's house. Her parent's won't be home for another couple hours on account of rush hour traffic being really bad.

"They seemed really nice." commented Leah.

"Yeah, agreed. We need to hury up and plan. Your mother just might get home earlier. It won't be the first time she pulled that one."

"True. Well, now that we have the money, when do we kick this joint?"

"When we have a some time before they discover we are gone."

"We could always skip school. That would give us almost 8 hours."

"They would discover we were gone within 10 minutes of school starting. They take attendance, and then call our homes to see if we are there."

"So! We just stay until they call and then leave."

"That's the problem. I have been called at 1 o'clock in the afternoon! And they always call my mother to know if she knows I am not in school."

"Yeah, you are probably right. Plus we should probably find a place to live first and get it all set up, cleaned, stocked and thing like that. And we are going to want to buy things to do. We should probably not show our faces for as long as we possibly can. That way they might forget about us and stop looking.It would then be easier to walk around without being noticed."

"Actually, we should probably skip town all together and go to an entirely different state." Peter rested his head upon his hands and started to think. "I have an idea!"

"What?"

"Why don't we buy a house under an assumed name?"

"Because that would be criminally charged under federal law."

"Not if we assume an identity created for us legally."

"How, pray tell, are we going to manage THAT one? Are you out of your mind?"

"Au contraire! Your grandfather bought their mansion from a known mafia man. Who knows what was left behind in some secret room they don't even know about!"

"I'll believe that when I see it." Leah took out her notebook and started writing out things they would need if they ever got a place of their own. Her mother opened Leah's door.

"Mother!" Leah exclaimed with an alarmed look on her face. "You are home early!"

"Yes, I am. I need to talk to both of you. Your father and I need to go out of town for a couple weeks." Leah's and Peter's heart sunk."Now, I've talked to your parent's, Peter, and I got permission for you to stay with Leah at her grandparents' house."

"Her father's parents?"

"Yes."

"How about school?" Leah asked, thinking that maybe they could stay here by themselves instead and have two whole weeks to be gone before anyone noticed.

"I've arranged to pick up your books and assignments tomorrow. I'll have both of you come with me. I thought that it would be easier for you, Leah, to keep up if you have Peter to help you with your school work."

"Cool!" commented Peter.

Leah couldn't see what was cool about it. For two whole weeks they would be stuck in 'this' joint, not able to run away to freedom!

"You will want to pack immediately, Leah," said her mother before she left the room.

"We are sooo doomed!" said Leah.

"No we're not. Don't you see? We can search your grandparents' house for any documents of fake passports, I.D.'s and social security cards!"

"As if there are any in the first place!"

"Well, we won't know if we don't look. And further more, we will be able to plan without anyone being the wiser with your grandparents' hearing problems."

"True," commented Leah, still not convinced.

Peter helped Leah pack before they went to his house to pack his stuff.