Gustavo runs home. His mind races from the possibility that Penelope might haven't gone far and to the possibility that they have killed her brutally. He's panting. He couldn't breath properly. He's anxious.
He has no idea what to do. He has no idea where they're taking Penelope. He has no idea what they're going to do with Penelope. He is worried.
I have to go to the police station. That's the only possible thing that Gustavo can only think of. He immediately takes his car keys and his satchel. He takes Penelope's photo which he took another day with the camera. Then, he locks the front door before he starts the car and leaves immediately.
It takes Gustavo arounds twenty minutes, four missed turns, and three wrong traffic lights to get to the nearest police station. He parks his car and with a printed photo of Penelope, he goes inside in rush.
"Excuse me, ma'am. I want to report a missing person." He says to the African-American police woman in the front desk. She's typing something into a computer in front her.
"We don't take reports now." Her voice sounds lazy.
"Are you kidding me? My girlfriend is kidnapped and right now she might have been raped or molested, or even worse, killed!" He exclaims, almost losing control.
She sighs and steals a glance at him. "Son, you don't talk like that to a police. You can talk to Officer Paul inside." She says lazily and she turns back to her computer again.
In the chaos of mind, Gustavo hears something inside his pocket. He fishes it out and he sees Penelope's name on it.
"Penny, where are you?" He asks as he shifts nearer the waiting room, away from the rude woman in the front desk.
"Gus, please help me. I'm scared." She sobs. "I heard them talking about Pleasure Land or something. It's in Denpasar They're taking me to Denpasar, Gus." Her voice trembles.
"Stay calm, Penny. Stay calm. I-"
Before he finishes his sentence, he hears a voice of an opened door.
"What are you doing?!" A scary voice of a guy suddenly rings through the phone.
"No, please don't- Ah! Don't!"
Then, silent.
"Penny? Penny?!" He hangs up the phone. "Damn."
He immediately goes behind a glass door where everybody seems to be very busy, going here and there, screaming things, talking to many different phone calls. The smell of espresso and old paper mixed with the smell of sweat and cigarette in the air.
Gustavo sees the name tag saying "Marcus Paul" on the desk of the man with four phones and three cellphones near him. The yellow lamp above him blinks every five seconds as if it were tired of the man's loud voice. Gustavo walks toward Officer Paul in hurry.
"You can't do that, and that's a NO!" Office Paul hangs up the green phone and picks up the Nokia cellphone.
"Tomorrow at 8... No, I said 8, not 5. End of discussion!" He hangs up and he takes the yellow pastel phone at the end of the phone line.
"Yes... Yes... Okay, fine. Send me the email this noon or the deal's off!"
He hangs up the phone and puts down his smoke to take a sip of his double caramel macchiato. "Can'tcha see I'm busy, Son?"
"I want to report a missing person." Gustavo sits down on the green chair in front of Officer Paul.
"Yeah! That's what I meant!" He says to the Samsung cellphone.
YOU ARE READING
Pinocchio
Fantasy"She's just a piece of wood" "He's just an ordinary woodcarver" And then, they met
