Zipped

3: The Jump

Molly

We planned on jumping at midnight. But, at 8:00, we were all packed and ready to go. It was still too light out to do anything, so I came up with an idea.

“Thomas?” I asked softly, looking up at my brother. I sat on his bedroom floor, leaning against the side of his desk while he sat above me.

“What?” Thomas asked as he looked away from the piece of paper that held his gaze.

“We’ve been planning for four hours, and the jump is four hours away. We need to do something,” I told him.

“Like what?”

I looked straight into his eyes. “I want to know why Mitchell was zipped.”

“They said it was for crimes against the government, Molls. You heard Officer Thompson say that,” he reminded me.

“But what did he do? What did he do that was so terrible that they had to issue the death penalty to an eighteen year-old boy?”

“Why do you want to know?” Thomas asked.

“Because I want to,” I answered plainly. “Will you come with?”

Thomas sighed. “Okay, fine. But how are we going to do that?” Thomas said before he turned to face me. He crossed his arms over his chest, a look of slight curiosity in his eyes.

“Go to the police station…?” I trailed off, my question hanging in the air. I thought that was fairly obvious that you go to the police station to see why it happened.

“You think they’ll actually tell us what happened?” Thomas asked me.

“Arrest records are public, smart one,” I said with an eye roll. “Especially if they were convicted and given the death penalty.”

Thomas sighed. “Sorry for not knowing something,” he said. “We’re all set. Let’s go.”

I smiled a bit, and got up. “Come on,” I said, heading down the stairs and out the door, leaving my brother to run after me.

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“We’d like to see the arrest records for Mitchell Oliver,” I said to the policewoman behind the desk at the police station. I was trying to sound as calm as possible.

“You mean the man who was zipped today?” The woman asked me. When I nodded, she said, “Alright. Give me one second.” She got up from her desk and went to a back room. In Restless Isle, we kept all the arrest records in paper form in a back room of the police station.

The woman came back, a manila envelope under her arm. “Mitchell Oliver’s arrest records,” she said as she gave us the envelope. “Please return this to me when you’re done,” she requested.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said as I took the envelope. “Come on, Thomas,” I said, and then walked away to sit down so I could read them in one of the waiting room chairs. He followed me and we both sat down in the waiting room.

I opened the envelope and looked at the sheet. Mitchell’s name was on it, as well as an arrest date. But, then I read the reason for arrest.

Crimes against the government of Restless Isle

But what did he do?

Thomas read over my shoulder and saw this. “So, nothing?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I answered. “I’ll give this back to the policewoman. Maybe she can tell us what exactly happened.” I stood and went over to the lady, slipping the records back into the envelope. “Excuse me?”