Chapter 1
She gazed out her bedroom window into the moonlight outside. She sighed and flopped down on her bed, exhausted from her day. The teenager turned on her side, flipped up the two-month old picture, and broke out in tears.
Two months. Two long, agonizing months. Why, why did he have to run away? Can’t he see that there is nothing between me and William, that there will never be? I lie awake on this bed for hours at a time staring at his picture, crying, wishing for him to come back. Why, Ulrich, why. You’re the one I love, no one else. That’s how it will always be. Can’t you see that?
Yumi Ishiyama lowered Ulrich Stern’s latest school picture on her nightstand. She rolled over onto her stomach and buried her head in her arms on her pillow. A huge sob escaped between her lips, and a fountain of tears started flowing.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
Yumi’s cell phone started ringing frantically on her nightstand. She reached over with one hand, grabbed the cell phone, and put it up to her ear.
“Hello? Oh, oh hi, Aelita. No, no I’m fine. Well, ok, so I’m not alright. . . . No, no don’t come over here. I don’t want you to see me like this. Oh, ok. Fine.” She hung up the phone.
Ding-dong!
Yumi’s friend raced upstairs when her mother let her it. “Yumi! Yumi! Let me in! Please!” Aelita said as Yumi unlocked the door. Aelita ran over to the bed where Yumi had already started weeping.
“I miss him! I miss him so much Aelita!” Yumi grabbed a tissue and noisily blew her nose. “I want him to come back, to have this nightmare all be over! Why did he have to leave? Why!” Aelita comforted her in her arms.
“There, there Yumi. I’m sure he’ll come home soon. He’s been gone for a while, and you know he misses you. He saw you that day with William at the park, and when he saw William place his arm around you, he ran. He ran away as fast as he could. I tried to stop him, I tried, but he just kept running. Odd followed him up to his room secretly and saw Ulrich grab his backpack with a few of his possessions and he ran. He ran outside and just kept running, Yumi. If only he had stayed a half second longer in the park, he would have seen you swat Williams arm away and then walk away. But he didn’t. There’s nothing we could have done. Nothing.”
“I just wish I didn’t agree to . . . to . . .” Yumi let a big sob out. She took a deep breath and tried again. “I just wish I didn’t agree to William telling me to meet him in the park. I knew it would turn out bad. I just knew it. Oh, Aelita, make it stop hurting. Make it stop! I can’t take it anymore. I miss him so much!” Yumi crawled to the foot of her bed and brought her knees up to her chest, rocking back and forth.
“I’m gonna have Jeremie run something by at the Super Computer. I’ll be back before tonight, Yumi. Come over to the factory if you need me.” Aelita winked and left.
For the third time in the past 2 hours, Yumi overturned Ulrich’s picture. She held it in her hands, and then held it to her chest, hugging it tightly. “Why did you have to leave me, Ulrich? Why! I miss you! I love you more than you think! Won’t you come home! Please! I can’t even go to school anymore because being in the classes remind me of you so much! I cry all alone here in my bed, and wish that you hadn’t run away. Why, oh why did you run off!” Yumi thought to herself.
***********
“Jeremie! Hi! It’s Aelita. I’m stopping by the factory for a few minutes, can you run a search for me? Thanks a bunch!” Aelita closed her cell phone and ran over the bridge to the secret factory.
“Hi, Aelita, what’s up?” Jeremie said as Aelita walked out of the elevator.
“Can you run some sort of a search of any known whereabouts of Ulrich? I think that if we could even locate where he’s been, it would cheer Yumi up a little. She’s a wreck, sitting on her bed all night and day long sobbing and crying, and eating fatty foods that will really kill her body. You’ve got to help her. Please, Jeremie, for her sake.” Aelita placed her hand on the back of the Super Computer chair.
Suddenly, Aelita’s pocket began to ring. She grabbed her cell phone and answered the call. It was Odd.
“Hello? Odd! Odd! What’s the matter?!”
“Aelita! Aelita! I just got a call from you-know-who! He called! I’m heading over to the factory, meet me there!”
“Odd, are you serious! He called you? Ulrich called you! I’m already at the factory, hurry!”
“Yeah! He called from a different cell number! I can’t believe it either! He said he’d call me back in like 20 minutes!” Odd ended the call and raced to the factory. Aelita and Jeremie danced with joy.