A Perfect Utopia?

Chapter 21

“I’m sorry; would someone like to explain to me what is going on!?” Mrs. Jetson’s voice was filled with steel, especially the last few words of what she had said. Aliyah and Mr. Jetson both turned to her in shock, neither having ever seen Mrs. Jetson act this way. Rodriguez simply carried on. He did not know what he was interrupting, but he knew that whatever it was could wait.

Domini was more important than anything else. Everyone knew that. While Aliyah might be mad at him first, she would understand after hearing him out. She would rather he say it now, and interrupt her conversation, then wait until later on after she had finished the conversation.

Besides, it was not like Aliyah was speaking to some sort of foreign diplomat or whatever. She was speaking to Domini Jetson’s parents. Rodriguez figured that if anyone deserved to know what had happened to Domini so far, it should be her parents.

All he knew right now was that Domini Jetson was in grave danger- and help for her was going to be needed immediately. There was not very much that Rodriguez could do himself. He did not control anything or anyone here. The only person that they would listen to was Aliyah, and so he went straight to Aliyah with this.

It all made complete sense to him; but after taking a second look at Aliyah’s face, it was clear that she did not agree with his thoughts. But he also knew that she would chew him out later on; Aliyah did not do things like that in front of important people.

And Mr. and Mrs. Jetson seemed to be very important people.

“Show me the note.” Aliyah’s stern voice drew Rodriguez out of his thoughts. With a shaking hand he drew the note out of his pocket. The words were already ingrained in his memory; it was not necessary for him to read it again before giving it to Aliyah.

She jerked it out of his hand rather roughly, but Rodriguez barely noticed at all.       

What he was actually doing was studying Mr. and Mrs. Jetson. Something about them seemed very familiar, but he could not identify it. Rodriguez felt like he knew them, or someone who looked very alike to them. It obviously was not Domini; in all the time that she had spent here, Rodriguez had barely exchanged a few sentences with her. That was not enough for him to really know her or anything about her.

So it had to be somebody else that he knew closely. It was probably a person that he was good friends with. Rodriguez did not have the greatest memory, hence why he could not remember the person, even if he had spoken to them only minutes ago. This was both a blessing and a curse at the same time.

“Focus Rodriguez!” Aliyah snapped at him. Rodriguez instantly flinched, and he saw Aliyah’s face soften for a fraction of a second before returning to the hard mask that it had been wearing before.

“Yes?” He mumbled warily.

“Where did you get this letter?”                

Aliyah was at her wits end with Rodriguez. First he had come in to interrupt the very important meeting that she was holding, and then he began to completely zone out. Granted, he did have a (somewhat) reasonable excuse for that, but he still should not have just gone running in like that. If he had just gone through a normal route; this whole situation probably would have been avoided.

But right now, Aliyah could not think about that. Right now, she needed to worry about finding Domini Jetson. Even though Domini’s parents were in the room with her right now, Aliyah would have to ignore them entirely. Domini was going to need to be her main priority right now, and nothing was going to distract her from that.

“I-I-“ Rodriguez stuttered.

“Just answer the question! I do not have time to waste!”

Those words seemed to snap Rodriguez back into the real world quickly.