Finally Ilona's kissing of Percy's cheek came to a complete halt, as Ilona announced
the need to prepare Percy's dinner as well as her own.
"I could do worse than to stay here," he thought, "I would probably never be in any
danger. I would never have to work at all. I would be with a beautiful lady and have
all of the nice things a boy could want. Still I know it isn't right to let her get away
with kidnapping me. So I must escape. The question is: Will she ever forgive me, if
I succeed?"
* * * *
"Would you like me to teach you how to dance?" she asked him after they had eaten
their dinner.
"It would be lovely to dance with you, Ilona," said Percy, looking into her eyes with
genuine admiration of everything she had done for him other than holding him there against his will.
"Then I will teach you after dinner has been cleared up," she said, and proceeded to
clear the table.
* * * *
She held his hands gently and instructed his movements as they danced around the
floor slowly.
"Do you like dancing?" she asked.
"Well it's fun with you, except that I can't be close to your beautiful face down here.
I'm a lot shorter than you are," he said.
"I can solve that problem, little boy," said Ilona. She put a table in the centre of the
room and lifted Percy up onto it.
"There, Percy. Now we're roughly the same height," she said, "So I'll hold your
hands and follow with you from the floor while you dance around the edge of the table. We won't be able to do crossovers, but we'll have a nice dance."
He was almost ready to abandon the idea of escape.
"All of this would have to be sacrified purely because she is doing the wrong thing,
and yet I believe that I should escape from that, and I do still miss Jenny Winters
too. Maybe I just might meet her again one day," he thought.
He went to bed with every intention of continuing his facade with Ilona, enjoying
it while he had to, and waiting for the chance to escape. The bottom line was that Ilona couldn’t reduce him to tiny size, and he might as well look for a way back to his regular life.
* * * *
"There'll be no end of fun and thrills with these three great toys: remote control plane,
remote control boat and remote control car..."
Percy watched the advertisement and then the cartoons returned to the television
screen.
"Ilona," he asked at breakfast, "Did you say you would be able to buy things for me?"
"Of course I will, Percy. Have you found something you like?"
"I'd better ask for the whole set," he thought, "Otherwise she might smell a rat. If she
does happen to expect me to choose one, then I shall ask for the plane."
He asked her if she could go and buy one of each of the three remote control models
for him and some batteries to work their remote controls and the models themselves.
"Why certainly, Percy. I'll bring it all home for you this morning, and you'll have
plenty of room to play with them in the large gardens outside this house."
"Thank you Ilona. Just think of the war games we could have if we each took one."
"We would have to leave the boat out of it, and save it up for the bath. I might have a
swimming pool built in the garden one day."
* * * *
While Ilona was out, Percy found some paper and a pen. He proceeded to write the
following in small capital letters:
ATTENTION PLEASE. MY NAME IS PERCY DALE. I HAVE
BEEN MISSING FOR SOME WEEKS NOW.
THERE MIGHT BE A BIG REWARD FOR YOU.
ANYWAY, CAN YOU PLEASE TELL THE POLICE THAT I HAVE
BEEN KIDNAPPED BY A LADY WHO WANTS TO ADOPT ME
WITHOUT MY PERMISSION?
I AM INSIDE THE FOUR HIGH WALLS THAT ARE BUILT AROUND
THE HOUSE AT THE ADDRESS WRITTEN ON THE OTHER SIDE OF
THIS SHEET OF PAPER.
YOU MAY KEEP THIS PLANE, BUT I COULD NOT FLY THE
CONTROL DEVICE OVER THE WALL AS WELL.
PLEASE HURRY!
THIS MAY BE MY LAST HOPE OF BEING RESCUED!
PERCY DALE.
He turned the sheet over, wrote the address on the back, and then took off his right shoe and sock. He concealed the message under the arch of his foot and covered it with the sock and then the shoe. He paced around the room and convinced himself that he could achieve the necessary deception.
"Good. It doesn't rustle about in my sock when I walk. When Ilona returns, I'll pretend to be keen to have her accompany me to run the boat in the bathtub until she eventually insists on making lunch. Then I will still have a full supply of battery power in the plane. I'll have to work fast and secretly while she is making lunch. Luckily the kitchen's at the back of the house. She'll never see the plane clear the
front wall and head for the street. I'll have to show a major interest in the car, the boat, or a completely different game, so that she doesn't notice the plane's absence too soon after lunch. I'll have to allow time for the person who finds the plane to use it, before she goes out looking for it. Then I can confess everything. She will have to let me go and hopefully flee herself. Once we're out in the street she won't be able to make me go with her, without my causing a scene at some stage."
* * * *
Ilona returned with all three toys.
"The shop has included batteries in all of them, Percy. So you can play with them without having to change the batteries over, as soon as you like."
"Could you come and watch me do the boat in the bathtub?" he asked.
"Why not? We've still got an hour before I need to start working on that curry we're going to have for lunch."
Percy had chosen a curry, which he knew from previous experiences of waiting, took a long time to cook. Ilona would be well and truly occupied by the time Percy had launched his call for help.
Lunch was eventually declared the next order of Ilona's business, and she herself added to Percy's happiness by suggesting that he go outside and try the other two toys.
He walked out the front, left her to return to the regular task of preparing their meals, and removed his shoe and sock. He opened the cockpit of the plane, inserted the folded piece of paper and sent his most recent attempt at securing his liberty over the front wall and crashing down somewhere in the street below.
"Someone must find it," he told himself, as he tied his right shoelaces up again, "I'll have to confess it soon after lunch, I suppose. If it hasn't worked, she'll go out and find it anyway."
* * * *
"How are the others?" she asked at lunch.
"I haven't tried the car yet, but you should see the plane go. Let's try the car on that clear stretch of grass out the back after lunch."
"Alright Percy."
"Thank you for buying all three of them, Ilona, and for the batteries too."
"You're very welcome. I said you could have anything, and I'm so glad that you finally asked for something."
"I would feel guilty, if you spent your money on special presents all the time, but I thought I should wait for something I really liked. You were very generous."
* * * *
"The car works well, Percy. Now I only need to see the plane."
They had eaten lunch at a leisurely pace, and spent an hour playing with the car after that. If somebody hadn't found his crash offering by now, then he had no hope of liberty from Ilona's imprisonment anyway.
"Well actually, I can't use the plane anymore. I started it up at the front of the house, and it flew up towards the street. I could make it go forwards easily, but the steering dial on the remote control did not seem to stop it from flying right over the wall and crashing somewhere, I suppose. I guess it was very silly of me."
"Don't be sad, Percy. It wasn't your fault if it didn't work. I can always buy you another plane, with a new remote control too."
"You're very understanding to me, Ilona."
It had all come to him, even as she had asked. What was there to lose? Why not stall for even more time?
And she had taken the bait!
Ilona was not even going to bother searching for a plane that she thought must obviously have been broken beyond any constructive repair. He decided to wait one more hour, and then give Ilona a chance to escape from the police.
"By that time it will be half past three, and half the school children will be close to home. Somebody must find it by then."
* * * *
"Ilona, I have set up a sneaky trap for you, I'm afraid," he said.
They were playing cards.
"What do you mean?"
"I sent a call for help out on a piece of paper wrapped in the plane's cockpit. I made it while you were buying the plane. The police will be here soon."
"Oh no! I'll have to leave. I can get at my money, but I will never be able to use this house again. You fooled me well over all these weeks Percy, but why did you tell me now? You could have waited for the police to break that locked door down."
"I have to give you a chance to get away."
"Why don't you want to see me arrested?"
"You remind me so much of my Jenny. Liking you wasn't a trick. I really did like you the whole time. The only trick was me pretending not to try to escape from here."
"There's no way I could drag you along now. I'll have to let you go. You're a clever boy, tricking me into buying that plane for you."
She collected some small personal items and then led him out to the gate, unlocked it and put her arms on his shoulders in the street.
"I guess this is goodbye, Percy."
He burst into tears.
"I hated being trapped here, but I'll miss you, Ilona. I'll miss you very much. You're a pretty lady."
They hugged each other.
"I don't want you to go to jail. You never really did anything to hurt me," said Percy, still crying.
"Thank you very much for warning me about what you had done."
"I would have warned you earlier, but I had to be sure that the plane would be found before you noticed it missing."
"I understand. You were brilliant."
They heard the sound of an approaching siren several blocks away.
"Percy, I will never get away in time. They will arrest me."
"No they won't, Ilona. You hide in the front garden bushes next door until I can draw them all inside. I'll let them think you're still in the house. I'll be keen to show them the alarms on the house doors, and everything I can to get them inside. You slip away when the coast is clear," said Percy
"Thank you, Percy!"
She kissed his cheek and ran for the bushes next door.
Soon the police wagon arrived. Two officers stepped out, as well as the local
postman, who held the remains of the plane in his hand.
"I saw it lying on the road," he explained, "and thought of doing it up for my son, but
then I found your letter. It took some time to convince the police I wasn't making a
game or a joke, but I am glad you're alright, lad."
"She seems to have gone out, after she bought me the toys," he said, "It gave me my
chance to escape. You should see the alarms on the doors and the barred windows.
She has had me here for weeks."
"We might never catch up with her," said a policeman, "but we'll all search the house
now. It might give us some clue as to where she went."