And anyway she wanted to keep an eye out for red sweater and corduroy pants guy - just in case.
“You sure you don’t mind? We’ll be back soon.”
“Course not. They take virtual pay right?”
Lara chuckled. “This isn’t DisneyWorld.” She rummaged in her purse and gave Ally a couple of twenties before heading back to the car with Charlotte.
But her friend was only a few feet away when she turned back. “Look!” she urged.
Ally looked to the man her friend was pointing towards, heading their way, and immediately scrunched up her nose. He was indeed wearing the right colour combo, but he looked to be about eighty years old.
Still …
“Excuse me, are you J.T Turner?” Ally asked, when the guy neared the back of the line, feeling a bit ridiculous.
He was far too old to be the owner of the suitcase. And his pants were more olive, not green.
“What did you say?” He leaned closer, obviously a little hard of hearing.
“I’m looking for a man named J.T? Maybe an author?” she repeated, a little louder.
The man smiled, and Ally felt her heart lift a little until he spoke again. “I wish I could help you. The only J.T. I know is long gone. But if you’re ever in need of a Malcom, that I could help you with,” he added, with a wink.
“Thanks anyway.” She grabbed Riley’s hand and shuffled back up her place in the line, feeling a little stupid now.
When finally, they entered the ice maze, she glanced dubiously at the ten foot walls of ice and did a rough calculation in her head of the approximate square footage.
It had to be at least five thousand square feet.
Once they were inside, it would be almost impossible to continue her hunt for her mystery notebook guy - unless he happened to be directly in front of her in the maze.
As she and Riley headed off down the first corridor, they had two choices; right or left.
Ally peered down each of the options, trying to gauge which was correct and which would lead into a dead end. There was no way to tell. And she didn’t like the odds.
“Let’s go this way, Aunt Ally,” Riley chose the left without any thought.
But Ally was frustrated. If she had her phone, she could’ve grabbed an aerial view of their current location, focused in on the ice structure, downloaded the data into a GPS and then programmed it to find the quickest route possible to the exit.
They’d be in and out in no time.
But without GPS, this was going to take forever. And if they got lost, there was no way to call for help either!
She broke out in palpitations a little at the thought of being without her trusty phone, until Riley tugged on her jacket. “Come on! It’s this way.”
Ally forced herself to smile through her panic; this little guy was depending on her.
He took off running and Ally caught him at the next fork, just as he was turning left. She figured this was taking them backwards though, and he was most certainly heading in the wrong direction.
“Riley? I think we went the wrong way.”
Laugher filled the ice passage, as he once again turned left, causing Ally to lose all sense of direction.
“Think we’re lost?” he teased.
“I know we are.” This made Riley laugh even harder as he took off once again, taunting her to catch him.
And despite herself, and for the first time since she’d got here, Ally began to forget about her missing suitcase, and actually have some fun.
