Madeline's Transformation

Madeline and Will left that night and she arranged to meet her brother at the airport. They were flying unofficially, so they wouldn't be noticed. Madeline and Will wore wigs and dark sunglasses. Madeline found a fake moustache for Will to wear. They wore different clothes, and pretended to be Australian tourists. They had fake names: Marissa and James Wilson. They were given "fake" passports.

On the airplane, they were sitting next to an American woman who was returning to the States.

'Hi, I'm Janice Stark.' She said shaking Madeline's hand.

'Nice to meet you, I'm Marisa Wilson and this is my husband James.' Madeline said. Janice, when finished shaking their hands, started talking about her trip in Australia.

'You sound Australian.' She said.

'Yes, we are.'

'What part of Australia are you from?'

'Melbourne. I'm originally from the southern part of Australia, but when we got married we moved to Melbourne so James could pursue a career in dentistry.' Madeline made up the whole thing as she talked.

'Oh, so you're a dentist?' Janice said to Will.

'Not exactly, after my first year in dentistry school, I decided I wanted to be a police officer.'

'That's fascinating, because my husband was a police officer and then became a dentist.' Janice said. 'And what do you do?'

'I'm a writer, I mostly write for newspapers, but I'm working on a book.' Madeline explained.

'Oh, what's it about?' Janice asked.

'Well, I don't want to give too much away, but it's basically about a young girl who leaves home at age 17 and marries a rich British man. But when he dies, she is left with debt and has to sell her house and most of her stuff. It follows her exciting adventure as she tries not to be homeless and what not.'

'That sounds kind of like that new Princess everyone's talking about, Madeline.' Janis said. 'I was so mad when she married Prince William; I think he's gorgeous.'

Will blushed, but Madeline rescued him from embarrassment.

'I know, isn't he just beautiful?' Madeline said, trying not to laugh. 'We watched that interview they did last night, I couldn't stop staring at him. James was getting kind of jealous I think, because he kept changing the station.'

'I watched that too!' Janice said. 'I thought it was so funny when the interviewer asked them when they were going to have any children, and they were both like, "umm... I don't know..." That was an awkward question to ask, I mean they've only been married, what four days?'

'I know, I felt so bad for them.' Will said.

'That's funny.' Janice said looking at Will. 'You know, it's kind of ironic, you look a little like him. If you had lighter hair and didn't have a moustache.'

'I know, that's why I married him.' Madeline said and then kissed him on the cheek.

'How long have you two been married?' Janice asked.

'Nearly a year. Our anniversary is next week.' Will said.

'We're going to the States to celebrate and visit some friends. I went to university in New York and we were going to stay with them for a few days.' Madeline explained.

'Which university did you go to?' Janice asked.

'University of New York City, it's a liberal arts school. I studied writing.'

The rest of the plane ride was like this. Luckily Janice got off in Washington DC. They had a 10-hour layover, so they left the airport and got a taxi.

'Hello, mate.' Madeline said in her best Australian accent.

'Where would you like to go?' The cab driver asked.

'Not sure, we've just got a layover, so we thought we'd do some touring. But we need to go to the bank first, unless you'd like to be paid in Australian dollars.'

'To the bank it is.' The cab driver said pulling out. 'What part of Australia are you from?'

'Melbourne.'

They stopped at the bank and exchanged their money for US dollars; they had about $150 each. Then they toured the capitol for a while. It was a nice day in May, but there weren't any tourists. They saw the Lincoln memorial, the Washington memorial, the Capitol building, the US treasury building, the White House (even though they've spent the night there) and the reflecting pool. They asked other tourists to take their picture in front of these buildings. Will said it the most fun he's had in a long time. He wasn't being followed by photographers and he didn't have security guards.

They caught a taxi back to the airport and went through security just in time to make their plane. Unfortunately, they were not sitting near each other.

'James, pretend you don't speak English well.' Madeline said.

'But Marisa, what language should I speak.' Will asked.

'French, and if the person talking to you also speaks French, just don't talk.' Madeline said. 'If you need help, text me.'

Will sat down next to an older lady and prayed she wouldn't talk to him.

'Hello young man.' She said to him. 'Where are you from?'

'Er, je ne parle pas anglais.' Will said, trying not to laugh.

'What?' The lady asked.

'Er, I, no English.'

'Oh, okay.' The lady said and started reading a book, but within five minutes she fell asleep.

Madeline was not as lucky.

She was sitting next to a young girl.

'Hi, I'm Hannah, who are you?'

'My name's Marisa.'

'Why do you talk so funny?'

'I'm from Australia.'

'Where's that?'

'It's on the other side of the world, below China.'

'China?'

'How old are you?'

'I'm 9.'

'Cool'

Once in Manchester, they got off the plane and started looking for their baggage. Once they found it, they started looking for Madeline's brother, Olivier.

They found him and he brought them to his apartment. Only when the shades were closed and the door locked did Madeline and Will remove their disguises.

'It's nice to see you, Olivier.' Madeline said. 'Will, this is my brother Olivier, Olivier, this is my husband Will.' They shook hands.

'How have you been?' Olivier asked.

'Good, it's been crazy, but fun.' She said. 'And you?'

'Just great, I've been working on this car for so long, it would be a relief to see something actually done with it.'

'We're hoping we can do something about that, but we'll discuss that later. We're still on Australian time.'

The next morning they discussed how they were going to do this. It was concluded that Olivier would go back to England with them and they would introduce 'The Water Car' to England. Olivier said he would just need to convert a British car to water first; all of the cars he'd been working on were American. He would not be introduced as Madeline's brother, but as an American scientist.

When presented with Olivier's plans, parliament loved them and immediately British car companies started producing 'The Water Car'.