Authors: Philip Mcclennan
James looked torn about what he should do.
I can’t give up Chad, but Roger…
James reluctantly said nothing.
The rest of the orphanage staff came to the front of the assembly room close to where Mrs Garner was stood. The old lady grabbed Roger with her left hand and gripped the cane tightly with her right. She held out the boy’s hand and looked at James once more. “I know you know where he is, last chance.”
James looked as if he wanted to talk for a moment but stopped just as the words were about to leave his mouth.
Anger began to fill Mrs Garner’s face. “Very well have it your way!” She raised the cane high, about to deliver a fierce strike to Roger’s hand. The small boy closed his eyes in fear and several of the other boys couldn’t bear to look either.
“Wait!” a voice shouted out from the back of the assembly hall.
There stood Chad, who had quietly entered the assembly hall via the back door. “Let him go,” he said, walking to the front of the hall. “I’m the one you want, if you’re going to hit anyone with that, then hit me.” Chad walked to where Mrs Garner was stood. The woman smiled and let Roger join the rest of the boys. Two male staff members walked behind Chad and attempted to grab his arms, but he easily shrugged them off.
“Now now it’s ok, leave the boy alone,” the old lady said. “You know what you have to do, don’t you Chad. You need to be punished for leading the rest of these poor boys astray.”
Chad stared back at Mrs Garner showing no sign of remorse for his actions.
“Come here you brat.” The old woman grabbed Chad’s arm and dragged him towards her. She held his left hand out and raised the wooden cane. Some of the boys looked away in fear, they had seen this all before. Many of the boys in the orphanage had felt the wrath of Mrs Garner’s cane and the outcome was always the same. A boy would cry out in agony when stuck by it and Mrs Garner certainly didn’t hold back. In fact, truth be told she actually enjoyed dishing out punishment. She really could be a cruel old lady at times.
The majority of the boys couldn’t bear to watch and looked away. James didn’t look away, though. He looked unusually calm about the whole situation. Chad also looked surprisingly composed, considering the fact he was about to be struck with a wooden stick. Mrs Garner didn’t hold back this time either and gave Chad’s hand an almighty smack with the cane. The sound of the wood hitting flesh echoed out around the room. Even some of the orphanage staff gasped at the impact. Chad didn’t flinch, not one inch. Mrs Garner looked a little surprised and then confused. She had not held back at all and usually the boy on the receiving end of her strikes would be crying out in pain right about now. Some of the boys who had looked away began to open their eyes and looked back towards Mrs Garner and Chad, wondering what had just happened. James remained cool, almost as if he knew something everyone else didn’t.
Chad looked as if he didn’t have a care in the world standing there with his hand still held out, almost as if the cane strike hadn’t even happened. Mrs Garner was determined not to be undone and hit Chad again on the hand with the wooden stick, this time even harder. All the boys gasped as the sound of wood hitting flesh again echoed around the assembly hall. Yet again Chad didn’t budge. Mrs Garner looked him up and down, the look of confusion edged on her wrinkled old face. Chad began to find the whole thing amusing and struggled to keep a straight face. James also began to laugh under his breath. All the other boys and staff for that matter looked as confused as Mrs Garner.
The old lady picked up on Chad trying to hold back laughter and become enraged. “Do you find this funny boy?”
Chad couldn’t contain his laughter any longer and began to laugh aloud. His laughter echoed all around the hall.
“I won’t be made a fool of, do you hear me?”
Mrs Garner raised the cane high over her head and launched it downwards towards Chad’s head. Chad’s laughter quickly faded when he realised where the wooden stick was heading and tried to raise his free arm to cover his face. He wasn’t fast enough and the cane struck him right on the forehead. The wooden stick hit him with such ferocity that it snapped clean in two. Everyone in the room froze, looking on in silence. If a pin were to drop at that very moment it would have no doubt echoed around the room several times over. Even Mrs Garner seemed a little surprised that she had struck Chad so hard.
Chad, who had crouched down a little to try and avoid the impact was fine, however. He stood up straight, looking a little shocked that he WAS actually ok.
How did that not hurt? The cane is broken in half!
Chad thought in confusion.
Mrs Garner looked at the part of the broken cane she still held in her hand, and then at the broken piece on the floor. “Impossible,” she muttered in disbelief. She slowly looked Chad up and down. “What the hell are you?”
The boy was visibly shaken about what had just transpired. He stood as still as a statue, completely motionless.
Mrs Garner began to loose her cool. “You’re a freak, a freak I tell you!” The old lady gestured to the staff. “Take him, take him and put him in isolation.”
Several of the orphanage staff grabbed Chad and led him out of the room. The boy did not try to fight them at all, he was too confused by the fact that a wooden cane had just smashed over his forehead and he only felt a tiny headache.
Ms Garner continued on with her rant. “Lock him up, lock that freak up! We need to keep him away from the rest of the brats.” All of the boys looked on as Chad was escorted from the room. All of them were talking to each other, asking how could it be possible that Chad was ok.
James didn’t speak to anyone, nor did he look overly surprised by what had just happened.
So, Chad is the same as me…
The next few days Chad slept alone, cut off from the rest of the boys. He was kept like a prisoner in a private section of the orphanage. He remained in a small room, which had nothing other than a bed in it. A metal door was the only way in or out of the room, but that was constantly locked. The only connection Chad had with the outside world was a small window near the top-left hand corner of the room. One time he climbed up and gazed through the glass out into the world beyond the orphanage.
I wonder what it’s like out there?
That day he had stared aimlessly out of the window until it went dark. On this day, Chad sat on the end of the bed, like he had done for the majority of the last three days. He swung his legs back and forth in boredom. There was literally nothing for him to do inside the small cell. Chad began to hear footsteps from the corridor outside. Through a darkened window at the top of the metal door, he could see the outline of someone’s shoulders and head. Someone was peering into the room, but he couldn’t make out who. Chad stood up from the bed and looked at the person who was standing on the other side of the door.
“Let me out, please let me out,” he pleaded. He’d had enough of his prison. The boy had been stuck inside it for three days, with no company and no one to talk to. Chad had come to hate the deadly silence he had been subjected to whilst on his own and wanted more than anything to be reunited with James and the rest of the boys.
A letterbox hole at the bottom of the door slid open. Through the hole slid a plate of food, soup to be exact. Chad loathed soup and besides he wasn’t hungry, he just wanted to get out of the room. Chad picked up the plate of soup and looked back at the figure who was still looking at him through the darkened window. Chad snarled at the figure and hurled the plate at the window. The plate smashed and the soup splattered against the glass.
“Let me out!” Chad screamed as loud as he could.
“You’re not going anywhere freak,” said a familiar old voice. It was Mrs Garner at the other side of the door. She laughed for a few moments and walked away, leaving Chad all alone once again.
The boy simply sat back down at the edge of the bed and began to cry.
Late that night, Chad lay on the bed, still locked away in isolation. Although his eyes were closed he was, in fact, wide-awake. He couldn’t sleep a wink that night. As far as he knew, he was never going to get out of this room. Chad hated being all alone, away from the boys. He especially missed James. The two had grown to become best friends and this was the longest the two had ever spent apart for as long as he could remember. He lay in complete silence in the pitch black, although Chad could see quite well in the darkness, almost as well as he could see in the daytime which he hadn’t thought strange until now.
“Pssst.”
A Voice?
Chad sat up looking to the door. The sound had come from there. Then he heard it again.
“Pssst Chad.”
Chad got out of the bed and slowly walked to the door. “Who is it?” he cautiously asked, wary of it being Mrs Garner or Jack the night man or any of the other orphanage staff he’d come to loathe so much.
“It’s me you idiot, James!” said the boy from the other side of the door.
“What took you so long?” Chad replied, trying to sound as cool as possible, but the truth was he’d never been so happy to hear his friend’s voice.
“I’m getting you out of here,” James whispered back.
“How are you going to manage that? It’s a metal door!”
The door suddenly opened up, much to Chad’s amazement. On the other side stood a cocky looking James.
“Because I’ve got this haven’t I?” James waved a metal key in Chad’s face.
Chad smiled. The smile was a mixture of him being impressed and also happiness at seeing his friend again. (Although Chad would never have admitted it)
“Not bad,” he acknowledged before stepping out of the room. “How did you find that?”
“Never mind that we’ve got to get out of here.”
“Yeah I know, where can we hide?”
“No I mean we need to get out of this whole place!” James said with a very serious tone in his voice, so serious that Chad knew he wasn’t joking. Nevertheless, Chad still asked him whether or not he was joking.
James shook his head. “If we stay here, they’ll throw both of us back in this room, or even worse. I’ve had enough of it here.”
Chad nodded his head in agreement. “Ok let’s do it, I can’t take it here anymore either. Let’s bust out!” Chad began to walk down the corridor and gestured for James to follow him. “We need to find a way out.”
The pair walked to the front door, which was firmly locked with several bolts and metal padlocks. They both expected that but thought to at least give it a try. When they turned around a man in the hallway confronted them. It was the night man Jack, who quickly grabbed hold of Chad.
“Where do you think you’re going boy?” Said the old man as he wrapped his arms around Chad.
“Let him go!” James shouted as he delivered a punch to the nightman’s ribs which actually sent him hurdling back half way down the corridor. James looked at his hand, which was still scrunched up in a fist, in amazement. He couldn’t understand how he’d managed to hit a grown man halfway down the corridor.
My strength is growing
.
A light from the top of the stars turned on. “What’s going on down there?” said the voice of Mrs Garner.
“Run!” Chad shouted and the pair fled down the corridor. They ran down a left turn, and then a right. Chad spotted a half open door and came to a halt. “Quick in here.”
James quickly followed him inside before closing the door behind him.
Mrs Garner gave chase followed by several orphanage staff who rushed down the stairs. She noticed the night man down on the floor. “Jack what happened?”
“It’s them two bastard boys, one’s let the other one out of the confinement room.”
Mrs Garner became enraged. “Get them, get them both!”
All ran down the corridor in pursuit of the boys.
Inside what was a small common room, James and Chad hid. In the room were a few leather seats, several old-looking paintings on the wall and a large piano. Mrs Garner had a great talent for music in her younger years. Her mother taught the old woman during her youth and she liked to play the piano from time to time to let the boys know she was around. She loved playing an old tune similar to Haydn Piano Sonata 59 in E Flat movement 2 before she would dish out punishment to the boys in the orphanage. Every child had learnt to dread that music.
James leant against the door with his ear and listened out for Mrs Garner and the others. He heard the old lady say faintly “
check every room, they’re around here somewhere
!” James took his ear off the door. “They’re coming,” he said with a hint of anxiety in his voice. The boys looked around frantically and Chad came up with an idea. “Quick, let’s move the piano against the door so they can’t get in.” The two boys pushed the piano over to the door and pressed it against the entrance.
The doorknob began to turn. A male voice from the other side of the door shouted. “They’re in here!”
The orphanage staff began to bang loudly on the door. Mrs Garner was shouting at the top of her voice, so loud that all the other boys in the orphanage who were upstairs in their beds had woken up.
“What’s going on?” Roger asked from his bed. Others sat up in their beds and continued to listen as the noise levels down below began to rise.
Back in the living room James and Chad continued to look for a way out. James picked up a wooden stool that was originally by the piano and threw it against the window, but it bounced off not even so much as putting a crack in the frame.
“What are we going to do?” said James, who was beginning to become consumed with fear.
The staff outside had begun to slowly edge the door open. Chad simply gazed at the window. James looked at him, wondering what thoughts were going through his friend’s head.
“Chad, come on, what we are going to do?” he asked him again. Chad continued to stare at the window. Suddenly it dawned on him.
That’s it!
Chad turned to James, “James, I think I’ve found a way out.” The staff edged the door open a little more. A hand now came through the gap where the door was opening. James looked back and realised it wouldn’t be too much longer before their pursuers would be inside the room.