Seasons of Heaven (17 page)

The dorm supervisor had an office just across from the cafeteria on the first floor. That was another place he was sure there had to be an extra set of keys. The office was always open; Yann would just have to find a way to get in and out unobserved.

Once he was able to get the key, he had a route mapped out. He slept on the second floor, so he would wiggle in the air vent of the second floor, and slide down to the first floor. Then he would pass by the security office while the nurse on call…a large, older woman who was rarely awake at her post, slept. It would be more difficult if the guard was there, but he was not going to let that keep him from trying. The last step would be unlocking the door and head home on foot. All he was waiting for now was the perfect opportunity for it all to come together. In the meantime, he was just surviving as he bid his time.

THE ORPHANAGE DORMITORY – NIGHT

Several Weeks Later

That night as Yann was lying on his bed and just about to doze off he suddenly heard two loud bangs. The dormitory resonated and chaos ensued. Yann didn’t get up; he didn’t want to be in the line of fire when the staff arrived. As it turned out, that was a good thing because Pratt himself suddenly appeared through the door. The dormitory became instantly silent, so quiet that a pin dropping would have seemed loud.

The boy who had lit the firecracker hadn’t even had time to ditch the lighter. Pratt didn’t ask any questions. He pulled back his fist and landed it in the center of the freckled face of the twelve year old pyro technician sending a wave of shock and fear through the silent observers. The boy’s body suddenly looked small as it flew back a few feet, spraying blood from his nose and landed in a heap on the dirty, cracked floor.

Pratt gave a glance around with his misshapen face and dark, evil eyes and said,

“I hope you all learned a lesson!!! Everyone in bed, NOOOOW!” He stopped only to pick up the crumpled form of the unconscious boy by the collar, drag him over to his bunk and toss him on like a rag doll. Yann watched in utter horror as the surreal scene unfolded before his eyes. Pratt then stormed out the door he’d come in through and slammed it behind him, plunging the room back into darkness.

The next day as Yann ate in the crowded, noisy cafeteria, he couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d seen the night before. In Yann’s world, a grown man…or woman for that matter would never lay their hands on a child in anger. Yann knew from his own experience that Pratt wasn’t a compassionate man in any way. He knew that he wasn’t a nice man, but he hadn’t known until last night just how blatantly evil the man was.

Yann tried to push the frightening images of Mr. Pratt punching the child out of his mind by calling up memories of home. He thought about Shirley and Ani and how happy they would all be once he was back at home with them. Suddenly he told himself,

“Tonight is the night.”

He picked up his tray right then while all of the other kids continued to eat and the staff continued to watch them for unruly behavior. He dumped his tray and slipped out into the hallway, headed for the dorm supervisor’s office. He knew that he had to be quick, they’d be finished eating soon and the halls would fill with people.

As quietly as he could, he slipped into the office and tiptoed over to the desk. He began searching the drawers from top to bottom. He located a metal box in the bottom drawer that contained three identical keys with a tag marked, “Front Entrance.” He slipped one of the keys off the ring and into his pocket. As he quietly slipped back into the hallway he found himself wondering why the other kids hadn’t done this already. It was so easy…

********

              That night as the children were all in their beds and drifting off to sleep, Yann waited. He’d begun to worry that someone would have noticed one key was missing and would be watching and waiting to see who tried to use it. He knew if he was caught that the punishment would be the most severe of anyone he’d received so far.

He lay on his bunk with his eyes closed, breathing as slowly and softly as he could, so it would appear that he was asleep. Within the first half hour, the supervisor passed and turned off the lights. The room was ensconced it darkness suddenly, only faint shards of light passed through the window from the outside. Another half hour and things were completely silent, everyone had gone to sleep.

Yann sat up slowly, making sure the bunk didn’t creak or let out a sound. He slipped on his shoes and then standing up just as carefully, he snuck between the beds towards the door. He slid quietly out the door and into the pitch black hallway. Using the walls to guide him he made his way down the hall towards the vent. He passed a door on his way and from behind it he heard a soft whining noise and the sounds of two people’s hushed voices. He didn’t stop to listen he had no time to lose. He continued to fumble in the dark, into the vent and down two floors.

He made his way to the main hallway. Once he was there, he felt even more anxious than he had upstairs. He crept down the hallway until the information office came into view. The guard was there and Yann held his breath as he crept underneath it. He was so afraid when he finally made it to the front door…too afraid to even turn around and find out if he was being observed. He put the key in his right hand and slid it delicately into the lock. He turned it gently and with more stealth than even he realized he had, he slipped out into the night, closing the door behind him. He was hoping that would slow them down if they discovered that he’d left.

Yann walked quickly, not running for fear of falling and injuring himself in the dark or making unnecessary noise. He knew if he didn’t get away now that he would be met with the darkest corners of the director’s soul when they took him back.

The fresh air felt so good on his face. He looked up at the night sky, covered in clouds as he walked. It was completely black and impossible to see the stars, only scattered and random shards of light broke through. Yann continued his path along the sidewalk and he lowered his head every time a car passed by. He observed the road signs trying to find his way in the dark. He didn’t want to waste time by getting lost.

He felt good to be away, but the fear of getting caught still silently ate away at him, feeding the terror that welled up when he considered what the punishment might be. He continued his path along the sidewalk lowering his head every time a car passed by, still observing the road signs. He felt lost but as he passed trucks and cars he feared asking for help or directions.
What if they called the police? What would they think of discovering him alone, out in the night?
He was already a few miles from the orphanage which made him feel good, but he knew that Shirley still lived quite a ways away. Her home was in a nice area. He had memorized the address and the directions. He needed to take Park Slope on the 15th St. to Flatbush Ave and then Prospect Park West to Fourth Ave. It was probably another forty minute walk, according to his calculations. That wouldn’t be the problem, he was comfortable walking. The problem was that the night was growing colder and the neighborhoods that he would have to pass through in the dark wouldn’t be near as nice as the one that Shirley lived in.

He considered his options. He could find a place to sleep until the sun came up, or he could run and get there faster. He started to run. He ran across the park, jumping over trash bags and vaulting benches. He was bound and determined to make it. It was still pitch black outside, but his eyes had adjusted and the occasional street lamp helped him find his way. He’d begun to almost believe that he was going to make it when there was suddenly an overwhelmingly bright beam of light in his eyes.

“Young man! Stop! This is the police! Come closer so that I can see your face!” It was a policeman. He would take Yann back to the orphanage…he couldn’t go back there. He had to find Ani. He didn’t stop, he ran even faster.

He heard the policeman yell out after him again…”Stay there!” Then he saw the swivel of the red and blue lights and heard the loud wail of the siren as the police car began to pursue him. Yann turned into a narrow street and heard the squeal of the car tires behind him. The road was too narrow and Yann too fast for them to catch him that one. One of the policemen jumped out of the car and began to pursue him on foot.

“Stop, for God’s sake! We do not want to hurt you!” the breathless policeman called after him.

Yann kept running. He felt as if his heart was about to explode in his chest. He couldn’t hear anything except for the sound of his own ragged breaths and the rapid pounding of his heart. Then suddenly his heart stopped. There was a loud crash in front of him and it took him several seconds to realize that the police car had hit the wall in front of him and blocked his passage out. Yann stopped running. His whole body was quivering, not from the cold but from the sheer terror that raced across every nerve in his body.

“Come on, my boy, don’t move, okay? Nobody wants to hurt you. Where are you coming from?” the policeman said, shining the light again on his face.

“I…do not want…do not want to go back there…Please!”

“What are you talking about? Where is it that you don’t want to go? Can we call somebody to come and get you?”

“Shirley…”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“RETRIBUTION”

ORPHANAGE

The Next Day

              Yann sat like a stone while Shirley and Eddie tried to figure out what was going on and what to do. They both knew that Yann didn’t want to be there, but neither of them had enough information to know how bad things were, and what kind of punishment Yann would be facing when they left.

              “Yann, we just need you to be patient. We’ll find a solution…I promise. We’ll work as fast as we can to get you back home, okay?”

              Yann didn’t respond. He didn’t even look at Eddie. He and Shirley had been trying to talk to him for quite some time. His response had been the same.

With tears in her eyes, Shirley told him,

“Give me a kiss, the next time I will try to bring Ani, okay?” Yann didn’t respond to her either. He was hurt, confused, afraid and angry and he had no one else to punish for it. Shirley and Eddie eventually left and Yann quietly returned to his bunk. He just sat there, alone for hours. He didn’t know what the punishment for leaving was going to be, or when it would be doled out…but he didn’t plan to still be there when it was time for it to happen. He was already thinking of retrieving the key once more. That time was a trial run…this time would be for real. He couldn’t think of anything but getting to Ani. They had been separated for too long. The distance between them made it impossible to communicate and Yann felt as if a part of his soul were missing.

“Hey stupid,” Yann looked up at the tall boy that had approached him. He was one of the “Eagles,” a very bad kid with nothing but trouble on his mind. “Why did you come back?” the kid asked him in a mocking tone.

“I did not come back  ... I was brought back!” Yann told him. He was feeling angry enough that he didn’t care what this boy might do to him. “All I want is to get out of here  ...”

“But you can’t leave. It’s not possible,” the boy said. He was still obviously taunting.

Yann had been trying so hard not to cry, but the tears finally escaped their binds and began to flow freely down his face.

“I want to see my parents,” he said.

“Don’t cry like a baby, when somebody is dead, they’re dead!”

Defiantly, Yann wiped the tears away on the back of his arm and said,

“I am not a baby...And what you said isn’t true, there is always some hope!”

“Listen, I don’t care about your personal stories,” he said, laughing.  “We all have more or less the same one.” He stopped talking then and for a few moments only stared at Yann as if deep in thought. Then, with a malicious smile he said, “If you want, you can always see Eric, he may have something that will help you!”

“What do you mean?” Yann was confused. How could Eric help him? Eric was one of the worst boys in the place.

“Go see him. Tell him you’re sad and you want to be happy,” he said, laughing.

Yann’s illness didn’t interfere often in his life, but in this case it painted a false picture of what was really happening in Yann’s mind. He saw the boy smiling and heard him laughing. He interpreted that as happy…helpful. The truth was he was hateful and what he and the others were planning was nothing that would help Yann.

The director had held a meeting earlier in the day. The boys were all told that because of his escape…and the director had been sure to point him out…the rules would be stricter and the penalties for breaking them, harsher. Their lives were about to become even more difficult. Yann didn’t know it, but while he was missing and they had the police searching for him, Mr. Pratt had even put his hands on a few of the boys, smacking them the way he had the boy with the fire cracker.

Yann thought about what the boy had said. What would it hurt to just ask Eric what he could do to help him? He went downstairs to the other dormitory to look for him. He didn’t notice that the other boys were watching him to see if their plan was going to work.