SECRETS OF LEFTOVER CHILDREN

II. MEETING LIKE MINDED

Ellis was handed some supplies. The supplies consisted of a
piece of cloth, towel, slate and a piece of chalk. He was then
taken to the boy’s sleeping room. In it, most of the boys were
already sleeping. Ellis got one of the beds in the back. Across
him was an empty bed.

He quickly changed and jumped into bed. It was surprisingly
comfortable. It might be because of a long trip he just was on.
Either way, he couldn’t bring himself to comfort until the
thunder outside either calmed down or stopped completely.
Once the noises from the outside seemed to have calmed
down, so did Ellis. He closed his heavy eyelids fully and
slowly started to fall asleep.
The maniac scream was heard through the hallways. It caused
Ellis to immediately sit back up on the bed. He looked towards
the door with stressed teary eyes. Others in the room seemed
unresponsive to the screams.
One of the boys from the nearby bed, caught a glance of fully
awoken Ellis and told him:
“Oh, are you a new guy?”
“Yes,” confirmed Ellis shortly, making sure his voice wouldn’t
crack, “Do you also hear these screams?”
“Ah,” uttered the boy half-awake, he tiredly responded,
“That’s just Maie. She will be done in about two minutes.”
Ellis was visibly baffled by such relaxed response. He lift his
head up and curiously asked:
“What’s with her?”
“She has nightmares,” answered the boy, before turning his
back to Ellis and murmuring out, “Go back to sleep.”
The screams indeed stopped after two minutes. Ellis’ muscles
started to relax again. He lay back down and started to drift off
to sleep.

In the early morning, Ellis had a quick breakfast. It was
consisting of nothing else but bread, gruel, and broth. He
couldn’t complain. It was better than starving on the streets.
The rest of the children didn’t seem to complain either. They
were too focused on their meals. The chatter of absent prayer
in the morning was also the talk of the dining room. It was
concluded that their main caretaker had some business to
attend to in the morning.
“We must be cursed,” whispered out a girl next to Ellis.
Ellis turned to her and wondered:
“Is something wrong?”
The girl turned to him with large fully open eyes. She seemed
as if she didn’t bat an eye the whole previous night.
“There is always prayer present in the morning… the caretaker
abandoned us for today…” she leaned towards him and
whispered out, “It’s almost as if we’re all cursed…”
Having nothing to add to the girl’s words, Ellis simply looked
her in the eyes and said:
“May your words be blessed.”
On the other side, Ellis saw one boy taking some pills. The
boy seemed tired and sickly. Ellis quickly noticed how his
peer was left-handed.
“What are you taking?” asked Ellis.
“These pills make my pain bearable,” responded the boy with
a shattered voice.

Immediately, Ellis thought to himself how those must be
painkillers.
“I’m Ellis,” said Ellis, trying seem somewhat friendly.
“Danail,” whispered back the sickly boy while standing up.
Ellis took interest in that boy, but he kept it all to himself. He
felt a gentile hand on his shoulder. Turning back, he saw the
same girl from a while ago.
“Ellis,” she spoke softly, “My name is Maie… nice to meet
you.”
There was a presence of stillness between them. Maie blinked
a couple of times. She wondered:
“Is that what people say when they first meet? I practiced so
much, this must be it. Please tell me!”
Ellis stood up and Maie’s hand fell from his shoulder. He
looked deeply into her eyes and simply said:
“You did everything correctly,” his tone darkened as he added
in, “I’m just not the right person to talk to.”
Leaving her alone, Ellis got a list of chores to do for the day.
He was a bit surpassed to see only four things listed. He had to
wash dishes, mop up the floor, and clean windows. He was a
bit surprised by the list since in the last Orphanage the list of
chores was almost never-ending.
The laughter of children was heard through the hallways as he
was going along with his work. It was either laughter or
yelling, Ellis couldn’t make out the difference.

Ellis took one of the books from the shelf. Going to the small
courtyard he opened the book and started reading it in the poor
sunlight.
He heard a group of kids, around his age, playing football with
a torn barely round ball.
As Ellis started to get immerse himself into the book a ball hit
him on the head. The laughter of the boys echoed through the
playground. Ellis’ face made a small smile. He picked up the
thrown ball and approached the group of laughing children.
“Who threw it?” asked Ellis, displaying a playful smile.
“It was me!” said Danail, no doubt, raising his hand. There
were some bruises and scratches on it.
Satisfied with an answer, Ellis showed him the ball and said:
“Catch this!”
Ellis threw the ball at Danail’s body and Danail instinctively
caught it with both of his hands. With his hands occupied,
Ellis stepped forward and punched Danail in the face.
The fight broke out between them in a matter of seconds. Ellis
was the one who ended up on top of Danail giving the most
punches. Danail was also hitting back, but his punches weren’t
as impactful.
Once two teeth got knocked out of Danail’s mouth, Ellis
stopped his doings. He stood up from the ground and looking
down, he watched as Danail started coughing out the blood
from his mouth.

The others around them didn’t have much to say. They were
mostly giving Ellis a stern look. Ellis didn’t seem to mind. He
instead wished to leave, but froze in place upon hearing
Danail’s laughter.
“Ellis! You bitch!” said Danail, his words soundly sloppy,
“Your punches are good!”
Ellis stared back, not saying a word. Standing up, Danail
collected his teeth and announced:
“You will pay back for this!”
“Those were just milk teeth,” pointed out Ellis calmly, “It will
make you grow up faster.”
“Fight someone your own size, you bully!” yelled someone
from the crowd. It was clearly directed towards Ellis.
Hearing such words, Ellis turned them his back because he
was trying to hide the wicked smile that has appeared on his
face. He expected to hear something like it, but not only after
being barely a day in here.
He kept on talking and returned to his book and leaving others
behind. Deciding to walk around the building, Ellis could feel
someone watching him the corner of his eyes.
The unknown figure approached him. He was faced with
unfamiliar boy. Visibly they were around the same age.
“Ellis?” whispered out the boy.
“Yes? Who are you?”

“My name is Jericho,” said the boy, “Maie told me about you.
She told me… and I heard you saying your name, yourself.
Even walls have ears in this house.”
“Jericho…” said Ellis, trying to be as polite as possible, “What
do you want from me?”
“I need to tell you something, Ellis… A secret.”
“Yes?”
“Do you know how to keep a secret?”
“Yes…”
“Follow me.”
Jericho suddenly started walking quickly, away from Ellis.
Ellis followed behind, more curious than anything else.
While following Jericho, Ellis tried to ask:
“Why do you want to-“
Jericho quickly turned back and harshly whispered:
“Don’t speak of it! Didn’t you hear me speaking! The walls
have ears! I just told you!”
“Alright,” agreed Ellis, he was a bit surprised by a paranoid
reaction.
Jericho led Ellis to the shower room. The one that was across
the boy’s sleeping room.
Behind the showers there was a huge metal plate. Metal plate
was in the height of the walls, so it was easy to miss. Even so,

Jericho pulled it a bit of struggle. Behind it was a hole. Hole
built upon the wood. Jericho lead Ellis in.
“What is on the other side?”
“My wonderland!”
Ellis rolled with his eyes for a moment. He entered it with a
bit of hesitation. He stepped on the stairs, which lead him to
the upper attic. It looked like attic at least. He could hear
Jericho moving the metal plate back to its place.
Looking around, Ellis saw how cluttered and tiny the room
seemed. There were a couple of windows by the side letting
some light in. Other than that, there were four bookshelves,
but there weren’t any books on them. On them were glass jars
being filled with all kinds of nonsense. One jar had bread in it
that had already started to decay. Others had certain liquids
Ellis was unfamiliar with. Along with jars, there were some
presumably empty bottles. Everything seemed stacked
together.
Ellis went speechless for a moment. He had no idea what to
say. Meeting Jericho’s wide smile, Ellis noticed how Jericho’s
eyes weren’t smiling, only his mouth. Not only that, Jericho
held something behind his back. Before Ellis could ask any
questions, Jericho pulled his hands up front revealing a huge
rat in his hands.
“Look!” whispered Jericho, “His name is Ralf. Isn’t he the
most gorgeous thing in the world?”
Ellis didn’t say anything, but only managed to relax his face.
He quickly realized Jericho didn’t expect an answer. Jericho
started playing and hugging his pet rat.

“Why did you take me here?” asked Ellis while looking at the
room once again.
“Well…” said Jericho at first, “You seem like someone who
can keep a secret. Can you keep this one as well?”
Ellis looked at Jericho’s warm tired eyes. A strange echoing
melody started to play in Ellis’ mind. He blinked a couple of
times, a strange feeling consumed his lungs. As if there was a
parasite stuck in him. Managing to pull out a smile, he said:
“Of course I will keep this secret for you.”
“Thank you, Ellis!” said Jericho while putting his pet rat on
the side, “Feel free to use this space whenever you want.
You’re always welcomed here.”
Exiting this room truly did feel like returning to the real world.
Jericho’s place must be something else. Ellis wondered what
would have happened if he said “no” to Jericho. He decided
not to question it because of the agonizing headache that
appeared in Ellis.

TO BE CONTINUED…