‘You know the rules, no ball games inside. It’s a nice day out there so go in the garden and woe betide anyone who breaks a window now go, not you Tracy, I want a word.’

Orphan
By
Susan Brown

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Chapter 4
 

There wasn’t a sound.

‘Penny, I see you have a smirk on your face, so you can answer me.’

I looked at the girl who had pink t shirt and matching shorts on. They didn’t go with her flaming red hair and freckles, but what did I know?

‘Sorry Miss.’

‘For what?’

‘Playing tennis but I was Virginia Wade and Trish was Billy Jean King and I was beating the pants off her and…’

‘No you wasn’t, I had just sliced one past you…’

‘QUIET!’

Both girls became statues again. I looked at Tracy and she had a slight grin on her face and I was finding it hard not to laugh.

‘You know the rules, no ball games inside. It’s a nice day out there so go in the garden and woe betide anyone who breaks a window now go, not you Tracy, I want a word.’

All the statues unfroze and went dashing off, laughing and shouting leaving just Matron, Tracy and me.

‘Now Tracy you have already met Ma…Stephanie and I want you to look after her and show her the ropes. If I hear that you have led her astray, I will be cross and you can forget sweets for a fortnight, OK?’

‘Yes Matron, I’ll be as good as gold and be a credit to you.’

‘Why do I think that I’ve just made a mistake?’ she sighed and then looked at me.

‘OK Stephanie; Tracy will show you around and tell you about rules and things. If you have any worries, come see me.’

‘Yes; thank you Matron.’

She sighed again and then smiled. ‘I wish all the girls were so polite. Remember Tracy, trouble equals no sweets.’

‘Yes Matron; come on Steph, lets show you around.’

With that, she grabbed me and hauled me up another flight of steps.

As we went, Tracy started talking nineteen to the dozen.

‘Well Steph, take no notice of Matron, her bark is worse than her bite. I’ll show you what’s what. Fist the dormitory; come on it’s in here.’

She dragged me by the hand and we went through some swing doors into a large room.

‘It’s not much but its home.’

It was a large room and it was obvious that it used to be a hospital ward. There were several rows of beds each side and each bed had curtains that could be pulled across for privacy. The walls were pale green and the highly polished skid marked lino was a slightly dark shade of the same colour.

‘Watch this.’ Said Tracy as she sat on a bed and took her shoes off just leaving her white socks on.

She stood up and started running. She stopped suddenly and her momentum carried her several feet further, sliding in her socks like some sort of ice skater.

‘Bet you can’t beat that!’

For a moment, I forgot all about what I was wearing and in moments I had my shoes off and copied what Tracy did only not getting so far and falling flat on my face in the process.

We both started giggling as I got up and brushed myself down, realising that girls can have as much fun as boys.

After things calmed down a bit, Tracy showed me where my bed was.

‘You are here.’

It was a corner bed and I went over and sat on it while Tracy sat on another one.

‘So, what are you in for?’

‘Pardon?’

‘Why are you here, Mum and Dad had a row?’

‘Erm, they died in a car crash.’

‘Blimey, that’s rough, no other rellies?’

‘Rellies…oh you mean relatives, I have an aunt but they can’t find her.’

She looked at me with pity on her face and then looked down and frowned.

‘Don’t you think you should close your legs; I can see your knickers.’

My legs slapped shut like a clam and I could feel myself go red.

‘Sorry, not used to dresses yet.’

I could have died here and then for saying something that stupid. Five minutes here and I had already given myself away!

Tracy looked at me strangely and then her face cleared.

‘I know, I used to be a tomboy…hated dresses, sugar and spice and all that stuff. I’m OK with skirts and dresses now. Mind you, with your shortlist hair you could almost be mistaken for a boy and what with that teddy in your hand, you have to watch yourself. You don’t want a rep for being too boyish.’

I looked down and realised that I still had teddy in my hand and felt myself getting an even deeper shade of red in the face.

I put teddy down on the bed, sitting him up so he was comfy.

Changing the subject, I asked if everyone was nice in the ward?

‘We don’t call it a ward it; it’s a dormitory. Yea, not a bad bunch of kids, though we steer clear of Rachel at the moment as she’s in coventry.’

‘Is she visiting someone?’

‘No, silly, coventry, you know, we aren’t speaking to her.’

‘Why not?’

‘She told fibs about Diane to Miss Cathcart.’

I didn’t know what she was talking about so dropped the subject.

‘Oh and steer clear of Dorothy as she can be a bit of a cow sometimes, other than that, most are OK.’

‘So you like this place then?’

‘It’s OK - food stinks cos I don’t like greens and the mash has lumps and we try not to talk about the tapioca pudding, but the warders, I mean carers are not bad and at least they let us have bit of fun sometimes.’

‘Why are you here if you don’t mind me asking?’

‘I am what they call a bit of a handful. I’ve been through six foster carers and no one wants me.’

‘How did you come to be here in the first place if you don’t mind me asking?’

‘Parents spilt up when I was six. Never seen them since.’

‘Don’t you mind?’

‘Nah.’

I could see from her face that she did mind but didn’t say anything.

There was the sound of running feet from outside and suddenly the doors swung open and several of the kids came rushing in.

The noise was deafening and before I knew it I was surrounded by girls asking all sorts of questions that I wasn’t given the chance to answer.

‘What’s your name?’

‘Where are you from?’

‘Do you like Cilla? What about the Beatles? I think the Beach Boys are dishy, but Paul I could die for!’

‘Why are you here?’

‘SHUT UP!’ Shouted Tracy, ‘can’t you see the poor kid is frightened. We’ll talk tonight when the lights go out. Now I have to her show around.’

Tracy grabbed my arm and in no time I was out in the pale green corridors being shown where the kitchen, living room, bathrooms and other places were. The place was huge and a lot of the rooms were unused but it was clean and quite well looked after.

‘It’s great here, cos we can sort of disappear and the warders, sorry they don’t like being called that; I mean the carers have a job finding us. They’ve started locking some of the doors but as they can’t find keys to all of them, there’s still plenty of places to hide.’

‘How many carers work here?’

‘Don’t know, about twelve I suppose, never counted them. There’s the day shift and the night shift. Matron lives here all the time, so do a couple of the others. But the rest live away and come in when they are needed.’

We went out into the large garden. There were plenty of trees and thick bushes about and Tracy led me over to a particularly thick clump and went around the back.

She looked around and then disappeared into the bushes, coming back with a smallish wooden box. Opening it up, I could see that there was a packet of cigarettes and some matches in there.

She pulled out the packet and offered me a cigarette. I shook my head and she shrugged, putting one in her mouth and lighting it with a match.

She sucked in strongly, turned a sort of a green colour, spat it out and was immediately sick on the floor, missing her top and my dress by inches.

‘Are you alright?’ I asked anxiously.

‘Mmm.’ she said panting and retching alternatively.

‘Are you sure, shall I fetch Matron?’

She looked at me as if I was mad and shook her head emphatically.

‘No, that’s alright,’ she gasped after a few minutes, when she had got her breath back and didn’t look quite as green.

‘Does it always make you sick?’

‘Erm… That was the first time I’ve tried them.’

I was going to ask where she had got them but didn’t for some reason.

‘Feeling better?’

‘Yes, I think that I’ll not try that again for a while. Let’s go in. I need a drink of coke or something, but no telling!’

‘I won’t say anything.’

‘Good.’

She hid the box in the bushes again and then went to the kitchen and grabbed a couple of cans of coke.

Going back outside, we sat on the grass and sipped our drinks.

Tracy was looking at me.

‘You won’t have any problems.’ She said.’

‘What?’

‘I said you won’t have any problems.’

‘With what?’

‘Getting adopted.’

‘Why?’

‘Well, you’re pretty and those big doe looking eyes will have parents drooling all over themselves to have you.’

‘I’m not pretty I’m a b…’

‘A what?’

‘Um…I mean I’m not that nice.’

‘Yes you are. You’re a girlie, girl; parents like that. I’m too much trouble for them.’

It shook me a bit to hear that. Me a girlie girl, does she need glasses?

‘Hasn’t anyone wanted to adopt you?’

‘I nearly was once, but I had a fight with another of their children and that was that.’

Before I could say anything else, I could hear a bell ringing in the distance.

‘Tea time. Lets be quick or all the iced buns will be gone.’

‘How she could think of buns after being sick like that I didn’t know, but I followed her quickly retreating form and wondered how I was going to fit in and whether my secret would come out.

To be continued…

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Please leave comments or I’ll send Tracy around to do some mischief…