Death's Time Keeper Page 2
Then next day while everybody played in the ground, I sat on the stairs of the small church we had at the orphanage and gazed at the world beyond its boundaries with a pair of binoculars which a boy who got adopted had left behind. Gazing the world outside was something I used to love as a child, my head turned towards the direction of an unusual noise coming from the playground. There he was the new kid who I heard was mighty and huge like a bear and out powered most of the kids at the orphanage. He was beating up the old bully who was no match for this lad. Well it didn’t matter much to me as everyone kept away from me so I again got back into gazing the world beyond the boundaries of the orphanage wall. I always used to see a school bus passing by and would stare at it till the time it vanished out of my sight. There used to be a girl sitting at the window with her hair creating waves with the air crossing by but I could never see her face, this time my view of the bus was obstructed what looked like a dirty old sweater. I looked up to see the new bully staring me right into my eyes.
He was different; everybody I had met till now never looked me in the eye, could sense something strange about him but was not sure if this was the right time to think about it.
“The name’s Ted dangler, I hear they call you Timer?” I just shook my head with my eyes on the ground.
“Okay Timer, new rules I am the new boss around from now on and I would like everybody to understand that very quickly. I want your weekly candy and all the money you got. Do you feel me?”
I just stood there, not knowing what to do; I had never been threatened so was really confused how to react?
He now yelled at me, “Do you feel me Timer?”
I fell down and shook my head. “Great, now bug off this is my space.”
So much for the gazing at the world beyond the boundaries, I thought to myself. I ran as never before, straight across the ground into my room. I started crying, knew that I would not see that bully tomorrow but it was the first time I was challenged and felt differently about it. At dinner again he gave me a tough time, making me get up from my seat and eating at another table with the rest of the kids who too moved to other tables as soon as I arrived. I left for my room and as expected, heard the familiar voice of thundering skies that night. I knew what was to come so made myself warm by going under my blanket; tears ran down my eyes as sleep fairy took over.
The next day I woke up with a sense of restored honor and dignity. Got myself ready for the day and went to the refectory to have breakfast. The aroma of freshly baked bread and that of eggs, cheese and sausages took over my mind as I smiled to myself and sat on my seat after loading my plate of all that could be eaten, also grabbed a mug of steaming hot cocoa on my way to my seat. I always wondered how these orphanages managed such good food; it was the same wealthy gentleman from the south part of the town who owned a large estate and gave donations to these orphanages every month. I started gulping my meal down, a hand pressed my shoulders tightly.
“Timer, I told you this was my seat, bug off you fool”.
With the mug of cocoa in one and a piece of an egg loaded fork in the other hand I kept on looking right into his face. I could find no traces of even a slightest of panic.
I thought to myself, “Am I seeing ghost’s now?”
He now shouted at me and then punched me in the face. I felt as if the lights went off while falling on the floor, everything just blacked out.
I woke up to find myself in the dispensary. I felt pain in my eye, looking into the mirror I found my one black and swollen eye could hardly see from it. The nurse came to me with her hands shivering and told me not to touch the eye; she had applied some kind of an ointment on it which had a very bad and pungent odor. I got off the bed and rushed towards my room. This didn’t make sense, I knew I was the bad news though it was not to my liking but Mark Timer was the bad guy around here. Who can be worse than the Death’s own son? I thought and then it struck me.
“Oh my god, this boy is my father. Only my creator can be the one stronger than me.”
My anger quickly turned into a sense of praise for the bully. I thought of him as the only one who could possibly tell me what my life was meant for? The picture was getting cleared as he was here to rescue me, it made perfect sense then.
Like a fool I walked up to him, “Are you my father?”
“What?” he said.
I said it again now keeping a pause after every word, “Are you my father?”
The entire orphanage might have burst into laughter but I only remember being taken to the dispensary again and woke up with both of my eyes black and swollen.
Two days later on the playground I realized it was no use approaching him but kept on noticing his moves. He was not much of a centre stage boy like the other bully’s in the past, he walked alone like a Lion in the jungle and dare not anyone try to intrude his territory. He did not keep the usual gang around but he meant business in every sense as every Sunday he would ensure everybody shared their Candy’s with him and every time any of the boys were visited by their guardians, he would ensure the first person they met was him and he even checked their pockets to ensure they were not hiding any money. For those who didn’t give their candy or money to him, well they ended up in the dispensary or with the trademark black and swollen eye.
Even the workers at the orphanage did not mess with this guy and allowed him to carry on with his bullish acts, they never reported anything to Mr. George but I knew for a fact that he already knew what was going on but kept mum on it. I did not understand the whole thing, was under a perception that all of this would just get right one day but that day never came.
As weeks passed by I kept on getting more and more mystified by the bully. There was not much that one could tell about him but I knew where to find this piece of information. One evening while everybody was having their supper I slipped into the store room behind the reception. This was the place where all the details for every child at the orphanage were kept in separate files, basically it had the papers of their origin and who had left them at the orphanage and if they had any guardians. After a few minutes the file of the bully was in my hands. I opened it up; it read “David Engel” So that’s what his real name was. I scrolled through the pages and found a name under his guardian, it was a familiar name but I was just not able to recall it. Just like me he had no one to call his own and was picked up by an unknown man from the hospital where both his parents had died in an accident. I closed the file and started my long walk back to my room avoiding to be seen by anyone at the reception area. There was not much information I could gather around him. The one thing I had was a name of the man who is his guardian but somehow I am unable to relate that name with a face. I kept on thinking around this for a long time till I fell asleep.
The following night as I was still lost in these thoughts, I heard faint footsteps and they were getting louder with each passing moment. I sensed it was the bully so I got into my blanket pretending to be fast asleep. As I closed my eyes but kept my ears open, the footsteps now were just at my door and then they stopped. Those few seconds were the lengthiest of my life; I now could hear them walking away from my door. I was shaking in fear under my blanket and then I decided to just ensure if he was gone. As I stepped out of my bed and moved towards the door I could listen to the sound of footsteps getting fader. On opening the door, I could see the bully at a good distance walking away from the room. I sneaked out of my room and followed him, this was my chance of getting to finally know something about him but at the same time I knew that if I was caught up so late I might face punishment though have never been punished till now. No one had dared to even try. Continuing my trail of the bully, we were now under the open sky in the ground. I kept on following him and then he stopped, he looked sideways. I assume he was very sure that no one had followed him so he didn’t look back at all; he was carrying a pickaxe. Then he started digging the ground, rain came down is some time and it was pouring down a
fter a minute or so but the bully didn’t stop he kept at it. Though scared of him seeing me and drenched till the toe I stood firm and wanted to just find out what this monster was up to? The hole he had dug up was like a cylinder or more like a standing grave and I assumed deep enough for him to just fit into it. After sometime he stopped digging and then I didn’t believe my eyes as to what I saw, there came out a blue color flame out of the hole and it lit up the whole sky for once. The bully jumped into the hole now and the light also vanished with it, for a moment or so I just stood there stunned and not knowing what to do. My feet made the decision of walking up to the hole; I know it was not my brain. The hole now was filled with water and the bully wasn’t there as I put my hands in the hole to see if could latch on to something but I couldn’t get anything just water and mud. Then something pulled me into the hole now and I could not see anything there was darkness and I was gasping for breath at this point of time. Finally it released me and I found myself standing in the hole, half of my body immersed in water and the other half above it. I stood there crying and taking deep breaths. Slowly I came back to my room, dried myself up and went to bed after changing into a new set of clothes. Sleep came to me soon and I was just relieved to be back to a place I should have never left. Next morning the entire ground was filled with water and there was no way I could calm down my curiosity of seeing the hole. I had to wait for almost a week to see the dried up ground and then to my horror the hole was gone. The bully always remained a mystery.
All my attempts to find out something about the bully had failed miserably. There was no way where I could find out just about anything regarding him. Once I heard that he had a visitor so I rushed towards the reception area to find out who was his guardian. Upon reaching the reception area I saw him sitting on a chair facing a man but couldn’t see the face of that man. There was no way I could go forward and look at his guardians face in the presence of the bully so I had to wait and see if he turned around. I kept on waiting but the man did not move at all, he kept on sitting and talking to the bully. It was the first time I saw the bully’s head facing downwards as he listened what his guardian had to say. After some time his guardian stood up and just walked away in a manner that I couldn’t get a clear glimpse of his face. The only thing I could see was an old time piece attached to his coat with a silver chain. He just walked away and as I was following this man, my attention went back to where they were sitting. The bully was gone, I didn’t understand where he was and turned back to go back to my room and there he was right in my face.
“Timer?” he said as I just backed out avoiding messing with him.
He gave me a stare and then went away from there, maybe he was just not in the mood of beating someone up for nothing and that was really good for me so I quickly ran for my life back to my room. It was the only place I felt safe in the entire world, a place where I could be myself, just then the bully walked in carrying his bag. I swear upon anything important to me, I almost wet my pants and started shaking.
“Timer, it’s you again? This is my room now; get the hell out of here.”
As I started to leave the room, Mr. George entered the room. I had never been happy to see him before; as he was the only person at the orphanage everyone obeyed to.
He said, “David, my dear this isn’t your room, you are supposed to go one floor down.”
He stared at me as if this was all, my fault and to avoid any future unpleasant incidents I even told Mr. George that I could shift down now that he was here but Mr. George was adamant. So the bully now gave an angry look to Mr. George and left the room, he too followed him out. I guess Mr. George wanted to ensure that he reached the same room and not trouble other children. I was so relieved as if I just had a narrow escape from death. Later I found out that the rising complaints and observations by the staff had compelled Mr. George to call in the bully’s guardian to speak to him and he was asked to change his room and live alone to the one next to Mr. George, a punishment in itself.
Months passed by and I started to feel comfortable in the presence of other orphans, even made a few friends at the orphanage. The same kids who never used to even cross my way went on to sit together on the meal table. The bully would once or twice pass me by giving me a stare or showing me the fist but any incident of physical abuse did not occur afterwards.
Winters were fast approaching and it was evident with all the trees shedding their leaves. Though Blackville was chilly throughout the year but winter season was magical. I had heard that there was a sea shore attached to the town but never got a chance to visit it. With the ground covered with a blanket of snow, everybody got restricted indoors. I had made a couple of good friends and strange enough for me all of them lived so I was not really worried about the idea of staying indoors. Most of the orphanage staff left for their homes in this season and there were only a handful of them left by this time.
I remember this was the first time an elder staff told us the story about “Death & the Knight with Potion of life”, felt as if I belonged in that story but couldn’t remember where.
As the news of arrival of the bully had come so came the news of his departure. I could not understand what this meant but my only hope of clearing my doubts around my life had left the place. I ran to the roof of the orphanage, carrying my binocular hoping to get a glimpse of the bully leaving. There he was beyond the walls of the premises. I continued watching, to my surprise he looked back at me and gave me the look filled with anger and yet with a hint of smile around his mouth. I could not see clearly but I knew he was looking right at me. He kept on looking at me as if trying to convey a message but could not do so.
His car left leaving a cloud of dust and smokes behind and as the air cleared itself so did the fear of the bully from my mind. I knew he was here for a purpose but what was it I would realize year later.