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| SOMEONE SOMEWHERE SOON WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU by Enola PART 10 Shane arrives at your hostel room just when you are packing your suitcases. Having opened the door, he enters your room quickly protesting, “Damn Monica! I’ve been trying to phone you for ages…why the hell is your mobile off?” A while later he notices one of your suitcases next to the door and another one, opened, on your bed and some of your clothes in it. “Where are you going?” “Away!” you reply packing your suitcase, “Where? At home?” “I think so” “You think so?” “Fuck Shane! I don’t know!” you say quite annoyed, “Perhaps I’ll go to Africa or South America…I don’t know! But there is something sure, there are a lot of people in this world who need help and nobody needs me in here!” “That’s not true. We need you! Last night something really bad happened at ‘The House’” “Ah! You don’t have a clue what happened to me!” you say upset, “What happened?” he asks worried, “I don’t feel like talking about that!” you say softly folding one of your sweaters. “Monica…” he begins serious, the after a short pause he goes on, “Tommy has got away” You immediately stop and turn to face him, “What do you mean?” “His teacher phoned us a couple of weeks ago…he didn’t get back to his classroom after the break. We called the Police at once, they’re looking for him!” “What has that to do with last night?” “Come with me to ‘The House’ and I’ll know everything.” You are sure that anything has happened at ‘The House’ is connected with Valerie and you wonder what she did to force Tommy to get away. Entering the lounge you notice at once Olivia and George over the sofa and Valerie on an armchair. Only when you are in you realise there’s another person in the room, by the window. It’s James. You get shocked as you didn’t expect to find him there, so your first thought is to leave immediately. The echo of his voice and the picture of him are still in your mind. You see him every time you close your eyes and that’s the reason why you didn’t sleep at all last night. His presence scares you, but you are aware that you are safe there. “Shane, what’s up?" You ask, “That’s something we all want to know Shane” Olivia intervenes. Shane doesn’t answer at once, he looks at Valerie for a while, then he says in a provoking way, “So Valerie…do you want to tell them what happened last night or do you prefer me to do it?” She doesn’t speak a single a word, so after some moments Shane goes on, “Good! I’ll tell you everything then! I’ll go straight to the point. Last night, around midnight or so, three of the children, one of them was Tommy, woke up and decided to go downstairs to the kitchen to look for some sweets. It wasn’t the first time, you all know they often do that, and personally, I think there’s nothing bad with it if they don’t do it every night...but let’s forget that for now…The thing I want to say is that last night they surprised Valerie and James in the kitchen while they…” at this point he pauses and looks at Valerie and then at James, “While…?” asks Olivia impatiently, “They were going to have sex!” finally says Shane. Since you think you have heard enough, you decide to leave, but Shane stops you and says that there’s something else you all have to know. He adds that the kids ran away when Valerie realised they had seen her and James, then she ran after them and threatened them saying they had to keep their mouths shut about that or they would bitterly regret that. You are extremely disgusted at the thought that she dared frightened the kids. You are about to rage at her, but Olivia precedes you, “For heaven’s sake Valerie! I’m deeply disappointed with you…and with you too James! How dared you do such a thing in this house? Don’t you have anything to say?” At this point James tries to say something, but he’s clearly embarrassed and sorry. “It was only my fault…” says Valerie breaking her silence, “…he didn’t want to, but I persuaded him…we both were drunk.” Now it’s your turn. “What sort of person are you? You’ve pretended to be my friend…you’ve cheated everyone and what for? You don’t care at all about these children…you don’t know anything about their needs…maybe you think that a piece of paper is enough to understand the way they feel…but you can’t understand that!…Just pray to God nothing bad happens to Tommy…” You stop just before adding something that only your anger would drive you to say. You don’t want to sink to her level because you know you and Valerie are totally different. “Why didn’t I realised all this at once? All that wouldn’t ever happen!” says Olivia sorry afterwards, “Valerie, collect your stuff, I want you out of this house within today…as concerns you James, you are not welcome in here anymore!” Valerie is the first one who leaves and she doesn’t say anything. You have the impression that the things you and Olivia told her haven’t had any effect on her. Some moments later James gets up and walks across the room slowly. You still are next to the door and when he passes by you, you lower your head. He stops just on the threshold for a little while to whisper a soft and almost imperceptible “I’m very sorry.” Since also James has left, Olivia would talk to you, but you don’t want to listen to her now. You want to go out to look for Tommy as you know where he is. You ask Shane to go with you to the churchyard where his mum has been buried because you are sure you’ll find him there. He is there indeed, quite chilled, but safe and well. You breathe a sigh of relief when you realise he’s fine. He burst into tears when you tell him that his escape has frightened you to death, so he sobs out his apologies and you hold him in your arms to calm him down. You tell him you’re bringing him ay home at once, but he says he doesn’t want to get back there because of Valerie. You assure him that she has left, so she won’t able to harm him any longer. When you all arrive at ‘The House’ you make him a hot chocolate he drinks quickly scalding his tongue slightly. In the meantime, Shane comes in and tells you Olivia is waiting for you in her office. You knock at the door and enter, so Olivia invites you to sit down. She’s extremely sorry. You can understand that from her soft voice and that guilty expression on her face. She’s sorry because she’s aware she made a big mistake when she dismissed you. She trusted Valerie because she’s known her since she was born. She tells you Valerie used to spend a week or two there every summer till she went to college three and a half years ago. She remembers Valerie was always willing to help, to stay with the children, and now Olivia can’t believe she’s changed so much. Olivia knows Valerie hurt you, but she’s ready to make up for her mistake. She begs you to get back not only for the children, but especially for yourself. Her words persuade you to return to work there, although you are aware you’ll have to deal with something you’d rather forget. To make that possible, the day after you decide to tidy your room. In a big box you put all the things you want to get rid of. Suddenly Shane enters your room, “What’s this din?” he asks annoyed, “Uh? I’m just tidying!” you reply, and a while later you add, “Ah Shane, do me a favour. Throw that box over there away if you don’t mind.” He picks up the box and leans it over your desk, “Are you sure you want to throw away all this stuff?” he asks perplexed, “Yep, totally sure” “Your Manics CD’s, the book James gave you at Christmas…I know James has behaved badly with you, but I don’t see why you should get rid of all these things…” “You’d change your mind if you knew what he told me the day before yesterday!” you cut him off quite annoyed, “Oh hell! What else has he done?” he asks concerned. You sit on your bed and lower your head playing nervously with one of your tops. You tell him all that happened at Ian’s pub without leaving any detail out. Shane gets shocked hearing what James told you because he knows him and he knows that James could never behave like that. Everything sounds impossible to him and you tell him you know he can’t understand because he wasn’t there, he didn’t hear his voice, he didn’t see his eyes full of rage. You yourself can hardly believe that everything has really happened. You’d like it was just a nightmare, but you sadly realise everything is true and, for this reason, you want to throw away everything that reminds you of him. PART 11 >>> <<< Enola's stories |