Standing Still For Far Too Long

Every boy was dressed and seated on their beds when the time became nine a.m. The Warden always came in and expected them to be in their beds; if someone wasn’t, she would do something to try and ruin everyone’s mood. Most of the orphans woke up in the morning with a fresh look on life, but most of the orphans were too young to grasp what their lives really were. And if some of them were capable of becoming aware of the quality of their lives, they ignored it; everyone but Justen Strooper and Gerard Way.

Gerard was definitely aware of his situation, and of everyone else’s. But who was he to show these kids reality? Justen was not the oldest, he wasn’t even second to oldest, but he understood what he was and what everyone in the outside world thought he was. Who was he to not show the rest of these kids reality?

Gerard had already explained to Frank about the Warden and her rules, they were both seated in their beds. Windy was examining a piece of wood that he had ripped away from his bed while Pine was playing fingers with Cillian who was in the top bunk next to him. Justen was laying on his back staring at the many cracks in the top bunk. Coby was leaning his head over the side and laughing at something with Tristan. Both Ridge and Stevie were sitting on their beds quietly observing the people around them. Cotton was drifting back to sleep, and the only person that didn’t seem content was the fidgeting Brady that occupied the bed on top of Cotton.

His hands were wringing and he couldn’t stop moving his legs. His eyes scanned the room and he strained his ears to listen for any noises coming from the hallway that was outside of the Boy’s Division door. Hearing nothing and feeling desperate, Brady jumped from his bed and landed with a thud.

Gerard heard that thud and saw a figure running away from the beds; he realized that the top bunk of the furthest bed was no longer occupied.

“Brady, get back into your bed! Are you crazy?”

Brady stopped, but only for a moment, “I’m sorry Gee, I really gotta go to the bathroom.”

Brady continued running and every boy in the room, they’d all become distracted from whatever they were doing before by Gerard’s sudden outburst, widened their eyes at the sprinting figure that quickly disappeared behind the door of the bathroom. Everyone was hushed and listening for any sound that came through the door.

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten seconds. Nothing.

They heard nothing but the pattering feet of Brady as he was ran back towards his bed. Gerard let go of his breath and peered up at Frank as he smiled, but he let his breath go too soon. Brady was just about to climb back into his bed when the door to the room swung open. The Warden stepped inside and Brady froze, his hands grasping the top bunk tightly and his feet dangling to the ground.

The Warden put on a sickeningly sweet tone and spoke, “nine-o-five…nine-o-five and you’re not in your bed Brandon?”

Brady released his hands and his feet touched the ground without a sound, “I’m sorry Miss, I really needed to use the bathroom.” His hands were behind his back and wringing themselves just like before. His eyes were downcast and directed towards his feet which would not stay still.

The Warden started taking tiny bare footed steps towards him, “And you couldn’t hold it?”

Brady was quiet.

“Answer me boy!”

“No,” Brady squeaked, “I couldn’t, I was feeling sick.”

“You know the rules, don’t you?”

“Yes bu-”

“Don’t talk back to me you miserable pig! You know the rules, and you know the consequences. But what to do…Tristan!”

Tristan flinched and rose his head to look at the Warden as she continued, “What do you think we should do with little Brandon here?”

Tristan gulped and looked over at Justen for any help, but the older boy just shrugged. He answered timidly, “Maybe he should…have to serve the food to us this morning?”

The Warden laughed and shook her head before going down the line of beds and asking every boy what they thought should be done with Brandon. She stopped for a moment as her muddy eyes landed on Gerard’s hazel ones, “Surely you have a good idea,” she said with a smirk.

On the contrary, Gerard had no more ideas. Scrubbing the bathroom with a toothbrush had been used as well as cleaning the cob webs from the corners, washing the windows, mowing the lawn, raking the leaves, cleaning the dishes, and even no breakfast had been boldly suggested by Ridge.

Gerard said nothing. He saw that the Warden was about to say something, and it would have undoubtedly been nasty, but Frank cut in, “Why doesn’t he just…you know…be in time out or something?”
Gerard was surprised at the bold move that Frank had made; the Warden had not been talking to him. He waited for a mental attack to dart towards Frank from the mouth of the Warden. He looked at her and realized that one eyebrow was raised and she had a peculiar look in her eyes that he had never seen before.

“I know you’re new Mr. Iero, and you will learn soon enough that you will only speak to me when I speak to you. You did give me a decent response…so I won’t punish you on your first day.”

She paused and a heavy sigh was heard from Brady which caused all attention to come to him, including the Wardens.

“Do you think you’re just going to be time out Brandon? Did I say that I liked Mr. Iero’s idea?” She began to step towards the boy’s bed. He shook his head quickly but he was stopped when the Warden caught it with her hand. She rose his head up so that he was looking at her and bent down close to his face, “The Warehouse.”

Brady’s eyes widened and everyone else’s were soon to follow. The Warehouse was seldom used; Gerard himself had only been in there three times during his fifteen year stay. And for something as mediocre as having to go to the bathroom?

It was located in the middle of the forest behind the Orphanage. It was a small, run-down building that the original owners of the land had used. It was filled with spiders, miscellaneous tools, and one mattress that was no longer white, but brown.

The Warden spoke again, “You will stay there today, starting after breakfast. Someone will bring you your meals and I will time them every time. Do you understand?”

Brady nodded his head weakly and proceeded to climb onto his bed after being pushed back by the Warden. She began to walk away from the beds with carefully placed and bare foot feet that made no sound at all. She opened the door and put one foot out before turning halfway around and glaring straight at Gerard, “And you, you will serve the food today.” And with that, the Warden was gone.

The Atmosphere of the orphanage was indeed unhappy, and the only sound heard was the quiet sniffling coming from the top bunk belonging to the furthest bed.

“What’s the warehouse?” Frank broke the silence, and Gerard looked up to see his face hanging over the side of his bed.

“It’s this old cottage in the woods. It’s pretty nasty, I haven’t been in there since I was 10, but I still remember it.”

“Oh…,” Frank paused, “maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Gerard shook his head, “No. I can see that she likes you, at least more than the rest of us. She could have put him in the shed for a week, but she only said one day.”

Frank’s face lightened up a little but, but Gerard wasn’t done, “Well actually, she could’ve put him in there to make an example of him…for you.”

Franks face became worried again; Gerard made no effort to comfort him. What he said was the truth, and Frank didn’t hold it against him. Silence, except for the sniffling that had lost some of its volume, overtook the room once more as every boy sat solemnly in their beds.

The door opened and all attention was brought to the tall figure that entered, “Are you boys ready for breakfast?” Mr. Tom gave everyone a hearty smile and was met with nothing but frowning or indifferent faces. He was used to this; the sixty-seven year old man had been working at Hope Falls Orphanage for thirty-five years. The old man had wanted to become Warden in the past, but when they needed a new one he was home with his wife and child for 2 years before returning to work at the Orphanage. Another opportunity had come up exactly three years before Gerard would arrive at the Orphanage, but by that time, the board would see Mr. Tom as being too old and unreliable. Hence, the current Warden was hired. He was still caught up in his own little world, like many of the staff there; he still thought that nothing had changed since the Warden from his first opportunity had died.

Gerard liked him, there was no doubt about that, but the one thing that he loathed about Mr. Tom was his constant and ignorant happiness.

Mr. Tom kept the smile on his face and walked to the front of the room, “We’ve got some butternut squash soup for you guys!” The information that there was a new batch of food being served caused the boys to begin moving.

Frank jumped from his bed as Gerard stood up; he landed right next to him and brushed his shoulder. Gerard felt an electric shock jolt through his arm, “You shocked me!” He yelled at Frank in a teasing tone; Frank held a smile on his face as turned around, “Well I didn’t feel anything, so maybe you’re just electric.” Gerard grinned and they started walking towards the doors with the growing group of boys.

Frank, who noticed Mr. Tom’s uncanny happiness, leaned into Gerard’s ear and whispered, “Why is that Mr. Tom guy so happy?”

They were in the hallway before Gerard answered the question, “The old man is oblivious to stuff that happens here. I think he’s got chronic old-people-think-everything’s-okay sickness. He knows that some stuff is wrong though since he hid the fact that he got me a present earlier. I don’t really know; he’s just weird.”

“Maybe you should tell him? Or, maybe he’s blind…” Frank pondered the reasons.

“Ah, it’s not worth it. I’ll the let the old man be happy until he dies.”

Frank chuckled, “That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?”

Gerard shook his head, “Not really. Why would I want to trouble him with my problems when he seems all happy? He should just die happy. If I were him, I would want to die happy.”

“Maybe you should be a philosopher Gee,” Frank joked.

They stepped into the dining hall, “maybe I will Frankie,” Gerard smiled.

There was one large round table in the middle of the room for the orphans and another smaller one was located in the corner for the employees. Gerard nodded towards the round table, “You can just go sit over there next to Windy or something; I have to serve the food, so I’ll be over in a minute.”

“Alright,” Frankie responded and started following the six year old towards the table before sitting down next to him. Gerard walked towards the food area where the cook named Trina was stirring the big bowl of soup. Trina was a very large woman. She had a face full of wrinkles and hairy moles as well as a mouth that didn’t have the standard amount of Human Teeth. Her chunky arm was holding a large soup spoon and she glowered at Gerard as he came closer.

“I’m supposed to serve the food.”

Trina grunted and shoved a pile of gray bowls towards him. He held up each bowl and she filled it with a brownish orange substance that he figured was the butternut squash. He placed each bowl onto the large tray next to him. After fitting each bowl securely onto the tray, he grabbed 12 spoons and walked right past the stale bread to the round table. He placed the tray in the middle of the table and watched as the boys grabbed at the bowls. He sat down next to Frankie, who already has his food, and reached for the one lone bowl that was still on the tray.

Frank was dipping and twirling his spoon in the squash and grimacing, “I’ve had butternut squash before, but this just looks like shit.”

Windy piped up from the other side of Frank, “He said a mean wo-”

Gerard cut in before Windy could finish, “Do you remember what I said about big kids?”

“Yes bu-”

“Five feet five inches,” Gerard said sternly, “And we’re both five feet seven inches so that makes us abnormally big kids. We can say what we want.”

Windy became quiet and turned back to his food, taking a few bites after every grimace.

Frank turned to Gerard, “You don’t have to be so hard on the kid.”

Gerard blinked a couple of times and looked back at Frank, “He needs to learn things like this. Don’t fathers have to teach their kids lessons…?”

Frank shrugged, “I guess so. I don’t really know. I only saw some of my friend’s Dads playing baseball with them sometimes. I guess they do.”

“What’s baseball?” Gerard asked and was met with a surprised look from Frank.

“How do you not know what baseball is?”

Gerard looked hurt, “I don’t know…”

“Sorry…uh…It’s a sport where you hit a ball with a special wooden stick called a bat.”

“I know what basketball is. But only because of Mr. Tom telling me how he played in college.”

“Well at least that’s something,” Frankie stated, “it’s weird that they keep you so closed off here.” Frank then took a spoonful of the squash to his mouth and struggled to swallow it.

“Okay this doesn’t just look like shit, it tastes like shit too! Tell me, how the hell do you make squash taste bad?” He whispered this, but Gerard could still see the mouth of Windy Meadows begin to move out of his peripheral. He turned towards Windy and gave him a look, causing Windy’s mouth to close just as quickly as it had opened.

He turned back to Frank, “You’ll get used to it. Trust me.”

Frank looked back at him and smiled nervously before taking another stomach-turning bite.

Who should really have to get used to eating shit?