It’s
not like last year, Tom thought to himself. You see when Tom was just
twelve years old his mother was too poor to take care of him. So she
took him to an orphanage. It had huge iron gates and it was an ugly
red building, the yard only had sand Tom didn’t hear a single
child talking. Tom didn’t know where he was, his mother held his
hand and they both walked towards the ugly red building. Finally, his
mother stopped at a door, and she knocked. Someone came out, she had
brown messy hair and a scrunched-up face, she was wearing a white
apron and a navy dress. Tom was frightened of this woman and held his
mother’s hand tighter then ever before.
It’s
okay Tom, his mother said softly. The woman smirked, don’t worry I
don’t bite she laughed.
Tom
didn’t like this lady one bit. ‘I’m Matron Millie’ she said.
‘Come
inside dear’ she said. She tried to grab his arm, but he clung to
his mother tightly.
‘Tom
dear, it’s alright, this woman will take good care of you’ his
mother said softly, and her eyes were filling with tears. Finally,
Matron grabbed his arm while Tom screamed for his mother. His mother
ran down the steps and couldn’t bear to look at him getting taken
away.
Tom
screamed and screamed until his voice was so sore, he couldn’t
scream anymore. Matron brought him into a room. It had a tub in the
middle of it. ‘Get in’ said matron, Tom reluctantly got in.
Matron started to wash his hair, while doing so she got soap suds in
his eyes, and he started to yell and cry. Matron tugged his ear.
‘Stop crying you little baby!’.
He
stopped crying. After the bath she took his old clothes and threw
them away.
Tom
said, ‘Why are you throwing my clothes away’.
Matron
said ‘Because here we have a uniform’, and she threw the uniform
at him. It was an ugly brown Top with black buttons and the trousers
a tan sort of color, and the shoes were black with laces but they
looked old and ugly too.
The
socks were a yellowish sort of grey color, and finally the cap was a
ugly green. Right get yourself dressed and I’ll show you around.
Tom reluctantly put on the uniform. He thought it might be
comfortable but it was a scratchy material and he kept having to roll
up his trousers as they were so scratchy they hurt his legs.
But
the Matron didn’t like that, ‘Stop doing that’ the matron
said. The matron showed him where the dorms, the dining room, the
yard and the classes were.
‘Bed
is at eight o clock sharp’, said the man in charge of the boys.
‘Anyone caught sneaking around at night will get whipped and bread
and water for a week’.
Tom
gulped he didn’t like this man Tom wanted to escape but how? Will
he ever get home?