Honeysuckle Plaits by Venetta Whitaker

Author:Venetta Whitaker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: N/A
Publisher: Author Reputation Press
Published: 2021-09-12T00:00:00+00:00

BEYOND THE SHADOW

Chapter 3

These Are The Lonely

(Excerpts)

These are the lonely—

The frightened-eyed children

Who watch on the sidelines?

The games others play and enjoy.

The tearful-eyed youngster

Who’s laughed at and told

To get lost by all the other little boys.

But it need not be so!

—Harry and Joan Mie

Happy awakes early Saturday morning, one month before his sixteenth birthday, in his private little room facing the park on the west wing of the orphanage. He’s had that recurring dream: He is desperately running—instead of away from—toward something that is never there. But today it doesn’t matter because nothing in the world is nearly as complete as listening to his favorite Saturday morning radio program, The Shadow. In a few minutes, the notable laughter of the Shadow is heard bellowing out from the huge mahogany radio perched on the little table beside the bed: Ha! Ha! Ha!! Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Happy is stretched out lengthwise on the bed resting on his side, his head on his elbow. He gazes intently at the radio. His imagination transmits in full color the scene narrated by the announcer: A pretty young girl is hiking along the base of a river bluff, fighting off a squadron of mosquitoes. Suddenly Black Hawk Jackson, a heinous villain, steps out from behind a tree and seizes her.

Sound effects from the radio evidence the humming of mosquitoes. Happy involuntarily raises his hand and swats at the air around his face. As the buzzing sound intensifies, he moves his head from side to side to avoid the imagined swarm of insects. Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 D minor plays louder and stops abruptly. The girl, now in the clutches of the despicable Black Hawk Jackson, lets out a piercing scream that vibrates throughout the west wing.

Mildred knocks on the bedroom door, interrupting Happy’s plans of how he and the Shadow are going to rescue the innocent girl in distress and defeat the wicked Black Hawk Jackson. Mildred taps again. Finally, she enters the room and sits on the edge of the bed beside Happy. In a large Kroger sack, she has placed a new pair of trousers and a bright blue T-shirt with a large lusterless blue sailboat, that matches his eyes, painted across the front. Happy has outgrown most of his clothes. So ungainly! She notices the fine hair growing over his lips, his wide shoulders and bulging upper arms. He’s changed so much. When did all this happen? It seems it was only yesterday when his voice cracked like the static on the old radio he’s staring at as if it were a movie screen.

Now, on the rare occasions he says anything, his voice is heavy and low- pitched like a base drum.

It’s hard keeping up with the daily changes in the orphanage. Didn’t even know little Sara Heitzmann started her menstrual period until the child complained she was out of rags. Totally forgot the birthdays of Deborah Dempsey and Ronald Lee Jones. No one told her little Douglas what’s-his-name got himself adopted.

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