Grandfather by Anthony Wade

always go as
planned. Edgar would sometimes find me, and he’d have me sit with
him, Mae, and Marley. Other times, they would join me.
    I continued not saying
much to anybody. I did, however, ask Edgar when I was going to be
able to go with him on one of their missions or whatever they
called them. He still wasn’t happy about me participating but
assured me that they would let me know when that time came. I
wouldn’t have been surprised if he was lying to me. I’d have to
bring it up to Belladonna at some point.
    And speaking of
Belladonna, I hadn’t seen her at all those past few days. She
didn’t even come out to eat, so where was she getting food? I asked
Edgar where she was, and he told me she did things best when kept
to herself. I didn’t blame her.
    Then, one day, I was just
lying in my room, actually reading a random book I had found about
a boy and his dog. I remembered seeing a copy of it at the
orphanage, but I never picked it up. A knock came at the door. I
assumed it was Edgar and hoped he was ready to take me with him and
Belladonna. I opened up the door to find Marley and Belladonna
standing next to each other.
    “I hope you’ve been
adjusting nicely,” Belladonna said with a bright tone.
    “Oh . . . yeah,” I
replied, glad to finally see her. “It’s been nice to have some
peace for once.”
    “Orphanages can get rather
loud, I understand,” she said. “I don’t remember it ever being
quiet, unless everybody was sleeping.
    “That didn’t happen very
often,” I said.
    “Well, I’m glad you don’t
have to deal with any of that anymore,” she said.
    “Yeah.” I looked at Marley
who was, of course, smiling. She must have been trying really hard
to get me to be her friend or something, and I just couldn’t figure
it out, especially if she already had Ashton, whoever that
was.
    “It came to my attention
that you still haven’t explored the place,” Belladonna said. “You
know . . . it might help to get out of this old room and get to
know your new, temporary home.”
    I didn’t say anything. I
knew exactly what Belladonna was getting at, and I was pretty sure
that Edgar had put them up to it. I didn’t like it one
bit.
    “Marley, here, knows the
place really well, so I took it upon myself to bring her here to
give you the grand tour.”
    I forced an obvious fake
smile.
    “It’ll be alright,”
Belladonna said. “Now, Marley, don’t get him into any trouble or
anything.”
    “I’ll try not to,” she
said. “But you know me.”
    Belladonna chuckled and
took a step back. “I’ll leave you guys alone,” she said. “Just be
sure you’re in the dining room at six. Cornelius is addressing the
nation then.” Marley told her she would make sure of it, and
Belladonna left us alone.
    “You ready?” Marley asked
me.
    I wanted to tell her that
I wasn’t, but they were going to continue forcing it on me until I
actually went with her. “I guess,” I said, shutting the door behind
me and following her down the hall toward the dining
hall.
    “All of these doors are
rooms like yours,” she was saying. She then pointed at the door I
had used every day. “You know that leads to the dining
hall.”
    I followed her down a
couple of other halls as she talked about the routine. Of course,
breakfast, lunch, and dinner were always at the same times because
it helped organize the small community. According to Marley, there
were about 150 people in the facility, but they were planning to
gather a few more, especially after the tracking law
passed.
    Soon, the hall grew dark
as torches no longer lit up the place. Marley took out a flashlight
and shined it forward. I hadn’t been paying much attention to where
we were going, so I was pretty much lost. No surprise there. I
started seeing grass growing between the cracks again. The place
was starting to smell pretty muggy. There was obviously nothing
there being used, so why had Marley led me there. And how big was
this freaking