Chapter One - Part Two

THE FIRST PARAGRAPH:

Willie walked out of the store to see that one of his pals had taken his spot on the soap box. “Hello Lewis,” Willie said.

“Hi Willie,” Lewis said surprised to see him come from inside. He quickly stood up as though he were expecting Willie to take the box back.

“Do you want your box back? I’ve been watching you on it all day. Such a great sport to sit here on such a great box. You can really get your legs in the way with the angle of sitting up high as opposed to sitting on the ground. It makes your legs go higher up.”

“No,” Willie said, “you can have the box. I have to go inside. My mum is calling me to do the chores.”

“Young man!” his mother reprimanded from the window.

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“I have to go Lewis, enjoy the box.”

“I will. Don’t worry either…I won’t lose it to anyone.” Lewis relaxed again against the wall with his feet extended out into the crowd as William had been positioned before.

Willie turned the corner cautiously, just to see if the bullies really were gone. When he saw none, he slipped into the stairwell and paused before taking his first step. Fearful that rats could be lurking under the stairs, Willie stepped onto the first step and paused. It always cracked on that same spot and he never failed to hit it.

A rat must have heard that, he thought. He froze before he looked in the darkness around him. He did not notice the murky figure lingering near his leg.

I can get up these stairs, he thought again. He placed his other foot on the next stair and dared it to squeak, and it did. This last squeak was enough to rattle the rat and it bolted out from under the stairs, across Willie’s lower leg, out the door and into the alley.

Willie wailed at the top of his lungs and he bolted up the stairs, so fast that they hardly had the chance to squeak on the way up. His shrieks of terror stirred a baby on the third floor and sent birds nesting in the stairwell outside. When he reached the top, Willie’s mother to threw the door open, grabbed hold of him and dragged him into the apartment.

Inside, his screaming did not stop. His eyes had been closed the entire way up the staircase, and his mother did not let go of him out of fear he would hurt himself by running into something.
She called to him, “William! William! William, please stop! Stop this instant William!” His screams made her eyes water and she shivered when his sobs seemed to choke him. Finally she took him and placed his face into her stomach to muffle him, and hugged him.

“It’s all right, William,” she said. “Its all right. There are no rats here. You are at home, with me. You are safe.” She repeated these words continuously until the shrieking stopped, and the Willie cried softly in embarrassment. His mother continued to console him with her arms and ran her fingers through his hair.

“Are you OK now my boy?” she asked.

Willie nodded and moved from his mother’s embrace. He looked back up at her with trembling eyes for some sign of love and forgiveness. She obliged him by wiping the tears from his cheeks.
“You are becoming a man now William,” she continued. “The day will come that you punish the rats.”

“Another rat?” his older sister teased from the sofa on the other end of the room.

The family of five shared an apartment that had one bedroom for the parents, a kitchen with a closet for the washroom and a large living room where the children slept. There was no painting to speak of, though there may have been white paint from years before, and the walls were exposed to the wind outside. They had a carpet given to them by his maternal grandmother many years ago, and though it was a beautiful work of art when it was purchased, it now was torn nearly to rags. In the corner of the room was a table with three chairs, a stool and a small wooden bench.

His sister, three years older, sat on the sofa and stared at her brother. She was waiting for the right moment to tease him again. At last, when their mother moved into the kitchen she pounced.

“Another rat huh?” she said with a gleam in her eye.

“Be quiet,” Willie said turning away. He wiped his tears.

“Go look under the sofa for me will you? I think I lost my ring.”

“You don’t have a ring and I’m not falling for that trick.”

“Oh, come on. Please? OK, it is not a ring that I lost, but will you please look under the sofa? I think I remember losing something under there.”

“Leave me alone,” he shouted at her.

“You have to sleep on the floor tonight, it’s your turn. So if I were you I would make sure nothing jumps out at you in the middle of the night.”

“Be quiet!” he yelled. Their mother emerged from the kitchen again with a stern look.

“Patty, you leave him alone! You are one to talk. Just the other day you were afraid of the monkey in the park. A monkey? The old man had a monkey that danced to his music and you were afraid. Now leave your brother alone or I will go out and buy the monkey myself!”

The girl cringed, “No mum…please.”

“We shall have it as a pet and it will sleep in the living room!”

“Nooo!”

“And it could hang wherever it wanted and maybe we would call it Patricia just so it would come with you when called!”

The girl began to cry but this time the mother refused to console her child.

“OK then. You behave this instant because I will not put up with it for one more moment. We have enough to worry about without your selfish behavior!”

She then turned her attention to William, “What were you thinking down there? I had to yell to you three times before you decided to come up…Three times! I can understand once because I need to call you. Or twice if you don’t hear me. Even a third is OK if you aren’t that close. But you were that close. You were right under the window! Three Times! I’ll teach you to not mind me. You have extra chores to do today! And for going inside of the fish shop when I have told you not to! That will justify it even more! Take this change and go to the bread man, the one down the street and fetch us a loaf for tonight. I haven’t the energy to make any so we must spend on waste. And don’t let him sell you a stale piece for the same price either! Make him be fair and go off!”

Willie took the money and started to head to the door when he froze again. The thought of facing the rat in the dark hallway made him shiver, so he turned to his mother to ask her if he could go down the other way. But when he saw a look that he feared more than the rats, he opened the door and went out.