A Girl Like Himself

Part 5

Charlie was content, as content as one could be in Charlie's position.

Well-exercised and well-fed, he lazed by the kitchen sinks as the girls scrubbed the plates and bowls and various utensils and dried them and put them away.

It had been barely four months since Charlie had come to Wool's, and already he felt like he knew the inner workings of the place. He knew, for example, that by volunteering in the kitchens, he could avoid the significantly dirtier and more tasking jobs the other boys usually received, with the added benefit of being able to get his fill of choice left-overs from each meal.

He knew also that he could ingratiate himself to the ladies who worked at the orphanage by making and bringing them their afternoon tea and receive sometimes a biscuit or sweet in return for a compliment on their dress or hair.

In this way, Charlie flourished in his new environment and began to grow quite stout.

And to think, he laughed to himself as he stuffed a ruminative bit of pastry in his mouth, that he had been so reluctant to come, what with Ma sick and out of a job and her new good-for-nothing having pushed Charlie out of their little flat and installed himself in it.

One of the girls detached herself from the work line and hurried towards him, wiping her hands on her apron.

"Charlie, I need you to do something for me," she said. "I broke my hairnet, and my hair's all over the place now. I can't work like this." She tugged at her lank red hair. "I got extra hairnets in our dormitory, can you bring one down?"

"Yeah okay," said Charlie, when he'd finished licking his fingers, "But you gots to do something for me in return."

She crossed her arms, frowning. "Lent you my wind-up cricket, didn't I?"

"Oh, yeah. All right then." Charlie straightened himself and started heading out of the kitchen. "Hang on a minute." He turned back. "Can't you just borrow from Ruth? She's always got a hairnet about."

"No, I want my own. It'll be in the second drawer, you know the one. You go quick." She shooed him out.

Charlie set off for their room at a brisk pace to make it obvious he was on an errand; he didn't want to be stopped by an adult and given more tasks. He passed through the canteen, passed by the dining room where the staff were taking their dinner, went past the recreation room where most of his fellows were playing board games, and into the stairwell.

Their shared sleeping quarters were on the fourth floor. As he climbed, less could be heard of the lively clamour going on below, and the louder echoed the sound of his panting steps in the stairwell. Finally, he burst out onto the fourth floor, slightly out of breath.

The dormitory he shared with Anne and four others was down a skinny corridor and past a sharp bend. He jogged down the corridor, expertly took the bend without checking his speed, and opened the door. The room, windowless, was quiet and dim, and he could only just make out the shapes of the six bunkbeds jammed close together in the small space. He flicked the switch on the wall just inside the doorway to activate the small electric lamp hanging from the ceiling.

It didn't work.

Grumbling crossly, he stepped further into the room. The light from the corridor illuminated it just barely, and the partial darkness necessitated that he feel around for the hairnet. He would do that for a few seconds, and if he didn't immediately come across any hairnet, he would tell Anne that she was going to have to come get it herself.

Just as he was deciding that if he was going to give up anyway, he might as well save himself the hassle, give up now, and go back down to where there was sure to be a slice of something cold and sweet waiting to be eaten, the door snapped close behind him, cutting off the light from the hallway and shrouding the room in intense blackness.