The End Of Nothing And The Beginning Of It All

Chapter Ten: Hope

The cell was empty apart from a small toilet and two beds. It was dark and cold with metal bars securing the entrance.
"Look kid. I don't know if you can even understand me but you have really got me into some trouble here. I don't know if you have any parents but I am definitely not your mum" I said to the child as we both sat down on the solid mattresses. He looked at me with a vacant state before pointing at me and saying "My Mummy". This isn't looking like it's going to be very successful I thought to myself. The boy was too young to understand many words. He seemed older but delayed in his speech and social skills for some reason. I guess I'm just going to have to play along with this. It's only two days after all. I don't have the energy to keep explaining and going round in circles. I lay down staring up at the blank damp, crusty ceiling as the metal bed springs dug into my spine. This is going to be a long couple of days. Even though in here you can't tell the difference between daytime and nighttime, I knew from when I got here that the night was already drawing in. I started to close my eyes, thinking about the events that had happened in the last 48 hours. Maybe I'm safe now? Maybe I finally found my tribe, people who could help? I had so many questions circling round in my head yet to be answered. What are the Flukes? Would they have killed me earlier? I continued writing an imaginary list of questions in my head to ask the others once I was let out of this cell. However I was soon interrupted by a whinging sound coming from the bed on the opposite side of the room. No surprise, it was coming from the kid.
"Whats wrong? It's bedtime now. Time to sleep. " I said gently as I looked over at the child who had tears in his eyes.
"Scary" he cried.
"Don't worry. It's ok, we are safe in here. No one can get you" I reassured but he continued to cry. I am really bad at this mother stuff and the last thing I want to be stuck with in here is a crying child. I decided to get up and comfort him in his bed. I attempted to make up a bedtime story but I soon realised I was rubbish at that too. Suddenly a memory popped into my head. It was of me when I was younger, similarly lying in my bed crying at night however instead I was hugging onto this teddy bear so tightly it's head was about to explode. I recall that I once loved that bear. Somehow the bear managed to calm me down and help me get to sleep. But unfortunately there wasn't a bear here? There was absolutely nothing. I kept thinking, what can I use instead? I realized that I had to make something. I had none of my belongings, they were all taken away from me on arrival. All I had were me and my clothes. It therefore had to be my clothes that were sacrificed then. Don't worry I wasn't naked in the cell, I only ripped a small portion of my trouser material off at the bottom and tied it off in sections to create a bear-like shape. This was the best I could do considering the circumstances. However I was quite impressed with my craftsmanship.
"Look kid. This bear will keep you safe. Whenever you feel scared you need to hug it as tight as you can and the badness will go away ok?" I tried to explain as slowly as possible so he understood. He snatched the bear out of my hands before hugging me and saying" Best mummy". He then proceeded to squeeze the bear tight and close his eyes. I think that means it was a success? So I returned to my bed and closed my eyes myself. The following morning, I woke up to the sound of a metal tray scraping the concrete floor and as I opened my eyes the kid was looking down at me. I got up with a fright. That was kind of freaky! The metal tray delivered us our breakfast. One portion of egg with a few tomatoes and mushrooms. I looked at it in disbelief. There was hardly anything, not enough for the two of us in here.
I noticed a security camera watching us so I looked up and shouted at it "This is hardly enough food for two people. There is a growing young child in here. He's going to need all of this". There was no reply as expected, they probably thought I was ungrateful but I call it being a realist. This kid looks starving. He had to have what he needed. I soon realised that he couldn't use a knife and fork so I cut the food into small bitesize pieces before presenting him with the plate. He looked at me as if to say 'what about you?' but it seemed as if he struggled with the words to say it. I signalled for him to eat and not to worry about me and he did just that until the whole plate was gone. I posted the empty tray back under the door. Now what do we do? Me and the kid lay back together on one bed with my arm around his back, his body slightly leaning on my side as if he were cuddling me.
"So what's your name, kid?" I asked.
He looked at me with no reply.
"Mine name is Hope. What are you called?" I repeated.
"Mummy" he said. "No that's what you call me. What's your name?" I asked more slowly this time pointing to him. He didn't say a word. "Well I'm just going to have to call you kid then" I told him, which somehow he seemed to understand. Kid it is. We continue to lay there and we both must have fallen asleep as I was again woken by the noise of a sliding food tray. I had no idea whether this was dinner or breakfast. All I knew is that it probably didn't matter as I wasn't going to have any of it anyway...