Gilbert's Märchen

Chapter 7

Nothing is more dangerous
than ignorance and intolerance
armed with power.

Voltaire (1694-1778)

It was morning yet it was still dark outside. Suddenly I heard a knock on my door. "Gilbert are you awake?" "Ja Mutti!" I replied. Heide opened the door "May I enter?" I nodded and Heide walked to me. "You left this in my room yesterday." she showed me my notebook and put it on my nightstand.

"The stories you write are lovely, but the one about the boy that was being bullied was very sad. Were you feeling sad when you wrote it?" I nodded. "Was it about Hansel?" she asked. "Ja. Miss Maria is back, so he'll bully me again." I sighed and put on my shoes. Heide walked to me and patted my back "You really have to stand up for yourself Gilbert. The things Hansel does are unacceptable.". "I know!" I cried"But I don't want to be violent towards him or anyone else. Besides, Hansel and his group are with so many, I can't stop them on my own." Heide gave me a napkin to dry my eyes and told me that there was no need to use violence in order to stand up for myself. "Then what do you have to do if you can't push them away?" "Use words! Tell them that what they are doing is wrong. Make clear that there's no way that they can push you down, okay!" I nodded and prepared myself for school.

It did not take long before Hansel started to pick on me again. I followed Heide's advice and defended myself with words. "You think that I'm a coward, don't you?" He laughed and nodded. "Well I think you're a coward too. Picking on other people is lame!" Hansel got furious. "What did you just say?" he yelled as he made his hand into a fist. He tried to hit me, but luckily I could stop him in time. "Just leave me alone, will you!" I yelled. Suddenly I heard footsteps coming closer. I turned around and saw that it was Miss Maria. "Gilbert, leave Hansel alone and come with me!" Before I could say anything she grabbed my wrist and dragged me away. "You are in big trouble, little brat."

Miss Maria kept me in a separate room until the break was over. After all the kids were sent inside, she returned and pulled my hair. "What did I tell you about Heide?" I started to shiver "To not tell her about the punishments." Miss Maria nodded. She was so furious that her face turned red. "Exactly. I told you so many times not to tell her, yet you still did it!" I was shocked. Why would she think that I told Heide about the punishments? I never told her anything about it, despite the fact I really wanted her to help me. "You are very bad Gilbert! And what do bad people deserve?" A chill was running down my spine. I knew that Miss Maria wanted me to say that I deserved punishment, but I refused to say that. Instead I decided to give an answer that Miss Maria would disapprove of.

"Bad people deserve punishment, but I'm not bad, unlike you. You are evil Maria! That's why you are the one that deserves punishment." "Excuse me!" Miss Maria yelled so hard that it hurt my ears. She grabbed the back of my shirt and pushed me down. "And do you know why you are evil? Because you hurt children! Hurting children is forbidden!" I cried. Maria laughed "Since when are you the one who makes the rules? I'm your teacher, I can do whatever I want with you." She dragged me to the fountain in the courtyard and forced me to sit on my knees. "I punished you so many times for your rude behavior. I thought you learnt your lesson, but I was wrong. It's time to wash that foul mouth of yours!"

Before I knew Miss Maria grabbed my head and pushed me in the fountain. She kept me underwater for a few seconds before she started to yell at me again. "You know what? Heide made a big mistake spoiling you like that. You are a little useless brat. Besides you also benefit from other people's misfortune. Disgusting!" That last sentence confused me. What was she talking about? "Want do you mean?" I asked anxiously. Miss Maria pulled my hair. "Well, if that sweet little maid of yours wasn't raped back then, then you wouldn't even be alive." She pushed me under water again. I thought it would only last a few seconds, but I was wrong. She kept me underwater for more than a minute. I started to panic. Was she trying to drown me? I tried to escape, but all my attempts were in vain. Just when I was starting to get dizzy I felt that Miss Maria's grip was getting weaker. I managed to escape and got to the surface. When I turned around I saw that Heide was standing in front of Miss Maria. Her Hazel eyes that had always looked so friendly were filled with raging fire.

"What the hell were you doing to my son?" she yelled. Miss Maria stayed calm "I gave him what he deserved." "I knew that there was something wrong with your way of teaching. You abuse your pupils, don't you?" I hid behind Heide's back and saw that Miss Maria was shaking her head. "Gilbert?" Heide asked "Has Miss Maria ever hurt you?" I nodded. "Every single day?" My legs started to shake as I nodded again. "You monster!" Heide looked Miss Maria in the eyes. It was the first time I'd seen her so angry. "You claim to be a good person, but you are anything but that! How dare you to do such terrible things to innocent children." "He's lying!" "My son never lies, you despicable witch! How dare you to call yourself a teacher when you take away a child's right to be safe? Someone like you should not even come near to children." I pulled my mother's skirt and I apologized for getting her into trouble. "Don't be sorry Gilbert. It's not your fault that this witch was hurting you. I advise you to go back to your room. Don't worry I'll be back in a minute."

After about half an hour Heide entered my room. She looked devastated. "What's wrong Mutti?" Heide sat down on my bed and sighed. "Maria told the owner some terrible lies. He wants to talk to me. I have a bad feeling about this." I sat down next to my mother and hesitated for a while. "Rape what does that mean?" I wondered "I want to ask Heide. But should I?". In the end I decided to ask her. "Miss Maria said a word to me I didn't know. Raped, I think. What does it mean?" Heide looked shocked. "Is it a bad word?" Her pupils got very wide as tears rolled down her cheek. "That witch!" She got up and told me that she'd go to the owner. "Stay here! You shouldn't talk to that kind of people!" And she left the room. The longer I stayed in my room the more uncomfortable I started to feel. "Are they talking about me?", "Is something bad going to happen?" were the things that were constantly crossing my mind. It didn't take long before I couldn't take it anymore. I stood up and walked to the room of the owner.

"You dirty whore! Stop blaming Maria for things she has never done. She would never hurt an innocent child." I decided not to interrupt them. The director sounded very angry, and I heard things falling down. I held my ears towards the wall. "B-But..." "Stop interrupting me, maid! The way you talked about Maria is unacceptable! You're fired. Leave this place and take that dirty rat with you!" I heard a loud smack. The sound filled me with rage. I couldn't control myself anymore. I opened the door and threw it against the wall. "Gilbert?" Heide said surprised. "You monster!" I shouted. I ran towards the orphanage's owner and tried to hit him, but Heide stopped me. "I hate you! Both of you! How dare you to hit my Mutti!" I cried as my breathing got faster. "Hush, Gilbert! Let's leave now, they're not worth it!" Heide lifted me and walked outside the room. "I hope I'll never see you again!" I yelled from the distance

Back in my room Heide was packing our stuff. "You heard everything, didn't you?" I nodded "We have to leave this house. But where will we go now?" Heide kissed my forehead "I don't know sweetheart. The road will be long and hard. But we'll fight, to make sure that we'll be okay." I nodded and grabbed my notebook "Can I take my stories?" "Of course" After a few minutes we were done packing. We walked towards the exit of the orphanage. Before we left I turned around one last time. Hansel was standing in the hallway. He was crying. At that moment I didn't pay much attention to it, but as I got older I realized that Hansel was a victim as well.

To be continued