Schplit

2908

A small boy sits on the dust floor. The sun blazes above him, burning away at his pale skin. I'm not supposed to be here, he thinks, there is another part of me that I haven't found yet.

Just down the road marches a man named Domanic Schplit. Behind him trails a quivering old lady, Matron Rede, and another woman known as Matron Carter. They are dressed in clean, crisp clothes: a rare sight around these parts. One by one, children are persuaded to join the cult the evil trio had started.

The small boy sees the rich man and women storming down the street, dust flying up behind them as if it were a late twentieth century movie. A line of children, just like him, bounce along behind them grinning from ear to ear. He shrinks back into the wall he is leaning against as Matron Carter looks him in the eye.

She stops. "Hello," The lady whispered, "are you alone? No family?" She reaches out her hand, inside it a toffee that the boy so desperately wants.
"Yes," the boy murmured, never taking his gaze off the carefully wrapped sweet, "My parents and sister died."
"You poor thing." Sarcasm stretches through the crazy woman's voice, "well, lucky for you, we have today been recruiting orphans like you to join our...club. We will feed you, water you, house you and educate you until you are fourteen. Then we will..." She pronounces the last three words so slowly they seem to trail off. The little boy just has to finish the conversation.

"Yes. I'd love to come. Thank you. You are kind."

The little boy joins the line of children as they are hauled into a storage crate and lifted onto the back of a truck. The truck bleeps the horn and rages off through the heat. The little boy thinks to himself, chewing the toffee, and smiles; This is the other part of me that I haven't found yet.