You Don’t Understand Him
Flames where the only thing I could see, standing outside my house, watching it burn down. I watched as the men dragged my bloody and burnt parents away from the house and into an ambulance. Tears cascading down my cheeks and splash onto the ground. Two men walk over to me, they were dressed differently from everyone else.
“Ma’am, come with us. We need to find you a place to stay and ask you a couple of questions.” Officers, that was why they looked different from everyone. I wiped my cheeks, rubbed my puffy eyes, and nodded.
I was in a separate room, a large glass wall in between me and the officers, being questioned about what happened, I never answered them. They had find out about it by the neighbors, not by me. They found out what happened, the fire, nothing else. What they didn’t know that I’ve seen who had killed them, I knew why he did it, I just wasn’t expecting it to truly happen. He didn’t find me; therefore, he didn’t kill me. After killing them, he set the house on fire and fled. I know his motives but I wasn’t going to tell them. I was their last source of information, but nothing will escape my mouth. It’s not like I’ve been born mute or anything… well, I am mute, voluntarily. I haven’t talked in 4 years and I’m not planning to anytime soon.
I looked at the three men in front of me; two of them wearing officer uniforms, the other is an old man wearing a black tuxedo with a black hat and glasses. I tilt my head to the side, looking confused as ever. Why is he here? I know who he is, not why he’s here. That old man is Watari, Watari is a famous inventor and the founder of Wammy's House, an orphanage for gifted children in Winchester, England. Using the fortune he made as an inventor, he built an orphanage that teaches children with special talents. I read all about him online, but why is he here? I have aunts and uncles to take care of me.
One of the officers pressed the intercom button on his microphone and leaned forward. “Will you atleast try and communicate with us? What happened, or a word describing the events?” I stared straight into his eyes with a blank face for a minute and looked away. He sighed and looked at Watari, than back at me.
“There is someone here to meet you.” He nodded at Watari and the three of them walked away from the window, out the door and into the room I was in. They explained to me that I had to go with Watari to the orphanage he owns and live there because none of my relatives are reachable. I looked at Watari and nodded, indicating that I understood what was happening.
A small while later, I was walking behind Watari and some other man I didn’t hear the name of. They lead me to a room similar to the one I was in the police station except for the fact that there was no glass wall. I was in a pure white room with a twin bed, a chair, some toys, a pair of speakers, a puzzle, a couple of “hidden” cameras, and a camera right in front of the chair.
I sat down on the chair and saw that the camera had a red blinking light on, it was on and recording. I looked down at the floor and waited for a voice to tell me what to do. Right then, a booming voice was heard throughout the room.
“Marie, I want you to do the puzzle behind you and come back to the chair once you’re done.” Watari’s voice was heard through the speakers. I nodded at his voice and got up from the chair, walking up to the puzzle. I spread all the pieces of the puzzle and stared at all of them for a minute. picking up a corner piece, I started there and worked my way to the end of the puzzle. without thinking, my fingers grabbed each and every piece, one by one. My fingers looked as if they were lightning, grabbing and placing each piece into its correct spot. when i was done, the puzzle was empty. The puzzle was full on white.
“Oh, my. That was amazingly fast Marie. I thought that you were smart child,and I was wrong. you are smarter than almost everyone here, smarter than I had expected” I didn’t know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult. I decided to wait for what I wanted to hear.
“With your skills and I.Q., I am officially announcing that you, Marie, are a member of the Wammy family. Congratulations.” I smiled knowing that I belonged here.
I was told to exit the plain white room, waiting outside was Watari and the man I never learned the name of… He looks like he could be either a Steave or a Roger. Watari smiled at me while the nameless man’s face held not expression. It was like his face was a poker mask. Staring at the man without a name, he started talking.
“While living at Whammy’s, you must be living in the girls quarters. Never go near the guy’s quarters, and never enter the restricted areas. You will learn where they are from your roommates. They will teach you the Whammy ways and all the other rules needed and known. Oh, one more thing, whenever someone asks for your name, you must never tell them your real name. You will say M, this is your allies.”
I dragged my eight year old body into the lunchroom and sat down next to my friends. It has been 10 months since my parents were killed and burned in the fire. They never found out who did it and I’ve been living at Whammy’s ever since. Sitting down, they all stared at me, as if they were waiting for me to say something. I stared at them, waiting to hear what they had to tell me.
“What?” I questioned their glances. My friends broke me out of my shell and convinced me to start talking again. At first, they were the only ones who had heard my voice, as time went on, I began to talk to others around me. They looked at eachother and then back at me. “You didn’t hear, M?” Sam asked me.
“Didn’t hear what? Did Mr. Roger quit? Please say he did, he talks too much and I’m pretty sure he gave me a bad grade on my essay an—“
“You failed that too? High five!” Rain raised her hand, waiting for me to slap it. After I did, Sam slapped the back of Rain’s head. She rubbed her head in pain and they all looked at me. Rain’s real name wasn’t really ‘Rain’. She created that name for her because she didn’t like the idea of having a letter as a name, no one did. They gave themselves new names and kept them. None of us know each other’s real name, only Watari and Roger.
“No, Mr. Roger isn’t quitting. There’s a new kid at our school and he is super weird.” Sam explained to me and pointed at a boy sitting all alone. He had messy black hair and sat differently than a normal person. He was eating from a large jar of strawberry jam with his fingers, dipping them in the jar and licking off his finger. I admit that was weird, but everyone has something weird about them.
“What about him?” They all stared at me as if I were some crazy lady who had just slapped a child.
“Can’t you see him? He’s eating jam with his fingers, sitting all weird-like, he has red , and… and he’s weird.” I raised my eyebrow at all of them. Why are they judging him? I bet that they haven’t even talked to him. I bet no one around us has spoken a word to him. I should welcome him or something.
“Are you all really judging him? So what if he has little quirks? He could be the nicest guy in the world if you gave him the chance. Maybe there’s a reason he wears the red eyes and sits weirdly. If you want to know why he does that, you have to talk to him. Get the chance to understand him. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it. I’m going to talk to him, anyone wanna come along?” They all looked at me like a mad man and looked down at their trays. Well then! I shook my head and walked to the new kid, along with my tray.
When I got behind him, I tapped his shoulder. He slowly turned around and looked up to me with his red eyes. They were so weird and “So cool.” He had a straight face, but I could tell that he was confused as to why I’m here and why I complimented him. “Hi! My name is M.”
I held my tray with one hand and pointed at the seat next to him, it was empty, the whole table had no one seated except for him. “Can I sit there?” I asked him. He just stared at me, I took it as a yes and put my tray on the table and sat down.
“Why are you sitting there all alone?” He looked at me and said in a low voice, “No one wants to sit with me. They all think I’m weird. They look at my eyes and scream while running away.” He looked down and let out a small sigh.
I thought about it for a moment and pointed at his bright red eyes. I finally said, “I think your eyes are cool. How did you get them like that?” They didn’t look like normal eyes, that’s why I liked them. He looked at me and I could’ve swore I saw him smile.
