Tales From Hell's Eternal Waiting Room

Just A Bit of Honey

A long time ago, deep in the pine barrens stood a small, unremarkable building.It was made of earth and wood, roofed with cedar shingles and a large chimney raising out of it's top. On the front of this building was a large wooden door and on the door was a small, dilapidated sign which read

                              "Ms. Reeves' Home for Orphaned boys."

Ms. Reeves was a middle aged woman of average height and weight with long gray hair she kept constantly wrapped up in a bun. She was wrinkled a bit, but not overly. She walked stooped over like her back was always hurting and she almost always had a strange sort of evil grin on her face. When Ms. Reeves would take the carriage and go to town for supplies the townsfolk didn't really think of her smile as anything out of the ordinary but the boys she cared for, they did. They knew all too well that the look on Ms. Reeve's face was evil. They knew that most everything about Ms. Reeves was evil, in fact. For they lived with it every day of their miserable lives. They had no other choice.

Ms. Reeves would take in the most helpless of boys. She would accept the boys who had been left on a hospital doorstep and had no family or boys whose parents had been killed in an accident. In other words she took boys no one else cared about. And boys no one would miss.. Boys no one would come looking for. Boys who would be absolutely dependant on her. Boys who would do as she said.

Ms. Reeves at the height of her career had ten boys in her little shelter and she tried to mold them into men the only way she knew how. Discipline, religion, and copious amounts of hard work.

"Idle hands are the devil's playthings boys!

"Yes Ms. Reeves!"

"No slacking you lazy slugs!"

"Yes Ms. Reeves!"

The boys were digging up the ground to plant crops in the fields around the orphanage.

"Billy! Get up! What is the meaning of sitting down on the job?"

"I don't feel well Ms. Reeves, the boy answered holding his belly, I just wanted to sit for a minute please?"

"Are you disobeying me Billy?" she asked in a sudden fury.

"No Ms. Reeves, I just feel faint is all. Can I please have some water?"

"Absolutely not you spoiled little bastard! Do you see any of the other boys begging for water like dogs for scraps? Well, do you?" She was seething now.

"Ms. Reeves, I really don't feel well."

"That's it! she screamed at him while racing over to where he stood, I have had it with this insubordination!"

Ms. Reeves grabbed Billy by the collar and dragged him into the house. There she slapped him hard across his face. The boy fell to the floor. 

"Do you think you can do whatever you please here Billy? Hmmmm? You think we don't have rules young man? Answer me or you will be severely punished!"

"No Ms. Reeves, Billy wimpered through his falling tears, I'm sorry!"

Ms. Reeves pulled him up by his hair and then slapped him even harder. Once again the boy fell to the floor of the house. He lay there crying, too afraid to move or even stand up.

Ms. Reeves then stepped over to the alter in the worship room and picked up a bible. She told Billy to read from it for two hours and then pray for another hour to ask God for forgiveness for what he had done. She returned outside to make sure the other boys were hard at work.

"Ms. Reeves, Bobby said to her, Billy really is sick, he was barfing all last night. He needs to go to the doctor"

Ms. Reeves' eyes flew open at the words Bobby had spoken. She stormed over to him and ripped the shovel out of his hands. He cowered in fear as she held it above her head, laboring for breath because she was so angry.