Wrath Of God

Chapter 2: 'Practised lies'

I woke up in a cold sweat. It was a Tuesday and that meant I would start my first day at work. Old man Williams organized me a job as a waiter at a small Italian restaurant, ‘Luigi’s Fine Italian Cuisine’. I have only ever been to a restaurant once before and that was not a good memory.

I was fourteen. A family was looking for an older brother for their seven-year-old son.

I had never given much thought to being adopted. No-one would ever replace mother and I would definitely not get along with a man who tried to be a father figure to me.

I was still fantasizing the death of my biological father, an adoptive father might just suffer the same fate. In my time at the orphanage very little of us got adopted or put into foster care. The ones that did get adopted were normally very young and cute.

The older you are the less likely you are to get adopted.

So when Old man Williams told me a family was interested in me I thought it to be a joke at first, but Old man Williams is not known to be humorous. So I dressed up in the smartest clothes I owned and learnt all the lines Old man Williams taught me.

Maybe I would struggle to be part of a new family but I know it can’t be worse than this dump.

I waited outside the orphanage gates. Old man Williams sat behind me silently.

Alison had fussed about my clothes and wished me luck. She smiled and kissed me on the cheek before running off to look after the younger kids. It was cold, my long hair blew in the wind. Alison wasn’t too happy about that since she had fussed over my hair. She seemed to fuss over almost everything, it was painful.

Before long I heard a noise and looked up to see a red Volvo pull up. First to get out the car was the mother. She was quite tall and had blonde curly hair. She wore a light blue dress with a darker blue jacket. She looked at me, smiled and hurried over to me where she introduced herself in a high-pitched overexcited voice. It seemed she had a lot in common with Alison. She loved to fuss and got excited about everything and anything. She introduced herself as Mary Forlane.

Her husband was dressed in a smart suit with a white shirt and blue tie. He was quite well built and had the look of a successful car salesman. His name was Aaron Forlane.

He was cheerful and well-spoken. They seemed like good people with good intentions, but I didn’t trust anyone as a rule. Yet despite my distrust and dark demeanor I smiled like a good puppet and introduced myself with enthusiasm and gusto.

Old man Williams wished me good luck and off we drove.

They took me to a restaurant. It was medium class restaurant, nothing to fancy.

Mary showed me pictures of little Mike, the boy they were hoping I would be a big brother to.

Mike himself wasn’t present, they wanted to meet me first before introducing him to me.

Mary started with the questions, ‘So Kyle, what can you tell us about yourself?’

‘Well, I enjoy listening to music and being around people.’ I don’t listen to music and I definitely did not enjoy being around people. These were all practiced lies.

I continued my deceptions, ‘I also enjoy playing sports. My favorite sport is football.’ This brought a smile to Aarons face. He was a football supporter and I could see him visualizing me, him and Mike playing football out in the garden. I’ve never been one for sports and I’ve never played a game of football in my life. If this all went well I’d have a lot to learn. The questions continued and while I smiled and faked laughter I kept looking at the clock counting down the minutes to my curfew.

Then it happened. The moment that changed the entire evening.

It began during one of Mary’s painstakingly detailed story about something that Mike did at the beach.

A couple were arguing loudly and the argument was getting more intense as the minutes went by. The argument had something to do with finances, or that’s what it started on before it evolved into a domestic battle. The waiter tried to get them to quiet down but was unsuccessful. People stared and others complained. The man blamed the women for embarrassing him and grabbed her arm and yanked her towards the door to leave.

As they came past our table, the women struggled out of the man’s grip and in a moment of anger he grabbed and shook her violently shouting at her to stop her nonsense.

As he shook her, I saw the anger in his eyes and the fear in her eyes. The woman’s face was replaced with my mothers and I saw my father as I looked at the man.

He was hurting her. I won’t be afraid, I won’t let him hurt her. He shouted, she shouted, people were talking and the whole restaurant was filled with noise. My heart started beating faster. The noises of the room starting fading and all I could hear was the ticking of the clock on the wall.

Anger flowed through my veins as I got up and in a fit of rage picked up my plate and swung it with all my strength hitting the man in his face breaking his nose. The plate smashed on impact and blood mixed with spaghetti bolognaise. He stumbled back and I advanced forward and punched him in the face. My face was red with rage.

As I was about to punch again, someone grabbed my hand and held me back. I was held back and constrained while the man left the restaurant led out by other men.

Needless to say I didn’t get adopted. I was not destined to be Mike’s big brother.

What I did get was criminal record for assault and a lashing from Old man Williams that I would never forget.