Under Lock and Key

16: The Forgotten House

Lee Clarke, November 14th, 1946, Modoc County12:50 pm

Leisure on rainy days was terrible.

We were together, the sixteen of us, so often, day in and day out, that Leisure was some of our only time to physically separate. Just feel the wide open space, knowing we could walk away and talk to someone else, or not talk to anyone,

"Close the door." Carl complained, which was his typical response to anything and everything. "Its fucking freezing in here."

Lewis shrugged, and closed it. Wes sighed. He was closest to the door, and even though it was chilly, he liked seeing outside, even through the rain.

I watched as Davey sat side by side with Donny by the bathroom door, paper on their knees. Today it was a lesson on how to draw landscapes.

"See if things are at the bottom of the page, you draw them bigger, because they're closer. And things further away you draw them little toward the top of the page. It's called perspective."

Davey really was a good teacher when he chose to be.

"What the fuck is perspective, asshole?"

Donny wasn't too happy to be his student, but he did it because I asked him to.

"It means..." Davey searched for the words. "It means...where your standing...affects how things look, I guess. So the person who's looking at the picture, determines the perspective of how you draw? I don't know how to explain it better. Just draw the trees on the hills small."

Perspective is how I get through every day. I try to keep things close, and not to look too far into the future. It seems so far away and it is. It seems smaller and not as important as what's right in front of me. Other times, I can't stop thinking about the future and it makes it hard for me to sleep.

"Lee..." Glen shook me out of my inner thoughts, which got the better of me from time to time. "Are you all right?"

Again, echoes of Mr. Cooper. Someone else who cared about me.

"Yeah. Daydreaming I guess."

Glen put his hand on my knee and squeezed it. We were sitting side by side on my bed. Henry was doing sit ups with the twins. They'd decided they were our dorm Physical Education teachers. Sort of. Whenever they felt like it at least.

Herman was with Joey who was unsuccessfully trying to get him to play peek a boo and This Little Piggy. Kelly had rocks spread out on his blanket, getting Little Mouse to sort them by size, having him make groups of tens.

Our eyes connected. We smiled at each other. Both of us taking in the earnest way that Little Mouse was counting, touching each rock carefully. It was cute. But even better, he was learning.

Lewis sat staring at the ceiling, on Little Bobby's bed while the younger boy read silently to himself, helping him with words he didn't know from a book I'd never heard of called The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. When I asked him about it, Lewis shrugged.

"I've never read it. He chose it from Mr. Campbell's bookshelf. I don't think it's anything I'd be interested in. Some kind of detective story. I'd rather read about Holmes and Watson if I choose a mystery set in Victorian London. Clever deduction versus lurid sensationalism."

Which I didn't understand at all, but as long as Little Bobby was reading, I suppose it doesn't matter what book it is.

"You and Kelly are friends again." Glen once again brought me back to the moment.