The Maple Leaf

Two: Waning

William looked around his room, as if discovering it for the first time, and noticed how the carpet was still just as shaggy and red as it had always been. After so long, he'd expected the carpet to become matted and lose color, yet it was the cleanest thing in the room. His bed consisted of four planks of wood, each one about six inches wide and four and a half feet in length. They were all nailed to the concrete floor below the carpet. On these planks were two sheets and one thin feather pillow, complete with a thin case.

The bed was less than ideal by any stretch of the imagination. William was longer than the bed, meaning much of his body, usually his legs and knees, would be off the end. He would choose to sleep on the carpet instead, but the room was so small that much of the space was taken up by the planks. William had a habit of rolling in his sleep. He often found himself in abnormal, uncomfortable positions between his bed and the desk.

His desk was also bolted to the ground. All items within the room were arranged in a way that purposefully made life uncomfortable and unmovable. That way, William could never hope to find a way to up to the hole or feel completely relaxed. Even the dark metal desk was merely a fraction the size of your average tabletop, only rising about one foot off the ground from its legs to the finished end.

There also was a deposit tray by the door, which was where food and drink were placed. Three times a day, on days when he was not in trouble, he would be fed small portions by Father. Father is what he liked to be called. He never tolerated another name. There was one day of the week that Father let William out of this room. William always thought of that as Sunday, which he learned of in Kindergarten long before the events which led him there had happened.

Sunday was always a special day in William's mind. A day when kids would not have to go to school and many people would congregate in churches or have family get-togethers. William had no idea what most of these things truly were. He had only fragments of these memories, which he questioned often.

"Were they only dreams?" He'd ponder.

He was about five years old back then, he assumed. He could never be sure about his current age. He only knew what Father would tell him. He felt like thirty-five, but Father said he was twenty-eight. That topic was never brought up much, but it seemed to change in answer from time to time. Yes, Sunday was a special day, and so in his mind, that was his Sunday. His special day. The day when he got to leave the room.

In front of the one-sided door was also his waste bucket. This, too, was nailed to the concrete below and was only emptied by a pump. The pumping was done by Father and would lead to a machine. That was the most unbearable thing for William in the beginning. The smell and humiliation of it haunted him for a very long time. If he were to ever need toilet paper, William would have to bang on the door and ask for it. Sometimes he would be told to use his shirt. Eventually, William began to simply not go, for as long as he could muster, just so he wouldn't have to be disappointed again. At that moment though, it was the least of his concerns.

William's clothes were rarely cleaned unless grossly unsanitary. His clothes had changed periodically over the years, going from a grey pair of sweatpants to worn, blue jeans. He preferred the former, as the jeans would never fit quite right over his small waist. After William complained enough, even going through plenty of scrutiny from Father, he eventually received sweatpants again. His shirts always stayed the same, though. Plain, stiff, and black. His feet and head remained bare, and underwear was not even a thought in his mind, having not seen a pair since he was quite young.

He stood up slowly, looking around the room trying to spark up an idea of how to get rid of the beautiful leaf. He knew it was early morning and that tomorrow would be Sunday when Father would come in to search the room and release him for a while. William also knew that one of the planks was slightly farther away than the others, leaving a gap just big enough for something thin.