An Unexpected Father (for Confused Spider4)
 

It was a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the bees were buzzing. And that was just in one fairly beautiful garden. It was a lovely day for the lucky owner.

But today, in the garden, was something that would change the owner's life forever.

It was a young boy, no more than six years old, hiding near a hedge near the garden gate. He was wearing an old red T-Shirt, blue shorts and white trainers. His brown hair was messy, and he looked like a little bundle of nerves. It was almost as if he was hiding from something, and had chosen this particular garden to take refuge.

Just then, he heard something. Turning around, he could just make out the owner of the garden coming out of his house. He quickly hid behind a tree.

Geoffrey Lunn was 45 years of age, he had already married twice and divorced twice. Since his last divorce 4 years ago, he had lived alone in his house. He was not currently in work, but he lived off the windfall payments from his divorces. He carried around a pocket watch that was given to him from his last place of work as a moving away present. He kept it to remind him of the love he had for work. Right now however, his passion was gardening.

He had strong views on corporal punishment and, though he never had a child of his own, he believed that it was the only way to bring up a child right.

He emerged from the house to plant some new shoots from his greenhouse, when he noticed that a part of the hedge was destroyed.

"Oh, Drat!" he thought to himself "Blooming foxes again." He marched over to where the hole in the hedge. He inspected the hole and then turned his head to see this young boy in his garden.

"Good Grief!!!" he yelled with a start. "What are you doing in my garden?? Have you caused this???"

The young boy looked at the man with an extreme look of fear on his face.

"D...don't come near me," he said, cowering on the spot, "I...I bite."

His tough words were doing nothing to hide the fact that he was absolutly terrified.

Geoffrey wanted to be cautious, especially with this young boy, but he disliked trespassers of any kind.

He bent down and picked up the boy by the arm. "I've a good mind to give you a good hiding little man, Where have you come from?"

The youngster was shaking badly as the man took his arm. He was much too scared to carry out his threat.

"T...t....the local orphanage," he blubbered, "P...please Sir, don't send me back there. They're horrible."

He lifted up the little sleeve of his T-Shirt. There, on his arm, were two bruises AND a bite-mark...human shaped, but much too big to be his own.

Geoffrey stopped to think for a moment. This child seemed desperate, and the bruises and marks left on his body are reason enough to run from anywhere.

He put the child down and knelt down to his eye level. "What's your name young man? And who did this to you?" All his anger from a moment ago had washed away into a look of sincerity and kindliness.

...and, somehow, the young boy could sense this.

"M...my name is Christopher," he said meekly, but a lot calmer than earlier, "I...I'm six years old, and the...the people at the orphanage did this. The staff...the people who...who are meant to care for us. But....they don't."

With that, he suddenly burst into tears.

"I don't want to be bashed around," he sobbed, "I just want some love."

"Calm down, Christopher, Calm down." Geoffrey said trying to soothe the boy. "Come inside, I'll see what I can do about this."

He led the boy inside the house, and into the spacious living room. Geoffrey sat Christopher on the sofa and went back into the kitchen. He returned with a glass of orange juice for Christopher to drink in an attempt to calm him down.

"Christopher, how many others are there?" he asked.

Christopher had now managed to calm down a little bit when Geoffrey returned.

"I...I don't know," he admitted, taking the orange juice, "Last time I was there, there were at least 10 or so, but I ran away two weeks ago, and they've been looking for me ever since. I've been hiding any way and anywhere I can. That's why I was in your garden."

After taking a sip, he looked at his surroundings.

"The orphanage is old, white and boring...it almost looks ready to fall apart. Nothing like this house...it feels warm and comforting in here."

"Well, I'm glad you like it, you could be here for a while. Excuse me for a minute, I'm going to make a phone call. Feel free to put the TV on or something." Geoffrey said.

He walked out into the hallway, picked up the phone and dialled a number.