Chapter 6: Nighttime

It was nighttime. The kids had all finished their work for the day. They kept a candle lit at night for poor, little Lexi who swore that shadows would come eat them during the night if they didn't keep a light on. Avery was more spooked since his recent encounter, but he didn't want to alarm the others. Charlie knew about the encounter because he saw it happen. He had even sensed he had been followed constantly the last few days.

"I'm scared" Lexi shivered and slipped under the blanket more toward Ericka's side of their makeshift mattress. The boys slept on the other side of the makeshift mattress because they were bigger than both the girls. "The shadows keep talking to me and they say they'll eat us soon." Ericka hugged onto Lexi like she recalled her mother doing to her for nightmares before she got sent to this workplace.

The walls felt like they were closing in on the girls. They just huddled together and before Ericka could realize it, she began crying with Lexi. They were the same age. Maybe Ericka was a few months older than Lexi, but they had forgot their birth dates only remembering they were five years old when they were sent here. The exact days were never important. Granny had never told them anything about months or days.

It was always the same routine Granny would wake them up around dawn for breakfast. They would return for snacks during the day and hopefully get a lunch break. They would continue coming to this room for meals while they stayed in this work program. Plenty of kids just stopped coming, but they had always been told by Granny after a few days that whoever was sent back to their home for whatever reason. It all sounded made up to Ericka, but the boys seemed to believe it.

Ericka silently hoped that one of the boys would speak up and help her calm down Lexi. Maybe Lexi was just too young for this program. Was she even really five years old? Ericka couldn't stop thinking about how much smaller Lexi was compared to herself. Lexi was always the baby of the group. She got cranky often and needed much more frequent breaks than even Ericka herself. Everyone seemed to baby Lexi and it sometimes made Ericka jealous.

Lexi was given brand new clothing. The rest of the kids were given hand me downs from previous kids that stayed there. Then again, Ericka thought to herself, Lexi was so much smaller than even herself. She was so sure Granny had to go out and purchase new clothing or make some for Lexi herself. Lexi was almost always in a small zip up onesie unlike the other kids who wore pants and shirts. At least, Ericka thought to herself, that Lexi was able to go to the bathroom by herself and never had accidents.

"It's just a dream Lexi. The shadows aren't real. That's just an old folk tale they say so that us kids don't go out and run home during the night." Avery mumbled in his sleep. This was beginning to be a nightly thing with Lexi. He couldn't let her know that he had seen the shadows fight. He couldn't tell her that her fears were right. He just lit a candle every night "for Lexi" and it helped calm down his own fears.

"Lexi, the shadows aren't going to get us with this candle. We're protected by it. Besides, don't you have your bird with you to protect you?" Charlie motioned to Lexi's bird on their small table. It was brightly painted and the kids had a saying probably from Ms. Patricia that brightly painted birds would scare away the shadows, but the shadow just stayed by Charlie's side. He no longer feared that shadow but thought of it as a friend. After all, his shadow friend had protected Avery.

Charlie looked in the corner near his side to see the now familiar eyes that watched him constantly. Those blue eyes made him feel safe, but if he looked at them too long, they seemed to vanish into thin air. "Good night" he said absent minded to his shadow friend. It flickered in response and seemed to curl up like his family's old cat at the end of the mattress on the floor.

They slept so cramped up in the room that they were practically sleeping on top of each other. Charlie knew that this would end soon. The kids would be forced to sleep in whatever trade they chose as their specialty. He only hoped Avery would be somewhere safe since he was injured almost daily in the iron forge. Ericka would probably sleep with Ms. Patricia since she loved the pottery classes, but maybe Lexi would take on the care taking trade.

Avery knew tomorrow would be a different day. Mr. Matthew had told him to take a few days off and work with the farm animals instead of work at the iron forge. They usually had scheduled shifts and worked half a week at the iron forge and the other half at the farm, but Mr. Matthew had instructed Avery to take a full week to work with the animals. Maybe, Mr. Matthew thought, that Avery's calling was with farm animals and not with metal. It made him sad that he would have only Charlie this week, but if it meant Avery was not injured often then that was good.

The animal care teacher was Mr. Arnold. He was a muscular man much like Mr. Matthew, but he was distant. Most of the kids didn't care for him because he seemed to love his animals more over people. He was also an unkept man with a scraggly white beard and kept his brownish white hair short for fear of the animals trying to eat his hair. He rarely fussed at the kids, but he worked better with the boys than the girls for some reason. Rumor had it that Mr. Arnold had a little brother and that's why he worked better with the boys than the girls.

The girls were to switch their week and go take care taking classes the next week. Lexi and Ericka didn't learn so much during these classes, but they went visit with the people in a nearby village's nursing homes. The patients loved seeing little kids especially little Lexi. They picked up a few lessons, but mostly just ran around playing with the patients. Lexi really loved these weeks of care taking, but Ericka had to work extra hard to try to keep Lexi on task during these weeks. It seemed unfair to Ericka to have to keep a closer watch on Lexi when their caretaker teacher was around, but always busy.

Ms. Carol was the girls' care taking teacher. She was a lively young woman. She had long straight blond hair invaded only by a few strands of gray hair. She had a slight muscular build and wore some small black framed glasses to read. She wore plain clothing in blue colors. She always took the time with the patients and told the girls to just play with the people in the home. It was mostly unsupervised play with old people Ericka thought. Lexi's always got energy to play, but if she didn't the patients would sneak her in a bed and let her nap. Why wouldn't Ericka get such special treatment?