• It all started that dreadful day on the subway. It was a Thursday morning, and the train was late. I don’t know why, all I cared about was getting to my destination: School. I live in a big city, and take the train to get to school. Lots of kids do, but today I was in a big hurry, today we got to plan the decorations for the school’s Halloween Dance. Halloween is the only time of year I really like, when all the kids can dress up scary, and get candy, for free! I can pull pranks, and scare the little kids. It’s fun.

    I pushed my way through the crowd, onto the train. Great! All the seats where taken up. Then I spotted one by the window. I moved toward it. I noticed someone else trying to get to that same seat. I dashed as fast as I could through the mob. Banging into many people, and muttering short apologies. I reached the seat, and sat down. The person I tried to beat was an old man, whom looked very poor. He wore a tattered old coat, and baggy pants. He had hairy whiskers on his face, and wore gray gloves with holes in every place a finger should go, so I saw ten pink stubs coming out of gray material. He also wore an old baseball cap, which looked like a gray lump on his head. He looked very tired and defeated. I silently glowed with pride for making it to the seat before him, and he silently walked away.

    I anxiously waited in my seat for the train to reach my stop. I put my hand in my pocket where my lucky key chain was kept. It was an old one I’ve had since I was four. On the end is a trinket that looks like a bat. I found it on my first Halloween that I went out to scare little kids. My hands clasped around an empty gum wrapper, but no key chain. I must have dropped it while I was rushing to the seat. I anxiously looked around. I couldn’t see anything indicating where my key chain was. I got up and moved across the train to where I had gotten on. There was no key chain. I searched around a bit, and still couldn’t find it. I guess someone swiped it. Gloomily I made my way back to my seat, only to find the old man sitting in it.

    Annoyed I walked up to him. “Hey!” I said. He turned to look at me, and then turned back to looking out the window. “Hey!” I called again. He turned to look at me again. “Thanks for saving my seat, kid.” He said gruffly. Who did he think he was, calling me kid? I was 12 years old, in grade seven. I was practically a teenager. “I think this is yours.” He said. He stuck one of his glove-covered hands into one of the pockets of his tattered old coat. He pulled out his hand in a fist, and opened it to reveal my lucky key chain. I gasped. How could he have known it was mine? I moved to take it from his hand, but he pulled away. “If I give this here key chain of yours back, you have to promise me you won’t go scaring anyone this Halloween and you’ll be nice, Josh.” Josh? How did he know my name? Maybe I just looked like a Josh with my chestnut-brown hair, and dark brown eyes. He put his hand back out for me. I attempted to take the key chain again, but just as before he pulled away. “You have to promise me.” He said seriously. “Yah, I promise.” I said not really paying attention; I just wanted my lucky key chain back. “Here you are.” He said. I finally got my key chain back, and turned to go because I had just heard the speaker say my stop was coming up. As I got off the train, I was still puzzling over how the old guy new my name, so that I almost missed the bell.

    When I reached the school, everyone was already inside. I quickly hurried to the front door, and then I remembered that it would be locked. Our principle, Mrs. Frotz, was very strict about being late. If you arrived at school late, and the doors where closed, you would have to miss all the fun activities during the day to write lines. Now I have never had to write these lines myself, but other kids have and they said it went something like this:

    I will NOT be late for class ever again! I apologize to my teacher, and my peers for holding up the class, and I apologize for any learning I may have missed. I will make up for lost time during recess break and lunch hour, by writing an essay about why I should not be late.

    It may sound stupid, but that’s what I heard. You had to write this one hundred times, and then you had to write an essay about why it was good not to be late. You had to do this during recess break and lunch hour, which is only 40 minutes, and during any fun activities, for me that would mean I would have to write it while deciding what to put up for the Halloween dance took place. I really didn’t want to miss that, because for the last few years the dance has been pathetic. Come on people, this is Halloween; it’s supposed to be scary. I had great ideas to do just that: make it scary.

    Instead of knocking on the front door like I should have, I quickly, but quietly slipped around the school. There was this back door; it leads to the basement of the school. The only person that went down there was the janitor, and maybe a poor kid who was late for class. I managed to reach the door without being seen. It was a really old looking door, like it had been around for centuries. I reached out to the door handle, when the door opened. I froze. Standing in front of me, was none other than Mrs. Frotz. Today she was wearing her red dress, and matching high heels. Her jet black hair was in a tight bun on the top of her head, which made her look even stricter. Her face always looked pinched, and she never smiled. “What, what are you doing here?” I spluttered in disbelief, like I said, no one ever comes to this door. “I should be asking you the same question.” She said in an icy voice. “Come along.” She said. She turned to go back the way she came, and I followed her.

    We went down some steps into the basement. It was pretty gloomy down there. Just then I heard a rattling noise which made me jump. “It is just the furnace.” A voice said from the shadows. I turned to look and saw Hank, our janitor. Hank was always wearing a dirty jumpsuit. There were lots and lots of pockets. In one of them, his back pocket, he always carried a dirty rag. In another, his front pocket, he usually carried a pencil. Today he had dirt smeared across his cheek. He had messy hair that went every which way, but he had very kind eyes. Those eyes came to rest on me. Mrs. Frotz noticed and said “I caught this boy trying to sneak into the basement door, after the front doors were closed.”

    “Are you sure he was sneaking?” asked Hank. For a moment Mrs. Frotz looked flustered. “Well, I that is…”

    “I actually asked this boy to help me this morning Mrs. Frotz. He said he would come down to the basement to help me fix up a loose doorknob.” I couldn’t believe it. Here was the janitor, saving my butt. “Come on Josh.” I moved toward Hank, and looked back over my shoulder at a very bewildered Mrs. Frotz. I quickly turned away, so she wouldn’t see my smile. I followed Hank up some stairs to a hallway in the school. It was completely deserted. “How do you know my name?” I suddenly blurted. I must have looked embarrassed because Hank laughed. “I know all the kids; I hear them talking all the time while I clean up. Now you better hurry to class.” He said. And I did.

    At recess break, my best friend Benny came up to me. Now I may not be tall, about 4 foot 6, but Benny was smaller than me. He had a round face, and wore glasses. So I guess you can say he looked kind of nerdy, but he was an okay guy. His mother always made him wear a tie to school. “Why did you come in late?” He asked. “Hey, I wasn’t late, everyone just got in class 2 minutes early.” I replied. “You are lucky the teacher was too involved in writing today’s spelling words on the black board.” When I had arrived at the class everyone was sitting at their desks, making a whole bunch of racket, so I easily slipped into my seat while the teacher, Miss Ratchet, was writing today’s spelling words. Benny and I walked outside with our recess snack.

    We walked over to our usual place under an old oak tree. Sitting there was a bunch of grade three girls. They were sitting in a circle playing with dolls. I became angry, this was our spot. I beckoned Benny to come over to the opposite side of the tree. We climbed up the well-worn foot holes from our constantly climbing up to the forked branches. We liked to lounge up there. This time however, when we got up I pulled a big hairy spider from my pocket. It wasn’t real, but it still looked very life-like. It had a long string attached to it. I gently lowered it down. When it was a couple of feet from the grade 3er’s heads, I suddenly let it drop. It fell to the exact center of the circle, and all the girls shrieked, dropping their dolls and running to the school.

    Benny and I started howling with laughter, and I almost fell out of the tree, but reached out to grab a branch first. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the same old man that was on the train. He looked disappointed, and just as suddenly as I saw him, he was gone. Just then the branch I was holding onto to keep me from falling out of the tree broke. I started to fall.

    I heard a scream; I don’t know if it was me or someone else, I just heard it. As I was falling, I suddenly stopped. I was hanging upside down, from the tree. I looked up, my jeans had caught a branch when I fell, and they were starting to tear. I looked down; it was about a 4 foot drop. If I fell I would plummet head-first to the grass below. I looked up again. There was Benny holding out his hand to me shouting “Grab my hand! Grab my hand!” I reached out to grab his hand, when my jeans suddenly gave way.

    I started falling again. This time I hit the ground. I lay on my back breathless. Looking up into the leaves of the tree I saw stars. I was dazed. When I tried to sit up, I suddenly felt dizzy, so I dropped back down. Benny came rushing to my side. “Josh, you okay?” I heard him say. I tried to speak but I still hadn’t caught my breath back. Just then, everything went black.


    I heard ticking. It was faint but I still heard it. I opened my eyes. Above me was something very bright. Am I dead? My eyes started to focus, and I saw that it was a light attached to a ceiling. Where was I? I tried to sit up, but felt an immense pain in my head, so I lay back down. I started to recollect what had happened in the tree. I heard some footsteps, and a voice, but couldn’t make out the words, they where muffled. I turned my head and saw I was in the medic-room at our school. My gaze landed to a door at the far side of the room. There was a window, but the glass was made in a way so all I could see was a dark shape on the other side.

    The door opened. Inside came a pretty lady. She was wearing a nurse’s coat and a white skirt. She had on White high heels, and wore circular glasses. Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and in her arms she held a clipboard. At first I thought she was an angel, come to take me away, and then I remembered I wasn’t dead.

    “Ah, you are awake.” She said in a very pretty voice. It made me think of May. I don’t know why, it just did. “How is your head? You fell quite a distance.” I lifted my arm to my head, when I touched it, I felt dizzy. “My head hurts.” I told her. “You have quite a lump. You should not have been in the tree.” She said sternly. She didn’t sound mad though. What she said made me feel a bit guilty. I tried to sit up again, this time it didn’t hurt as much, but I still had to lie back down. “Don’t try to sit up yet, just rest.” I turned my gaze to the name tag on the lady’s coat. It said Maggie, with a heart over her I. “What is your name young man?” she asked. “Josh.” I replied, I was still looking at her nametag. Maggie, that’s a nice name. Sure beats Josh.
    “What’s your last name?”
    “Nerwick”
    “Josh Nerwik” She didn’t ask it as a question, she just said it. She looked at her list. “Ah here you are. Classroom B, Miss Ratchet?”
    “Yes”
    “Good, no amnesia as far as I can tell. You remember everything fine?”
    “Yes”
    “You rest here awhile, I’ll go tell your teacher you can come back to class shortly.” And she left. I was left all alone in the room, listening to the ticking of a clock. I closed my eyes, and slept.


    I woke up a short time later, at least it felt short, and my head wasn’t hurting as bad. I tried to sit up, and this time did successfully without too much pain. I turned my feet so they dangled over the bed I had been laying on. I hopped down, and my feet almost collapsed. I managed to steady myself, and I started toward the door. When I reached the door I put my ear to it, nothing but the ticking.

    I slowly opened it and peered out. The hallway was completely deserted. I looked behind me at the clock on the wall; it said it was 11:45. Oh no, the decorating party was about to begin. I had five minutes to be there, or else they would start without me. I quickly hurried down the hall, ignoring the pain in my head. I passed my classroom, and raced toward the gym, where we would decide where to put what decorations. I reached the door without bumping into anyone, but as I was just about to go into the gym, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Startled I spun around, only to find Mrs. Frotz staring down at me.

    “And what may I ask are you doing out of the class?” She asked in her icy voice. “I’m going to the Halloween decorating meeting.” I replied. “Do you have a hall pass?”
    “No”
    “Why?”
    “Because I fell out of a tree at recess, and was in the medic-room until just now.” I said. I tried to return her cold gaze, but I had to look down at my shoes.
    “What where you doing in a tree?” She asked.
    “Playing.”
    “Should you have been in the tree?”
    “No” I admitted.
    “Being late for school, climbing trees, and walking around the halls without a hall pass. Come with me.” She turned and started walking down the hall. I looked back at the gym, disappointed, I was so close, but then Mrs. Frotz had to come down the hall. I slowly made my way to follow her down the hall.
    We walked down the hall to a door marked:

    Principle’s Office

    Mrs. Frotz opened the door, and beckoned me inside. I gulped, and walked in. Inside the room was small. At the back there was a window that over looked the playground. In front of it was a big desk with papers neatly stacked to one side, and a pencil holder with a series of pens, pencils, and even a pair of scissors. Behind the desk was a big swivel chair, which Mrs. Frotz went to go sit down in. She beckoned me to sit down in the seat that was in front of her desk. I sat down. The seat was hard and lumpy. It was facing the desk and the window so I could see clearly that it had started raining outside.

    “Do you know the punishment for so many violations of the rules?” Mrs. Frotz asked.
    “No” I said becoming nervous. My hand reached into my pocket for my lucky key chain and my hands closed around it. It helped me feel calmer. She sighed. “For starters, being late-”
    “But I wasn’t late, I came to help Hank fix a doorknob, remember.” I blurted. Mrs. Frotz gave me an icy glare. I shrank back in my seat.
    “Very well, I will let that pass, but as for the tree. You are not allowed to climb trees on the school property. You shouldn’t anywhere for that matter, so as your punishment you must write a 100 word essay on why you should not climb trees. For being in the hallway without a pass, you must stay in after school and clean every classroom’s blackboard. Do I make myself clear?”
    “But then I would miss my train!” I cried out.
    “You should have thought about that before you broke the rules. Last you may not participate in the Halloween decorating.”
    “What!” I cried out, I jumped to my feet. “You may not participate in the Halloween decorating.” She repeated. I still couldn’t believe what I was hearing. That has got to be the worst punishment ever.
    “You may now leave.”
    I started to turn around. “Close your mouth young man!” Mrs. Frotz said sternly. I noticed my jaw had dropped open in disbelief. I closed it and stumbled toward the door. I made my way to my classroom, which had just come in after lunch hour, and walked to my seat.

    After school Benny walked up to me. “You okay, you look like you seen a ghost?”
    “Worse, I was sent to the principle’s office.”
    “What’d she do?”
    “Told me to stay in after school and clean all the blackboards, and said that I couldn’t help with the Halloween decorations.”
    “Harsh!”
    Benny was a good guy. He even offered to help me clean the blackboards. I told him that it was okay, that he should go home, because if he was late his mother became really angry. So I was left cleaning all the blackboards of the school, all alone. When I was finished it was already 3:25. I had definitely missed my train. School ended at 2:30, and my train left at 2:55. I grabbed my backpack, and started walking through the rain to home.


    As I walked my stomach started to growl. I recalled not being able to eat my lunch, so I stopped under a hang-over roof to retrieve it from my backpack. I pulled out my sandwich and started to eat. I was almost done my first half when I noticed a man walk up to me. He was very dirty and thin. He looked like he hadn’t taken a bath for weeks. “Can you spare half your sandwich?” He asked hopefully. I noticed he was missing several teeth, and the ones he still had were black. He had really gross breath. It smelled like a mixture of tobacco and onions. “No” I replied. And I quickly shoved the rest into my mouth. The man looked very sad, and he walked away.

    It was then that I noticed the old man from the train a few feet away. He looked very disappointed. “Yah broke your promise, you must now learn a lesson.” He said then he vanished. I stood there staring for a moment. Was he really there? Was I going mad? No, I told myself, I must have imagined it. I swung my backpack back on my back, and set off for home.


    By the time I reached the front door, I was soaked. My clothes were clinging to me, and I felt like I was walking in puddles, because my shoes were so wet. I walked up my front walk; all the lights were off, that meant my parents were still at work. My ma worked at a clinic most of the day, while my pa works for some big business. So they aren’t home a lot, they are during the weekend, but mostly it is me, myself and I all week. And sometimes Benny came over to play.

    I let myself in through the front door with my house key that I keep hidden in my ma’s favorite flower pot. It had a pretty little blue flower in it called a Tecophilaea cyanocrocus. I always hid the key under the dirt. When I got inside, I took off my wet shoes. I put them by the furnace to dry. I noticed they had a lot of holes in them. Maybe because of the rain. I went upstairs to change into something warm, and dry.

    I opened the door to my room and stared. This wasn’t my room. Where were my posters of sport stars, and my bed and dresser? When I left this morning everything was as it always was. My comic books covered most surfaces, but they were gone too. What remained of my room was now a sewing room. I know this because when I opened some drawers inside, there was material, and sewing stuff. On the other side off the room was a table with a sewing machine on top, and a comfy looking chair in front of it.

    Puzzled I went downstairs in my still wet clothes. Why was my room gone, and in its place a sewing room? My parents wouldn’t have done this without telling me first. I found myself in the kitchen. I realized I was still hungry, that sandwich didn’t help for long. I moved toward the fridge, and got out some an apple. I munched on the apple, and all of a sudden I got really tired, I mean really tired. I couldn’t even keep my eyes open. So I just let them close. I laid my head on the table, and went to sleep.


    I awoke to a scream. It startled me a lot. I stood up so quickly that the chair I had been on fell over. I turned to the doorway where the scream was coming from. There was my ma. Screaming her head off. Next moment Pa came running in. When he saw me he stopped dead in his tracks. His mouth was open, and he was staring at me in disbelief. Ma was still screaming. Pa quickly raced to the phone on the other side of the room, and started dialing. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, because Ma was still screaming, but while he talked, his eyes never left me.

    When Ma finally stopped screaming she fell to the ground. “Ma!” I called rushing forward. Pa stepped in front of me. “You stay away.” He said accusingly. Puzzled I just stood there. Pa turned to Ma. “Mel? You okay Honey?” He said. I shifted so that I could see Ma. She was sitting up again looking confused. “I’m okay.” She said. “But who is he?” she asked pointing a finger at me. “Ma, it’s me Josh.” I said even more puzzled than before. How could my own mother forget who I was? “Josh?” she repeated. “Don’t worry Mel, I phoned the police, they are on their way.”
    “On their way for what?” I asked nervously. “How did you get in our house anyway?” asked Pa, avoiding answering my question.
    “The house key, in Ma’s favorite flower pot.”
    Ma gasped.
    Pa scowled.
    “Stop calling my wife here Ma. We’re not your parents, young man. I don’t know how you know about the key, but the police are on their way to come arrest you for breaking into our home.”

    I was even more puzzled than before. Ma and Pa don’t recognize me, they even sent for the police to come arrest me. I didn’t want to go to jail. So naturally I ran. I ran right by Ma and Pa. I ran right by my soaking wet shoes. I ran right out the door. I kept running until I was about 6 or 7 blocks away, then I started to slow to catch my breath.

    I was passing in front of a shop window, and saw my reflection. At first I didn’t recognize it. But then I realized it was me. What I saw was a poor young boy in rag clothing. He was dirty, and had no shoes. He was soaking wet because of the rain, and he had lots of holes in his clothing. I just kept staring at that image, standing in the pouring rain. Why was I dressed like this? Then I remembered the old man. How he had said I needed to learn a lesson, then how he had vanished. I remembered how my room wasn’t there and how my parents had somehow forgotten me. Somehow this old man had changed my life so that I was a poor homeless kid.