Chapter One

James and Elizabeth

James Newt stirred in his comfortable sound sleep. Someone was calling his name, telling him to wake up. He rolled over, trying to imagine that the voice was all in his dreams. Rolling over, however, wasn’t at all easy, as his fourteen year old frame was becoming too much for the small bed to handle.

‘Get up!’ came the whispered appeal from beyond the door. Everything was still dark, and it wasn’t easy to see. James Newt wiped his tired, grey eyes and tried to focus on the silhouette outlined at the doorway; light from the hallway was flooding in but it only made a dim path that led to the door.

‘Elizabeth?’ he questioned, still dazed, as he looked over to his small travel clock that was sitting on an old, shabby nightstand. ‘You ruddy git!’ he whispered harshly, pushing his scraggy dark brown hair out of his eyes, and looking again at the small alarm clock on the dirty night stand beside his bed. ‘It’s only four in the morning!’ 

There was no sign of an apology from the doorway. 

James quickly slipped out of bed and into his night robe, staggering to the door. ‘You had better have a good reason for this, Elizabeth,’ he grumbled, as the dark brown hair of his best friend came into full view, her soft features complemented by a mischievous smile adorning her face. At the sight of her standing there in the doorway, fully dressed, with a small travel pack over one shoulder, James suddenly felt quite indecent and he pulled his robe tighter around him.

‘You’re up early,’ he said, now quite annoyed with the whole situation. But before he could say another world Elizabeth threw a plastic bag full of clothes at him, which, with a great deal of sleepy effort, he caught.

‘Get dressed, quick!’ Elizabeth ordered, still smiling. ‘There is something outside you have to see!’ 

James noticed the insistent mischievous smile on her face, and, not wanting to be left out, he smirked weakly and closed the door.  A few moments later, James was changed and out the door in the hallway, looking around for Elizabeth.

‘Right, you ready to go?’ came her voice from behind James. 

He started for a moment, but turned and smiled. ‘Yeah,’ he said now much more awake and eager to find out what was so exciting. The two crept down the hallway, passing door upon door with little plaques that bore names painted across them, indicating the inhabitants of that particular room. As they reached the end of the hallway there was one door left, which was a pale grey, with a large window in it and a shiny black plaque which read: Miss Belfast – Head Matron. 

The two teenagers shot each other warning looks as they saw that the light was on, and they ducked down below the window, creeping past it, until they were a safe distance away from the hard stare that would come from Miss Belfast if she found them sneaking out, especially this early in the morning!

Surely if they were caught they would receive the harshest of punishment allowed. James didn't know what could be worse than having to endure the long and pointless lessons that took place every single day; even through the summer. Shaking these thoughts out of his head, he smiled to himself; at least there was a good chance that Elizabeth had found something quite interesting to occupy most of the morning. The two of them reached the bottom of the stairwell. After making sure no one was around, they snuck to the doors at the end of the large entrance hall and silently pushed them open. It appeared to James that they would once again escape the Orphanage for a morning adventure without anyone being any the wiser.

*

They were not far out, when Elizabeth dug into a pocket of her jacket and pulled out a small walkman tape-deck with ear-bud headphones and handed it over to James. He took the thing, smiled a little, and plunged it into his own pocket.

‘Thanks,’ he said.

‘Your Mum and Dad sound really cool,’ Elizabeth assured him. Then frowned, adding, ‘Not every orphan is lucky enough to have tapes with recordings of their parents.’

James knew it was an oddity. He felt a little embarrassed. ‘I know I’m lucky, if that’s what you’re getting at,’ he assured her.

‘I can’t imagine what it means to you to hear their voices,’ Elizabeth said, sounding a little distant.

‘The world,’ James smiled at her, nudging her in the shoulder.

‘You really don’t know who gave them to you?’ his friend queried, as she had before.

‘Miss Belfast,’ James teased. ‘And not because she wanted to, I assure you.’

‘Who gave them to her, to give to you,’ Elizabeth retorted, smacking James in the arm.

He shrugged. ‘Just friends of the family, I was told,’ he offered.

They walked in silence for a short time. Then Elizabeth picked up the pace a little. ‘Come on, you snail, let’s get moving!’

And so they did.

*

By half past four in the morning the sun had nearly risen over the low hills, and James and Elizabeth stood on top of a large, grassy knoll. The morning air was still cool, but the heat from the sun was melting the frost that stood aloft on the green grass which covered the hills around the Orphanage, and a low hanging mist settled placidly in the valley below them. James smiled bravely as he surveyed the scene around him; then looking at Elizabeth, he spoke.

‘This was well worth it,’ he said.

‘Yeah, I felt so too,’ Elizabeth replied, smiling over the vast expanse of mostly untouched land. 

‘You going on the trip?’ James asked after a moment. 

Elizabeth shrugged, still gazing over the serene mist.

‘Dunno really; aren’t we going on another one of those “Visit the other Orphanage” trips?’ she asked.

‘Yeah, I suppose so,’ James replied shrugging, ‘but it’s better than staying cooped up in ours doing summer school!’ he finished, twitching his head in the direction of the run down, three story, Orphanage that was some ways behind them and had been home to both of them for as long as they could remember. Elizabeth nodded in agreement to James’ pragmatic assessment. James thought about what the day would be like if they stayed; the old, musty, schoolroom and piles of school work to be done, locked inside on what was turning out to be a most beautiful day!

The two friends tromped down into the valley as the morning mist dissipated.  Elizabeth reached inside the shoulder bag she had brought along, and retrieved two large, red apples and tossed one to James.

‘Where’d you get this, then?' he asked, taking a large bite of the fruit, savouring the sweet taste and ample juice.

Elizabeth shrugged. ‘Nicked it from the kitchen I guess,’ she said, the mischievous smile returning to her face.

‘I’d hate to see the face on old Miss Kleinberg if she found out you were sneaking apples again,’ James said with a slight shudder.

Miss Kleinberg was indeed a force to be reckoned with. Up until James was nine, he thought she was some sort of Troll that had been sent to the Orphanage just to make the children miserable.

James and Elizabeth stayed where they were for about fourteen more minutes, but quickly decided it was time to head back. Elizabeth looked down at her watch and started.

‘Blimey, we've only got about five minutes!’

‘Right, we better pick up the pace then,’ James said with determination in his voice as the two broke into a run for the Orphanage. It was a tough slog back up the hill, but the two friends pressed on and on, even when they saw the Orphanage sitting, as ever, on a depressing pile of gravel and dirt some distance ahead of them. 

James and Elizabeth both knew Head Matron Belfast was always up and prowling the halls by 5:00 in the morning. That left them less than five minutes to reach the Orphanage, sneak into the dormitories, and pretend to just be waking up. James was sure they wouldn’t make it; there just wasn't enough time!

To his surprise though, somehow, they made it to the Orphanage, and with two minutes to spare, as they snuck in the main door, which was again unlocked, to the surprise of both of them. They were astonished again, to a greater extent, when they walked behind Matron Belfast, who was in an adjoining hallway.

With a chill slithering up and down James’ spine, he and Elizabeth hurried past Belfast, mercifully unnoticed. James couldn’t see how they could be so lucky, but didn’t balk at their luck in any case. Miss Belfast seemed to have heightened senses, especially concerning her ears, making them acute to the sounds of children sneaking around after curfew – or in this case, before the early morning wake up call.

James waved goodbye to Elizabeth at the top of the stairs as they both slipped, unnoticed, into their respective dormitories. 

James had just lain back down on his bed, when a large bell rang throughout the cavernous hallways of the Orphanage; a call for the children to wake up. There would be a quick breakfast; then they would be off. Belfast had said that it was a bit of a drive to the other Orphanage. James stumbled out of his dormitory and saw Elizabeth striding out of hers, smirking at him the whole way down to breakfast.