The Other Half

The children ate dinner together, as they always did, in the dreary Dining Hall. The girl stared longingly out the window as she always did. In the summer nights, when the days grew longer, occasionally a bird or two would swoop down as it searched for its next meal. After dinner, the adults would escort them back to their rooms for the evening. Most of them were nice, especially the blonde lady , Violet. She was the only one who really conversed with her, in fact she was the only one of the adults to ever use her real name when addressing her. Except for her father, of course, but he was a very important man and only came to The Manor several times a year.



“You sleep tight now, Charlotte..” she’d say with a smile as she locked the door for the evening. Charlotte and her siblings lived in the east wing of the manor and were each given their own room, the girls on one floor and the boys on another. She plopped down on her bed and cuddled her favorite stuffed animal, “Pony”. She had a desk with some of her books and schoolwork neatly organized on top. She had a plain, wooden chair that hurt her hind-parts. She had a wardrobe with several outfits and of course she had Pony, who wasn’t allowed to leave the room but had a permanent place on her blanket every night. In her books were all kinds of literature, some educational and some fictional stuff. Whatever the genre, it was a vast improvement over the current state of the world where everything was grey and bland and she sharpened her mind daily by visualising people , places and things she often read about.

She was caught reading after hours several times, but if she was lucky they’d leave the lights on for her. This week she had a story from the “Used To Be” and Charlotte always enjoyed those because she longed to live in a time before lock downs and the monotonous life inside The Manor. The adults called the past the “Used To Be” and sometimes on good days they would tell entertaining stories from their former lives. Before the wars changed everything. Violet in particular, had the best stories about her job as a caretaker at a “zoo”. Charlotte especially enjoyed the tales about monkeys and elephants but her absolute favorite, without question, was the Giraffe. The classroom curriculum was rigid and boring, mostly history lessons about the wars and other important political happenings but she did spend ample time at The Manor’s Library , scouring books for pictures of her beloved animals. She adored the Giraffe, with their long necks and beautiful patterns. They went extinct many years ago according to her professors but every night in bed , in her mind, they were much alive, grazing leaves off massive trees as tall as skyscrapers. Her imagination ran rampant for a few moments but eventually her eyes got heavy and she could no longer fight falling asleep.



She woke up abruptly that night and as she glanced around the room she noticed something was different. There was no sun peeking through the blinds, as it normally did during wake up. She gasped, realizing her bedroom door was open and there, stood a man in the darkness. He froze for a second which felt like an eternity to her and she felt a cold chill creep up and down her body.



He slowly closed the door behind him. She gripped Pony tight and closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep. She stealthily peered out of one eye as she followed his movements around the room, while he fervently filled a knapsack with some of her clothes. He investigated the books on the desk and piled some in. He stopped moving for a second and put his ear to the air, as if to hear something clearer. Several pairs of footsteps pounded down the hallway and she could see the shadows rush past the tiny window in the door. When they were gone, and he felt the bag was adequately packed, he slowly walked over to her. She wanted to yell for help.. but all she could muster was “I’ve been good!”.



The man paused and got down on one knee and as her eyes continued to adjust to the lighting, she could finally see his face and the clothes he wore. He was unshaven and had little wings of his hair flipping upwards over his beaten cap. Shed never actually seen a hat like this before but they were quite prominent in old stories. His clothes were ragged and at that point she knew he wasn’t a normal grown-up because , well, quite frankly he looked like crap. The adults in the manor always had a tidy uniform, clean cut hair and never had that unkept look to them. He leaned in closely and said



“I’ll explain later but we have a special project for you. Come with me.”.



She was a bit skeptical of the unorthodox approach but life inside the manor was all the children knew and there was no reason not to trust the adults.



“Do you have everything you need? Last chance..”.



She tried to shake the cobwebs out. She put her shoes on and grabbed Pony from the bed. The man looked out the door for a moment or two and beckoned her forward to follow him.



“Will my father be there?” she demanded.



His body language changed a bit as he thought this over.



“He will be. Yes.”



She took a deep breath and double checked herself, but realized her necklace was still on the dresser. She grabbed the locket, which was half of a heart. It was given to her by Violet one day years ago and it came from her father, who had the other half. She thought to herself “I’ll need this if I’m to see Father..”. The man grabbed her hand and they quietly crept through the manor, into an old storage room she had never seen before.



“You’re doing great. You’re very brave.”, he reassured her. “Now, we’re gonna take the window out.. you follow me out and hold on tight. I’ll be at the bottom waiting.”.



She still had a very uneasy feeling about this but she wanted the strange man to give her father a good report. Plus it had the feel of one of her adventure stories and that excited her. She leaned out the window and he held his hands out , ready to catch her. “Just like one of my stories..” she thought and she plunged down into his arms. He set her down gently and they scurried through a maze of old buildings, finally putting the manor behind them. She had never seen the city before and it seemed a lot smaller now that she was actually walking through it. The sun was coming up and she heard an alarm ring in the distance, probably just another safety drill the adults were always putting them through. As they got further from The Manor, the more destruction she saw. Broken down cars, shattered store windows and trash. Trash everywhere, blowing like tumbleweeds in the wind. For the first time ever she began to see life in this world was much different from the sheltered life she had come to know under her fathers rule. After about an hour, the trashed roads and battered cityscape transformed into green hills, flush with trees and foliage.



“Where are we going?” she questioned, “I’m hungry. We normally eat breakfast by now.”. He stopped his frenetic walking pace and looked around. He ventured into the wooded area and climbed a tree and a few apples thudded to the ground. He then started working on something at the top, what it was, she could not see. He came down and gave a smirk, for the first time in their entire encounter. She grabbed a couple apples, bit into one and packed the others away in her backpack. She made sure Pony had one, too. The man had a gooey substance in his hands. “Honey.” He said. She had never seen anything like it! She enthusiastically ate some with her apple. The man smirked again. He didn’t say much , just like the other adults, but there was something calming and friendly about his disposition and outside of Violet, adults were never like that. “He must be friends with my father?”, she pondered. Her feet ached and she was exhausted from the early wake up. They talked a bit as they continued on their way. He took an interest in her and asked her what books she liked, her favourite school lessons and of course he wanted to know all about Pony. He was cool, she decided.



He wore a battered, leathery jacket to go with his beat up jeans and his well worn cap, which sported a faded “B” on the front. On his hip, he wore a belt with a holster for his weapon. It was sort of like what the adults had back home but seemed ancient in comparison. She had learned a bit about guns in class and they made her feel uneasy. Several times throughout the journey he made them get off the main path and hunker down in the bushes for cover. He said it was like the drills the other adults did but these had a much more authentic feel to it and frightened her a bit each time. Just as this thought entered her head she heard a whizzing noise fly right by her ear until she heard a thud. She looked up and the man was hunched over, holding his side. “Shi…” he muttered and stopped himself , feeling the girls frightened gaze upon him. He refrained from the obscenities.



“Lay down. Do not pick your head up until I come get you… I mean it. I know you.. NO hero stuff, little lady.”.



She wiped the tears from her face and agreed. She heard a bunch of loud, muffled bangs. Terror overcame her as she plugged her ears and for the next four to five minutes her imagination carried her far, far away. She did exactly as the man instructed and didn't move until she felt a hand gently touch her shoulders. Much to her surprise, it was Violet. She grabbed Violet and hugged her tight. “I wanna show you something.” Violet said and she led the girl out of the clearing, back to the main road where several of the adults whom she’d grown up with lay lifeless. She took in the horror of the scene, finally coming upon the man who had been escorting her, leaned against a tree. Charlotte cried and hugged him, his eyes closed slowly and his arms grew heavy as they held her. Violet, who never showed any emotion whatsoever, let out a whimper followed by soft sobs. All of a sudden their brief journey flashed before her eyes and she realized this was the best day shed ever had. Until this particular moment.



She stood up and ripped her locket off belting out “I hate my father for this!” At the top of her lungs. Violet suddenly came to and said “The person who runs The Manor.. he’s not your real father. He’s an evil man.”. She reached over the man’s body to reveal a necklace, dangling from his neck. It was the other half of Charlotte’s locket. “This is your real father, Charlotte, and we’ve been trying to rescue you for 10 years.” Charlotte crumbled to her knees in in agony but of all the emotions surging through her, the most powerful of all was the love. She’d never felt it before. Violet helped her connect the locket pieces together, promising to come back and give the man a proper burial. Charlotte placed the worn cap on her head, honoring her hero, her real father.