Part one: Morhange

Chapter one: Missing

Narrated by Clément Mathieu

It was unusually bright that morning as the classes started; the entire day seemed on the right track. The students were even a bit happier than I had ever seen them. Perhaps it was the day, or perhaps it was the shorter classes, I wasn't sure, but they all paid more attention during choir than usual. Pépinot was bouncing on his hands while sitting on my desk as the others sang, and even he looked more in tempo with the music, that was not normal for him, but he seemed to be enjoying himself. The choir was singing with power, and swaying with the beat.

Morhange handled his solos with great care, instead of expecting them to come easily like he usually did. Granted he always sang them very well, even when he was tired or upset, but today it was if he was singing for someone he was either in love with, or afraid of. It was amazing how he could just sing without thinking, like he was the only person in the world it came easily to.

After choir I had told them all to go and sit in their seats until the bell rang, it was only about ten minutes away, and they were very well behaved. Talking to one another in soft voices, without throwing things or screaming at each other. Pépinot sat on the floor near my desk for a very long time, even when I told him he could go to his seat, he shook his head and continued folding the paper airplane that Morhange had thrown in the trash yesterday.

I had watched him wait until all the other students had left the class and then get up from his desk and take the plane from the bin before bidding me a good day and leaving. I peered over my desk to look at him unfold the wings, stare at the creases and then fold it back up, then he would unfold the tail and examine it just like he had done to the wings, and on it went.

Of course I wasn't the only one who noticed the smallest boy play with his new and only toy. Morhange, who didn't speak much anyway, was ignoring those who tapped him on the shoulder; instead he was watching the child with great compassion in his eyes. There was something that gave him away though, no matter how much of a stern look he kept on his face there was a definite softness about it. The boy didn't show any sort affection towards anyone, that's mostly why I felt this was odd on his part. However at the same time their was a sadness in about his body language that told me he was going to do something about what he was feeling. A feeling of pity, or sorrow, obviously strong enough to bleed through his stern facile features, he was going to try to do something; I just never thought I would be helping him.

The bells rang and everyone rushed for the door like usual, with Pépinot throwing his airplane up twice before racing to catch up with all the others. It was also my lunch hour so after straitening the papers on my desk I left down the hall to the cafeteria. The table I sat at normally was surrounded by my colleagues leaving almost no space, but I managed to find room. They always seemed to talk about nothing in particular, which always seemed to bother me, but what bothered me even more than that was when they talked about how awful the children behaved, or about their tragic histories like they were a joke.

A few things I noticed that lunch were Pépinot giving the students sitting next to him a marble in exchange for his food like always, Corbin taking a bite of his meal and then playing a few notes on his harmonica, but Morhange, who was often pushing the food-like substance around on his plate with his head in his hands, today was eating as quickly as he possibly could while keeping his nose inches away from the dish, without chewing each mouthful in the slightest, and again ignoring everyone who wanted to talk.

I was foolishly intrigued by these strange actions, so excused myself as he got up from his table and followed him out of the cafeteria, his young strides carrying him twice as fast as my own. I lost him around the entrances to the dormitories, but I could still hear his footsteps beat into the emptiness of silence. I sighed and turned to go back when I heard the clanking of a chain and the rattling of bars, then there was a quiet groan and a tiny clicking sound began. The groan I recognized as his voice, he didn't speak often, but when he did you would be able to recognize it against anyone's. But what was he doing with the chain and lock? He wasn't the escaping type, I just couldn't imagine it.

As I rounded the corner with soft footsteps to keep him from hearing me, I found him facing the bars that lead outside; I couldn't see what he was doing from where I was standing, but he was defiantly doing something with the lock.

"Morhange," I called; he spun on his heels and looked me strait in the face with a look classic for his personality, serious, threatening, slightly devious, this was a look he gave to say, 'I didn't do anything, leave me alone, now'.

"What are you doing?" I continued glancing at the lock, which still had a strip of scrap metal jammed inside it, "Trying to run away?"

"No," he replied flatly, "I want some fresh air, that's all."

"You know the courtyard is open, right?" I asked in an almost taunting way, trying to get him to talk.

"I don't want to go out there," he said shortly, it was defiantly a tough job getting him to say more than a few words.

"Why? It's not good enough?"

"No, I want to go out here."

"Who are you going to see?" I asked next, already knowing the answer. He had disappeared like this once before right after Mordain had attacked him while he was doing chores. He showed up about two hours later, no one had ever known where he had gone, but I think I had a pretty good idea. His mother worked a few miles away, and I often wondered if he had gone to see her. He never said he liked her, and he also never acted relieved or happy when she showed up to see him, but then again he had never said he disliked her while meaning it. He just didn't trust her was all.

"No one," he replied.

I raised an eyebrow and walked past him to the gate, "Well," I said pulling the metal from the lock and putting my key in, "When you get there tells her I said hello."

Morhange blinked hard and opened his mouth speechlessly saying thank you, then he slipped out and through the second door into the sunlight.

I glanced at my watch, five after noon, so I predicted he'd be back around quarter after two.

I didn't do much for the next hour, since one of the other teachers was sick due to stress, they were free until one thirty, and I just knew I would end up making up a story of why Morhange was present for the first forty-five minutes of his next class. But no one asked or seemed to care; it was like I was the only one who actually took any form of interest in the lives of these unfortunate children.

At one the heavens opened and it began to pour, thunder, and lightening, all the while the temperature dropping. He had walked back once in the rain, so there wasn't a doubt in my mind he could do it again, but when two thirty rolled around and he still hadn't showed up I began to worry.

If something had happened to him, I was responsible for him. Not only that, but how would I explain it to the headmaster… or his mother? As beautiful and understanding as she was, her son was her highest priority. He was thieving, cunning, and in most cases a liar, but she loved him more than anything in the world, she only wanted the best for him.

Classes ended at three, it was then, when no one had seen him for quite sometime, that I began to wonder whether I should tell someone. Even Pépinot took notice, asking me where the singing boy had gone to. When I told him I wasn't sure, he bit his lip as if he was thinking, and walked back into the dormitories. I decided I'd wait until three thirty to tell anyone.

I found myself pulling on my coat and hat when it was beginning to get dark, and as I ran down the hall I noticed Pépinot following me.

"Go have your dinner, I'll be back in a little while," I told him.

"Can't I come?" he asked, that's when I noticed he was wearing a large pair of rubber boots that obviously weren't his.

"Take those off and go have dinner."

"But I ran out of marbles…"

"Sit with the teachers," I said quickly while opening the door.

"Really?" he smiled.

"Yeah, go ahead."

He stepped out of the boots and ran, in his hole filled socks, back toward the cafeteria as I stepped into the cold to find Morhange.