CHAPTER 6 BACK TO THE PAST
Local Orphanage, Emerson, Manitoba, About 11 years ago…
"You certain you'll be able to handle him until he's of age to live on his own?" the mother dog asked the orphanage owner.
"Absolutely ma'am," she replied, "But why can't you take care of the toddler yourselves?"
"This economic crisis is just too much for us and we can barely support a family, even if we decide to get a loan. Having our baby is just too much and we are already far behind in debt." The father replied as the mother handed her baby to the orphanage owner, "I hope he finds more happiness then he will with our family."
"I assure you he will, and we'll even send him to school to educate him."
"Good, I would hope for him to get a good career when he finishes school and starts to work in a business."
"Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this?"
"It's not that we want to, it's that there's no other option for him or we'll all end up on the streets."
"Sadly things like this come to pass in a family,"
The mother looked one last time in her baby's eyes which sparkled as hers did, "I'm sorry to leave you my son, but it's for your own good. Good-bye." With tears welding in her eyes, she left the orphanage.
"What's the baby's name?" the owner called as both parents hurried out of the building, "We need to call him by his real name!"
"His name is Rex Debaby…" the mother called, as they both disappeared into the crowd of people.
Decepticon Island, Atlantic Ocean, present time…
The numbers of the Decepticons that answered to the call was vast as they arrived at the island where Soundwave briefed them with their orders of destroying the 'Heart of North America'. Over 90 fully trained Decepticons waited in silence as Jetfire told them that their master, himself, was coming to contemplate the destruction of the planet and see to it personally that the Autobots would be vanquished forever.
"It will be done," the wolf-like Decepticon, named Blackout agreed, "Megatron's plans will succeed and we shall be victorious!"
"We 'could' be victorious," Starscream snarled as all the Decepticons shot him dirty looks for his doubts, "If we don't carry out his orders. Now let's go!"
Local Orphanage, Emerson, Manitoba, About 7 Years Ago…
"Cooler! What had I told you about taking from the refrigerator without asking?!?"
I looked nervously at my feet as I held a slice of pizza behind my back, "I'm sorry… I won't do it again…It's just that I was hungry so I…I…I went to get something to eat." My stammering proved my fear of the orphanage owner, Cheryl.
"And that's exactly what you said all those other times before," she scolded as she approached me with her hands on her hips, as I slowly backed into a corner, "Now get over here!"
Tears filled my big eyes as he approached Cheryl, knowing what was going to happen next…WHACK! …I started to cry as she had spanked him hard, each hit getting harder as he had gotten older.
"Why did you have to be the trouble one?" she snarled, viciously grabbing my arm as she dragged me upstairs, as the other kids observed, and threw me in my room, snatching the pizza from my tiny paws, "You'll be in here for the rest of the night with no supper!" And with that she slammed the door behind her.
Tearfully, I grabbed a strong grip of my Tigger stuffed animal and held it tightly to my chest as I cried out, "Mama! Mama! Why did you leave me here with no one to love me?" I started to cry loudly, hoping wherever my mother was, she would hear my cries and come and comfort my. But there was no hope of doing so. As Cheryl had told me, my mother had abandoned me because she couldn't take care of a brat like me.
My tears slowly subsided as the door opened and my roommate walked in and sat down beside the windowsill, "Your mother can't hear you, you know." She walked to her side of the room and sat down on her bed, "Miss Cheryl is right, you are the trouble one."
"Miss Cheryl is the devil re-imagined!" I screamed as I held his Tigger even closer and I started crying again, even harder than before, "I hate her!"
"Okay, you don't have to cry about it," the girl said, as she brushed her golden retriever fur out of her eyes, "Or she'll hear you and hit you again."
My crying eventually turned into stifled sobs and I asked, my voice shaking, "Can I have a hug?" I looked over at her with pleading eyes.
"Ask your 'stuffy' to do that!" she snapped, the sarcasm rich in her voice as she ignored my pleads, "You're way too old for your stuffed 'Tigger'." She walked over, snatched from my arms and ripped it in half cruelly.
The sudden act made me cry even louder than I had before because the only thing that I was given from my mother, either than my baby blanket, was ripped.
"Shut up for the love of Hitler!" Cheryl's voice boomed from downstairs, "Or you'll get gagged and tied to the chair!"
I immediately stopped screaming and just cried softly as I curled up in my baby blanket on my bed, wishing for the whole thing to be a terrible nightmare. I was treated unequally just because I was the only boy at the orphanage. The clothes that I was given were torn and ripped and they always had me cold at night or early in the morning as the cold drafts would seep through the room and claw at my body until I complained I was freezing cold. None of the other kids were nice to me and they all shunned me whenever I wanted to play with them. Of course they did allow me to play with them for only two games: 'How 2 Make Cooler into a Cute Baby' and 'How 2 Make Cooler's Life Miserable' and they would endlessly torture me with these games until I finally quitted with asking to play with them. I was nicknamed Cooler because I was always cold and it meant to them 'brat child'.
There was something about the girls that I just happened to be grateful for: they would never let me starve and would always bring me a baby bottle with warm milk in it so he never actually did go hungry (though it did taste horrible and the taste hung around my mouth for long periods like flies pestering kids with its annoying buzzing). But despite that, to me Cheryl was Adolf Hitler and the girls were the Nazis and I was just a poor Jewish kid that they loved to torture.
The door opened as a girl came in and walked over to me and tossed me a bottle, "Drink up Baby Cooler!" she teased as she nodded for my roommate to go eat supper.
As I lay silently in the room, drinking from the bottle (yuck!), I tried to imagine my mother and father and how life would have been if I had never been sent to the dreaded, discriminative orphanage. Still sobbing softly, I played the thoughts in my mind until I was fast asleep…
