Author's note: This is the second chapter. Seems to me as if my "short" summary isn't really short… Let's see what happens to little Freddy this time! *smile*

SECOND CHAPTER – Destroyed faith (1947/48)

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1. Miss Mason, a new educator in the Springwood Orphanage, watches over her group of orphans, which are the smallest in the house. She was hired only a few days ago and is just to get to know her kids. Most of them are cute and easy to manage, but there is one problem child – Freddy. The five year old small boy with the blond, slightly curled hair and the strange, icy blue eyes refuses to play with the other children, barely speaks and runs away every times she tries to touch him. When she again this day attempts to make him play with the other kids, he reacts as before and hides himself in the bushes. Miss Mason is very confused and concerned about him, but does not know why he behaves so weird.

2. In the evening Miss Mason talks to Mr. Robinson, the educator of the second group of children, which go to Elementary School. She is rather exhausted of her work, especially because of Freddy. Mr. Robinson encourages her. He also tells her that he actually wanted to be a teacher, but had to drop college because of the high study rates. So he became an educator, although the conditions have been worse in the last years, mostly because of the Second World War.

3. Miss Mason reads out to her group a little goodnight-story. She forgets that Freddy doesn't tolerate to be touched and tries to give him a goodnight kiss. Freddy jerks under her touch and hides under the coverlet. Sadly she leaves him there and turns out the light.

4. Miss Mason plays with her group "I see something you don't see". Freddy seems not to participate and is just sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth. But surprisingly he can solve the riddle when she asks him. Instead of continuing the game, though, he runs away and hides again.

5. Miss Mason reads the orphanage record about Freddy, but is disappointed because it contains only a few entries. Mr. Robinson explains that there have been more than nine different educators in the last years for the group Freddy is in, and that even he himself had sometimes to manage the group in addition to his own. So it is not surprising that no one had the time to write a lot about Freddy. Miss Mason wants to know more about Freddy's misbehaviour, but Mr. Robinson can't tell her much more. He remembers only that Freddy at all times reacted bad on contact and once fell down the stairs when an educator tried to comb his hair, and that he gets dreadful rage attacks from time to time.

6. Freddy has vanished during the daily nap. Miss Mason desperately seeks him everywhere in the house and finally finds him sleeping between the bushes in the garden. She wakens him and tries to get him out of the bushes. But Freddy crawls out of her reach and sprints suddenly back in the house, leaving her frustrated and helpless.

7. Freddy plays in the sandbox, but with some 'security distance' to the other kids. When Joey, a six year old charming boy, steps on his sandcastle by an oversight, he attacks him, destroys Joeys own sandcastle and dumps sand on him. Joey defends himself with throwing sand back. Miss Mason interrupts and separates both, but Freddy begins to scream and kicks and beats her in a sudden franticness. She has no other choice than to drag him with force into the house, where he continued to scream and lash about more than half an hour. After this afternoon Miss Mason knows what Mr. Robinson meant with that "rage attacks" he mentioned before.

8. Miss Mason talks to Miss Jennings, the educator of the eldest children. Miss Jennings doesn't wonder about Freddy's weird behaviour, she even thinks that it is rather normal for him. Miss Mason can't understand her point of view, but Miss Jennings tells her about the scandal with Freddy's mother and that he is nothing more than an insane bastard. Miss Mason becomes angry as she begins to understand why nobody tried to help and understand Freddy before – because everyone thought he is just a kook. She attacks Miss Jennings of being a narrow-minded, unfair woman full with unproven prejudices against a small, innocent boy. She would not let anyone talk bad about Freddy anymore as long as she would be his educator.

9. Miss Mason meets Mr. Robinson and asks him why he didn't tell her the truth about Freddy's past. He apologizes and says that he feared she would believe the same about him as she did about Miss Jennings. He also didn't want to be the one telling mean rumours. Finally he gives her the advice not to mention the old scandal anymore, because she would do only more harm to Freddy by reactivating old things. Miss Mason doesn't agree to him, as it is obvious to her that this old things have never been forgotten. But she promises to let bygones be bygones.

10. Freddy gets another rage attack when Joey criticizes his painting (which is indeed some kind of bloody and strange). He destroys Joeys painting and throws all the paint stuff from the table. Miss Mason is hardly able to calm him down. She wants him to apologize to Joey, but Freddy screams in hate and starts his monotone rocking. Miss Mason orders that he has to sit alone until he apologizes. Then she leaves him alone.

11. After sitting more than an hour on the floor rocking all the time Freddy secretly sneaks to the corner with the dolls of the other children. He takes two dolls and tears them apart, destroying them without any mercy or regret.

12. Mary, a lovely four year old girl, finds the remains of her beloved doll and is totally distraught. Miss Mason comforts her first and then returns to Freddy, who she suspected to be the committer. She asks him if he has destroyed the puppet, and Freddy finally nods. Miss Mason can't understand why he did this mean thing, Freddy though remains silent and starts his rocking once more.

13. Weeks go by. Miss Mason tries her best to cope with Freddy's distrust, his impenitence and his awful rage attacks. Mr. Robinson helps her as good as he can, while Miss Jennings always criticizes her efforts as an useless waste of time for a hopeless crazy bastard.

14. One evening Freddy comes to Miss Mason, who is sitting and reading a book. He has urinated in his bed like many times before. Miss Mason wants to carry him back and give him dry pyjamas, but Freddy fears she would beat him for bedwetting and winces under her touch. With all her patience she explains that she would never beat him and that bed-wetting is nothing more than an unlucky accident. Finally and for the first time at all she can pick him up and bring him back in his sleeping room.

15. Miss Mason gets another small success as she discovers why Freddy refused to bath peacefully like all others – he feared he would shrink in the water because of the wizen skin you get after a while. Miss Jennings isn't impressed about her little progress and repeats her opinion that Freddy is just a lunatic bastard and belongs to the asylum. She and Miss Mason start to quarrel heavily until Mr. Robinson interferes and takes Miss Mason in the garden for calming down.

16. Freddy, who was bathing meanwhile, jumps out of the bathtub and eavesdrops the quarrel between Miss Mason and Miss Jennings. He doesn't understand everything, but knows that the quarrel is about him and is rather terrified. Words like "lunatic bastard" and "asylum" sound very dangerous and bad to him. Before Miss Mason can find him listening he silently returns in the bathroom.

17. Miss Mason finds Freddy, who hides in the big wardrobe, and brings him to the other children, which glue fall-colored leaves on papers. Everything is fine at first, until Lucas, a red-haired five year old boy and best friend of Joey, accidentally takes one of Freddy's leaves for his paper. Miss Mason recognizes that Freddy is on the best way of getting one of his paddies and tries to calm him down, but in vain. Inflamed with rage Freddy bashes his chair and attacks Joey. Once more Miss Mason has to put him out of the group and pull him against his unrestrained and aggressive resistance into the sleeping room.

18. Christmas time. Miss Mason has made an Advent calendar, and every day another child of her group gets the small sweet inside. One day she decides that Freddy gets the sweet – a piece of liquorice.  Joey is disappointed because he likes liquorice much, so Miss Mason suggests that he asks Freddy if he wants to share the liquorice with him. Joey follows her advice, but Freddy shouts at him angrily and runs away.

19. Miss Mason oversees Freddy, who plays alone in his sleeping room. First she is pleased to see him play like 'normal' children, but then her delight turns to fright as she watches how Freddy plays: He uses two dolls, a male and a female, and the female starts to beat the male one and curses at it for bed-wetting and being a 'lunatic bastard', which will soon be brought to the asylum, where it would horrible suffer and die. Miss Mason is shocked as he uses the same words as Miss Jennings. She recognizes that he must have listen to her frequent quarrels. Deeply concerned he leaves him alone and returns unnoticed to the other kids.

20. Later in the day Miss Mason tells Mr. Robinson about Freddy's odd game. Miss Jennings, who is also there, finds her concern ridiculous and futile. Mr. Robinson though reassures Miss Mason that this game is probably without any deeper meaning. Miss Jennings at last tells her to watch Freddy closely in the Christmas time and to keep him away from fire, as he had almost set the Christmas tree on fire last year. Miss Mason is convinced that nothing like this will happen this year and cuts any further discussion with Miss Jennings.

21. Some nights later. Freddy is sitting on Miss Mason lap, an astonishing change in his former behaviour, which developed slowly in the last weeks. He had a nightmare about bad witches, probably because Miss Mason told her group this evening the fairy tale of "Haensel and Gretel". She thinks out a small "spell" to defeat the "witch under Freddy's bed" to soothe him. Then she brings him back to his bed.

22. Christmas day. Every orphan gets one gift; most of them used things and contributions. Freddy hides in a corner of the room, because he doesn't want to come to close to all the other children running around the Christmas tree and unwrapping their gifts. Miss Mason finally finds him and gives him his gift – a big yellow tin lorry. But Freddy shows no visible joy, which irritates Miss Mason a little.

23. Later Freddy plays with his new toy when Joey joins him; his gift was a red tin digger, which suited well to Freddy's lorry. Miss Mason had chosen their gifts deliberately, for she hoped that they would play together and probably become friends. Her plans seem to work out as Joey and Freddy in fact begin to play together, although Freddy remains mostly silent and Joey makes all proposals for playing. But anyway they were playing together!

24. Sister Mary Helena visits the Springwood Orphanage and brings a package with self made things from the convent for the orphans. Miss Mason asks her in and calls for her group to come. Freddy ignores her first, so she has to call him twice. When Mary Helena sees him she turns pale in shock. She instantly knows that he is her son. Even at this young age his similarity to his biological father is so great that she gets a terrifying flashback of being raped from this man, who was one of the most violent, sadistically and perverted maniacs among the others. Miss Mason can't understand her strange reaction and tries to help her. Mary Helena is torn between running away, away from Freddy and her memories, and getting closer to him, touching him or even talking to him. While she just stands there freezed in jolt, Miss Mason entertains an almost impossible suspect, namely that this nun is Freddy's mother! At least she screws up her courage and asks Mary Helena if she is the one she thinks she is. Mary Helena doesn't want to lie and agrees. She admits that she was totally shocked to see Freddy, for she had hoped he had been adopted in the meantime. If she had knew her son still lived in the orphanage she would never have come. Nevertheless, her desire of talking to him is still strong, and so she asks Miss Mason if she can talk to Freddy. Miss Mason allows it, but reminds Mary Helena to follow the contact prohibition she agreed with the adoption release and not to tell Freddy who she is. Mary Helena accepts, then she meets her son and talks to him a short while.

25. Freddy's sixth birthday. Unfortunately he has the measles and has to stay in bed. He gets a new satchel for his coming school enrolment and a red fire department car for playing. Joey, who had the measles just a few weeks before, is allowed to stay and play with him.

26. Miss Mason talks to Mr. Robinson about the amazing friendship between Freddy and Joey, which has developed the last weeks. Mr. Robinson though dampens her optimism; he thinks that Freddy's ameliorated behaviour is still unsteady and too short-run. But Miss Mason is convinced that things are getting better with Freddy.

27. Two times in the year there is an "adoption day" in the orphanage, where parents come to the house and look after children for an adoption. The evening before this day Joey is nervous and curious jumping on his bed. He can't understand why Freddy doesn't look forward the adoption day like himself. But Freddy hates this day. Of course he also wants to be adopted, but he just can't bear all the foreign people touching him and asking silly questions. Besides he has the sad feeling that there will be again no one who likes him and wants to adopt him.

28. Adoption day: Miss Mason makes some parents known to her children. Joey has a long conversation with a nice couple, which finally decides to adopt him. Meanwhile Freddy had run away of another couple and feels like a total looser. Joey comes to him and tells him that he will be adopted and moves to another town, still he wants to retain the friendship with Freddy. Freddy however becomes hopping mad and attacks him with a toy, yelling in frantic rage. Miss Mason hears him and tries to stop him, but he breaks away from her and stumbles on the stairs, so he gets a bloody nose. He flees in his sleeping room and starts to rock back and forth haggardly. It takes Miss Mason a long time before she can soothe him a little.

29. After Joeys adoption Freddy shows again all his former odd behaviour – isolating from group, tolerating no contact and rocking all the time silently. Miss Mason tries to explain to him why Joey had left him and gives him a new teddy bear as a sop to his pride.

30. Miss Mason is fired due to budged reduction. Her group will be merged with the group of Mr. Robinson. She has just a few days to say good-bye to her kids. Miss Mason is rather sad, especially because of Freddy. She doesn't know how to tell him that she, too, has to leave him only short after Joey left him. As she tells all kids of her group that she will leave in a few days, Freddy doesn't react at first and just stares at her muted. Only when she touches him he jumps up and runs away from her.

31. Later on that day Freddy sneaks into Miss Mason's room and takes a long scissor. Then he puts his new teddy bear on the ground and slashes the toy in tiny pieces, thereby mumbling that he hates the bear, Miss Mason and everybody else. Miss Mason watches him secretly and is deeply grieved. She fears that he will never understand why she has to leave, as he apparently didn't understand why Joey left although she explained it more than once to him.

Okay ladies and gentlemen, that was the second chapter. Any review or comment is welcome.
If I get some positive feedback I will soon continue with the third chapter. J