4

The Formidable Three woke up amidst chaos the next morning. As they groggily rubbed the sleep out of their eyes they could see Miss Jensen's large form chasing after something in the dormitory with Wheezy tailing behind holding a spatula in his hand. Many of the children were excitedly jumping up and down and shouting to cheer the staff on, who were currently very much involved in trying to catch a little black puppy which had a sausage in its mouth. The little black puppy was weaving around the beds, streaking here and there just out of Miss Jensen's reach.

Then suddenly, the puppy sprang onto one of the beds and started jumping from one bed to the next, frantically trying to find an exit. Thinking quickly, Mila tossed a pillow on to the floor in front of Miss Jensen, who in her haste slipped on it and flew into the air before crashing down with a yelp. Wheezy, who was following close on Miss Jensen's heels, tripped over her and went flying down the dorm and landed flat on his face. Meanwhile, Mosca rushed to the windows and threw them open as Manni picked up the grateful puppy and carefully set him outside the window in the backyard.

With the anguished yells of two adults ringing in its ears, the puppy scrambled through the yard and out through a gap in the fence as Mila, Mosca and Manni delightedly waved at its retreating form.

On turning around they saw the rest of the children laughing and clapping in response to their heroic act of bravery. But before they could fully appreciate the applause, their blood drained as they saw a livid Miss Jensen hobbling along threateningly towards them while she leaned heavily on Wheezy's shoulder. As frustrated as he may have been, the expression on Wheezy's face couldn't have been nearly as frightening as the one on Miss Jensen's face which was slowly turning red until it matched her hair, which by now was severely disordered with the physical exertion.

"You…why you little…you're not getting away with this…" she breathed through clenched teeth, "I have been too lenient with you, oh yes…you are not going to get away this time…after I'm done with you three, you'll wish you were never born…"

And suddenly, she burst into a shrill loud laugh which vibrated through the entire room. Her tiny blue eyes were crinkled up as she continued to laugh maniacally, even managing to scare Wheezy who was slowly trying to edge out of her iron grasp. Never before had any of the children seen her like this. Their stout hearts quailed at the sight of her, laughing with a crazy gleam in her eyes.

As suddenly as she burst out laughing, she stopped. She grabbed Mila by the shoulder and ordered Wheezy to follow with Manni and Mosca. All the other children silently looked on with bated breath as their heroes were almost dragged out. As the doors closed behind them, the Formidable Three could hear the babble of conversation break out in the dorm. They nervously glanced at each other as they were being led towards impending doom. As they walked towards Miss Jensen's office, the feeling of dread only intensified. They had resigned themselves to the worst when Miss Jensen slammed the doors shut behind them, vaguely thinking that even if she tried to torture them no one would hear their screams behind those heavy oak doors.

"Oh you're in for it now," whispered Wheezy, delighted that they would finally get their due after all the torments they subjected him to.

"Never in all my years here, never have I encountered anyone as rowdy, as misbehaved, as… as monstrous as you three!" said Miss Jensen, her fury barely controlled, "I have put up with you for three years, three years now…if any one else had been in my place, they would have tossed you out on your ungrateful backs the first week you came in here…I try so hard, so hard! Not even those pathetic families from Rocher would adopt you! And that's saying something! Not even the lowest, most disgusting people want to keep you…doesn't that make you the least bit ashamed of your sorry selves?

"I have had it with you. I am giving you one last chance. This is your last chance you hear me? One more mistake, even the smallest slip, and I will throw you out on the streets. I don't care about the consequences, no law can accuse me of being unfair…you may be children but you don't deceive me…you three are the very essence of evil…" she screamed. She tried to talk further but she seemed to have lost her voice with all the shouting.

As she breathed heavily, trying to gain some control over her rage, she managed, "From now on, you will not be allowed to play, or attend your lessons. Oh yes, that would be perfect. I heard you love reading those books in the library, don't you? Well, you will not so much as touch those books again. And you will not sleep in the dormitory where you can corrupt the other children, oh no you won't. You'll sleep in the basement, with all the rats and cockroaches running around there, I'm sure you'll love that…and you will help Wheezy in the kitchen, scrub all those grimy dishes…you will sweep and mop every inch of this orphanage until its spotless…from now on, you will have no comfort, none at all…don't wrinkle your nose about sleeping in the basement you little wretch, after all the work I'll make you do, you'll be begging me to let you go to sleep, with rats and all!"

As she rubbed her hands with glee, the children stared at her with disbelief which was gradually replaced by full blown horror as they realised that she was serious. They couldn't believe what was happening to them, all they did was save a poor puppy! They had done nothing to deserve this! With a sinking feeling they realised the seriousness of the situation they were in.

"But, but you can't Miz J!" pleaded Mila.

"You can't do that to us!" said an equally outraged Mosca.

"Watch me, you dirty little rats," snarled Miss Jensen, "Wheezy, take them with you, they are to do whatever chores you give them from now on…and don't you worry about going easy on them…"

"Yes, Miss Jensen," rasped Wheezy, absolutely beside himself with joy at the punishment meted out to the children.

As the children trailed after Wheezy, they cast each other worried glances.

"What do you think he'll make us do? Scrub dishes again?" whispered Mosca.

"Maybe he will, I hate to think what he's got planned for us. Look at him! He looks so satisfied!" Manni replied.

"Shut up you little mongrels! There'll be no talking while I'm walking!" said Wheezy, chortling at his small joke.

"He calls that a joke?" Mila whispered, "No wonder he has no friends. He's ridiculously unfunny and he smells like an animal that might have curled up and died in a heap of garbage…"

As the boys snickered, Wheezy snapped his head around and glared at them suspiciously while they looked at him innocently.

A little while later, the children ended up working in the kitchen with Wheezy. Mosca was scrubbing great big utensils covered with grime. Mila and Manni were peeling and chopping onions for lunch and as a result, there were tears streaming down their cheeks, not that they wouldn't have wanted to cry anyway. Their tummies rumbled as they hadn't eaten breakfast as yet. At a quarter to nine, they helped Wheezy and Rhea dole out oatmeal to the rest of the children who gave them sympathetic glances and words of comfort which didn't really help. Before the oatmeal got over, they tried to get some breakfast for themselves, but Miss Jensen ordered Mila, Mosca and Manni to clean up and carry all the dirty dishes into the kitchen. Too scared to protest, they went about carrying and cleaning the dishes, all the while thinking of how ravenous they were.

Before they thought they would rest a while, it was time to serve lunch and they forcefully dragged their feet to get to work. After they served lunch, they ate some leftovers in the kitchen by themselves as Wheezy had gone off on a break. Alone for the time being, they relaxed a little.

"I'm so tired," Mila said tearfully.

"And hungry," added Mosca, who was just as miserable.

"We better eat slowly, or we'll be hungry within two hours," suggested Manni.

"I hate Miz J!" cried Mila, "Why is she doing this to us?"

"It was only a little puppy, and he was so helpless!" said Manni.

"Miz J hates dogs, and she hates us too. She loves seeing us suffer. And Wheezy. He hardly did anything! He just made us do all of the work! He barely stirred the soup once or twice. I wish LaPointe were here. I miss him so much. He would have done something. Anything!" exclaimed Mosca.

Close to tears themselves, the boys comforted Mila as she sniffled. Being a little younger than them, they were always fiercely protective of her. And right now, they felt even more miserable as she started sobbing softly.

"Don't cry, Mila, please? It'll be alright, LaPointe will come back soon. I'm sure he's just gone for a few days…he'll take care of us. I'm sure of it!" soothed Mosca, desperately willing himself to believe his own words.

"Yeah, Mila, don't cry…at least we're together aren't we? It's better than last time when they forced us to stay away from each other…" Manni went on earnestly, as a single tear trickled down his cheek.

Slowly, they ended up comforting each other and calmed down enough to determinedly tackle the mountain of dirty dishes waiting for them in the sink.

As the day dragged on, they swept, mopped and dusted half the rooms in the orphanage only to realise with a sense of despair that there were many more rooms left to clean. At dinner time, they hungrily polished their plates of every last crumb, and still weren't sated. Rhea refused to give them second helpings claiming that troublemakers like them didn't deserve more than they were given. And they were too proud to accept sneaked bits of food from the others. As the rest of the children trooped into the dormitory, Mila, Mosca and Manni were forced to wait to clear all the dishes and wash them for the third time that day.

After an extremely tiring day of hard manual labour, the three were sent in to the basement with three torn mattresses and bed sheets by the very vindictive Miss Jensen.

As the small door to the basement creaked open, a huge rat scuttled around their feet and down the hallway, giving them a huge fright. With their teeth chattering partly out of fear and partly due to the cold, they slowly made their way to the cleanest and seemingly rodent free spot on the floor and spread their mattresses out. They huddled close together to protect themselves from unseen enemies which prowled around in the dark. They were too afraid to go to sleep there; even you would be if you possessed the over-active imagination of an eight year old. And there were things to be afraid of in the dark confines of the basement. But no matter how many reservations they had at the moment, the fact remained that they were just three 8 year olds who were completely exhausted from the day's work which would have proved too much even for healthier adults. And so, within ten minutes, they slipped into the deep sleep that usually accompanies such total and bone deep tiredness.