4
As soon as they left, Mila sunk to her knees and started crying softly. Manni sat down next to her and delicately put his arm around her, trying hard not to cry, but to no avail. Even Mosca, who was normally so tough couldn't hold back the tears. He wet his handkerchief and gently mopped away the blood on Mila's face, which by now had stopped bleeding. He still couldn't believe the events of the past hour.
Time seemed to pass by very quickly. Abruptly, Mila stopped crying. Distracted, Manni and Mosca looked at her. She returned their gaze, with her eyes set. The boys were surprised at the way she looked at them. She suddenly looked braver, and if she was shaking before with tears, now it was with barely restrained fury.
She spoke calmly, "We're not going to do any of the things they told us to do. We never will. From now on, we are going to do what we want. I'm sick of being treated like a slave."
Manni interrupted, "But Mila, they'll never listen to us! We can't have our own way here…"
"Who says we're gonna stay here? We'll leave this place. And never come back. We'll go to Sera. It's what we've always wanted. We can leave tonight. While the rest of them sleep. We'll finish our chores for the night. So they don't get suspicious. That's it. We'll let them think that they won. Tonight, we'll pack up everything we have, it shouldn't take long, we hardly have anything…" Mila trailed off.
"But Mila, if we leave here, where else would we go?" Mosca asked.
"And what if they catch us?" Manni enquired.
"That's just it! They won't catch us! We have to leave, tonight. It has to be tonight, don't you see? We might never get the chance again. I can't take any more of this. Any place has to be better than this. We'll survive somehow. I want to go!" Mila insisted, close to tears again.
Manni and Mosca stared at her incredulously until the gravity of what she said sunk in. Mila looked pleadingly at them, hoping they would come with her. They didn't seem too happy about her idea.
"Well, if we're going to leave tonight, we'll need food. Mosca, give me a leg up, I think there are cookies in that cupboard up there." Manni said.
"Right," Mosca complied, "Be careful with that thing, we don't want to attract attention."
Mila simply gaped at them. Then a slow, delighted smile spread over her face and she jumped and whooped with joy.
"Shh! Don't get so excited. We still have to plan everything properly," Mosca cautioned.
"I'm sorry!" Mila whispered unapologetically, "I can't believe we're actually doing this!"
"It was your idea you crazy monkey!" Manni said as he swayed to and fro on Mosca's shoulders while he tried to get the jar of cookies off the shelf.
Manni almost lost his balance and was tottering dangerously with a huge cookie jar clutched tightly in his hands. He had one leg on Mosca's shoulder and the other was swinging wildly in the air as he desperately looked around for support. Giving him up as a lost cause Mosca let go of Manni and tried to catch the huge cookie jar that seemed to take ages to fall. The lid flew off in another direction and Mila dived to get hold of it. Amidst this last minute rescue operation, poor Manni was left in the air without Mosca's shoulders to support him until the inevitable occurred.
He crashed onto the linoleum and would've let out a loud, anguished wail if it hadn't been for Mila, who had the foresight to clamp her hands over Manni's mouth.
"Oww! My butt! I broke my butt! Help me, I think I'm dying!" he whispered in suppressed agony.
With the cookie jar lying safely on the floor, Mila and Mosca rolled on the floor as peals of laughter took control of them.
A disbelieving and extremely bruised Manni stared at them until he uttered a war like cry and started flinging cookie crumbs at them. If this was supposed to discourage the other two from laughing at his expense, he was wrong, they only laughed harder, until they were flushed and gasping for breath.
"You filthy traitors! I go out of my way to get those darn cookies for you ungrateful wretches and this is how you repay me? This is it! I'm finished with you!" Manni eyed them crossly as he delicately ran his hand over his rear, wincing occasionally.
"We're sorry Manni," Mila giggled, all pain forgotten, "We didn't mean to laugh at you, right Mosca?"
"Yes we did!" Mosca replied, triggering a fresh bout of laughter.
Resigning himself to his fate, Manni sighed and stood up, "Just my luck to be stuck with you two baboons…sometimes I wonder why I even bother.
"Anyway, it's time we hurried up, if we have to get these chores done and steal as much food as we can, we better start now."
"Alright, alright, quit nagging you old woman," Mila snickered.
Before Manni could retort, Mosca interrupted, "He's right Mila, we have to hurry, we don't have much time. And if we get caught, well we're finished then aren't we? Things are bad enough already."
Sulkily, Mila conceded and started helping out. Quickly, yet meticulously, the three started their search for essentials they might need during the journey they were about to embark on.
Within half an hour, they had kept aside three loaves of bread, some peppermints, several packets of biscuits, a half filled jar of marmalade, a cutting knife and five cartons of milk. As a bonus, they discovered four bars of expensive hazelnut chocolate that were discreetly peeking out from behind a can of flour. They presumed that Wheezy was responsible for that hidden cache of sweet delights and wondered how he could have afforded them.
With all their stolen goods, they snuck into the basement where all their belongings were and shoved everything into three raggedy cloth bags that they found in the broom closet. They had some money with them, coins mostly which they found here and there. They had stuffed in some bed sheets along with a few supplies they stole from the first aid kit at the orphanage.
After they checked that everything was in place, they hurried back to the kitchen and set about doing the tasks that were assigned to them by Wheezy. By the time he returned, the kitchen was sparkling clean.
Surprised that they had done their jobs so well after the days events, Wheezy gaped around, checking to see for something he could criticize them about. Finding nothing and grudgingly impressed, he barked, "The kitchen looks alright, I've seen it look better; but I'm feeling a bit generous today, you're lucky I'm so soft hearted. I'll let you off for now. But next time you mess up like this, you're gonna get it from me, oh yes you are, just you wait you nasty little weasels…now get lost…lemme have some peace…"
All too eager to comply, the three scurried out of the kitchen and started cursing Wheezy as soon as he was out of earshot.
"The kitchen looks alright, my foot!"
"Just what does he think he is?"
"If he was half as clean as that kitchen is then maybe he wouldn't always be covered in flies!"
"Stupid ugly beast!"
Amidst all these mutterings, they reached the basement.
"Have we packed everything?" Manni asked.
"I think so, I've got Pookey with me too, poor Pookey, I hate stuffing him inside this ugly bag…" Mila lamented.
"Mila, Pookey's a stuffed toy; I would hardly think he'd notice." Manni said.
"Oh really? Is that why you're wrapping your marbles in that sheet? So they don't feel the bumps on the road?" Mila shot back.
"This is different," Manni said, his voice cold.
"Would you two shut up, this is not the time; we're supposed to be escaping from this dump soon. We need a plan." Mosca intervened.
Looking daggers at each other, Mila and Manni shrugged and paid attention to what Mosca was about to say.
"Alright. We've already packed everything so that's taken care of. Now for the escape plan. We have three possibilities. We can leave from the door in the kitchen or from the dormitory or through that window in the corridor. I don't think we can risk leaving through the kitchen door tonight 'cos Wheezy might be there, we might get caught." Mosca said.
"It'll be all the more worse for us if he wanders back in an inebriated state," Manni said thoughtfully.
"What's inebree…never mind. The dormitory's gonna be tough too 'cos we'll have to sneak to the windows without waking up the others. And we can't risk it if Tina or one of those idiot whiners are awake." Mila added.
"So then we're left with the window in the corridor. It leads out into the backyard. Once we're there, we can climb over the fence into that empty house next door and from there we'll be on our way. Simple." Mosca smiled.
The three sat looking at each other with looks of mingled excitement and apprehension. All their lives they had lived at the orphanage. They had never known anything else. They were about to embark on the biggest journey of their lives which promised to be full of exciting new adventures. If they did feel a twinge about leaving their home for so many years, it didn't seem to matter too much.
"Okay then let's go!" Mila stood up and flung her bag across her shoulders.
The other two followed suit and they all quietly walked up the stairs leading to the store room. Mosca poked his head out the door and scanned the hallway for people. Finding no one, he softly padded down the hallway and reached Miss Jensen's office. He peeked in to find Miss Jensen snoozing in her chair, a sliver of drool running down her jaw. Wincing at the sight, he signalled to the other two to follow. In silence, they tiptoed through the corridor. They felt the nervous excitement build as they reached the end of the corridor and looked out the window that seemed to hold infinite possibilities.
Slowly, Mosca and Manni pulled open the shutter. Mosca signalled for Mila to go first.
Nodding her head, she sat on the window sill and swung her legs outside so she had her back to the boys. She let out a slow shaky breath and jumped, landing softly on the grass in the backyard. Manni went next and finally Mosca joined them.
As Mila turned around and started to walk towards the fence she jumped back in alarm as something small and black scurried towards her.
"Oh, look! It's that little black puppy that we helped escape last week!" Manni exclaimed.
"Mosca, can we take him with us? Please oh please can we? Huh can we?" Mila insisted, tugging on Mosca's sleeve.
Torn between amusement and exasperation, Mosca looked at the puppy's sad pleading eyes. Finally he sighed, "We might as well, he looks like he'll follow us anyway."
Delighted, Manni and Mosca took turns cuddling the little puppy, before Mosca scooted them along. The fence around the orphanage was cut quite low. So Manni got up first and jumped over to the other side. Mila handed the puppy to Manni and went up next, with Mosca helping her climb the fence. Mosca followed behind her until they all stood in the unkempt garden of an abandoned house.
"We did it! We did it! We di-di-di-di-di-did it!" Mila sang
Before she could sing further, Mosca hushed her, "Careful, we don't want to ruin everything now!"
Completely unabashed Mila hugged Mosca tightly and kissed him noisily on his nose. Before Manni could escape, she had him by the collar of his shirt and forced a kiss on his cheek. Mortified, Manni rubbed maniacally at his cheek, trying to wipe away all traces of Mila's impulsive gesture.
Laughing, Mosca led the way out through the front gate.
Finally finding freedom, they ran down the street and escaped into the night, laughing with happiness as their little puppy scampered along behind them, yelping joyfully.
