FicWad

Dendy Park

Ella and I walked to the lockers from our chemistry class. The locker rooms were so crowded during lunch that it took about a whole minute for me to move ten metres from one end of the room to the opposite end. Someone’s body odor forced me to hold my breath while I plowed through the crowd. Ella followed me to my locker. She had news for me.

“Keith, could you do me a favour? If any of my friends ask you where I’ll be this lunch, tell ‘em I sneaked out with the guys.”

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“I told Mark I’d meet him at Dendy Park.”

“The teachers might expel you if they find you missing.”

“I’ll be back before lunch ends, so I won’t be missin’ any classes.”

“How’s Mark? Is there anything wrong with him?”

“Nuh…not really…he’s fine. I’m pretty lucky to get him ‘cos he’s really popular. All the girls in this school want him. He's really hot as well! He's such a winner. I only want to date the best men.” Ella smiled. "I don't know...he's just so...he treats me like a woman and makes me feel like a woman."

While I spoke with Ella, a small blonde boy walked up to me. It took me a while before I realised it was Eddie.

“Got my onroppers yet, Keith?”

Since I had to talk to Eddie in private I said goodbye to Ella and led the 9-year-old outside to the wide-open quadrangle where no one could hear or see our discussions. I had to protect myself not only from other students but also from the school’s surveillance cameras.

“I can’t give you any porn,” I said.

“Why not!”

“You told Mark that I slept with Lily.”

“So what?”

“If I give porn to you, you don’t buy porn from Mark, and he loses money. He won’t like it if he loses money and he’ll tell the police about my sleeping with Lily. When the police start investigating, my dad will probably give evidence against me. I might go to prison.”

“Who cares if everyone knows you slept with Lily?”

“I don’t want people to think I sleep with little girls.”

“Why not? I’d like it if people thought that about me—that I slept with girls.”

“Most people think it's bad to sleep with a little girl.”

“I didn't know that.” Eddie scratched his head and took a deep breath before talking again. “So yer not gonna give me free porno?”

I shook my head.

“I need porno.”

“No you don’t. Use your lunch money to buy food instead.”

“I can’t. I already tried, but I can’t stop looking at porn. I’ve collected so much and I can’t just throw ‘em away. I’ve got to get new ones.” Eddie thought for a moment. “Keith, you said you’d give me porno in return that I don’t touch Lily. Since you’re not giving me any porno, doesn’t that mean I can touch Lily?”

“No, don’t do that.”

“Why do you care what happens to her?”

“I don’t want you to hurt her.”

“I just want to have sex with her. Isn’t that what you want, Keith? You wanna have sex with her?”

I didn't give a reply.

Eddie stared at me for a few seconds before he told me he needed to leave. “I’ve got to see if I can find Mark so I can buy more porno from him. Do you know where Mark could be now?”

“Ella told me she was sneaking out of school with Mark this lunch.”

“I’ll sneak out as well,” said Eddie. “I’ll look around the parks near here…maybe Dendy Park.” He started walking off.

I would normally object to Eddie wandering out of school property but since his being in school placed risk on Lily’s well being, I kept quiet and spent the next ten minutes walking around the school by myself. I went to the soccer field where a group of noisy students played a rough game of soccer. Students tend to hang around in groups during lunch. I sat down on the grass and every so often someone who wasn’t with anyone would walk by. One person who happened to walk by all by herself was Lily Jenkins. The little girl recognised me sitting at the edge of the soccer field and walked up to me.

“I saw you talking to that scary boy,” she said.

“Eddie?”

“What were you talking about?”

“Nothing…just…he was talking about his friends.”

Lily sat down on the grass near me. Her black socks had gone down to her shins. Her dress only covered half of her thighs, exposing her pale cream-coloured legs that rubbed against the moist green grass. I could tell she liked the feel of grass on her legs. She lied down on her stomach and started fiddling sunflowers with the fingers.

Lily spoke. “Eddie called me a nerd today because I was reading a book.”

“That happened to me, too.”

“Really?” Lily looked up at me. “What happened?”

“It was a long time ago. I read a lot of books. Do you know Mark?”

Lily nodded. “Ella’s boyfriend.”

“He picked on me all the time.”

“What did you do?”

I remained silent for a while. Often when I speak I don’t think about what I say and regularly put myself in a situation in which I’m forced to reveal something about myself that I don’t want to reveal. I didn’t want Lily to think I was weak.

“I don’t like Mark,” said Lily.

“Yeah, Mark is bad,” I said. “Eddie’s bad as well. Everyone’s bad, really.”

“Everyone? What about you?”

“I’m not as bad as most people.”

“Why does Mark hate you?”

I thought about her question and laughed. “I don’t know.”

“Why does Ella like him?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know much, don’t you?”

I glanced at her face and saw her grinning.

Lily spoke. “I hate boys who think they’re so good.”

“You do?”

“I also hate boys who always tell me what to do.”

“Maybe when you grow up, you’ll think different.”

Lily kept fiddling with the grass. She ripped a handful of grass from the ground and tried to poke a hole in the dirt. I was about to say more but an old man started walking up to us. I recognized him. He was the school principal.

“Keith, may I have a word with you?” the principal asked. He wore a suit. He was an old man with greying hair and wrinkled skin.

“Am I in trouble? What is this about?”

“Keith, you’re aware that surveillance cameras are installed in crowded areas around this school, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“One of our cameras,” said the principal, “caught a student by the name of Ella Jenkins leaving the school without permission. A teacher told me that she last saw Ella talking to you before she left.”

“Ella told me she was meeting up with Mark.”

“The school surveillance system only caught two people leaving the school during lunch: Ella Jenkins and Eddie Wosnitsuj.”

“Eddie was looking for Mark.”

“Both Eddie and Ella are missing now,” said the principal.

“Have I done something wrong?”

“No, you’ve done nothing wrong. I just came to tell you. If you find these students please call me straight away.” The principal looked at his watch. “I have a meeting now.”

“I’m sure those two will turn up soon,” I said.

The principal said, “I hope so,” before walking away.

“Where’s my sister?” Lily asked me.

“She said she went to Dendy Park to see Mark,” I said. “Do you want to go look for her with me?”

“I’ve got a class now,” she said.

“Skip it. The teacher won’t mind if we tell them we’re looking for your sister.”

“Isn’t school important?”

“It’s important, but not that important.”

“Okay then.”

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Lily followed me as I walked along the pavement towards Dendy Park, a park about ten blocks away from the school and fairly close to my house. The park was filled with football fields, bicycle paths, lakes, ponds, playgrounds, and many, many trees. Along with all the other kids in the neighbourhood I used to go there all the time when I was little.

As I walked to the park, I had to remind myself to slow down because my legs were much longer than Lily’s were and I took much wider steps.

Ten minutes after we had left the school, Lily and I arrived at Dendy Park. It was getting late and hardly anyone was there. A handful of teenagers played soccer on the field but apart from them the park was empty. Unfortunately, the playground was completely deserted. I was hoping Lily could play on the playground with a bunch of neighbourhood children and make some friends in the process. I suspect she didn't make any new friends during her first day at school. I didn’t want Lily playing soccer with a bunch of loud teenage boys though. I could tell by the way they spoke that Lily and I would not fit in with these undesirable people.

Lily started running to a duck-filled pond. I kept an eye on her in case she fell in. I hadn’t been to the local park in about a year because of the school workload. I turned around for a moment and saw the wishing well. I remembered the wishing well. When I was little everyone threw coins in the well and made a wish. Whenever I looked inside the well I was so scared about falling in, scared of being trapped all the way down in the earth in complete darkness. I was about seven years old when my dad gave me fifty cents to make a wish. He told me to wish for lots of money, but instead I silently wished that I had a sister. I couldn’t understand why people threw coins into a well. Why would they do that? How would they get their money back? Even today I barely understood why people threw money away like that.

Lily looked bored. She walked around aimlessly for a while with her head up in the air, not realising she was walking around in circles. I felt like apologising to her for leading her here.

“Can I swim in the pond with the ducks?” she asked me.

“No, the pond water is very deep and dirty.”

“I need to go to the toilet,” she said. “Can I go wee in the pond?”

“No, there are public toilets around here.”

We walked away from the duck-filled pond, past the wishing well, and towards the toilets. The toilets were a truck-sized brick block with one side for females and the other side for males.

“You’re big enough to do it by yourself,” I said.

“Wait outside for me,” she said, walking into the girls’ toilets.

I stood outside the toilets and looked at the field of grass near the duck-filled pond. Those loud and obnoxious soccer players were finally gone. The park was almost completely devoid of humans. The only signs of life came from birds on trees and the odd racoon or stray cat that wandered by.

I heard loud screaming coming from the toilets. It was Lily.

I bolted inside the girls’ toilets immediately and found Lily standing near the sink. She looked horrified. Near the toilet cubicles stood a brown-haired boy just under six feet tall. He wore a white robe as if he were some sort of Catholic priest. Unlike a priest’s robe, this boy’s robe was plain and bright white. Over his face he wore a black plastic mask--like a party mask of some sort. When this brown-haired boy saw me he immediately ran towards me with his hands aimed at my neck. I anticipated a neck attack and prepared to grab his hands with my hands. He ran into me, attached his hands against my shoulders, and tried to slam me against the wall. I kneeled down and directed my elbow towards his abdomen. He screamed out aloud as my elbow stabbed him in the stomach. The brown-haired boy recovered quickly though and kicked me twice before running out from the toilet. His first kick got my right knee. His second kick—a very powerful kick—got my back and almost broke my spine.

Lily walked up to me as I lied on the floor. She pulled up my shirt and placed a hand on my back. I twisted my head and noticed she was looking at a giant black bruise. The pain from my aching back was not as great as the pleasure I received from having Lily’s hands on my skin. It wasn’t just her skin against mine that made me feel good. It was also the genuine concern she seemed to have for me. I could see it in her eyes. I could feel it in the way she touched me.

“My mummy has some band-aids in the kitchen,” she said.

I forced myself up. “I don’t need band-aids,” I said, trying to act tough. “I’m fine. Who was that guy?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I went to the toilet, and then when I was washing my hands I heard something behind me. I turned around and saw him.”

“Did he touch you? Did he hurt you?”

“No, I screamed and then I saw you.”

“What would a boy be doing in the girls’ toilets?”

Lily obviously didn’t know. The question wasn’t directed at her but she might have thought it was.

“Can I go back to school now?” she asked.

I nodded. “Alright.”

She started walking but stopped and looked at me when I didn’t follow her.

“I might stay here and look for Ella and Eddie,” I said. “You know how to get back to school on your own, don’t you?”

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I was just a 12-year-old boy when I looked at the duck-filled pond at Dendy Park and wondered why it was as brown as sewerage. It was filled with filth and yet I always saw children running around near the pond. I always went to the park to watch little children play near the pond while their parents had a picnic on the field. I couldn’t understand how any parent could leave his little children to play near a deep and dirty pond. If the child fell, she’d sink to the bottom of the filthy pond and drown. I came to the park often not only because I liked to listen to children laughing and playing—those sounds made me feel good—but I also came to the park because I hoped that if a child did eventually fall in the pond I could rescue her and everyone would thank me for what I did. Unfortunately, no child ever fell into the pond, yet I was certain that one day a child would fall in.

Clouds in the sky failed to prevent sunlight from beaming down on the pond. Orange and yellow ducks swam around. Raccoons and rats sometimes appeared when I came to the park as a child. Dad and I chased a raccoon once and tried to catch it. After about an hour Dad was too tired. The raccoon hid in the bushes and I eventually found it, although I didn't do anything because the raccoon looked scared. Every time I came to the park when I was little I saw many old people feeding the ducks, playing chess, or just talking. Understandably, old people die, and as I kept coming to the park during my teenage years I saw less and less old people. Grandmothers and grandfathers used to be all over the park, but today the park was usually empty.

Near the toilets where I was attacked an hour ago, I saw both a condom vending machine as well as a soft drink vending machine. I purchased a can of Coke and took in a mouthful. It was a hot day and I was so thirsty. By mistake, much soft drink actually missed my mouth and splattered all over the concrete below. As I started choking, someone started touching me from behind. I turned around, looked down, and saw Eddie gazing up at me.

“Hullo,” said Eddie. “You decided to wag school as well?”

“I came here to find you and Ella. The principal was really worried.”

“I’m in trouble?”

“Yeah, most likely.”

“I saw Ella about fifteen minutes ago.”

“Where is she?”

“She could be anywhere now, but I saw her running around here. I saw her running around like a psycho.”

“Psycho? Did you talk to her?”

“No, she was far away from me and she was running real fast.”

“Why was she running?”

“No idea.”

“Okay, let’s look around at the park for a while. Maybe we’ll find her.”

“I think I saw Ella somewhere near the pond.”

“Are you sure Ella is…”

“Keith, look over there!” Eddie pointed to the pond in the distance. “It’s Mark!”

“Quick, hide behind the tree.”

I rolled around until my whole body was behind a giant tree. Eddie followed. He seemed excited.

In the distance we saw Mark. He was with five of his friends. I couldn’t tell who his five friends were. Strangely, all of Mark’s friends wore school uniforms while Mark wore a white robe that covered his whole body from the neck down. These boys—not one of them was a girl—stood around the edge of the pond. I looked more carefully and noticed a large black plastic body bag lying on the grass. Mark pointed at the bag and said something to two of his friends, who all of a sudden crowded around the bag and started lifting it up. Three boys, including Mark, held the plastic bag over their heads. By the strain on the boys’ faces the bag’s contents must have been quite heavy. The bag hit the surface of the pond with a massive splash, sending ripples around the pond. Mark and his friends then walked off casually.

“Should we follow them?” asked Eddie.

I got up from behind the tree. “We have to stay at least a hundred metres behind them or they’ll see us,” I said. “Make sure you hide behind a plant or a tree, and don’t make any noise.”

Eddie and I carefully followed Mark and his five friends as they walked away. From a hundred metres away I could hear them laughing. One of Mark’s friends kept playfully pushing him. Mark and his friends then went over to the toilets where Lily and I went just an hour ago. They milled around for a moment before walking in.

“They’re going into the girls’ toilets,” said Eddie. “What the hell!”

We waited for ten minutes for Mark and his friends to come out, but they didn’t come out.

Eddie seemed frustrated. “What’s taking them so long?”

I thought for a moment. “What are the chances that five people all need to go to the toilet at the same time?”

“Let’s go have a look,” said Eddie, grabbing a branch from the ground that looked almost like a sword.

As expected, the girls’ toilets were completely empty when Eddie and I searched it. This wasn’t the first time Mark had disappeared while going to the toilets. Something strange was going on.