Dreams Ltd (26 page)

Perhaps at this moment I looked like a naughty cat that was up to some mischief - eyes narrowed, ears aimed at the enemy target, and feet turned into soft fluffy paws. I mustn’t make a peep.

As I got close to the wall my nerves kicked in but even that didn’t ruin my determination. No, it’s enough of the tormenting people... (When did I become such an idiot?) Perhaps, the life on the ranch made me realise that I had no hope. If so, why not take the risk?

The spot where the whips here hanging I noticed a few days earlier. Returning back to mansion after another completed task I happened to witness how the guards were hanging them on some metal hooks, nailed to the wooden poles on the lateral wall of the courtyard. And now, I could see their silhouettes in the moonlight again, as if they were dozing black adders.

Trying not to breathe, walking as quietly as possible, I carefully moved around a heap of sloppily dumped logs by the wall, and crept up to the hooks. Now the voices were heard more clearly - I understood that the men inside were discussing results of some game that’s just finished on TV. One voice asked for another beer, other two were arguing about which team had played better this time. But as soon as I stretched my hand out to the ropes, the door creaked loudly.

Trying to melt myself into the wall, I froze in the shade waiting for someone to come out, but instead of the footsteps I heard the rustling of the clothes and heard the unzipping “fly”. Right after that a sound of urine stream followed, hitting the dusty ground. Sweating my head off, I was waiting for the guard to get back to the house, hoping that he won’t decide to take a stroll before his bedtime and peacefully retreat back into his room.

“Hey, Tom, do you fancy another beer?” one of the guards shouted to him.

“Yeah!” answered the guy who was still standing on the porch, then he fiddled a bit and zipped up his trousers. I was ready to feel the relief but the door didn’t seem to be in a hurry to open up again to let him back in. Wasn’t he going to get back in? Did he notice something suspicious? For a while there was not a sound around, but I knew that the guard was still out here on the porch.

What the hell? Was he enjoying the fresh air?

And all of a sudden Tom did what he’d been waiting for all this time - he farted loudly! And then again! This time even louder, resembling a thunder.

I winced and rolled my eyes. That’s what we’ve been waiting for so long in silence! We were not waiting for his keen eyes to seek out the enemies lurking in the dark, or his subtle ear to listen out for the unusual sounds but we were waiting for my sense of smell to be irreversibly damaged by the farting guard who had a dodgy stomach after one too many beers.

Finally the front door creaked, slammed and Tom disappeared inside. I exhaled slowly. Men were now talking about the match again. What a bunch of idiots!

I peeled off my sweaty back away from the wall and, as far as the darkness allowed me looked around - there wasn’t anything suspicious and I quickly began grabbing the whips from the poles. When the last one slipped off the hook, I held them tightly close my chest and raced off.

Now I had to beat it. Not thinking what I’m going to do with this pile I just frowned in repulsion, feeling the ropes scratching my skin. They were really harsh and I couldn’t imagine how brutal one would have to be to have the ability to smack someone with these. Heartless bastards!

Waddling like a duck I was half-running, half-jumping until I got to the back yard. It was close to the corn field from here. My own arrogance was making my head spin and puff from the heavy load I was ready to dive into the corn stems, when I saw a heavy axe left on the deck for chopping the firewood. Someone drove it into a tree stump with such a force but a few shaky attempts with my trembling hands were enough to get the axe out. Trying not to drop anything, I finally jumped into the corn stems and thirty meters away I found myself on a foot path hidden away by the bushy plants. Perfect! This is where I could destroy your torture tools!

If I could drown the whips, I would have drowned them but there wasn’t any lake in the middle of this desert and I couldn’t burn them either since I didn’t have any matches or fuel. So when I saw the axe I did not even consider about any other options - I just hoped I was strong enough to hack them.

And, like anyone else, I knew that the new whips will appear in guard’s hands very quickly, maybe even quicker than a few days. However, the only hope that I continued to cherish inside was that the workers’ wounded backs will have a bit of time to recover until then.

Several hours later the loss of whips was discovered. It probably happened when another guard went to pee on the wall and noticed their absence. Right after that I was immediately told to get out of the bed, whereby that time I'd already seen if not the tenth but at least the second or third dream. Barely managing to get my thoughts together from the tiredness, I threw on a crinkled blue shirt and a pair of jeans, and followed the guard into the yard, wondering how they managed to find me so fast.

But in the yard my sleepiness was gone in a second. There was a whole crowd out there!... People were standing in lines flooded with the bright light coming from two huge projectors attached to the walls and all the guards I saw on the ranch were there as well. Erratically shifting from foot to foot and whispering, there were all kinds of workers - from the fields, laundry, carpentry and berry plantation. In some of them I recognised junior chefs from the kitchen! Wow... This meant that the thief was yet to be found. Well, well, well... Not that my last thought brought me much of a relief, still it allowed me to breathe a little easier.

Greg was walking along the sleepy and grimly frowning people. His small eyes were peering suspiciously at different faces, listening to the guards whispering something in his ear, scowling and chewing his thin lips.

I was pushed out in the front line, and squeezed myself between a man dressed only in some old linen pants and a woman with a long ugly face who seemed completely motionless in an anticipation of the troubles ahead.

“What’s happened? Why? Why we were dragged out in the middle of the night?” almost imperceptible phrases were coming from one person or another.

And I was the one who knew why.

Only just managing to keep my trembling knees together, I turned around facing the floodlight and like the others stood still in apprehension. By this moment I wasn’t just guessing about the cause of the midnight gathering - I knew it for certain. The missing whips. What else could make the security blow their fuse? I had some idea that my actions will have consequences but I wasn’t expecting it to become so over dramatic and well-publicised. More so, I didn’t suspect that it would end up with the meeting in the middle of the night. Oh, dear God...

Murmuring within the crowd faded down when Greg stopped in front of everyone and ordered them to shut up. Complete silence fell upon the crowd so you could hear the rustling of the corn from the field, and the monotonous grinding of the crickets coming from the house cellar. A little further away I noticed Hulk standing and watching over the scene. His hands were crossed on his chest and his eyebrows frowning. Even though his face and his posture were expressing an utmost calmness, something was telling me that Hulk was furious inside. And if Greg did not make much of an impression on me even being on the verge of an angry frenzy, the intangible wave of rage emanating from Hulk, instantly made me feel that no one will go unpunished tonight. I swallowed nervously and forced myself to look away.

A second later I heard the first word coming from the hated senior ward’s mouth.

“Well, ladies and gentlemen... Let me explain to you why we have gathered you here at this odd hour.”

All as one listened to him in suspense, being impatient, sleepy and angry.

“One of you, yes, of YOU...” Greg's eyes narrowed ominously and he paused, glancing with contempt at the crowd as if they were smeared in shit kittens, “… has stolen and damaged twenty whips.”

A gasp swept through the crowd but Greg cautiously raised his hand.

“Quiet! I'm not gonna hang around here all night long. So.... Instead of interrogating every single one of you and spending hours on this nonsense we’ve decided to keep it simple.”

He turned and looked at Hulk who nodded back at him almost imperceptibly; Greg continued.

“If by the morning nobody comes forward with a confession, twenty points will be taken off of every bracelet.”

My hands got very cold rapidly and the blood drained from my face. At this time, an explosion of angry voices almost swallowed the guard’s voice. People were grumbling and rebelling openly, resenting and even swearing and cursing. I swallowed the lump in my throat and stopped breathing for a moment.

For fuck’s sake!

Greg, not paying any attention to the discontent brewing said, “I don’t give a monkey if one of you was hoping that something like this would go unpunished. One of you decided that they could do such a filthy thing, go to bed laughing at us and lying under the blanket think well, let those donkeys in uniforms search for the thief all night long. Well, now it will be a lesson for everyone.”

While I stood there trying to digest what I’d just heard and swaying back and forth from the fear and guilt that filled my body from top to bottom, Greg went up to a skinny guy and poked him with a club in his bare chest.

“Maybe it was you?”

The man shook his head, mumbling something but Greg interrupted him.

“Then you'd better confess if you know who did it.” he walked away from the guy and tucked his hands behind his belt, “any of you had better admit what you know and do it before eight o’clock, because precisely at eight o’clock each one of you will see twenty points disappear from your bracelets. Got it? And you know what? I like the idea when everyone pays for someone else’s wrongdoing. You’ll be working here for lifetime then and we will carry on beating you with new whips happily!”

Greg began laughing loudly, nervously and with an undisguised gee and the rest of the guards followed him. Only Hulk wasn’t smiling, intently looking at the faces. His own face was drowned in a shadow but even so, the glare of his narrowed eyes was visible from where I was standing.

Trying to pretend to be sleepy and keeping up with an uncomprehending facial expression, I desperately hoped that the bright spots on my pale cheeks will be considered as a lack of sleep.

When the crowd was dismissed I got back to my room.

What should I do? What should I do?

I kept on asking myself again and again, sitting in a stuffy dark room, looking at the pale moon sailing through the dark night sky. Yes, I wanted to help, I wanted workers’ backs to heal a little bit and I thought that a short break with from the whips will contribute to the process, but who knew that it will turn out to be this serious? If I don’t come clean and confess what I’d done by the morning, each worker on the ranch will lose twenty precious points! How many people were in the yard? Fifty? One hundred? More?

Maybe someone else will confess? This treacherously sweet thought, like a rustling snake, crept up into my mind. Maybe someone else will sacrifice themselves to save the others and then nobody will know it was me?

It was very unlikely and my hope for someone else’s false confession was illusionary, if not so frail that it was rapidly dissolving due to the lack of any optimism that could nourish such a daft idea. Nobody wants to go to Greg to get punished and then remain in anathema, cursed be those who would’ve nearly paid for the so-called "joke" or an “act of heroism” - call it what you like.

I sighed, turned away from the window and stared at the wall; I ran my fingers through my shaggy hair and turned back to the window - the only source of light in this little cave with no access to the fresh air. Once again I regretted that the door to the yard was locked.

Damn it… what do I do?

Actually, the answer had already matured in my head but my rational mind was refusing to accept it.

Yes, I have to go and confess. But where do I find the strength to appear before the nasty senior ward’s face with such a statement? Especially after I nearly brought him to a boiling point earlier on at the cornfield? He will not just punish me; he will enjoy tormenting me around the clock with Hulk’s approval. After observing Mr Conrad today I had no doubts he’ll sign the permission if they ever have the need for anything to be signed.

I sighed again. My thoughts were reluctantly coming back to the confession I have to make; my body was shaking from fear, causing some nasty stomach jitters and a desire to pee. I twisted on the rigid bed, dreaming for a miracle to happen that could knock me on the head with and I’d fall asleep immediately forgetting all the troubles.