DEAD MAN'S CANYON

Part 2

The next day saw a whole new routine happening on the Ponderosa.  Joe was still asleep while the rest of his family were already seated at the breakfast table discussing what each was to do.

“I don’t think it would hurt for just one or two days Pa” Adam now said as he took a sip from his coffee cup.

Adam and Hoss had just finished trying to explain to a dubious Ben about Hoss being allowed to stay home today and the next to help Adam out on the ranch.   They had already lost some of the men at the lumber yard where Ben was needed that day.  A few hands had been told to move on by Adam over the last few days because of their laziness and like of something to drink.

“I promise I will do my best Pa” Hoss now said pleading with his father.  It was no secret that Hoss would rather be working on the ranch like the rest of the men rather than sitting in a hot school room all day.

“It will be the summer holidays after tomorrow anyway” Adam now said, seeing the hopefully look in his brother’s blue eyes.  Although Adam wasn’t normally a supporter of ditching school, he did have some knowledge of his brother’s yearning to be with the livestock.  

“What about his schoolwork that’s left?” Ben now said, playing with Hoss’s emotions a little. He knew that being this close to the school holidays that there wouldn’t be too much study left to be done.

“Aw Pa, Miss Healy says that we only got to go over the same stuff we have being doing the last few months.” Hoss said.    He knew all about what Ben thought of a good solid education in life.  

Adam had gone all the way through school and would soon be heading off to college in San Francisco.  Deep down Hoss just hoped that his father didn’t want him following in his older brother’s footsteps.  Learning books had never had much of a hold on the middle Cartwright son.

“Okay Hoss, you can stay home from school for the next couple of days” Ben finally said, letting his son of the hook.   Hoss’s shoulders sagged in relief  and he happily began eating his breakfast again.

Neither of the Cartwright’s seated at the table had been aware that a certain younger member of the family had just heard Ben tell Hoss that he could stay home from school.   That certain younger member was now staring intently at the family eating words, trying to find the right scathing words to say.

A few minutes earlier upstairs………………….

Joe had awoken on his own this morning.  The first thing he noticed was just that.  It wasn’t very often that he woke on his own.  Normally one of his brothers would be dragging him from his warm bed by this time.   

This morning however, Joe woke slowly and in his own time.  Stretching his sleep limp muscles and enjoying the sun coming through the window and gently warming his face.

When he felt a little more awake and alert he got up from his bed and prepared to get dressed for the day.    The trousers he had had on last night were hanging over the back of a chair in his room waiting for Hop Sing to gather them later that morning for wash day.  The note that Mr Watson had given Joe was still folded neatly in the envelope in the pocket of his trousers.  Completely forgotten about.

Joe dressed in a clean pair of trousers and a fresh shirt followed by socks and shoes before heading downstairs to the breakfast table and his family.   It was when he was almost at the bottom of the staircase that he had heard his father tell his brother Hoss that he was allowed to stay home from school.

“How come he gets special treatment?” Joe said in a tone of voice that sounded more harsh than he would have liked.

Adam and Ben turned to face the youth, surprised to see him not only awake but dressed on his own and ready for school.   His hair was still in need of a brushing before he left, but all in all Joe had done pretty well for himself they thought.   

Ben could hear the displeasure in his son’s words about favourable treatment that didn’t include him.  Whilst he wasn’t happy about his son’s tone of voice this early in
the morning, he wanted to try and defuse the situation without getting involved with a full scale argument with his son before breakfast.

“Nobody is getting special treatment Joe” Adam now interjected before Ben could say anything.  “We are pretty short handed with men at the moment and some of the stock need more attention than I can spare them for right now.” he tried to explain.

“Oh and Hoss being allowed to stay home for two days isn’t special treatment huh Adam” Joe spat back at his brother.  “I could help out with the animals too you know Adam” he said in his own defence.

“Watch your tone of voice” Ben warned his son for the first time that day.  

“Hoss is only being allowed to stay home because Adam needs him.   I know you think you are big enough to help out but your education is more important at the moment.  Hoss is a long way further through his schooling days, yours have only just begun Joseph.” Ben explained.

“But I don’t like school anymore than Hoss does” Joe said trying to plead with his father.  He was now shuffling his feet about on the wooden floor and refusing to look at this father as he spoke.

“Nevertheless you will be going Joseph, so I suggest you sit at the table and eat your breakfast before you go.  Is that understood?” Ben said in a no nonsense voice.

“Yes Pa” Joe replied, still looking at the floor and mumbling his answer.  He complied with his father’s request to sit that the table and picked up his spoon.  He looked down at the bowl of oatmeal in front of him and began stirring the lumpy mixture around and around the bowl but refusing to put any of it into his mouth.

Ben drew his hand down his face, trying to wipe away some of the frustration he was already beginning to feel towards his youngest’s attitude.  The boy had only been awake for less than an hour and it was already beginning to feel like an incredibly long day.  

Ben was thankful that Joe was not a wilful child.   He had seen some youngsters at the Church picnic’s and at the school yard that were turning out to be royal pains for their parents.   

Whilst Ben expected respect and discipline he didn’t think that physical force was the way to achieve such goals.   He would rather try and talk out problems with his sons first and let them know that they could come to him at any time with their worries and concerns.   

Ben however knew that Joe was at an age where he was beginning to find out what it meant to be rebellious towards anything that resembled rules and regulation.    He knew that the more he pushed his son to do the right thing, the more Joe would just pull in the opposite direction, trying to prove his sense of independence at the same time.  

It was this sense of independence that drove children of Joe’s age.  They were a long way from being adults yet, but beginning to experience the real world and wanting to do it without their families more and more everyday.

“Joseph, eat your breakfast please, don’t play with it” Ben said sternly.  

Little Joe now complied with his father’s request but was not entirely happy about it and so to show his displeasure in a subtle way, he made sure that the spoon barely had any oatmeal on it when he forced it into his mouth.  

 By the time he had done this, with his father watching every attempt, the little boy had barely eaten but a few spoonfuls of the lumpy mixture anyway.

Adam and Hoss had watched the entire episode as well and were waiting for the imminent explosion from their father towards their brother and his antics.  To their surprise though and Joe’s as well, it didn’t come.

Ben was secretly counting to ten inside his head, trying not to do what they all expected him to do.  Instead, he slowly got up from the table and went about carrying out the rest of his tasks before heading to the timber yard that morning.

Ben watched his son from the corner of his eye and from the other side of the room and thought that his alternate method had seemed to work at least momentarily.  Joe was watching his father move about the room preparing to leave, wondering whether he had been let off the hook or not.   

Joe didn’t like this game his father was playing.   He would have rathered Ben just yell at him and get it over with.   This delaying tactic his father was suddenly using
was a little unnerving to say the least.   Maybe his father was going to wait until he came home this afternoon to dish out the expected punishment.  That would mean Joe would have all day at school to ponder what list of chores his father would dream up by that time.  

“Hoss, I still want you to take your brother to school before you do any of the caring for those animals.  He is still too young to be riding to school on his own.” Ben now instructed as he put on his leather vest and his hat.  

Joe was about to object and opened his mouth to protest about the baby treatment he was going to be getting by being lead to school like a five year old.   He looked up at his father though who was now buckling on his gun belt.  The words died on his lips before they were spoken.   Ben’s look was one of  “I dare you to say anything Joseph”.  

Ben was satisfied that his son was still trying to work out what punishment he had in store for his earlier demonstration of childishness.

‘How is that burn on your arm this morning Joe?” Adam now asked, genuinely making sure that it didn’t need any tending to before the youngster left for school shortly.

“Fine” came the curt reply with no real indication of whether it was okay or Joe was just being obstinate.  Probably the latter Adam assumed knowing how difficult any kind of conversation had been between Joe and any of the family lately.

“Would you like me to have a look at it for you?” Adam now asked, keeping his own temper in check.   

“Nope it’s just fine like I told you,” Joe said and quickly got up from the table before anybody could question him further about the truthfulness of his statement.

Joe quickly raced up the staircase to grab the shoes he had forgotten when he came to the breakfast table.

Ben, Hoss and Adam just looked at one another trying to work out whether or not they should be chasing after him and physically looking at the injury themselves to see if it needed any attention or not.

Ben was trying to decide if he should be chastising Joe for the way he had spoken to his older brother when Adam had asked about his arm.  At the end of the day, Ben rationalised that it would only cause more animosity at the table that morning.   Whilst he was unhappy about Joe’s lack of manners, he hoped that by the time he had returned from the timber yard and Joe had returned with Hoss from school that his son would be in a better frame of mind.

It was right about now that Joe came running back down the staircase, this time with his shoes on and laces tied.  He had his books tucked underneath the arm that wasn’t injured.   It looked as though he had made some sort of effort to comb his hair.   The curls had a mind of their own today though and were going in all directions.

“Come here Joseph please before you go” Ben now said in a gentle tone of voice as his son attempted to escape out the door with as little contact with his family as possible.   He was trying to avoid them for the baby treatment he was getting that he deemed unfair.

Little Joe almost rolled his eyes to his father’s request as he had done with Adam but did it somewhat more discreetly knowing that his father’s reaction to such cheekiness wouldn’t be so restrained as his older brother’s had been.

Joe now stood in front of his father with his eyes downcast to the floor.  “Yes Pa?” he said in the smallest possible voice, as if he were trying the innocent look that usually work for him.   

Adam and Hoss now both looked at each other and rolled their own eyes at the well known antics of their younger brother.  They both knew that it wouldn’t take too long for Joe to wrap their father around his finger.

“Joseph, I want you to take care of yourself at school today” Ben began.  “If your arm starts hurting too much make sure you let your teacher know.  Somebody can get word to your brothers to come and bring you home if necessary.   Although I don’t think that will be necessary” he added, seeing his son’s eyes light up with the prospect of being allowed home from school early.

“Yes Pa” Joe repeated in the same tone of voice as though butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. “I’ll be okay” he said, knowing that Mr Watson would be the last person in the world he would tell that he had an injured arm.

“Come on Hoss or we will be late” Joe now said giving his father a quick embrace and pulling away from his father’s grasp “By Pa” he said, trying to sound as cheerful as possible.

Ben couldn’t help but grin at his son as he scampered out the front door, pulling Hoss along with him.   Hoss protesting that it was too early to leave just yet and that he hadn’t finished eating his own breakfast yet.   

No matter how subdued Joe appeared sometimes, it didn’t take much of a change in circumstances to see him bounce back to his normal vibrant exuberant self.  His energy was what kept his family his family on their toes all the time.  And they wouldn’t have it any other way.

With Joe and Hoss now headed to the barn to saddle their horses and shortly thereafter the schoolhouse, Ben rose from the table, informing Adam that the day was
going to be a long enough anyway.  He too would be headed to the barn shortly to saddle his own horse and then head in the opposite direction to the timberyard.

Adam to went on his way.  With the men being so short-handed lately, he knew that he would be needed at a number of locations that day.  Hopefully he would be home in time for when Little Joe returned home from school.  If not, he would remind Hoss before he left to keep an eye on the time in case he didn’t get back in time. One of them would need to be at the schoolhouse when school was let out that afternoon.

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Joe’s real reason for going to school a little earlier had nothing to do with Mr Watson. He was hoping that he would meet up with his new little friend Johnny Scott before class started.

As Hoss and Joe rode along, Hoss tried to encourage his brother into some light hearted conversation to make the journey seem shorter.  He tried all sorts of topics he thought might interest Joe, like the fishing hole or the animals that he was going to take care of when he returned home.    

Joe however seemed very distracted as they rode along the rode to Virginia City.  Joe’s mind was occupied with thoughts about what Mr Watson had said to him the
day before about being backwards and falling behind all the other kids in the class because he used a different hand to write with.

As Joe got closer to the town and could see the school-house come into view, the words Watson had said seemed to get louder and louder until they were echoing inside his head.   He silently hoped that Mr Watson had forgotten all about what had happened the day before and that the last two days of school could just progress without much interaction between the two of them.

As Joe rode his horse towards the stable situated behind the school yard, Johnny Scott spotted his friend and ran up to greet him as Joe dismounted from his mount and started taking the saddle off.

“Hi Joe” Johnny said excitedly, in the short time they had known each other, he too had come to value the brief friendship they shared.  He, like Joe hoped that the more time they were able to spend together, the stronger that friendship would become and they would soon be the best of friends.

“Hi Johnny” Joe said in reply, his mood lifting a little at the sight of his friend.  Hoss watched on with a smile on his own that Joe had found someone his own age with similar interests to play with.  Joe hadn’t mentioned too much bout his new friend except the day he had come home sodden and had explained he had been fishing with Johnny.

“Um Little Joe, I’ll leave you to it huh” Hoss said not wanting to intrude too much on the younger boys.  With his large size sometimes Hoss felt out of place even with his own brother’s classmates.  Sometimes with his own classmates too.  “I’ll be here to pick you up this afternoon” he reminded his younger sibling.

Joe’s grin quickly turned to a sneer again at the mention of the babying treatment of being picked up from school like a first grader.  “You don’t have to you know Hoss” Joe tried to reason with his larger sibling.  “I can ride home and you can be there waiting at home before Pa and Adam even know.”

“But I will know Little Joe and you know how much trouble both of us would get into if Pa or Adam knew that I let you ride from school all by yourself.” Hoss said with a lump rising to his throat as he tried to imagine what would his father say to such an episode.  “Besides, I want to make sure nothing happens to you.  You might fall off your horse on the way home and get hurt.  Nobody would be there to help you.”  Hoss’s protectiveness over his smaller brother was now shining through.

“I am big enough not to fall off my own horse Hoss” Joe said gruffly and turned away from his brother, dragging Johnny with him towards the school house.    

Hoss watched sadly as the two boys headed to school.  Deep down he knew his brother was probably right about not falling off his horse.  From a young age Joe had displayed very good horsemanship.  Ben assumed much of it had been passed on genetically by his mother who had also been an excellent rider.    

Hoss was more upset that his brother was angry at him rather than what Joe was angry at him about.  Like Ben earlier that morning, he hoped Joe was in a better mood when he arrived at the school house to pick him up.

Hoss now returned home to take care of the animals that he had been allowed to stay home for.   The various tasks of nursing, feeding, cleaning their bedding would now keep Hoss’s attention for the majority of the day.   

Back at the school house, Joe and Johnny had been happily sitting down sharing various tales when the bell rang signalling the start of lessons.    Without really meaning to Joe and Johnny found themselves at the rear of the line of children.

Johnny had managed to take his seat in the classroom without any remark from Mr Watson who was towering over the youngsters at the door.  Joe however was not so fortunate to avoid the scrutiny of the harsh teaching master.

Watson’s brows furrowed together in a frown as he watched the boy known as “Little Joe” amble into the class behind everybody else.  He however did not think of it as Joe just being in line waiting his turn.   He saw the gesture as a defiance of his authority and knew that the boy was out to rile him from the outset this morning.

“Mr Cartwright in future I want to see you seated at your desk before the bell rings for class, is that understood?” he said, determined to chastise the boy in front of all his classmates.

“Yes Mr Watson” Joe replied, inwardly groaning that the personal attack on him had begun almost before he even walked into the room.

“I am keeping my eye on you boy, so you had better watch your step young man” Watson sternly said.

Turning his attention away from Joe momentarily, Mr Watson now assumed the role of teacher for the morning and now stood at the front of the class.

“Now I trust that you all did your homework assignments last night” he said, “Please come up to the front of the classroom in an orderly fashion and place your work on my desk.  I will check it throughout the day.  Any work that is found to be inadequate or messy will have to be redone.” he added, smirking a little as he knew that this would indeed involve at least half of the class.

Joe swallowed inwardly because now was genuinely the first time he had thought about the homework assignment since Mr Watson had given it out at the end of class yesterday afternoon.  

When he had gone home, he had tried to help out with the chores and then his arm had been burned in the kitchen and he had forgotten all about doing homework.

Looking about the room as the children filed one by one up to the front of the classroom as instructed and placed their work on his desk, Watson could distinctly
see that his “star” pupil did not move from his chair or even attempt to.  Just the opposite, the child was squirming about in his seat with a worried look on his face.

Watson immediately knew that he had caught the boy out about not doing his homework.  

“Mr Cartwright, do you have any work for me to check?” Watson said in a very casual manner.  It was a tone of voice the man had solemnly used and anybody else but Joe could have sworn that the man was genuine in his question.

Joe however glanced up at the man and spotted a totally different look in the man’s eyes.  Even for a seven year old, the boy was able to see that the man was annoyed at the child’s disobedience.

“Um, I am sorry Mr Watson but I hurt my arm when I went home yesterday and I went to sleep before my father came home.” Joe said telling almost the whole truth.
He decided that the teacher didn’t need to know that he had woken up after his father came home and talked with him.

Watson took in every word that the child had said and made a mental note for future reference about the injured arm.  With the information given though he understood there to be another missed task assigned to Mr Cartwright:   the note.

“I would take it then Mr Cartwright that you failed to give your father the note I wrote to him yesterday?” Watson now asked, deliberately leaving out the subject of the note from the rest of Joe’s classmates.

“I’m sorry, I did take it home Sir but my father has had trouble at the timber yard lately and hasn’t been getting home until long after dark.   I will give it to him tonight
when he gets home.” Joe added hoping that the promise might get him of the hook of trouble he was already dangling from.

“Mr Cartwright you and I will discuss these matters out of class hours in your recess break” Watson now said, seeing that the other students were listening in to everything that was being said.    

Joe didn’t know what to think for a moment.  The man didn’t sound as if he was upset about the homework and the note at all.   He was saying that he just wanted to discuss it at lunch time.   Joe told himself that he could handle that if the teacher only wanted to talk.   He could take any amount of yelling from Watson after what he had been getting off Adam at home lately.   He couldn’t help but think a few minutes ago that his punishment would be worse than that.

For the rest of the time from then until the lunch hour, Watson refrained from talking to Joe unless necessary.  He didn’t want to alert any attention to what he had in mind for his disobedient student.    Whilst the boy worked however, he noted that the boy had ignored his advice from yesterday about writing with his left hand.  

That coupled with the no homework and the note was enough to fuel his temper.   He told himself that if the boy’s father wasn’t going to do anything about discipline for the child, note or no note from him, then he took it upon himself to show Joe what was right and wrong in his classroom.

As the hour wore closer to 12 noon, Watson could feel his temper rising further and further.  He could see from the boy’s participation in class that he was a child that thrived on the group atmosphere a class room offered.   The other children looked to Joe and almost came to judge their own behaviour and sense of where they were in the class according to where Little Joe Cartwright was.

This was just the scenario that he had seen in a number of older boys at other schools. They became the leaders of the class and other students who could be persuaded to do well with their academic futures, went down a path of disobedience and intolerance of other students.    He had been forthright about setting such disruptive troublemakers apart from the class before.   Although the boy in question was only seven, he didn’t see the age difference as any excuse to let the behaviour continue any further.

If he made an example out of Joe Cartwright for the other youngster’s to see, then the other students would see that discipline and hard work were the way for them to go.

He continued to watch the boy throughout the morning, making mental notes of the times Joe was day-dreaming or lost his concentration.   There was a few occasions that the boy stopped working and rubbed at his right arm just below the shoulder area. He had not believed the kid at all earlier in the morning when he used an injury as an excuse for failing to do his homework.     He could see now that maybe the boy had a injury at least.

The thing that provoked the teacher’s temper the most though was Joe’s continual use of his left hand when he had explicitly explained how much it would cause him to fall behind the rest of the class.    He thought he had explained it enough and made it clear that he didn’t want him using his left hand at all.  Even if the note had never made it to his father like intended, the boy at least had heard the arguments for such a change and should have complied as such.   

At one point his temper had boiled over as he watched the boy’s writing style.  He had been holding onto a pencil to mark the previous day’s homework.   The pencil had suddenly snapped without warning, making a few of the students in the room jump at the sharp sound.   

 Joe had briefly looked up but put his head back down knowing that he would be in trouble yet again if he didn’t at least look as though he was doing his work.    He only had to make it through the rest of today and tomorrow and then the school holidays would be here and he would be free of Mr Watson forever.

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Little Joe tried to do what was asked of him for most of the morning and so did not notice too many of the dark looks directed at him from the teacher.   

Soon the bell was ringing, signalling that it was time for recess.   Normally the children would have already scattered by now, but with Mr Watson as their teacher,
they all waited for his signal to file outside in an orderly fashion to play.

“Children you may all go outside” Mr Watson informed them,  “Except Mr Cartwright of course” he added, deliberately reminding Little Joe about that little talk they were supposed to be having.

Joe sighed at the thought of the talk.     He hoped it wouldn’t go for too long because he was genuinely hungry today.  He had very little dinner the night before and equally as little breakfast before he left that morning.   Hop Sing would be surprised to see that the boy had eaten most of what he had packed for once.

Joe was now the only student seated at his desk.   Watson’s false smile quickly faded as he walked behind Joe and closed the front doors to the classroom.   He saw the look of surprise on the boy’s face and increased Joe’s apprehensiveness by going towards the back of the classroom and making sure that the back door was also closed.  He wanted to make sure that there was no unwelcome visitors when he and his little friend had their “little talk”.

“Don’t want to be disturbed now do we?” Watson said casually to Joe answering the boy’s unasked question about why he was closing the doors.   The tone of voice was a little too casual for Joe’s liking.   He began moving about in his seat again, displaying
his nervousness.

“From the attitude you displayed today Mr Cartwright, I take it that you like ignoring my advice and disobeying my instructions.    In fact I see you take an active part in doing the complete opposite to what I ask of you and the rest of my students.” Watson started to say.   By this time he was standing beside Joe’s desk, looming over the boy in an ominous stance.

“But I haven’t done anything wrong” Joe began to say in his own defence.   True he hadn’t done the homework assignment, but he thought he had explained that enough. He was trying to think back over the rest of the morning to see where he had disobeyed any of the teacher’s instructions.  He thought he had actually done better than he ever did in one of Miss Abigail’s classes.

“Haven’t done anything wrong.” Watson said calmly.      “HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING WRONG……………..” he now said angrily and grasped Joe’s right arm right were the bandage covered his burn mark.

“Oww your hurting me Mr Watson” Joe cried out, cringing a little at the man’s sudden explosion of anger.  He now was fully aware of why the teacher had closed the doors.   He was now becoming afraid of the teacher.

“I haven’t even begun to hurt you yet Mr Cartwright” Watson replied and deliberately made his grip over the injury even tighter.  Joe cried out in pain once again at the pressure being applied.

“Come with me boy” Watson asked through gritted teeth, not waiting for the boy to stand but literally dragging him out of his small seat and pulling him across
the room towards the back door.

Virginia City school was made up of two rooms, one larger enough for the class room and smaller area out the back were Miss Jones often prepared the work for her classes. In addition to these two rooms, there was a small storage room, not much bigger than a broom closet.    It was here that the stationary supplies and other books were kept when they weren’t being used.   Because of it’s size, the room was very dark and often held a musty smell to it after rain due to the lack of air circulation.

“No you can’t put me in there” Joe said as he tried pulling himself away from the teacher.  He was using his other hand to try and pry the teacher’s hand from his arm.
If he could just get free he could try and make it to the door and get out before the teacher caught up with him again.

The fact that the room was so dark was the thing that scared Joe the most.  It was no secret in his family that the youngest had a phobia about being in the dark.

“You will wait in there until the end of school where we will continue this little necessary discussion.” Watson told him.   Joe knew that the teacher had no intentions
of talking about anything.

Joe was still trying to pull away.   Watson now jerked the door open by the handle and with a hard thrust, shoved the boy through the door.  The force made Joe unsteady on his feet, unable to stop for a brief moment and the boy found himself falling over a fallen book on the floor and cracking the back of his head against a shelf.   

The blow to the back of his head was enough to make him fall to the floor stunned. Because of the dizziness that he was experiencing, he made no attempt to get back to his feet and get out the door.    Watson too his opportunity to close and lock the door, imprisoning his young student inside the small,  poorly aerated room.  He made sure that the boy heard his laughter about his misery.

Joe now pulled himself to his feet, although a little unsteady, and began banging on the other side of the storeroom door and shouting for someone to let him out.  He could only hope that somebody outside might hear his cries for help.

“LET ME OUT…………. YOU CAN’T LOCK ME IN HERE ………” Joe shouted at the top of his voice.    He was almost on the verge of tears from fear of the room as well as what the teacher had in store for him later on.    He had to get out he told himself.   “LET ME OOOOUUUUUTTT”  he screamed again.

This time his efforts did cause the door to be opened, but it was not anybody to help him.    Watson now stood in front of him in the doorway.

The teacher grabbed the front of the boy’s shirt and lifted him off the ground slightly as he uttered his warning:

“You had better be quiet boy if you know what’s good for you” Watson snarled. Although he taken the precautions of closing the door, he wasn’t prepared to take the risk of how far the boy’s shouting would carry.  Maybe somebody outside would hear him and come to help.   Maybe one of his classmates might hear him and go get another adult.  He didn’t want anything disrupting his plans for later that afternoon.  He would have to make sure that the boy remained quiet inside his prison for the remainder of the afternoon until the other children had gone home.

“You can’t keep me in here” Joe said, the tears now running down his face, unable to stop them.  

“Oh but I can” Watson answered and roughly shoved the boy back inside the room locking it again to prevent the boy’s escape.   “I will keep you and your disruptive behaviour away from the rest of your classmates.” the teacher added, trying to justify his harsh methods to himself.

Joe fell heavily on his backside on the storeroom floor.    The room was now almost completely devoid of light.   Joe could hear the sounds of his own crying in the silence.    With nobody to help him he didn’t know what the afternoon had in store for him that afternoon.   That almost scared him as much as the darkness of the room.

Joe now moved up against on of the walls of the storeroom and grabbed his knees up towards his chest and laid his head on top of his knees as he cried softly to himself and wondered when his family were going to come and get him.


TO BE CONTINUED………………


Author – What lies in store for our young Joe ??????????????   Only this crazy author
has the answer to that so you will have to read the next part to find out.

Sorry not longer but have to work on other ones too…

Hope you are liking it so far.

JULES


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