Mr. Dudley

My eyes jolt open. The bad dream about the fire was in my brain again. Papa lays fast asleep next to me. I’m extra careful not to wake him up.

I take deep breaths and stare up at the moon through cracks in sky house’s roof. I can always see the twinkles behind the tree branches. I like to close one eye and pretend I can reach them.

It’s a breezy night. Sky house goes back and forth with the trees. It helps me fall back asleep after the bad dream.

…

“Wake up peanut, breakfast is ready,” says Papa. I don’t want to get up, and I don’t want eggs again. I pretend like I don’t hear him.

“Madeline, get out of bed,” Papa says all cranky. I shift and give a little groan.

“MADELINE,” he yells as he slams his hands on the table. I bolt up.

“Sorry papa” I grumble and walk over to the table. Papa gets grumpy sometimes.

I know he doesn’t mean to, I think he just gets real worried about any of the bad people finding us.

Papa doesn’t like to talk about the big bad (that’s what I call it). That was when the world got all crazy. I don’t remember much, just the fire at the ground house. I know I used to live there with mom and dad. I know Papa lived close to my ground house, but I didn’t know him much until he rescued me. That was when he brought me to the safe place, our sky house. He says I was six when it all happened. I think I am ten now.

I push my food around on my plate for awhile, but my grumbly tummy makes me eat all my eggs. I know they come from chickens, but I’ve never seen them. Papa says they make too much noise so he keeps them far from our sky house so no one will find us. He says you can’t trust anyone left, we can only trust each other.

I know we got super lucky. A bunch of bad things happened and lots of people went to heaven, like mom and dad. The ones left aren’t very nice anymore. Papa says they just want to take your stuff and hurt you. I am happy we are safe here.

“Now what if you hear someone while I am away?” he asks.

“I stay away from the windows, and I stay real quiet,” I say proudly, knowing I got the answer right. I don’t know why he gets all worried. I have never seen anyone since we’ve been here.

I help Papa pack his bag. He has to go out to find us food, and sometimes I don’t see him for a few days. I always miss him when he is gone.

“You are my good little girl,” he says with a grin and a pat on my head. I smile back. I watch him climb down the rope ladder as I lean over the railing.

“Be good peanut, I will be back soon,” says Papa.

“Okay, be safe!” I say, waving to him.

As he walks off into the woods, I pull the ladder back up to sky house and loop it around the hook. I always wish I could go with him, even just once. I am never allowed to leave, because I have the most important job. I am the gatekeeper to sky house, he says. If no one was here to let the ladder down, how would we ever get back up?

When Papa is gone, I have to find lots of things to do to stay busy. I play with my blocks, or count how many birds I can see from sky house. My favorite thing to do is read, and Papa brought some new books for me the last time he left.

My favorite stories are always the princess ones. I like Rapunzel the most. I pull the new books off of the shelf and shuffle through them. My eyes get really wide when I see a new fairytale—one with a princess on the cover holding a glowing heart necklace that opens up. I think it has a special name but I can’t remember.

The necklace looks like one I used to have. I think my mom gave it to me. I miss her.

I neatly stack all of the books back on the shelf, (because Papa doesn’t like messes), and then I start flipping through the pages of the princess story.

I pause when I hear a twig snap right outside of sky house. I sit super still and listen. No more sounds. I sneak over to the window to peak out.

There he is!

It’s a secret, but I have a friend in the woods. It’s my deer named Mr. Dudley. He doesn’t come around much, but I get extra happy whenever he stops by. I am not sure where the name came from, I think Mr. Dudley was someone I knew when I was real little. Either way, deer looks like a Dudley to me.

I watch him as he chomps away at the grass right by my tree. I want to go see him so bad. He never gets this close. I know I’m not supposed to leave sky house, but it is barely leaving. Right?

I walk slowly to the edge of the balcony, and sit down. Mr. Dudley doesn’t move, he just keeps eating. What a hungry fella. I unhook the ladder slowly, and let it fall to the ground. Mr. Dudley gets a little spooked, but only jumps back a couple of feet. I sit on the balcony for a long time. I don’t want Papa to be upset with me. I haven’t touched the ground since the beginning of the big bad. I know I shouldn’t, but I want to see Mr. Dudley up close.

I slowly turn my body and start climbing down the ladder. As I am climbing down, Mr. Dudley looks up at me, so I pause until he eats his grass again. I get to the bottom and slowly lower my toes to the ground, then both of my feet. I forgot what grass felt like. It is so soft compared to the floor in sky house. I scrunch up my toes to feel the dirt beneath me.

I look at Mr. Dudley and slowly begin walking towards him with my hand stretched out as far as it will go.

Then I hear it.

A voice.

I freeze and my heart starts pounding.

The footsteps get closer. I can hear two voices—two men. Mr. Dudley runs off and I dive behind some bushes, peaking out. The men have long beards and big bellies. Their clothes are all green like the trees, and they are carrying big black sticks. I can’t remember the word for them, I just know they are to hurt you with. I duck all the way behind the bushes.

“Hey Tommy, look at that, someone built a treehouse all the way out here,” one of them says. I hear their footsteps at the base of our tree. I can’t move.

“Do you think someone is here?” says the other. They both get quiet for a second, and I hold my breath so I don’t make any noise.

“Hey!” says one of the men, “is anyone up there?”

All I could hear in my head was Papa’s voice.

You can’t trust anyone, we can only trust each other.

Stay away from the windows.

Stay very quiet.

Except I have never been further from our windows. I don’t know what to do. I wish Papa was here.

“Hold this, I’m going up,” says one of the men. My heart begins to sink. A twig cracks a ways away from us. It has to be Mr. Dudley. They both stop.

“Do you think that’s the deer?”

“Maybe. You go check it out. I am going up.”

As the one man runs off after Mr. Dudley, the other starts climbing up the rope ladder. Up into our home.

I have to get away. I have to stay safe. I have to find Papa.

I jump out from behind the bush and run. My legs are moving as fast as they can beneath me. I am running the only way I know—in the direction that Papa always goes.

I keep running and don’t look back. I stop when I can’t breathe anymore. It has been so long since I have ran. I catch my breath, and freeze again. I can hear more noises.

Cars.

There are cars ahead of me. I walk up to the edge of the woods. There is a road with cars going back and forth, and a small building on the other side of the street. I hide behind a tree.

Across the street are a few people talking and laughing. Are these people with the ones in the woods? Are they looking for me and Papa?

I stay hidden, watching them.

No one is hurting anyone. How can so many people be so close? Did they take Papa??

I step out from behind the trees, and run behind one of the cars with the blue and red boxes on them to get a closer look.

One of the people sees me.

Oh no.

I turn to run back into the woods, but one of them grabs my arm. My heart is racing. They are going to take me. Will I ever see Papa again?

“Sweetie are you okay? Are you lost?” one of them asks me.

I can’t speak. I should have never left sky house.

“Guys let’s get her inside,” says the stranger.

The people bring me into the building, where even more people are. They are all wearing the same clothes. Are they in a big family?

I can’t believe there are so many people.

They sit me down at a desk and tell me to wait there. I try to sit still, rubbing my hands back and forth. I know I need to escape. I look around for ways out, when I see a board near me with lots of papers all over it.

All of the papers have faces with the word “MISSING” across each one in red letters.

My eyes freeze on one page.

Looking back is a picture of me with a heart necklace that opens up.

One of the strangers stares at me.

“Oh my god. You’re Maddy Jenkins, the girl who was taken from that house fire. Your parents have been looking for you for years.”

As she finishes the sentence, I see Papa walk out of one of the rooms wearing the same clothes as the other people. On his shirt is a shiny pin that says “Officer Dudley.”