1 The sleepwalker

There was silence all through the courtyard of the dormitory. The night was so still that the only sounds heard were those of the chirping of crickets and cries of night owls.

Everyone was fast asleep, everyone but twelve-year-old Oliver who walked the courtyard in the midst of the dark. It was midnight, but this child was walking into the unknown with a hundred-mile gaze in his eyes. He was wearing his white set of pajamas and was barefooted.

Where was he heading to? Was he conscious of himself, or was he just sleepwalking? How would it be that he had sleepwalked out of the boys' hostel, down that long stairs, out of the dormitory block, and was now roaming around the courtyard? No this wasn't a sleepwalk. This was just something else, something unfathomed, something insidious.

He walked for about thirty minutes until he was spotted by the night watchman.

The night watch; Mr Carl was an old pear-shaped man. He had bad eyesight and was supported by a stick to walk. He was considered rather too old and unfit for his job.

Mr Carl came out of his house and approached Oliver with a flashlight in hand. When he reached where the boy was, he stopped him in his tracks using his stick. Then taking him by the arm he said;

"Hay little one, it looks like you've got yourself sleepwalking, witnessing the wonders of the night".

When Oliver felt the warmth of his palm, he strung up instantly like someone who had just woke up from a horrible nightmare. He was so surprised and also terrified to see himself outside in the middle of the night. He started shivering in the cold.

"Boy, you've got spirit, I haven't seen any of my regular visitors come as far as you have," said Mr Carl.

"Now let's get that little head of yours back to bed," he added, leading Oliver back to the dormitory block.

Mr Carl took him to the house of the hostel Mistress; Sister Jane, who lived in a small house just next to the dormitory block.

"Hang on young one, you'll be in bed in no time," said Mr Car to Oliver as he knocked on the door.

"Open up Sister, it's Carl," said Mr Carl.

She opened up the door, to see why Carl was knocking by this time of the night. She was surprised to see the ten years old standing beside Carl, and shivering in the cold.

"What got this cute little one outside the hostel by this hour of the night?" asked Sister Jane as she wrapped a warm blanket around the young lad.

"I guess this is another sleepwalker," answered Mr Carl.

"Where did you find him?" asked Sister Jane.

"This one is more of a sleep traveler. I found him just by my house side," he answered.

"How possible?" asked Sister Jane in surprise.

"Was he really sleepwalking?" she asked, as she took Oliver's hand and led him into the hostel.

Oliver's roomie; Max Robert was fast asleep in his bed. The Mistress tucked Oliver into bed.

"Goodnight," she said to him, as she left the room, quietly closing the door behind her.

Wide awake now, Oliver kept on thinking; how come he never noticed himself when he was outside? Why would this continue to happen to him?

Although he was still young, Oliver seemed to be wiser and more intelligent than all of his peers. He had just lost both of his parents the day before in a mysterious car accident, then he had moved here to South Dakota, to the Catholic Orphanage earlier that day.

As Oliver was about to doze off, memories of his late parents flashed through his mind. He really missed them, and he wished that they were here to comfort him in this new world that he was in now. He took off the necklace that he wore on his neck. It bore a black glittery locket as its pendant. Oliver opened up the locket, and within it were the pictures of his late parents.

"Why did you leave me?" he muttered with a cracked voice, as his eyes glistened with tears.

"Why did you leave me to be alone in this unfortunate world?" he added, as tears freely rolled down his face.

He sniffed and brushed off another tear that blurred his vision.

"How would I ever cope in this new place with so many new people? I wish you two were still alive," he muttered at last.

As he viewed the pictures of his parents, tears uncontrollably streamed down his face till he finally dozed off.

A new phase of life had just begun for the lad, but the question is; what really happened, and what is yet to come?