The Moonlight Boy | Ferry's Tale # 1

Hoity Toity

Matilda was back in school after a week. She was gloomy and not in the mood for anything; not for playing ball or for climbing the trees. She was picked up from school every day by her father, the saddest man Ferry has ever seen. The girl was distracted in class and, for some time, she had difficulties writing, for almost all the time her hands were full of sores and calluses.

Miss Summer was deeply concerned about her, and one of those days, she eventually called her father to school. But to no avail. Matilda was getting sadder and more absent-minded with every day that passed.

"What's wrong, Matt?" Ferry asked her one morning. "We don't play anymore, we don't talk to each other... Have I done something wrong?"

Matilda frowned, "That's none of your business, Ferry! Leave me alone, please..."

"But something IS going on," he insisted. "It's like you're not... you anymore. I know you miss your grandma, but..."

"What do you know about missing someone? Or about love? What do you know about being lonely? Just leave me alone, all right?"

"This is not fair, Matt. I was just trying to help. Isn't your mother worried about you?"

Matilda gave him a wild glance. "Don't you ever talk about my mother!" she shouted.

"But why?" the boy wondered.

"To me, my mother is dead! She left when I was a little girl. She abandoned us, my father and me. And I know nothing about her to this day. And to be honest with you, I don't really want to know anything about her!"

She was barely breathing.

"I'm sorry," Ferry whispered. "I didn't know. I was just trying to─"

"I don't need your help, you freak!" she shouted, pushing him out of her way. Then she broke into a run without looking back.

At school, she asked Miss Summer to be moved to one of the front desks, pretending she couldn't see the writing on the blackboard. And Ferry was now sitting alone, feeling lonelier than ever.

At home, things seemed to go just as wrong. Besides the cold weather which didn't allow him to stay outside anymore, strange things began to happen. Stranger than before, that is. The kitchen was the first place where the oddities occurred. Mrs. Donovan had just taken out a tray of cookies from the oven. Then, she looked away for only a few seconds and half of the cookies were gone.

"Did you take the cookies, Ferry?" she asked her son, who was drawing in the living room. "You know you're not allowed any cookies before dinner."

"No, Mum," he answered.

But that very night, noises and thuds could be heard on the first floor of the house. Mr. Donovan came down the stairs cursing. When he reached the kitchen, he found the drawer of sweets open. Ferry had limited access to that drawer ─ only two times a week. And now biscuits, candies, cookies, they were all spread on the kitchen floor.

"You're not allowed sweets for a whole month!" Mr. Donovan shouted the next day at breakfast.

"But Dad─"

"This will teach you not to eat at night. And in secret, on top of it!"

"Perhaps there was a mouse in the kitchen and ─"

"And the mouse opened the top drawer, isn't that so?" his father's voice thundered.

Ferry didn't say another word. But strange things were happening to him, too. As soon as he went to bed, he had the funny feeling he was being watched.

And on top of that, his raven was not visiting anymore. He had started to get fond of his raven. The bird had been coming to his room for weeks now, each time studying it with great curiosity. Now, when he needed him the most, it was missing.