George Adamson Lives with Apes

A Ruby In The Rough

After the incident in the kitchen Miss Grimm, Miss Bank, Mr McClary and Cook left George alone. Nothing was ever said about the monster and the kitchen was repaired without explanation. George knew that he should be happy, he was out of trouble. Not being punished was the best gift you could be given at Slaven Castle, but instead the young boy was disappointed. No matter how hard he tried, George could not bring back the monster from the kitchen, he had gone from having a wonderful magical talent to being an ordinary under privileged orphan again. George would sit on his bed at night and try to force the thing to reappear. He had tried clenching his fists and squeezing his head, holding his breath, making himself angry, jumping up and down. Nothing made the beast come back. When George had told some of the other orphans what had happened in the kitchen that night they had laughed at him. He couldn't blame them; he would have laughed too. For the first time in his life George realised he was very different from the others and it made him feel extremely lonely.

The summer turned into autumn, then into winter, and before very long George had turned ten. He wasn't exactly sure which day his birthday was, he had worked out it was probably around the first week in December. He picked the fifth, it didn't really matter anyway, non of the children's birthdays were celebrated at Slaven.

It was six thirty am and all the orphans were lined up outside in the castle grounds, their thin undernourished bodies shivering in unison in the cold frosty air. Dressed inadequately in threadbare uniforms they stood as close as they could to each other in an attempt to share body heat. This was the time of day that the children had their daily drill. The drill consisted of various exercises usually including sit ups, jumping jacks, planks and press ups, it concluded with a cross country run of seven laps of the castle. The child who came last was usually carted off and given some horrible form of punishment.

On this particular day, which was as I have mentioned before was the day young George had picked as his birthday, The orphan was feeling particularly somber and in need of some form of excitement. As he was passing the perimeter wall on his second lap of the castle the young boy had the idea that maybe if his life was in danger, like it was on the day the dog beast showed up, his powers would finally work again. Without hesitation George broke off from the pack to some curious looks from the other orphans. A few shook their heads in disapproval, wondering if they would all end up being punished for Georges stupidity. George began to climb the wall. It was difficult, and it made his fingers sore pressing them into the narrow spaces between the small red bricks, but the child was determined and he eventually climbed about ten feet up. This time he thought I've cracked it, the monster definitely appeared in the kitchen because I was so scared, and once again thought George I am definitely scared. George tried not to look down but ended up opening his eyes a slit anyway. The ground danced up and down in front of the poor boy's vision and it was all he could do to cling onto the bricks for dear life. He counted to three and then willed himself to let go, but his fingers remained stubbornly attached to the solid structure. He managed to hold on for a whole ten minutes, his survival instincts battling furiously with his curiosity, until he could not physically grip for one more second. George's fingers finally gave in and he fell for what felt like an eternity until he hit the hard flagstones with a bang collapsing and splitting his head open in the process. As he lay semi conscious on the cold stone floor the boy became aware of huge powerful arms lifting him up from the ground. As he looked up to see who had rescued him he was shocked to see the tangled hairy beard of the school grounds keeper. Panic rose in Georges chest, he was done for now. If the caretaker told Miss Grimm what had happened she would most definitely punish him, he was going to be sent to the dungeons for sure. George tried to speak but Mr McClary glared down at him with golden eyes that were almost animalistic in their odd colour with their strange shaped pupils. Maybe it's best to keep silent, thought George.