Rat Catchers

Waiting

Things became very strange.

The man in the sharp suit, who suddenly introduced himself as Mimo as though it was the most normal thing in the world, took the door to Rose's room off its hinges once Mister Changretta had gone. There was a large sitting room on the other side, part of a fancy suite, its lounges and chair filled with more men in more sharp suits.

"If you need something just ask, okay, kid?" Mimo said casually. "There's always a coupla guys hanging out here, day or night."

There was a constant whooshing sound in Rose's ears, like the waves of the ocean breaking against the inside of her skull; but even through this wall of noise she understood that what Mimo was actually telling her was that there were guards and no means of escape.

As she realised this, another much weirder thing became clear; he'd taken her door away so they could make sure she didn't what the grown-ups in her life referred to as "something daft" in hushed voices.
Mister Sheedy from number 15 had been daft enough to put a belt round his neck until he couldn't breathe anymore.
Alice's neighbour had been so daft she'd cut herself with a knife in the bath and bled out.
Rose had heard of daft people hopping off bridges and buildings and, in one particularly daft case, in front of a moving train.

Now Mister Changretta's lads...no, guys...had to keep an eye on Rose to make sure she didn't die before she was supposed to.

Rose was sitting on the floor in front of the hole that had been her door and watched the guys in the other room. They weren't doing very much. Just sitting and talking in low voices. After a while, Rose got up and walked into the sitting room to see what would happen. They glanced up at her and went back to talking. Mimo gave her a small nod.

Rose crossed the room, climbed onto the window sill and watched the people on the street below. Walking around. Going about their business. It was nice here, in the middle of the city. There was so much to see, so much to do. It was sad that she wouldn't be here for much longer.

Rose leaned her head on the window and cried for a while, without making noise though. She didn't want to die. Not even a little.

She could tell Mister Changretta not to shoot her; the choice was her's, he'd said so and she believed him. But she wanted to live without her father even less. It had been orright during the war, because she'd not really remembered him and, of course, she'd never doubted that he was coming back.
Now that she did know him, she didn't want to be left alone again.

Especially not if she'd know every day and every minute and all the time that he was only gone because she was not.

And there was Charlie, of course, who'd be all alone with no parents at all. And her new sister, who'd have Lizzie but would never even know their father. It wasn't fair.

And, most importantly, it wasn't her father's fault that Rose had been stupid enough to get caught. He'd have had a chance to stay alive, a good one maybe even, if she'd just stayed in the stupid change room. If she'd just run faster.

She hoped it wouldn't hurt very much. Or at least not for long.

Rose turned and looked over at the guys. Then, very slowly, she got up off the window sill, walked over to them and sat down next to Mimo on the sofa.

"Hey," he said.

"Is this orright?" she asked tearfully.

"Yea, kid, that's okay." He moved over a little to make more room for her. "You hungry or anything?"

"No, thank you."

It was good to sit next to someone, even someone she didn't really know, even someone who was the enemy. Rose knew she should have gone back into her room until it was time to go and be killed, but she didn't want to be alone for the rest of her life. She drew her legs up and listened to the guys' rolling and rambling Italian until she drifted off to sleep.