Hide & Seek

Chapter 6
A Slice of Kiwiana

Chapter Description: John faces life as a little boy in a foreign land, wondering how long they can continue to evade their pursuers.

VI

The door swung open revealing a middle aged woman who, from her green eyes and blonde hair, had to be Abbie’s mother. She seemed shocked to see her daughter standing on her doorstep and John realised that Abbie likely hadn’t called her parents in advance. Abbie had an ear to ear smile on her face as she said, “Hi mum, I’m back.”

Her mother got over her shock and threw her arms around Abbie. “My goodness Abbie, what are you doing back here so soon! Just last week you were on about traveling Europe by train. What happened?” she asked. Then noticing John for the first time she added, “Oh, and who is this handsome young fellow?”

“This is Daniel, I got a job as an au pair for him. His mum and dad are moving here from London but they, um, wanted him to start school on time so they had me take him ahead.”

John was impressed; that was a pretty good story to come up with on the spur of the moment. He could tell that Abbie’s mum bought it too, so he was in the clear for now as long as he pulled off the act.

Abbie’s mum leaned down to face John. “Well hello there buddy, my name is Claire, I’m Abbie’s mum.”

“Hi I’m Daniel,” he responded, extending his hand.

Claire had a giggle at that but shook it nonetheless. John needed to work on his little boy act. “You look awfully hot in those clothes Danny, would you like to come inside and change into something more comfortable?”

John nodded eagerly.

“Excellent, I think some of Rowan’s clothes should fit you nicely. How old are you sweetie?”

“Um, seven. Who’s Rowan?”

“Oh, he’s my son. He’s a bit littler than you though, he’s six. He’s on a school camp this week so you won’t meet him until the weekend. But y’know what? You can use his room while he isn’t here. I’m sure you’ll be much more comfortable in a boy’s room than the guest bedroom.”

John stifled a groan. The last thing he wanted was to be surrounded by little kid stuff all day. But seeing Abbie’s pleading look, he just smiled and nodded.

Claire clapped her hands. “Wonderful, why don’t you follow me upstairs and I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping.” Looking around she asked, “Don’t you have any bags sweetie?”

John stumbled a moment before Abbie jumped in and explained that the airline had lost the luggage. Claire frowned. “Well isn’t that typical,” she said, shaking her head. “Well, follow me then and we’ll find you something cooler to put on, you must be dying in that sweater.”

He followed Claire through the house and upstairs. There were toy cars abandoned here and there and several forgotten toys on the stairs. Rowan’s room was a typical little boy’s room; the walls were painted blue and posters of famous All Blacks Dan Carter and Ritchie McCaw adorned them. More toys, including a buzzy-bee and several Thomas the Tank Engine toys were scattered about. Claire just smiled and rummaged through the wardrobe while John waited. “Rowan has lots of cool toys, eh buddy?”

“Um, yeah, they’re really cool.”

Claire pulled out a red t-shirt and a pair of board shorts. “Here we are. Yes, these should fit you just fine,” she said, leaving John to change.

Feeling much cooler in the t-shirt and baggy shorts John headed downstairs and found Abbie and her mum sitting in the living room talking. Abbie looked John over and remarked, “Well don’t you look like a Kiwi kid.”

“Um, thanks.”

“Why don’t you go watch some TV sweetie, there should be some cartoons on channel forty-two,” Claire suggested in that sweet voice reserved for children which John found he was becoming accustomed to.

“Oh that reminds me, we’ll need to ring the school to see if Danny can attend as a visitor this week, until we can get him properly enrolled. We don’t want him falling behind,” Claire added.

John tried his best to hide his disdain. Spending his days at some primary school surrounded by snot-nosed little kids was the last thing he wanted to be doing. He should be helping Abbie find a cure. Sulking silently he slipped into the other room and turned on the TV. For the briefest of moments he was elated to find his favourite show, Little Britain, on the UKTV channel. He was just settling down to watch it, laughing at the raunchy humour, when Claire entered the room and gave him a disapproving look. “Now Danny, you know that isn’t a show for little boys to watch,” she rebuked as she grabbed the remote and flipped to the Cartoon Network.

John just sighed as an old episode of Camp Lazlo played out on the screen. After one episode John could take no more and flipped off the TV. He loved watching TV, but all his favourite shows were decidedly adult rated. Being regressed had even ruined TV for him.

The next day Abbie was busy trying to contact her friends at the university and getting John enrolled at school, which left John in the care of Claire. It was hard enough answering Claire’s questions about his life in England - answering truthfully would have made him sound stuck in a time warp - but it was particularly embarrassing for him when she set up a sprinkler in the back yard for him to play in. At first he had balked but then he had conceded, realising he had appearances to keep up.

After another day of this he was almost glad when Abbie told him he would be going to school the next day. Although school had its own dangers. Now he was going to be on his own surrounded by kids, with no Abbie to come to his rescue.

The next morning Abbie woke him up early to get him ready for school. He pulled on the school polo shirt and baggy navy cargo shorts. They were calf-length but they couldn’t hide his skinny chicken-legs. He wanted to wear pants but Abbie reminded him that little boys didn’t wear pants to school. As he put together his school bag she went over the plan with him again. “Remember, this is the real test. You can’t let them know you’re an adult, don’t answer questions correctly just because you can, and try not to talk to the teacher at all.”

“I know Abbie. I’ve been doing this for three days,” he insisted, trying to sound confident.

“Okay, okay. Do you know how cute you look when you get angry?” she kidded him.

John shot her an un-amused look while she did up the buttons on his aqua school polo shirt. “There you go mate, all set.”

“Great, do I need plimsolls for PE or just sandals?”

Abbie gave him a funny look, “You won’t be needing either buddy, you’ll be going to school in your bare feet.”

“What? You can’t be serious.”

“Most kids your age don’t wear shoes to primary school, John.”

John stared at Abbie, completely nonplussed. “I’m not most kids.”

“You’re already going to be the new kid, with a funny accent to boot. Do you really want to stand out any more?”

John just shook his head. This just kept getting worse and worse.

“Sorry John, but now you really look like a Kiwi kid in your smart uniform and bare feet. You’ll fit right in I promise. Besides, it’s only for a little while, I’m sure my friend Ben will be able to help with the antidote and I’m going to see him this afternoon.”

After a breakfast of Weet-Bix, kiwifruit and Moro John was on his way to the local primary school, walking in the line of identically clad children they called a walking school bus. John walked in the grass as the footpath’s rough surface hurt his tender soles. None of the other kids did so, which he at first attributed to their having tougher feet. He then learned the hard way that the real reason was the grass was full of sharp prickles. He turned red as a tomato as the other children giggled and pointed at him, hopping from foot to foot picking the damned things out of his soles. He stuck to the footpath after that.

Once at school John was sure things could only get worse. He sat in the office till after the bell had rung and all the kids were in their classes. As he sat reading a magazine swinging his legs back and forth an adult walked up in front of him. Putting the magazine down John saw a very pretty young woman standing before him looking at him with an amused expression. “Well hello there buddy, doing some reading while you wait?”

John nodded.

“Well good on ya mate, that’s pretty advanced stuff for a boy your age,” she praised cheerily. “I’m Miss Cooper and I suppose you must be Danny, eh?”

“Um...yeah. I’m Danny.”

“Well I’m going to be your teacher for the rest of the week. I think you’re going to really like our class, buddy, we have lots of really nice boys and girls and I’m sure you’ll get along great!”

“Yeah, sure, why not?” John responded, perhaps a bit too sarcastically.

Miss Cooper seemed to ignore his sarcasm, leading him to his new classroom. The kids ceased their activities upon their teacher’s arrival, settling into their seats in clusters around the carpeted room. Various art and science projects, colouring and painting and posters cluttered the room. There was even a certain smell to the place that immediately reminded John of his primary school days.

“G’Day everyone,” Miss Cooper announced.

“Morning Miss!” several students replied.

“We have a new member of our class today. Everyone say hi to Danny. He comes to us all the way from England. Can anyone show us where England is on the map?”

A chorus of “Ooh, ooh!” and “Miss, miss!” broke out as several hands shot up.

“Yes, Maddie,” she chose.

A little red-headed freckled girl hopped up and rushed over to a world map on the wall, climbing onto a chair to point to England.

“Very good Maddie, you’re well on your way to getting another gold star today,” Miss Cooper praised.

As John took a seat with a group of boys he had a strange sensation; it was jealousy. For some reason, he wanted to show everyone that he knew where England was on the map. He wanted Miss Cooper to praise him and give him the gold star. He knew he shouldn’t care about such trivialities and yet he did. He wanted the pretty Miss Cooper to see what a smart boy he was.

“Oi, give me the scissors bro!”

“What?” John asked, coming back to reality.

The big Maori boy across from him was giving him a disgusted look. “I said give me the scissors, stupid.”

“Oh, sorry,” John mumbled, handing the boy the scissors.

The boy seemed to sense John’s weakness, he smirked and continued to focus his attention on his newest classmate. “You’re a pom, eh?” he queried snidely.

“I’m English, yes.”

The boy gave him a satisfied smile. “Well I’m Tang-ah-tah Fen-oo-ah,” he announced, emphasizing every syllable as though John were simple or deaf. “Y’know what that means?”

John shook his head, although he was already afraid he knew the answer.

“It means this is my land and everything in it belongs to me. Your desk, your chair,” he gestured to the items. “Your rubber,” he added, snatching the rubber off of John’s desk and pocketing it.

“That’s not yours,” John mumbled through gritted teeth, his childish emotions threatening to get the better of him.

“It’s mine now shit-head and you gotta do what I say or I’ll kick your ass.”

John wanted to stand up to the little bully. He really knew he shouldn’t even be upset about the loss of his rubber at all. But instead John felt something entirely different happening. He was beginning to cry. Salty tears dripped down his cheeks and blurred his vision. He felt so small and helpless, he wanted his mummy to come and take care of the mean bully. He was all alone here though; there was nobody to stand up for him and wipe away his tears and now the other boys were all laughing at him, jeering, calling him a baby. He just wanted to sink under his new desk and disappear.

“Hamish, Jake, Sione, what’s going on here?” a stern voice demanded, interrupting the laughter.

John looked up to see a very angry looking Miss Cooper had come to his rescue. She was shaking her head in disdain as she rebuked them. “His first day here and this is how you welcome him to the class? You boys should be ashamed of yourselves. If you’re going to act like little children perhaps you should go join Miss Lane’s new entrants class.”

John was glad to see that his tormentors now looked more embarrassed than him. “Sorry Miss Cooper,” they whispered in unison.

“Well you should be. There will be no lollies for this group today,” she concluded. Then, turning to John she put on a comforting smile and offered, “Why don’t you be my helper today Danny. You can hand out the paper for our drawings of the planets of the solar system. How’s that sound?”

John nodded eagerly, wiping away the tears from his eyes. He was so excited to be a special helper. He took pride in the fact that Miss Cooper trusted him with such an important job and did his best to hand out all the paper and crayons as quickly as he could. He ignored the delightful fuzziness in his head that seemed to grow stronger as he let his emotions take over.

“My goodness that was fast Danny!” Miss Cooper declared when he presented her extra paper. “You’re a great helper dear, now why don’t you draw me a picture of Mars,” she said, handing him a little reader with pictures of the planets.

John giggled silently at her repeated use of his pretend name. The reason why he needed one escaped him but he still knew better than to tell her that little secret. He focused his efforts on drawing a perfect picture of Mars for Miss Cooper. The more he focused on the colourful crayons and fun drawing the more comfortable he felt in the classroom. By the end of the exercise John was swinging his legs back and forth under his desk feeling the fleecy carpet brush his bare soles. He chewed on the end of his crayon and thought about how nice it was to get to go to school barefoot. He wondered if Miss Cooper would let him show Abbie his drawing of Mars, he was sure it was the best one a boy his age ever drew.

To Be Continued...