Watcher

Chapter 14: Doctor

The sound of a bell from outside Bradley's room wakes him. The sound is deliberately set by Madam Theresa for waking all the children.

"Argh! The sound made my eardrums seem to burst.” Bradley grumbles and covers his ears with the pillow.

Bradley, who is still half-conscious, resumed his sleep, but soon he opens his eyes widely. He must meet an acquaintance of Madam Nigera's today.

"Good grief!"

He jumps from the bed, grabs the towel on the table, and immediately runs to the bathroom outside the room. He fastens his moves until he accidentally bumps into someone in front of him.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry." Bradley's eyes widened. “Cad? Sorry, I’m in a hurry," he said in a panicked tone.

"That’s fine." Caden picked up his clothes that are scattered on the floor. "Why are you in hurry?”

“I have an appointment with Madam Nigera.” Bradley closed the door. “I forget about the appointment.”

“Oh, yes Madam Nigera is looking for you," said Caden follows by a snap of his finger. “I meet her downstairs before going to the bathroom.” He rubs his wet hair with the towel hanging around his neck.     

“Damn! I hope she isn’t angry with me,” said Bradley while taking a bath.

Caden laughs and then he walks away to the bathroom, back to his room. A few minutes after taking bath, Caden immediately runs downstairs and meets Madam Nigera, who is standing at the bottom of the stairs.

“Gosh, I'm sorry Madam,” said Bradley breathlessly. "I’m oversleeping." he scratched his half-wet hair.

"Hurry up you must go," said Madam Nigera with eye movements glancing left and right. “Madam Theresa is still in her room right now. You must fast before she changes her mind."

"Madam, but isn't Madam Theresa will look for me?" asked Bradley curiously. "She can be outraged if I go without her permission."

"Brad, don’t worry I have to manage everything.” Her tone sounds confident. “I've spoken to Madam Theresa, so everything is under control now." She taps Bradley’s back and gives him a piece of paper.

He takes it and left the orphanage without anyone knowing. After walking some distance, He looks back to make sure no one is following him.

"Okay, now it's safe. I'd better open the note here."

He takes the paper from his trouser pocket and begins to open it. It seems like the address is detailed with someone’s name. The address is closer to the playground he used to go to when he was a kid. He often played with Caden and the other orphans along with Mr. Eugene back then.

After walking for quite a while, he arrives at the intended address. A white building with a red plus sign is visible. It has twice the size of an orphanage and makes him astound for a moment. He encourages himself to walk inside the building.

"Gosh, this place is huge." His eyes scan around the white room with a wide jaw. “How can I find this name in this place?” He takes out the notes and reads the name. “Dr. Thomas Lock. Well, sounds a strange name.”

He continues to walk while holding the notes so tight until the note looks dull. His sweat keeps flowing and he tries to ask every person he meets, yet everyone is so busy and no one pays attention to him.

 He looks around again and his eyes suddenly see a woman dressed in white with a nameplate attached to her shirt. He walks over to the woman who seems to be on the phone.

"Ma’am, excuse me. I want to ask you something." Bradley takes the paper out of his pocket and shows it to the woman. "I am looking for this name, do you know where he is?"

“Wait a minute.” The woman briefly releases her grip on her phone and looks at Bradley. "Yes dear, how can I help you?"

The woman takes the paper from Bradley's hand and sees it. She wrinkles her eyebrow for a moment.

“Hmm… Dr. Thomas Lock," she said while twisting the paper in her hand. "Where do you get this information from?"

"I got it from an acquaintance," said Bradley in response to the woman's words. "Do you know him?"

"Yes, but Dr. Thomas is not practicing in here anymore," said the woman. "He has retired since the death of his wife and child 2 years ago."

Bradley doesn’t get any information about him. he has no idea again, where to find these strangers. He sighs and walks limply away from the woman.

"Hey, kid wait!" the woman takes a pen and a piece of paper. She starts writing something down. " I don’t know if he still lives there. Yet, this is his home address. You can try to go there,” she said and handed the paper to Bradley. “I hope you will find him.”

"Yes, ma'am, thank you." Bradley's lips start blooming. At least he gets a glimmer of hope.

He takes the paper and goes to the given address. The address and hospital seem far enough. He is checking his pocket and looking for money. Luckily, there is a little money inside, so he can use public transport to go that places.

“Rogenville streets," said Bradley, getting off the bus, and reading the paper there. “Well, now I must find number 18 in this street.”

After looking for 10 minutes, he finally finds it. However, he furrowed his brows when he gets there. The house looked unkempt from the outside and does not look like someone living there.

Bradley exhaled. "Okay, I guess I'll go into the house and look for anyone I meet," he said as he folded the paper back and put it back in one of his pockets.

He walked in and looked around, however, no one is seen there. His hands slowly turned to the doorknob. The sound of her footsteps echoed throughout the room. Food crumbs, and several cans of liquor splattered on the floor.

"Gosh, this house looks so messy." Bradley shakes her head. “The owner of this house is untidy.”

He keeps walking and suddenly sees a deep red liquid on the floor. His eye stared at it without blinking a bit and his curiosity bested up in her mind. His hand slowly touched the surface of the liquid.

"Thank God, it is just tomato sauce.”

 Suddenly a strange voice comes from behind him, he quickly turns his head, but there is nothing strange happening. His palms sweat with heart beats faster every time he walks.

“Brad, calm down. It's all just your imagination."

He keeps walking until he gets closer to the sound. It comes from the room in front of him and turns out it is just television sounds.  he takes a deep breath, wipes his sweat and walked over, and looked around. Yet, no one is seen here. His hand takes the television remote on the brown sofa and turns off the television.

“Why isn’t the television still on? Well, I guess-”

Bradley slowly turns his head with the gun tip already at his head. His body instantly freezes, and his heartbeat seemed to stop for a moment.

"Who are you?" asked a tall man with golden yellow hair.” What are you doing here?” He sees Bradley with a cynical look.

“I…I….” Bradley's lips couldn't stop shaking.

" I said, who are you!" shouted the man in a loud voice as he continued to point the gun at Bradley, enlarging his eyeball.

"I'm looking for Dr. Thomas. Madam Nigera told me to find him," said Bradley closing his eyes immediately. "Please don't kill me!"

Those words silenced the man and soon he lowered his gun. The man takes the television remote and walks back to his chair.

"Hey, I'm not going to kill you," he said, turning on the television in front of him. "My name is Dr. Thomas. What do you need?" he continued, taking a can of drink and opening it.

Bradley slowly opens her eyes and removed the bandage wrapped around his leg to reveal the wound he has sustained. Dr. Thomas is momentarily surprised seeing that. The canned drink in his hand suddenly falls to the floor.

" That wound, how do you get it?" 

***