AN UNUSUAL INFANT
In the nursery of Wool's Orphanage, four babies lay on their cradles; amongst the four of them, three of them were bawling their hearts and lungs out, the other was observing everything silently. He had an intense but oddly warm gaze in his dark brown eyes. He took in the details of everything with rapt attention even though he could not quite process it.
The nursery was an average-sized room with four cradles placed alternately to each other. There was only a single window on the left side of the room to let the sunlight inside. By the north wall, a moth-eaten stuffed giraffe can see been peeking out of a toy box. On the right corner of the room, there was a changing table. And a shelf could be seen by the left side of the door where baby towels and clothes are stacked neatly.
Martha, the head-maid of the orphanage, came into the nursery with an older girl of about 14-15 years old; to feed the babies. There were only two baby bottles available, so they tended to the crying babies first and, then Martha walked over to Tom's cradle while the other girl; humored the crying baby. Tom looked up at Martha and gave her his toothless smile which, only intensified his angelic charm and made him more adorable.
Unlike other babies, Tom is a calm infant. He does not cry much and, he drinks his milk calmly and observes everything with such an intense gaze that sometimes it makes other people nervous.
A few months after he turned one, he was alone with another baby girl in the nursery. She was sobbing so loudly that it annoyed Tom. And suddenly, she was not crying anymore instead; was choking and, it all stopped only after the matron separated the two of them.
This incident made the matron wary of him and; the other resident orphans after; hearing about the incident termed him a "freak".
And the saddest thing is that when he grows older, he would not remember why the matron was wary of him, why the resident orphans scorned him and called him freak..........