Hampton, September of 1931
Hampton, September of 1931
It was raining.
The water tapped inside the buckets in a annoying noise, non stop. Someone had said the orphanage would gain money enough from donations to fix it by the next spring, but they said it last year too. And the numbers of gutters had multiplied since.
The small boy learning to read was trying to ignore the noise with all might of his four and half years old. The sisters did not allowed him to take classes yet, saying he was too young. But sister Celine had secretly handed him a book. Could only be a God’s gift, being so young and so intelligent, she had said.
Tom Riddle was not so certain about God. He had took his mother from him when Tom was born, they had told. So why should he be grateful?
But sister Celine was nice to him. Even if that wasn’t enough, it was better than nothing.
The little boy murmured the letters, trying to put them together in a sound.
He was hidden in the attic, hoping for no one notice him and ask what he was doing.
He liked the attic. Except for all the dust, of course. But the other children used to avoid the place, what was great for Tom who used to see the other kids as annoying.
Well, not exactly annoying. But they were stupid. All of them.
More noises. But these ones were not gutters but paces. Someone was coming.
The second good thing about the attic was the great hidings it had between chests and old furniture.
“Are you serious?” It was sister Marie Jeanne voice, one of the new nuns, he perceived while dragged himself under a old armchair, trying to focus his vision.
Tom heard a tense ‘shhh’ , but another woman voice replied, speaking nervously fast.
“Yes, I know what I’m talking about. I worked for his fiancée family’s for years, I saw Thomas in that house before he flew with that poor girl. The boy has not only his name, he is the man’s spitting image”.
Thomas? ‘The boy has not only his name’?
They were talking about one of the orphanage children, it was clear. But no one of them in the orphanage was called Thomas…
And then the realization made him caught his breath. The young boy left a surprised sound left his mouth, and he put his hand over his lips, bitting them to not make any more noise.
The nuns looked around nervously when they had the impression they heard something. But was no one there, as they inspect the place with their eyes.
“Do you think he knows he has a son?” the voice continued.
“How can I know? He never visited Cecilia after he left with that girl. Even if he tried after, her parents were too ashamed to have anything with the Riddles again”.
“And so the boy is here, having no idea how filthy rich his family is”.
“Yes, but he is still a bastard. I doubt anyone will be hoping to acknowledge him anyway”.
The voices were lower now, and he had to made a effort to understand what they said next.
“But the father did not loved the girl? He shocked all the community when he left with her after all”.
“You know how this kind of love works, God forgives me. Pass as soon as the man’s carnal desires go cold”.
“Maybe we should tell the boy someday”.
“Hush! Mother Marie Therese would put us in the penitence forever if she hears it. It’s better let the things as they are. God knows His ways, after all… Ah, it’s here. The curtains we were searching for. We need to put them in the air when the rain stops, to take off the mold smell”.
“Let’s hope this year Michaelmas bring this kids some good news”.
“Yes, better if we get a home for some of them. We are poor in space and food, I’m afraid we have a harsh winter of the things did not better until there”.
Tom waited for the door close again and the footsteps became inaudible, before left the hiding.
“Sister Celine, how do I write my name?”.
“Why do you want to know, Tom?”.
He shrugged “Everyone knows how write their own name”.
She sighed “Okay, come here, let me show you”.
He sat in her leap, while she left beside the exams of the older children she was correcting just before and took a white paper.
“This is how we write Tom, can you see? T-O-M” the boy nodded “It’s your time”.
He copied the letters, his small hand trembling to hold it in the right way.
“Yes, like that. Now it’s your middle name. That’s one is more tricky, let’s go with calm here”.
They went same way with Marvolo, and after, Riddle.
“Now put the three of them together, Tom”.
The boy wrote the words, looking at them with interest “See? Tom Marvolo Riddle” sister Celine continued with a satisfied voice.
“Is it true my name came from my father, sister?”.
The num opened her eyes wide at his question “Hearing the adults’ talk again, Tom?”.
“I did not intend to listen”.
Sister Celine sighed. She liked the little boy with sharp questions and intelligence beyond his years. But sometimes it scared her. Specially the part when he did only what he wanted to do in the end of the day.
“What about playing with the other children in the time when you ‘did not intend’ to listen to grown ups talking?”.
“The other children are too dumb, sister”.
She sighed “And the book I gave you?”.
“I’m starting to understand the words, I think”.
“Fine. So if you get to read it all, I will give you a new one” the boy’s eyes shined “But only when you manage to read the first one all by yourself” she put boy out her lap “Have we an agreement?”.
Tom nodded, and then dashed out the room to search for his book.
Sister Celine looked at his back disappears in the corridors, and then she took the chaplet on her hands to pray. For this boy doesn’t find his father too soon.
In all her years working in the orphanage, she could tell how rare were the happy encounters between children left behind and their families. And for all she had heard about the Riddles, she had a dreadful feeling about how would it be.
She was not prepared to see that boy broken, she thought. In truth, sister Celine was really afraid about Tom reaction if rejected. The interested boy could just vanish and left an empty child, who did not care for anything else.
Or worse, he could took all his pain and turn into hate. She had seem boys like that. Intelligent boys who left for gangs and crimes, who died too soon after take the world that abandoned them as enemies.
May God protect him to avoid both paths, she thought.