Chapter 9
It had been hours since they left wool’s. The streets were being crowded by families who wanted to enjoy their holiday by visiting places of interests.
“You roam all over London, have you visited the zoo?” Tom remembered his own excitement while visiting the zoo with family on a 1st January like this.
“They wouldn’t have let me without ticket.” Although it was not the only reason. Little Tom could very much sneak past the guards. But he had seen children of his age were visiting zoo accompanied by family or in a group of friends and he had none. While he didn’t need anyone to accompany him anywhere he didn’t want people to take pity on him. It was not like the yearly outing of wools’ where he could explore the places alone without anyone to question as people of orphanage knew better than that. But it was not the case with public places where a lonely child will attract people’s curiosity.
“Then let’s go.” Tom hired a cab.
It was for the first time Little Tom rode a car. But he didn’t feel any excitement. It was so better if he could directly reach the places he wanted or just fly there. He silently kept staring outside the window. Tom smiled. He preferred to observe the view through window without talking whenever in a transport. Looked like his son inherited that.
Before entering the zoo Tom stopped to pack the lunch. He wanted to get a birthday cake for his junior but surprisingly unlike children of his age Little Tom was not a fan of sweets. He chose to have an apple instead. Tom chuckled, his son was even more health conscious than him.
Zoo was as expected very crowded. But people still couldn’t help but notice as father and son walked past them. A young attractive nobleman with a beautiful boy was not a very common sight even in London. After years Tom felt like his old charm was not lost yet as the ladies in zoo were looking at him with awe. He remembered he was still few months away to turn thirty. In past years he had felt like days of his youth had been gone forever. First time in eight years he felt so alive again.
Although first time in zoo Little Tom didn’t feel over enthusiastic. He had read about London zoo being world’s first scientific zoo, he had wanted to visit too, but he found there are nothing to wonder about. He would rather wanted to see creatures described in fairy tale books like dragons, unicorns, griffins or the animals that could talk.
When they halted for a break it was already mid-day. Tom handed the packet lunch to junior. Compared to the heavy breakfast the mid-day meal was very simple comprised of only sandwitches and chips. The tuna in sandwitch was soft and well coated with cheese not like the half cooked ones in wool’s. The chips were still crispy after hours of packing. The morning meal had been digested already and Little Tom was feeling hungry again. This time Tom was hungry too. They finished the lunch soon.
“Is there anything else or we visited all?” Little Tom asked. Although the zoo was not much of his interest the thought of returning to wool’s was spoiling his mood. He was ready to visit anywhere to delay his return.
“Reptile room was over there.” Tom indicated his left “Do you want to go?”
“I will.” The child seemed excited.
Tom didn’t feel like going there. “Can you go alone?” I will go grab a cup of coffee then.” He was not interested in reptiles.
“Okay” nodded Little Tom.
“Meet me here after an hour. We need to reach wool’s before sunset.” Tom reminded him before he left.
The snake room was full of different species of snakes lying in the glass boxes. Many children were visiting them with both fear and awe in eyes. Some of them were knocking on the glass expecting movements from the reptiles. Tom sneered at the ignorance of the children and their parents. He visited from one box to another, fascinated by the colour, length or design on the scales. He had always felt a natural connection to snakes. They were in his opinion most misunderstood creatures. Snakes also seemed to recognize his presence, whenever he neared their cage they higher their hood as if recognizing him as their near one. The attraction of the room was an Indian King Cobra who was imported from British Colony of Indian Subcontinent few months back. And was on display from today onwards after his initial accommodation phase was over. The children gathered in front of its cage. But the snake showed no movement. So gradually the visitors moved from there. Little Tom slowly neared the cage and was spellbound.
“What a magnificent snake it was, the almost 5 meters long adult had a shiny black skin with bright yellow bands on scale, its belly was smooth and cream colored. The head of the snake had two designed dot that seemed like he had eyes on his hood. Unlike other snakes this one didn’t greet Little Tom. Quite a king himself.
“hello.. friend.” Hissed junior Riddle in a suppressed tone.
This time the snake moved. He raised his hood to the length of Little Tom’s head.
“a ..sssnakesssspeakerss.. friendsss” hissed the king cobra , moving his hood as if he was excited.
“sssss….they could hear us.” Little Tom warned in low tone again. “why are you so sad”
“I am in prissson….how will I be happy..” the snake hissed in a sad tone. “I don’t belong here.”
“You are trapped… just like me.” Little Tom could almost understand the snake’s state.
“psst…I am king in my land…I want my freedomsss.” The serpent hissed desperately.
“just like people of India..” Little Tom chuckled. He read about Indians demanding their independence from British rule on newspapers. Even an Indian snake is not ready to stay under British care. That was quite amusing.
“yessss…freedom…I want to be back to India..” A patriotic snake indeed. But however his desperation moved Little Tom, he felt every living moment that he didn’t fit where he was. His place was somewhere else, where he didn’t know though. That’s why he felt the serpent’s wish was justified. He should be back in his world. For few moments all his concentration was on the snake and the name of India. And then suddenly the snake’s body started to fade before his eyes.
“thankssss…friendsss…my clan will sserve you forever..” with the final hiss King Cobra disappeared.
At the very moment other snakes of the room hissed together in applaud.
“bow to young massster..we are at your ssserviceess” they rattled.
Little Tom moved from the cage at once. He was a little baffled, he wanted the snake to go back to his land but whatever happened was unexpected even for him. But he had to pause as he turned around. Mr. Thomas was standing behind him. His face was white as if no blood was there. As he tried to near him he took two steps backward and left hurriedly almost running.
After getting a couple cup of coffee Tom had a terrible need of smoking. He hadn’t lighten a cigar since the meeting with Marius. After exhaling rings he concentrated on his current situation. There was no doubt he was feeling a strong connection to his son. But was he ready to take the boy in? He was only twenty nine something, many of his friends are only just married now. Was he ready for the responsibility of a school going child? Moreover how to convince his parents? His father will not be ready anyway. And he was not ready to leave his parents again. He didn’t want to disappoint them again. Above all the child inherited those strange traits of maternal side. Tom was torn between his head and heart. The more his brain was deciding against accepting his son the more his heart was drawn to that angelic boy. As if an invisible power was drawing him. But this time Tom was in full sense, he couldn’t tell he was enchanted again. Does blood relation always work like that?
Tom looked at his watch, it was almost two hours his son went inside reptile room. Why was not he back yet? Tom sighed and walked there. But he was not ready to witness the scene he just walked in. His son was standing dangerously near to a glass cage, hissing to a ferocious snake. And then it just vanished into air. Tom’s head was spinning. Some blur images flashed before his eyes. The serpentine whistle coming from Marvolo Gaunt’s house whenever he strolled around on horseback. Morfin Gaunt attacking him and his father while hissing in a serpentine voice, and then the same hissing from Merope Gaunt while she was making him to drink a strange liquor, the musical hiss when he was forced to get intimate to her, kiss her, touch her, sleep with her when every part of his inner self wanted to get free. As the boy stepped towards him it seemed like that dark shadow of Merope Gaunt was nearing him again and he was unable to break free. And he ran.
He was running until the cab driver whom he hired for the day stopped him. And he got back his sense.
“Mr. Thomas” he turned to see Tom junior was panting. His face was red for running all the way after him. Tom remembered he had promised Mrs Cole to come back with the child. That means whatever his mental state was he had to bear the child’s company till he reaches that god forsaken orphanage. More than anything he was angry with himself. What the hell he was thinking. In which world he was for the whole day. How could he spend time with Merope’s son? And how the hell was he contemplating to spend rest of his life raising this freak. All his dilemma was gone. He doesn’t want to do anything with this Tom Marvolo Riddle anymore.
There was an awkward silence inside the car till the car reached Wool’s. Little Tom knew Mr. Thomas got scared what he had seen. It was expected. But the truth was even he was shaken. He had made little things happen before, but vanishing a King Cobra was beyond his imagination. He was scared like the day he discovered he could talk to snakes at the age of five. Even though snakes have become his friends now but leraning about his own ability did shock him at first. He even started to believe he was a freak though now it was an accepted fact to him. But he knew the man was not going to believe him. He was irritated with himself. He was conscious not to do anything strange before the man for whole day. He even waited for the snake room to be almost empty before talking to the snakes. Yet he was caught before Mr. Thomas who was not giving him any chance to explain.
As the cab reached the orphanage Tom collected the bags containing things he bought for the child, whatever his decision was he was not going to return those. He silently handed those to little Tom. The child expectantly looked at him as if wishing him to ask something but Tom ignored. Asking the cab to wait he went to the matron’s office to collect his bag that Mrs. Cole kept as mortgage to ensure his return. He sneered as if he was to run away with the freaky child.
Little Tom snorted seeing Mr. Thomas leaving without a word to him. He should have known better, the entire day was nothing but a rich man’s whims. Like the way rich men play with poor girls resulting the children at the door of orphanages including himself. In the same way a rich man played with him today, as if playing with a doll or a pet, feeding them, dressing them up, cuddling and kissing them and throwing them away in the very next moment. Didn’t Mr. Thomas already know he made strange things happen? Why then he would react this bad without giving him a chance to explain? Unless it was an excuse to get rid of him. Disappointment filled little Tom. How could he be so stupid to think a gentleman was actually going to adopt him? He must have remembered nobody ever wanted him. He looked at the bags in his hands. Should he have thrown them? But these expensive gifts were only gain of today. He will be stupid to let them go. At least that will cover his requirement of more than a year. He walked towards his room carrying those bags.