My Name Is Tony

by Ian C Black

Finding the back door open, Tony went outside. He liked being outside; inside was hot and stuffy, but here the garden was warm and sunny and wide open. He could hear the birds singing and all sorts of other interesting noises. It was the churning and clunking from the side of the house that made him go to investigate. But all was quiet when he got there, except the gate swinging on its hinges.

'The gate's normally shut.' he thought and taking the opportunity to explore, went through into the front garden. He could hear the churning noise again, but quieter than before. Outside the front gate he saw a large lorry, with men feeding bags into the back of it. 'Dustmen.' he thought.
Tony was outside; he never went out on his own. He got close to the lorry, when the men were away, it seemed exciting, but it smelt horrible - of cabbage or worse. This put him off looking in the lorry.

'I could just go to the park.' he thought and set off down the road to the park. He'd been there many times before and knew the way. There were no busy roads to cross, so he was quite safe. When he got to the park it was wide, open and empty. He walked across the grass and up into the trees where he often hid from his mum. She'd shout at him to come out, but he'd hide until she clambered in to fetch him and they'd both laugh.

As he came out of the other side of the trees, there in front of him stood the playground. It was empty and the swings and slides looked inviting, almost calling to him. Tony walked inside and had a go on the swings, but they seemed different. Then he had a few goes on the slide. That was fun, but it wasn't as much fun as he remembered. Next was the roundabout. Tony set it turning and jumped on. He almost fell off again, but managed to hold on long enough to get his balance. Tony was a having great time.

Suddenly he was interrupted by someone shouting. Tony immediately looked towards the old building where the Park Ranger stayed. He would be told off and have to leave. But there was no one there. Then he saw where the shouting was coming from. It was a group of big boys; bullies.
‘Get off that - Get out of here - This is out place - Bugger off.’ they shouted.

Tony was a bit frightened of the big boys, but didn't want to show it. He let the roundabout slow down and then walked back to the swings, as they were furthest away from the big boys. He was just sitting on one when a stick landed next to him. He looked over at the big boys who were getting much closer.
‘We told you to get out.’ One of them shouted and another threw a second stick. Tony was really scared now. He got off and tried to run away from the big boys. He fell over. He was getting up a stick hit him on the arm. It hurt and he started to cry.
‘Bugger off you cry-baby.’ shouted the biggest of the boys. The others were picking up sticks and stones to throw at him.
‘I'm going, I'm going. Don't hurt me.’ Tony called to them.
‘We'll hurt you good if you don't get out.’ shouted the biggest boy. Tony ran as quickly as he could out of the playground and the park.
He was over the wrong side of the park now and the road was unfamiliar to him. He could find his way home through the park, but not with the big boys in there. So Tony started to walk along the footpath. It was a busy road and quite fun to see all the cars and lorries racing passed. It didn't matter where he was going it was an adventure.

************

Tony continued to walk the now dark streets; he had no idea where he was or where he was going. The fact it was dark told him it was late, apart from this he wasn't good with time. He knew he was getting hungry as he continued to trudge along. He'd thought he could find his favourite shop and get some sweets; but he hadn't been able to. He didn't know where he was.

'Should I go back?' he thought. 'Perhaps it's this way, or maybe that?' Tony knew he shouldn't talk to strangers, so he didn't ask anyone where he was or how to get home. Not that he knew where home was anyway. Now it was dark, he was becoming frightened. He hadn't been out in the dark, alone for - well he couldn't remember - he was confused. The lights all around him made everything look so different. The cars were scary at night, so much so that he walked close to the fences and walls, to keep as far from the road as he could. That's when it happened! Walking too close to a fence, he didn’t see the wood sticking out at the bottom in the shadows; he tripped and fell.

************

Tony opened his eyes and was blinded by the bright lights. His head, his legs, his arm, they all hurt. He wasn't really sure why; but he knew they hurt. Where was he? He was lying on a hard bed, quite high off the ground and there was a strong smell of cleanness. A woman in a uniform came up to him.
'Hello, what's your name?' she asked. Tony lay there unsure what to do, so he said nothing. He couldn't remember his name anyway.
'I'm Jenny, there's nothing to worry about, you've had a little accident. You'll be fine. I just need to let someone know you're here, so can you tell me your name?'
'I... I don't know.' Tony replied. He thought he should say something to her as she was being so nice to him. But what could he tell her.
'How about a drink of water?' she said, sitting him up a little and pouring the water into his mouth. Tony didn't have much choice really, so he drank some.
'How I hate water.' he thought to himself as he swallowed. After this Jenny chatted at him as she took his clothes off and got him into a white coat, which she put on backwards; even Tony knew coats do up at the front. Then a man in a white coat - the right way round, so obviously not dressed by Jenny - came over to see him.
'Hello, I'm Peter. What have you been up to?' he asked.
'I don't know.' Tony replied. Peter who had such a friendly face, filled with a really big smile.
'Well, you seem to have been in the wars a bit. We'll soon have you fixed up and trotting off home.'
'Do you know where I live?' Tony asked.
'I'm sure we'll find that out very soon.' he replied, looking across me at Jenny.
'Don't you worry about anything.' said Jenny. 'Just lie still and we'll sort everything out.' As she said this Tony could see someone else in a uniform behind her. But this was a dark uniform, not someone there to help. It was the police.
'What have I done.' thought Tony, he knew who the police were and that it wasn't good if they were there to see him. Slowly the policeman approached. He smiled at Tony, Jenny and Peter.
'This policeman has come to find out where you live.' said Jenny.
'But I don't know.'
'We know that.' said the policeman 'that’s why I'm here.' Tony was very confused at this. Why come and see him to find out something he didn't know.
'Can I have a look at his clothes?' the policeman asked Jenny. She produced a bag from behind Tony and handed it to him.
'We found this.' she said producing a piece of paper. It wasn't something Tony remembered being in his pocket. 'We rang the number, but there was no answer.'
'We'll sort this in no time.' said the policeman. He smiled at Tony to reassure him. Just then Tony heard another voice. The policeman turned to his radio and spoke into it. He read the information from the piece of paper and waited for a reply. This caught Tony's interest. He'd seen things like this on TV. This was exciting now, much more fun than walking around, even the playground.

After a few minutes the other voice was back, the policeman spoke a couple of words in reply and turned to Jenny.
'They've been out looking for him; they're on their way here now. About 30 minutes I'd say; and his name is Tony.'
'Great.' said Jenny, and she turned to Tony. 'You'll soon be off home, Tony.'
'Yes! That's my name.' thought Tony and smiled at Jenny. After that he was left alone, the policeman left, Jenny and Peter went to talk to some other people, he could see them walking around. Occasionally Jenny would come over to him and smile.
'Are you okay Tony?' she would ask, but not really wait for a reply as she hurried passed.

All of a sudden there was a lot of noise, Tony became a little scared and wanted to leave. He tried to get off the bed, but it was quite high. Jenny caught him as he was trying to get down.
'Where are you going.' she said quite abruptly.
'I need the toilet.' said Tony, the first thing that came into his head.
'You'll have to wait a minute. It's very busy at the moment. I'll be back as soon as I can. Okay?', she put him back on the bed and rushed off again. It was only a couple of minutes later when some different uniformed people came rushing in with someone on a bed on wheels. They pushed her passed Tony and he could see she was covered in blood. This frightened Tony.
'What had she done?' he thought. 'Had they done something to her; because she didn't do what she was told?' Then some more people in the same uniforms pushed a man in. He had blood on him and something wrapped around one leg. He moaned as he went passed. Tony really did want the toilet now, but he daren't move.

Tony lay there trying not to think about it, but he was bursting. People kept rushing in and out of the room where the people covered in blood had gone. If he tried to move they would see him, what would they do to him then? Tony was desperate for the toilet, but too scared to move. Then it was too late, he could feel the top of his legs and his bottom getting warm as the pressure released. He couldn't stop it and he began to cry, he knew he shouldn't do this. He wasn't a baby.

As Jenny rushed by she saw Tony crying and stopped.
'What's wrong Tony?' He didn't reply, just lay still and frightened. Lifting the blanket the nurse could see the wet patches on the bed and Tony's clean white coat.
'Sorry.' he said and started crying again.
'Don't worry.' said Jenny. 'We'll soon have you sorted and ready to go home.'

It didn't take long to get Tony cleaned up. Jenny helped him get dressed into his own clothes again and sat him on a chair next to the bed. All this time he had been surrounded by curtains and couldn't see what was happening outside. As Jenny pulled back the curtains Tony could see a woman rushing towards him. He recognised her; she looked like his mother.
'She has found me, come to take me home.' he thought, 'she'll know where it is.' As she got closer Tony could see she was crying, why was she so upset to see him?
'Dad! We were so worried.' she said 'We've been looking for you all night. I'm so pleased you're alright.' and she threw her arms around Tony. 'You mustn't go off like that; it's not safe for you.'
At last Tony could relax, he was safe again. She would take him somewhere he recognised. Home.
'But,’ thought Tony ‘why is my mother calling me Dad?'