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The stranger was now settled in. Mac checked him out and realised he’d sprained his arm when he fell from the hut. Babs then promptly acquired some gauze to wrap the injury along with some cloth to act as a sling.
Ginger loomed over him, making sure he was properly recovering. Bunty lingered over her shoulder.
“He’s quite a looker, isn’t he?” She asked.
“That’s not important.” Ginger stood up and turned towards the girls in the room. “What is, however, is what I’ve found. This,” she pulled out the paper and showed it off, “is our way out.”
“We’ll make posters?” Babs asked.
“What’s on the poster, Babs. What’s on it. Look at the top.” She pointed at the headline. “This is the ‘Flying Man’ on the poster. And if one person can learn to fly, who's to say that we can’t?”
“He must be very important to have his picture taken,” Babs thought aloud. “What do you suppose he does?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Bunty asked rhetorically. “He’s a professional flyer. He goes round from place to place giving demonstrations.”
“D’ya suppose?”
“Oh, absolutely.”
Just then, the stranger started stirring in his sleep, mumbling something about escaping someplace. Whatever he was dreaming of was really disturbing him.
After a couple seconds, he finally awoke and slowly looked around at the unfamiliar faces and the unfamiliar place. It took a while for him to register anything.
But when he did…
“AHH!” He sat up, hugging the wall and breathing frantically. “Who are you? Where am I? What’s going on- OW!” He grabbed his arm and started massaging it. “What happened to my arm?”
Ginger took the opportunity to start talking to him. “You took a rather nasty fall-“
Mac interrupted. “And sprained the interior tendon connecting your radius to your humerus. I gave ‘er a wee bit of a tweak, Jimmy, and wrapped ‘er up.”
The stranger looked back at Ginger, confused. “Was that english?”
“She said you sprained your arm,” she translated. “She fixed it.”
“And I made the bandage,” Babs piped in.
“I carried you in!”
“I held the door open!”
By now, the girls were clambering to get his attention, enclosing in on him.
“Woah, woah, woah!” He stopped the girls in their tracks. “Let’s back up, and start from the top. Where am I?”
“You’re right,” Ginger started. “How rude of us. We’re just very exci…” She paused to compose herself. “This is an orphanage.”
“And we’re the orphans,” said one girl from the crowd.
The stranger stopped to process what he’d just been told when Fowler popped up from behind and glared at him.
“I don’t like the look of this one,” he complained, “his eyes are too close together.”
Ginger tried to pull him away. “Fowler, please.”
“And, he’s a yank!”
“Easy, pops,” the stranger pushed the older man away from him, “cockfighting’s illegal where I’m from.”
“And where is that, exactly?” Bunty asked.
“Just a little place I like to call the land of the free, home of the brave.”
“Scotland!” Mac shouted.
“No! America!”
The crowd was filled with ooh’s and aah’s from everyone except for Fowler.
“Poppycock!” He pushed his way out of the hut, grumbling out loud. “Pushy Americans, always showing up late for every war. Overpaid, oversexed, and over here!” He slammed the door when he left.
Mister Stranger seemed to take offence to this. “Hey, what’s eatin’ Grandpa?”
“Oh, don’t mind him, mister…” Ginger blanked, realising that she didn’t even know his name.
He stood up and shook her hand politely. “Mister Rhodes, but my friends call me Rocky.” He walked through the crowd shaking hands with anyone that offered.
“Rocky Rhodes?” one girl clarified.
“Catchy, ain’t it?”
Ginger took out the poster and turned it towards him. “Mister Rhodes, is this you?”
He turned back and looked at the poster. His eyes widened a bit in shock, but his smile never wavered.
“Uhh…” His voice became noticeably shakier. “Who wants to know?”
“A group of rather desperate girls,” Ginger replied, “because if this is you, then you just might be the answer to our prayers.”
Mister Rocky looked around at all the faces looking upon him with anticipation. After a second, he puffed out his chest and regained that confidence he had not even a minute ago.
“Well then, call me a miracle dollface,” he said, “‘cause that’s me.”
The room was filled with hollers of excitement at his confirmation.
“What brings you to England, Mister Rhodes?” one girl asked from her bunk.
“Why, all the beautiful English chicks, of course.” The girls were practically swooning over him at this point. Ginger just watched from afar.
Rocky seized the opportunity to talk more about himself. “Y’see, I’m a traveller by nature. I tried to do that whole happy-go-lucky suburbia thing for a while, but I couldn’t really get into it. Nope!” He stepped onto an empty crate to use as a pedestal. “The open road’s more my style. Just give me a pack on my back, and point me where the wind blows.”
Ginger pushed her way to the front of the crowd, fascinated by his charm.
“In fact,” he continued, “you know what they called me back home? The ‘Lone Free Ranger’.” The girls broke out into applause for him.
Ginger was convinced. This man was exactly the miracle they needed. She stepped up beside him as he stepped down to level with her.
“I knew it was possible,” she turned towards the crowd. “I knew the answer would come. We’re all going to fly out of here, and Mister Rhodes is going to show us how! Right?”
“Exact- what?!”
Ginger turned towards him but found his face with a look of total confusion.
“Did you say ‘fly’? ”
She was equally as confused as he was. Perhaps he didn't hear her. “Yes, of course.”
“You can’t fly out of here.”
“Well then, you can teach us.”
“No, I can’t.”
The crowd next to them started talking amongst themselves. Ginger was about to talk before Rocky pulled her towards him.
“You hear that?” The hut went silent. Some girls even focused on trying to hear what he was talking about.
“That’s the open road calling my name, and I was born to answer that call. Bye.”
He zoomed out the hut before anyone could stop him.
The crowd turned to Ginger and started bombarding her with questions, looking for an answer.
“Calm down, everyone,” she said. “I’m sure he’d be up to help us. He might just need a bit of convincing. I’ll go talk to him.” She left the hut, closing the door behind her.
Outside, Rocky wandered around, looking for the exit. Ginger quickly hurried to catch up to him.
“Excuse me? Mister Rhodes?” No response. She tried again. “Mister Rhodes. We could really use your help.”
“No can do, sweetheart,” he didn’t even bother looking back at her. “You’re on your own for this.”
Obviously, he needed more convincing. “Perhaps I didn’t explain our situation properly,” Ginger explained, “The owners of this place force us to work as farmers for them, day in and day out. And when we can’t work anymore, or when we grow too old, they kill us.”
“It’s a cruel world, dollface,” Rocky shrugged off. “You might as well get used to it.”
What was wrong with this man? Hadn’t he heard of sympathy? Ginger ran to stop him from walking off. “What part of ‘they kill us’ do you not understand?”
“Will you back off ?” He pushed her away from him. “I’ve got my own set of problems to worry about.”
“And we can help you with that. All I’m asking for in return is your assistance with getting us out of here.”
He scoffed. “Please, this birdcage can’t be that hard to break out of. In fact, watch me.” He continued off towards the exit with Ginger following him, exasperated.
“The problem isn’t getting one of us out of here, or even two, but this is about all of us.”
That seemed to grab his attention. He stopped in his tracks and turned back to her with a look of shock on his face.
“ALL of you?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
Rocky paused to compose himself before starting back towards her. “Lemmie get this straight — you wanna get every one of these girls out of here at the SAME TIME?! ”
“Of course.” Ginger stood her ground against him.
He chuckled in disbelief. “You’re certifiable! You can’t pull of a stunt like that — that’s suicide! ”
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
“Couldn’t agree more. And I will be leaving that way.”
He continued his saunter towards the exit as Ginger stood defeated.
The ground started rumbling as the sound of an engine became increasingly louder. The two stopped what they were doing to look on as a large vehicle came into view. Ginger noticed that Rocky’s body language betrayed a demeanour of fear as he watched.
The vehicle drove through property gates and pulled into the driveway of the farmhouse. Rocky abandoned his path to leave and instead ran back behind one of the huts, as if he were hiding from something.
Ginger walked back into view, watching as the driver walked up to the front door. She took a look at the vehicle and noticed the splash art that read ‘CIRCUS’ in large lettering.
Wait. That font looked familiar. She took out the poster again and compared the headline to the text on the truck.
A perfect match.
Gears started turning in her head…
“So that’s it!” She turned back to Rocky. “You’re from the circus!”
He gestured for her to shush to no avail.
“You’re on the run, aren’t you?”
Rocky ran to retrieve her and began spying on the truck driver, who’d begun talking to the Tweedys.
“You wanna keep it down?” he sneered. “I’m tryin’ to lay low here.”
The driver pulled out a piece of paper, presumably another poster of Rocky, and gave it to the couple.
“I should turn you in right now.” Ginger threatened.
“You wouldn’t.” Rocky dismissed her before thinking it over and asking, “Would you?”
“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t.”
“Because I’m… cute?”
Ginger paused. Okay. Maybe he did have a point.
Unfortunately, not one that could save him.
She picked up a nearby rock and chucked it at the truck. It struck its target with a loud CLANG and startled the three negotiators at the house. Rocky grabbed her arm and pulled her out of view.
“Hey, hey, hey! What kinda crazy bitch are ya?!” he hissed. “D’ya know what’ll happen if he finds me?”
“It’s a cruel world.” Ginger retorted.
“I just decided — I don’t like you.”
“I just decided — I don’t care. Now show us how to fly.”
Rocky held up his injury. “With this arm?”
“Teach us, then!”
“No! ”
That was the wrong answer. Not even five seconds passed when he heard another metallic CLANG and had to pull Ginger back again.
“Now you listen here, sister.” He let go of her. “I’m not going back to that life — I’m a lone free ranger. Emphasis on ‘free’!”
“And that’s what we want: freedom!”
Rocky scoffed and turned back to the problem at hand and saw the husband playing with a torch.
“Fancy that,” Ginger said cheerfully, “they’re coming this way.”
“Shit!” Rocky exclaimed. “They’re onto me!”
“Teach us to fly, and we’ll hide you.” Ginger offered.
“And if I don’t?”
She smugly showed off the large rock in her hand before Rocky snatched it away. “Did your father play baseball by any chance?”
Ginger ignored his sarcastic question and held her hand out. “Do we have a deal?”
Rocky looked at it, still unsure. He looked back at his three biggest threats and saw they were making their way towards him. Reluctantly, he held out his good hand for her to shake.
Ginger took his hand and ran back to hut 17 just as the adults entered the fence gate. They hid behind to catch their breaths, looking back to make sure nobody saw them. Rocky turned to his now partner for her next directions.
“Time to make good on that deal, dollfa-”
She covered his mouth to shut him up. “My name is Ginger.”
After getting him quiet, she knocked on the wall and lay flat against it. After a second, the two were quickly grabbed from behind and brought into the hut, Rocky giving a squeal of surprise.
Mrs. Tweedy sharply turned on her heel. She could’ve sworn she heard something from hut 17. She entered the hut as quietly as she could so as not to disturb the girls. She shone the torch around the room, but saw nothing out of place.
Must’ve been her imagination.
She left the hut, not even bothering to close the door discreetly.
Ginger peeped her eyes open before hopping out of bed and down onto the floor face first, coming face-to-face with Rocky under her bed.
“Comfortable?” she asked with a false sweetness.
“Not really.” He was really squished under there. It didn’t help that the beds were so close to the ground.
Ginger helped him up and went back to business. “We’ve held up our end of the deal. Tomorrow, you hold up yours.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rocky figured he’d leave the deal for tomorrow. Right now, he had more pressing issues at hand.
“So which bunk is mine?”
“ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGEOUS!!”
To say Fowler was mad would be an immense understatement.
“Asking a senior officer to share his quarters? And to a noncommissioned yank no less! Back in my day, we’d never-”
“Hey!’ Rocky sneered. “You weren’t exactly my first choice, either.” Neither party was looking forward to what would clearly be a long night. “And scoot over. Your arm’s on my side of the bunk.”
“YOUR side of the bunk?! The WHOLE bunk is my side of the bunk!”
“Just-” Rocky stopped for a second. “Ugh, what is that smell? Is that your breath?”
Fowler was sure this was the lowest point he’d ever been in his life.
“It’s absolutely outrageous.”