Percy was lying in bed recalling what had happened to him in recent weeks.
It began two months after Percy's young ten year old self had last seen the twelve year old Jennifer Winters. He had been staying at his grandparents' house
over the December and January Christmas holidays, while his parents were overseas.
He had befriended a young girl who lived behind his grandparents' property. Her name was Jenny Winters. She had encouraged him into an early youthful love affair
which had been brought to an inevitable end by Percy's return to his parents' house at
Killara in February, in time to start with sixth class.
He was still missing Jenny in April. One day he concluded his Friday schooling
and boarded a train to take him home to Killara. The train had arrived late and was
therefore unusually crowded. He walked up and down the carriage searching for a
vacant seat and found none.
"You can sit beside me if you like, little boy," said a beautiful lady.
She had her hair done similarly to Jenny's. It was tied behind her head, but not in a
ponytail. It was blonde like Jenny's. The lady looked like an adult version of Jenny,
except that Percy still thought Jenny to be the prettiest of the two.
"Thank you," he said, "My doctor thinks I shall grow to about five foot seven when
I'm an adult."
"I'm Ilona, and I'm six foot five," she said.
"Then I suppose I shall never be as big as you," he said, as she moved her bags to
make room for him, "I'm Percy Dale."
"Well Percy, you may sit beside me until I alight at Wahroonga. That way you won't
have a crowded train to worry about."
"Actually, I'd be getting off at Killara. My grandparents live at Wahroonga though."
"Whereabouts?"
"66 Burnseid Street."
"Well why don't you come over for some afternoon tea and then catch the train, if you
need to later? Maybe you'll like to stay."
The offer was irresistible. A beautiful lady, who reminded him of Jennifer Winters
was showing him every kindness. He would accept the offer. He felt happy sitting
there with her beside him. It was almost like having a cuddle. This lady was a grown
up, but she cared about a ten year old boy.
"Thank you very much, Miss Ilona. I would like to have some afternoon tea."
The train eventually pulled out of Killara. Some people had alighted at previous stations, and there was now plenty of room. Percy had been looking at Ilona as often
as possible, hoping that his keenness would not alter her intention to welcome him
into her home.
The thought of arriving home late at Killara was soon dismissed from his mind. He
had been late before, to visit a friend, and Ilona was definitely to be considered as
his friend. With Ilona's car, he would not have to face the exhausting walk with his
schoolbag that would have been necessary, had he been allowed to visit Jenny.
However, Jenny was a high school girl, and would be busy with her homework all
afternoon.
They left the train at Wahroonga, and Ilona drove him to her house, and parked in
the street outside its twelve foot high stone wall. Ilona unlocked the door, showed
Percy inside and locked it again. After walking across an expanse of garden, she took
him into a large mansion which was luxuriously furnished and decorated.
Ilona sat him at the kitchen table.
"What would you like to eat and drink?"
"Well what do you have?"
"Ask for anything. I'm sure I'll be likely to have some."
He chose cola and lamingtons, and enjoyed a generous supply of them. It was a unique opportunity to eat as much of his chosen food as he wanted, and not be
discouraged. Ilona was a generous host, he thought.
After he had finished the thorough satisfaction of his sense of taste, he asked what
time he should leave.
"How about this: I'll show the house to you, little Percy. Then you'll see all of the
rooms here."
"There must be a lot of them."
"There are."
"Are there any other people who live here?"
"No. I bought this house myself."
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-four."
"I'm ten. I don't think I will be able to buy my own house when I'm twenty-four."
"Why not?"
"I would never have enough money."
"I'm very rich, Percy. So I have all the money that I'll ever need. If you ever need
something, I could buy it for you."
They came to a bedroom which had a captivating view of the back garden.
"Do you think this room would be a pleasant one to stay in?" she asked.
"Yes. It's got lots of shelves to put things in too."
"Maybe you could choose that as your very own room."
"Do you mean you would let me stay here overnight sometimes?" asked Percy.
"You may think of it as your own bedroom, Percy."
"It's been awfully nice to meet you," said the boy, "It would never have happened, if
the train had arrived on time."
"Yes little Percy. Something wonderful has evolved from the tardiness of the train."
"What does tardiness mean?"
"Tardy means late."
"I see. So what is your job? It must be something important, the way you earn so
much money."
"Actually, I don't have a job."
"So how can you be so rich?"
"I inherited all this from my parents when they died. I'm glad you came over today.
It's nice to have somebody else here with me in this big lonely house."
"Do you feel lonely sometimes?" asked Percy.
"Yes, I often do. Now that you're here I feel happy instead."
"I've been feeling lonely for two months."
"Why did it start in February?"
"I was living at my grandparents' house in the Christmas school holidays. I met a
beautiful girl in the house behind us in Burns Road. We fell in love with each other,
but when school started, I had to say goodbye to her. Nobody else even knew that
we were friends, apart from Jenny's mother. Jenny's cousin Laura might know that
I used to let Jenny kiss me, but she would be the only one who does know. I've been
missing Jenny for the whole two months since it happened."
"Maybe you won't miss her so much, now that you've seen my house. There's lots of
places here for a little boy to play and enjoy himself."
"It's very kind of you to show me all of this. Has anybody seen it, apart from me?"
"No, Percy. You are the first visitor that I have had for years. I think very carefully
about whom I would be prepared to trust inside my secret house inside the high
walls."
"When did you have a chance to think about me? We only just met this afternoon,"
said Percy.
"I thought about you on the train. There's something about you that makes me feel
very sure that you are a special young boy, Percy."
"Well you must be a special lady too."
"How do you know that?"
"Because anybody else on the train would have just left me to stand up. You let me
sit beside you, moving your bag for me."
"I didn't think that you should have to miss out on sitting down, all because the train
was running late. I hope you were comfortable."
"Yes I was. Thank you very much for everything, Ilona. I suppose I will have to be
going soon."
"I was hoping that you would decide to sleep in your nice new bedroom tonight. I
can give you a nice big dinner and read you a story or something before you go to
sleep."
"I'm old enough to read my own stories now."
"Then maybe we could play cards."
"But my parents will be wondering where I am."
"I can send them a letter explaining that you won't be coming home anymore," said
Ilona.
"But I would still like to go home myself," said Percy, "I've enjoyed being here, but
I live in Killara."
"Wouldn't you like to live here?"
"Not all the time. I'd better be going now. Could you unlock the door at the front wall
for me, please? I'll come back to visit you again another day, Ilona."
"No Percy. You're going to stay here from now on. I've decided that you're going to
live here in this house so that I'll always be able to see you."
"Why do you have to keep me here?"
"I think you're a nice little boy, and I don't want to have to say goodbye to you, ever.
You're going to live in this house for years, Percy. You can have whatever you like,
but you must do what I tell you."
"But I have lots of things at home. Can't I get my comics and toys before I settle in
here?"
"No. You might want to stay at Killara, if we went there to collect your things. I will
buy you some new comics, and some toys too."
"I don't want to be trapped here," he said.
"Well you are trapped, Percy. You can never climb the stone wall, and I have the only
key to the locked door. I'm a lot taller than you could ever grow up to be, and you will
never escape from here. Why don't you just accept your situation and enjoy your new
home? You shall have no chance at all to get away. I'll never let you go, Percy, at
least not for many years. Come out to the kitchen and tell me what you would like for
your dinner."
Percy had no choice but to obey. He was completely in the lady's power. He suggested fried chicken; and she put the television on for him to watch while she was
cooking the meal. Eating dinner with her was an enjoyable experience, but he
objected to being denied his personal freedom.
After dinner Ilona produced a packet of cards, and he chose some games for them to
play: fish, blackjack and five hundred.
Finally it was time for him to go to bed. Ilona made the bed for him and tucked him in
neatly.
"Goodnight, Percy. I'm sure you will like being here, as soon as you get used to it,"
she said.
She brought her head down and he saw that she was going to kiss him. Her lips
touched his right cheek. Then she smiled and withdrew them.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Percy."
He soon drifted off to sleep, but he awoke in the middle of the night and thought about his situation. Ilona was beautiful to look at, and she would look after him for
many years, but he would miss out on other things, which often seemed so much
more important than a crush to a child. He would be like a prisoner. He knew that he
wanted to be able to do things by making a free choice, rather than obeying the lady
who had kidnapped him.
"This is it," he thought, "My only chance to escape is at night. I'll have to find that
key to the door. Ilona's too grown up to give me half a chance of getting away with it
in the daytime. She won't miss the key while she's asleep though."
Percy crept out of bed and quietly slipped off the pair of pyjamas that she had lent
him. It was a pair of her own pyjamas, and it was too large for him. He had had to
tighten the draw cord and roll up the legs and sleeves. She had said that she would
soon buy him a pair of his own. Now he put his own clothes back on.
"If I do make it to the street, I'll look exceptionally suspicious to anybody driving
around tonight. I'll be a young boy wearing school clothes walking the streets in the
middle of the night."
Once dressed he slung his schoolbag over his shoulders, and tiptoed into Ilona's
bedroom. She lay looking lovely, fast asleep, but he knew that he had to lift the key
from her bedside table without making a sound. If she heard him and chased him,
she would be able to catch him in no time and overpower him with the greatest of
ease.
He clasped the keys in one hand and the ring in the other, and lifted the lot up
without causing any movement from the bunch of metal objects now in his
possession.
Ilona had not stirred at all.
He must leave the house silently.
"I don't know whether she's a light sleeper or a heavy one, but she might wake up to
the sound of the front door opening, if I'm not careful about it."
He left the room and found his way to the front door, using only the small portion of
moonlight that fell in through the closed windows. When he reached the door he
gripped the handle tightly, paused to summon his nerves, and then turned it, planning
to gently ease the handle back after the door had been opened, rather than letting it
click back into place.
He pulled the door open. It made no sound at all, but to his utter surprise, an electric
buzzer sounded from Ilona's room.
"She's had the house alarmed," he thought, as he ran towards the front wall, hoping to
find the door quickly in the darkness, "She'll be up and after me as soon as she notices
that her keys are missing."
He was nearing the wall when he heard her calling from the front door:
"Come back, little boy! I'll catch you, Percy."
He frantically turned the key, as she ran towards him, opened the door with a haste that was in itself a perfect antithesis of the way that he had opened the front door, and ran down the footpath. Ilona caught him up in less than one minute. He had only emitted two cries for help before she cupped his mouth, lifted him up and carried him back inside her property.
He went to sleep and had a dream that she had reduced him in size to ensure that he would not escape, and he had made his attempt, awoken her, and been pursued in the night, recaptured and taken inside and kept beside Ilona’s head on her pillow, so that he could not elude her again. This appealed to him in a strange way. He saw his lack of freedom in a new and more arousing light.
* * * *
In the weeks ahead Percy enjoyed playing all sorts of games from sports to box games with Ilona.
He avoided suggesting hide and seek, for fear that she might see it as an
attempt to escape. However, one day she chose the game herself.
"I'd better hide in the house rather than the garden," he thought, "Since I can't use this
game to escape the property anyway, I would be wise to give the impression of not
even wanting to."
Percy concealed himself under a pile of bedclothes which were lying on the floor in
the hallway awaiting a journey to the washing machine. Ilona counted for three
minutes and then called out:
"Here I come, Percy!"
She searched the gardens first and then came into the house. She stepped right over
his hiding place and continued on into the nearest room. She searched in cupboards,
under beds and behind the doors of all the rooms, but she eventually gave up.
"I can't find you Percy. Where are you?" she called out.
He waited until she came down the hallway again and then jumped up with
bedclothes still wrapped about him.
"There you are! Oh you look cute like that."
Ilona lifted him up and gave him a cuddle. It was a nice experience, and he waited
until she put him down, before he started to think about what had happened.
"Well I fooled her. She never guessed that I was under there. I would have at least
thought of looking under the pile of sheets and blankets, after I had lost the chance
of success in all the obvious places. Maybe I can win this by being cleverer than
she is," he thought.
It was Ilona's turn to hide.
"It should be harder for her," he thought, "because she's bigger than I am. There are
fewer places small enough to conceal her."
Percy counted his three minutes and then decided to use as much stealth as the hidden
person.
"Some people move around rather than hiding in the one place for hide and seek. I've
done that myself, when I played with Jenny and Laura. It would be to Ilona's
advantage to move around and hope to spy on my attempts to find her. She has the
speed advantage of longer legs and the size disadvantage of fewer places to hide. So
she would be better off to find me and stay out of sight behind me. So the best thing
for the seeker to do is remain as well hidden as the hider. I'll have to creep around and
surprise her. She'll give herself away with noisy movements, if she doesn't know I'm
nearby. If I'm this good at outwitting her, it's a real wonder that I haven't broken out
of Ilona's childproof prison fortress yet," thought Percy.
He called out to Ilona that he was coming to find her.
He tiptoed through the house on the balls of his feet, listening for even the slightest
scuffles or sounds of breathing. There was still no sign of Ilona.
"Maybe she used her longer arms and legs to climb up somewhere," he thought. I'll
save looking up from the bases of trees until last."
He stepped out of one of the side doors and crept around the house staying between the walls and any available bush cover. The second window he passed made him
stop and think.
"She's been past this one. She must be creeping around, peeking in the windows to
see if she can locate me in there. This part of the glass that's not obscured by the bars
is a hint that she was there, because it has fogged up to show that the glass was
recently the target of somebody's breathing."
He crept around as fast as he could and soon came up behind her.
"Hello Ilona," he said.
"Percy! You're very clever. It looks like you've won both games of hide and seek.
What shall we play now?"
"Chasings and tips would be no good at all, because you would always catch me. I
would never catch you, and I'd be out of breath in no time at all."
"Yes, it wouldn't be very fair to you. I could give you a piggyback ride into the house
if you need a rest."
"Well I don't need a rest, Ilona. Can I have the piggyback anyway, because it would
be fun to ride on your back?"
"Of course you can, little Percy."
She knelt down and let him climb onto her back.
"Don't worry, Ilona. I know that you should never pull tightly on somebody's neck,
when you're having a piggyback ride. It might choke a person."
"That's exceptionally sensible, Percy. If I choked and fell over, you would fall down
too. Now into the house we go."
She carried him into the living room and let him down onto the couch. Then she sat
down beside him and put her arms in two places. Her left arm went around Percy's
shoulders, and her right hand reached down to hold Percy's right hand gently.
"Are you enjoying yourself today?" she asked.
"I enjoy myself every day now. I don't know how I ever used to put up with going to
school and having to do boring things all day. You make every day of the week a
lot of fun. Now I shall never be bored or lonely again, all because of you Ilona."
For a twelve year old like Jenny, on the borderlines of becoming a teenaged girl,
the acting would have been a major accomplishment. For the ten year old Percy
Dale it was a superb masterpiece of thespian espionage. The trained observer
would have perceived no suspicion at all to be emanating from Ilona, because there
was none.
"I'm so proud of you, Percy. You have come a long way since you first moved in
here. To think that you tried to run away the first night."
"Thank you for bringing me back and showing me that it was worth staying here,"
said Percy.
"You're absolutely welcome," said Ilona.
He saw her leaning towards him, bringing her face closer to his cheek. The lonely
Percy Dale of subsequent years would spend most of his times reflecting on the
fact that most ten year old boys were not fortunate enough to have a beautiful adult
lady kissing their cheeks whenever the opportunity arose. A lot of them would not
even have an appreciation of such things. He would also reflect on the fact that he
could have been encouraging the lady to expose a child to romance way ahead of his
time. However, he wasn't.