Paris and Nicole

Chapter 1
The manor stood at the edge of the expansive forest. It stood in perfect solitude without a visitor and only the inhabitants as its company. These inhabitants did not even feel its many rooms of loneliness. It was not an old manor only gracing the wilderness with its presence for ten or so years. Its owners had built it as a place for them to retire, so that they could hike, paint and read without a moment of interruption. Solitude eventually becomes monotonous and soon the older couple began to flee the home every summer for the south of France or Spain depending upon the year.

The couple did not leave the manor completely alone. It seemed that it was just way too much hassle to fly two pureblooded, full grown poodles to the south of France, so thus the owners left their precious fluffy and muffy. This stormy morning, the pair of poodles was yelping at their dog sitter or rather the house sitter. Riley’s five foot five inch frame was splayed across the king size bed of the guestroom and her husky blue eyes were staring straight at the ceiling trying to gather her thoughts. It was too early for her to be up, 5:43 a.m. to be exact. She doubted between her dream, the dogs and the storm that she would be able to fall asleep.

The same dream had plagued her for weeks but yet she could not recall it vividly. She could only remember enough to bother her. Most of the time, the dream only left her with a sense of dread. Riley had yet to awake screaming but she was sure this was the next logical step. She was sure her future college roommate would appreciate that. She knew she would have to warn her but what was she suppose to say, Oh, by the way I have these weird dreams that I can’t remember but really scare me, Riley thought. She rolled out of the bed, knowing she was not going to get much more sleep, and firmly planted her feet upon the wooden floors. The dogs were waiting at her door for either a walk or breakfast.

“Paris..Nicole.. Puppies come on” she called to them to follow her. She realized that Fluffy and Muffy were the poodles real names but thought that Paris and Nicole suited the two much better. She walked down the hall and the grand staircase to the kitchen to fix the dogs their breakfast. The rain outside was coming down in sheets. Riley was in no mood to walk the pair of spoiled pooches in the rain and especially since both enjoyed mud and puddles. Riley prepared the meal for dogs, it was better than some poor children in China ate. She placed the meal in front the pooches that just sat and stared at her. She rolled her blue eyes and proceeded to walk to the massive library.

Riley spent an hour or searching for books on interpretation of dreams. She ran her long fingers through her auburn hair, Freud had nothing to say about dark horseman or toady henchman. Besides, if he did she assumed it would be oddly sexual. The rain had finally let up and Riley decided the best way to clear her head was to take the princess pooches on a long walk. Both dogs were waiting at the door for her. She put both dogs on their leash hoping that they would not drag her thru the mud.

Riley opened the massive oak door expecting the doorstep to be completely barren. Yet, to her surprise sitting upon her doorstep was a soaking wet, semi-clad, five to seven year old boy. Riley immediately held the dogs back as not to overwhelm the boy and she swept him inside. Once inside, she started a bath making sure the water was plenty warm. She turned to boy with his scraggly, matted, black hair and began her line of questioning.

“What is your name? Where are your parents?” she asked calmly. The boy opened his mouth to answer but he quickly closed it. Riley did not know if the boy could not or would not answer. Riley continued, “The only way, I can help you is if you tell me what happened to you.”

The boy still did not respond. She sighed to herself before turning off the water and tried to help the boy out of his clothes. He shrank away from her and she assumed that he could remove his own clothes. Riley could only hope that the warm water would warm the boy’s almost blue skin to the normal healthy color. She left the room giving the small boy his privacy. Riley could only think of one course of action and that was to report her findings to the police. She found the number to call and waited for the operator to pick up.

“Hello, how may I help you” the nasally voice the operator came over the phone line.

“ I would like to report, well I guess the findings of a missing boy” she responded but the operator did not give her any inclination of what to do next.

“He is between the ages of five and seven and he won’t talk to me but he showed up this morning on my doorstep, well actually the doorstep of May Manor. I was wondering if there had been any boys reported missing this morning or in the past couple of days” she rambled on.

“Hold on and let me check with missing persons” the operator responded. Riley waited patiently listening closely to the sounds of the manor making sure the boy did not drown in the tub, though she thought, she doubted that she would be able to hear anybody drowning.

“I am sorry Miss but there have been no reports on a missing boy made in the past days” the operator reported.

“What am I suppose to do with the boy?” Riley asked.

“We will get back to you in a few hours if you could just watch him till then” the operator responded before hanging up the phone.

Riley could not quite believe what was happening. She had somehow gotten stuck with a mute little boy to take care of and had to wait for the police department to call back. Riley had a sinking feeling in her gut that a few hours might mean a few days. She really could only hope it did not mean a few weeks. She realized that she needed to feed and clothe the boy. Her mind starting to take inventory of what was inside the house that she could use to clothe the boy and she could only hope that the couple had a grandson. All Riley really knew is that her mundane job as house sitter suddenly became a little more exciting.