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Mr. Adolphus Orange

by Shi Y, Arizona, USA, Age 16

My brother Johnnie and I were in biology class when we experienced the full wrath of Mr. Adolphus Orange. It all started with an innocent comment of our cousin Sally. Johnnie was writing a book report one day, and Sally, who was standing behind him looking over his shoulder, pointed out that his handwriting was abnormally large. He stopped writing immediately and slammed his book down over the paper.
“Is not!” he exclaimed.
“What are you talking about? Look at that! You’re taking up two lines with your lower case letters.”
“Stop it! Just stop it! There’s nothing wrong with me!” he insisted.
“Chill out, dude. You’ve been spending too much time with Mimi. You’re starting to freak out all the time now,” she accused him.
“Hey!” I said
She wheeled. “Oh, I didn’t see you there,” she said, and left.

We were in Mr. Adolphus Orange’s class a few weeks later when the trouble began. Johnnie was called up unexpectedly to speak to Mr. Adolphus Orange. I watched the exchange. Johnnie appeared to be getting a lecture—his expression was subservient and he was visibly trembling. I noticed a vein spasm on Mr. Adolphus Orange’s forehead.
“What was that all about?” I asked when he came back.
“Nothing,” Johnnie mumbled.
“What? Why are you lying to me, Johnnie?” I was hurt and confused.
“I’m not,” he lied again.
“Fine.” I turned away abruptly.
Johnnie ignored me and slid meekly back to Mr. Adolphus Orange. Staring at the ground, he hesitantly handed the teacher a piece of paper.
Mr. Adolphus Orange took it and looked at it for a full minute before he lost control. “Johnnie!” he bellowed. “Why am I cursed with you? You are by far the stupidest sack of excrement I have ever been forced to teach, and I am just sick of it!” He took Johnnie by the ear and locked him in the janitor’s closet.
“Excuse me, sir,” I stood up, unsure. “I don’t believe you are allowed to treat your students that way.”
His face contorted in rage. “Oh, you don’t, do you? Well, I don’t care! Twenty years I’ve been at this reform school, and never before have I had such a horrible student. Never before have I had nightmares about a kid! Never! Do you remember last month, when I was away for over a week? I was recuperating from an anxiety attack completely the fault of that buffoon!” He stopped and took a deep breath. He was nearly blue in the face.

I stood there awkwardly, almost unwilling to continue in my defense of Johnnie. But I could just imagine him leaning with his ear to the door, and the guilty thought prodded me into action. “Please, sir…please forgive my brother. He’s not quite right in the head.”
“I’m not quite—what!? You’re his sister?” He was enraged. “You planned this, didn’t you? That’s it! You’re going right back in there with him!” He dragged me into the closet and locked me in the darkness with Johnnie.
“Thanks, Mimi,” he said weakly.
“Its fine,” I smiled halfheartedly. My heart was racing. “So why is he so mad at you?”
“Because my writing is so small he said he can’t read it without a magnifying glass,” he mumbled.
“But your writing’s not small—it’s actually quite large, Johnnie,” I tried to break the news to him gently.
“No!” he exclaimed angrily. “It’s not anymore. I changed it.”
“Why?”
“Because,” he replied tersely.
“Because why?” I pressed.
“Because Sally made me feel bad, okay!”
“Oh.” I fell silent, recalling his overreaction of the night before. I looked back at him after a moment. His back was to me, and he appeared to be angry, but I didn’t care. “Johnnie,” I called. “Do you smell that?” The offensive stench was invading my nostrils, and I reflexively gagged.
He nodded grudgingly. “Yeah,” he said. “What is it?
I crept into the darkness, feeling around for anything at all. I pulled out the lighter I had stolen from Sally earlier that week to light the way. The smell got stronger as we proceeded, and we began to realize that the janitor’s closet was, in fact, a labyrinth.
I stopped for breath. “Wow, Johnnie. This really reeks. I think it’s the smell of death.”
“Please don’t scare me,” he whispered, and reached to grab my hand.
We continued for a few feet, until we slammed up into something hard. The stink was absolutely disgusting now.

I flicked the lighter back on and screamed for, staring back at me, was a hollowed out and sunken in face. I could hear a soft whimpering coming from the thing, whatever it was, and I swallowed my fear and vomit to take another look.
It was a dog, but one that was very close to death. It also appeared to be chained to the wall. I turned to Johnnie to find him crying softly. “It’s so sad, Mimi. What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we should tell someone about it.”
“Yeah. But who? No one would believe us.”
“You’re right.” I sighed dejectedly. “And we can’t take it back to the dorms because of Sally. But,” I said, “we could set it free.”
“How?”
“Well, I’ll take it and put it under my jacket, and when Mr. Adolphus Orange lets us out of the closet, I’ll go set it free in the forest.”
“But it’s chained to the wall!”

I tugged on the lock and, amazingly, it gave way. The lock had been rusted through by a leaking hole in a water pipe directly above it. I gathered the sick dog in my arms and zipped it inside my jacket. Johnnie and I made it back to the broom closet seconds before Mr. Adolphus Orange opened the door, his silhouette ominously casting its shadow on us.
“You may return to your seats,” Mr. Adolphus Orange said. We stood up and started to leave, but he held up a hand to stop us. “What’s that smell?” he asked.

I stopped, beads of sweat suddenly freezing the back of my neck. I gulped; Johnnie let out a mangled half-scream.
“What smell?” I managed to reply.
“That…oh. Never mind,” he said, a look of recognition briefly flickering over his face, then disappearing. “Back to your seats,” he ordered.
Johnnie and I skittered gratefully back into the classroom. The bell rang shortly afterward, and we sprinted into the woods after raiding our rooms for whatever food we could find. We left the dog there for the night, and came back with all the food we had for the next three days. It grew steadily stronger, until one day it was gone. And we never saw it again.