I CRIED FOR A LITTLE BOY
WHO ONCE LIVED THERE ©

CHAPTER SEVEN
The Orphanage. The Last Days.

RAINBOW
    On July 18, nine days after I had been returned from running away, Mr. Daines had again wrote to Mrs. Nichols of the Children's Division of the Board of Control in Des Moines.
    In his letter he requested I be transferred to the State Juvenile Home in Toledo, Iowa.  He told her how much of a runaway problem I was.  He stated how "as usual" I had gone to Rock Island this last time and how I had lived in a "Fox Hole" the entire two weeks I was gone.  How in the local newspapers I had let them in for some "sensational publicity's."  He told her he felt by sending me to Toledo the "change in environment" would be beneficial to me.  I do believe it might have been a little "beneficial" to him too.
    He requested, if the transfer was approved, my mother not be told of my transfer.  He had already prohibited her from visiting me when after a couple visits he had found me crying.  No one had told me my mother was no longer allowed to visit me.  Many times I had thought of her, wondering why she didn't come and see me.  Each visiting day I had always hoped she would come but she never did.
    He never told Mrs. Nichols I had complained to the Rock Island police and it would probably be best to get me out of that area.  Would the police have believed me if the next time I went to them, I had a lot of marks on my body?
    Of course at that time I didn't know all of this was going on.  I thought I was being kept in the hospital for only a few days.  Then I would be returned to my cottage and my cottage mother.  I didn't see how I was going to get out of that.
    Mr. Daine's request for my transfer was approved eight days later on July 26.  Unknown to them, I had taken matters into my own hands on that same day.
    I had been locked in the room on the third floor of the hospital for fifteen days.  During all of that time I was trying to find a way to escape.  But they wouldn't let me out of my room except to go to the bathroom after each meal and to take a bath a couple of times.  At those times I was closely supervised.  I wasn't out of their sight if I wasn't in my room.
    On the Twenty-sixth of July, mostly out of desperation I had come up with a plan on how I could run away.
    After I had eaten my noon meal they had come and taken my dishes.  Then they had taken me to the bathroom and back to my room.  Then after locking the door they had left.  I knew from past experience, they wouldn't be back until they brought me my evening meal.  Once the door was locked they had never checked on me after the noon meal.  In the morning they would come in and put medication on me and during the night I had heard them open the door a couple of times and look in on me.  But other than that they pretty much ignored me.
    After they had locked me in again, I waited for a few minutes before taking my sheets off of my bed and tying them together.  I didn't have a blanket so the two sheets was the longest rope I could make.  I have no idea what kind of knot I had used in tying the sheets together or even knew if the knot would hold when I put my weight on it.
    I tied one end of my hastily made rope to the radiator that was beneath the windowsill.  Then climbing up on the table I put my feet against the screen and kicked it out.  The frame and all went three floors down, landing in the grass below the window.  Kicking the screen out I hadn't bothered in watching it fall.  I knew it was a long ways down but it was the only way out for me.  If I didn't go that way, I would soon be going to Mr. Guold's cottage then back to my cottage for the last half of a very painful double event, a double event I believed that was imminent.
    All I was wearing was my pajamas.  It was a two piece outfit.  It was mostly white with red dots about the size of nickels scattered about.  Inside of the red dots were smaller blue dots.  I didn't have any underwear, shoes or socks on.  I didn't even have a robe which would have helped to keep me warm during the night.
    Picking up my sheets I threw them out the window.  Looking out the window I could see the sheets only hung down midway of the second floor window.  It was a long drop from the end of the sheets to the ground below.  From the end of the sheets, it was at least twelve feet to the windowsill of the window on the first floor which was about a foot above ground level.  It was the best I could do though and I was determined to go even if it killed me.
    Climbing out the window, I hung tightly onto the sheets and started slowly sliding down.  As I started to pass the second floor window, my feet hit the window so hard I thought I was going to knock the glass out.  Afraid someone may have heard the noise, I quickly slid the rest of the way to the end of the sheets.  Not stopping I let go of the sheet and dropped the last twelve feet or so to the ground.  Stunned from the fall, I got up as quickly as I could and ran across the lawn to the railroad tracks a few hundred feet south of the hospital.  Heading for the Mississippi and back to Rock Island.  Pausing as usual for a few moments at "Suicide Bridge."

HOSPITAL
The Rear Of The Hospital
As It Appeared On The Day Larry Eugene Checked Out

     It had been one month to the day since I had last ran away.  It had been fifteen days since the last time I had been caught in Rock Island and returned to the orphanage.  The full fifteen days I had spent locked in the room in the hospital.
     On July 27, the day after I had ran away, the official commitment papers for transferring me to the State Juvenile Home in Toledo, Iowa were made out by the Board of Control of State Institutions approving my transfer.  Based solely on what Mr. Daines had said about me in his letter requesting I be transferred.  Mr. Daines was to later write back, there would be a slight delay in my transfer.
    Going to Rock Island, I spent the next few days as I had when I was there the last time.  Begging for money and sleeping behind the same billboard sign I had slept behind on my previous visits to Rock Island.
    I had been gone for the better part of the week and I was sitting in the park across from the Rocket theater waiting for it to open.  Hoping to beg my way in for I didn't have any money.  As I was sitting there waiting, I was watching the theater cashier getting ready to open her booth.  I wasn't paying much attention to those around me, so when the policeman had come from behind me, I didn't notice him until he had stepped around the end of the bench and stopped in front of me.
    By now I had slept behind the billboard sign for three nights.  So not only was I still dressed in my pajamas I was also pretty dirty.
    His sudden appearance had sort of startled me but there wasn't much chance of me running with him standing there over me as I sat on the bench.  The best I was hoping for was that maybe I could bluff my way through.  The way I looked at it, he didn't know I was a runaway.
    He asked me "What kind of outfit is that you're wearing?"  I had been telling everyone "It is my sun-suit."  So I told him the same thing.
    "Well Larry don't you think you should be coming with me?"  As soon as I heard him say my name, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.  I hadn't recognized him as a policeman that knew me.
    I later learned the orphanage had called the police station and had asked them to look around the downtown area for me, seeing lately I always went there when I ran away.  Taking a hold of my arm, the policeman took me to the police station about three blocks away.  When we had arrived at the police station they had called the orphanage and told them they had me again.  This time there was no "little talk," no "Coke."  I got the feeling they were getting pretty fed up with me as they took me back to the cell they had locked me in the last time.
    Again in about an hour Mr. Guold was there at the cell door.  He didn't look at all happy about seeing me there again.  I know I wasn't happy about seeing him.  For I felt this time he would kill me for sure.
    I could think of several things I had done wrong and he could give me a whipping for each one of them.  Then there was Ms. Gruber to follow with her own set of whippings.  To kill me would have been the least he could have done to me.
    This time when we went to the car I went peacefully.  I was in enough trouble now without making it any worse.  When we arrived back at the orphanage, Mr. Guold parked in front of the administration building.  We got out and he took me inside where we made a brief stop at one of the offices.  They told him to take me back to the hospital.
    I was still in my pajamas as we walk towards the hospital.  Which was on the girls side of the institution.  I wasn't crying but I was feeling very scared.  I was very much afraid of what Mr. Guold was going to do to me this time.  Up ahead of us, standing in front of one of the girls' cottages, were a half dozen girls about my age or a little older.  When I spotted them I almost stopped in my tracks.  I wanted to turn around and run the other way.  But Mr. Guold had a tight grip on my arm and he propelled me along.
    I was becoming to feel extremely embarrassed because I had to walk in front of the girls in my pajamas.  No girl had ever seen me in anything but my clothes, except for the time a year ago the last Fourth of July, while I had been waiting for the fireworks to start.
    As we came upon the girls I tried not to look at them.  As we were about abreast of them I heard one of the girls say "He is cute Mr. Guold, can we have him?"  All of the other girls were giggling.
    Mr. Guold replied, "I don't think so girls, he is in enough trouble already.  I don't think he needs anymore than what he has already got."
    At that time, if I had my choice between those girls and Mr. Guold and what he was going to do to me, I don't know which one I would have chosen.  Then I could see myself shuddering at the prospect of those girls even touching me.  Once past the girls it was clear sailing.  There was no one on the sidewalk between us and the hospital.
    After arriving at the hospital I took another bath and was given another physical.  No one seemed to be too pleased in seeing me again.  I know I wasn't too pleased in being there.
     During the examination Dr. Ott had discovered what he thought was "ringworm."  So instead of a speedy trip to the juvenile home, which was only waiting my return to the orphanage, I was kept in the hospital for the next several days.  This time I wasn't given a pair of pajamas, only a robe to wear when they took me back upstairs to the same room I had escaped from.  This time before they locked the door, they took the robe from me and took the sheets off of the bed.  They didn't leave me alone like they had before either, for about every hour or so they would unlock the door and look in on me. 
    It was July 30 when they had brought me back from escape the last time.  I laid there for a week nude on my bare mattress with nothing to do but think.  About mid-morning on August 6th my door was unlocked and Mr. Guold walked in with some clothes in his hand.  My first thoughts were that he was taking me back to my cottage.  But as he handed me my clothes he said, "Here Larry, put these on.  I'm taking you to the University Hospital in Iowa City so they can check your head for ringworm."
    The hospital in Iowa City was a state university hospital for doctors and nurses.  Any kids at the orphanage who needed any technical procedures performed were always sent there.  Then I didn't know about the hospital.  But any place sounded better to me than going to my cottage.
    I was relieved in going but I quickly found out I was only getting a few hours reprieve.  For Mr. Guold said we would be back by supper time.
    I went to the hospital and then was returned to the hospital at the orphanage.  A couple of days later the doctor in Iowa City wrote back and said I didn't have ringworm.
    On August 17, eighteen days after being returned from escape I was still locked in the room in the hospital, laying nude on my bed looking up at the ceiling thinking, when Mr. Guold again walked into my room and stood over me.  I hadn't bothered in getting up for I felt this time he was coming to take me to his cottage and then to Ms. Gruber.  I wasn't in any hurry in getting up and going with him.
    He had handed me some pajamas and a robe then he told me "Larry put these on, then we will go over to your cottage so you can get into some of your own clothes."
    Not saying anything I slowly did as he told me.  I knew what was going to happen to me no matter what I said.  So I wasn't feeling too well at that moment.  We had walked silently back to my cottage.  Not a word was spoken between us.  I had thought it was strange we weren't going to his cottage first.  But if he had forgotten or he wasn't planning on taking me there I sure wasn't going to bring up the matter to him.
    When we arrived at my cottage I went in and got my clean clothes out of my cubbyhole.  I would be wearing my white T-shirt and blue shorts without briefs.  Mr. Guold and Ms. Gruber watched me as I undressed and was putting my clothes on.
    There wasn't a word spoken from the time I had entered my cottage until I was dressed, not even a greeting between Ms. Gruber and Mr. Guold as we came into the cottage.
    I knew something different was happening but I didn't know what.  I guess what really stuck out, I wasn't laying over the arm of Ms. Gruber'S chair about that time.
    I didn't want to ask too many questions for fear of reminding them I had ran away twice and I hadn't had a whipping for either time.  It was sort of like walking on eggs.
    Once I had gotten dressed, Ms. Gruber had told me to put my shoes and socks on.  Then stood back and watched.  Once my shoes were tied I stood up.  Then looking from Mr. Guold then to Ms. Gruber as though to say, "Well what do you want me to do now?"
    Mr. Guold spoke, "You are being transferred to another institution. . . ."  He didn't give it a name.  "Another institution" had barely left his lips when I exploded.
    He had reached out and was holding onto my arm as he had spoke to me, otherwise, as soon as I had recovered from the initial shock, I would have probably been out the back door again.
    One moment I had stood there confused as to what was happening, the next I went berserk. I started fighting him to get away from him as I screamed and pleaded with him, "Please Mr. Guold. Please don't take me to the reform school.  Please Mr. Guold.  I'll be good.  I'll never run away again."
    The only thing I feared worse than Ms. Gruber and how I was being treated at the orphanage was "another institution."  The only other institution I knew of was the Iowa Training School for Boys at Eldora.  Where Ms. Gruber had told me they had beaten a boy to death.
    I had been crying and fighting him so hard it had been several moments before he understood what I was saying.  He told me, "I'm not taking you to the training school, I taking you to a juvenile home.  It is a lot nicer place than the training school.  I think you will like it better there."
    I asked him, still crying if I could get my mother's picture off of the piano in the front room.  It was the only personal thing I had.  It was the only thing I had.  He had told me, "No." I wasn't allowed to take anything with me except the clothes I was wearing.
    With the loss of my mother's picture and being sent to some unknown place, I wasn't feeling too well as he took me to the car parked in front of the administration building.  I had wanted to run away in the worst way but from the time we had left my cottage until I was in the car he had held onto my arm.  Once he had placed me in the car and closed the door, I found I couldn't get back out for there was no handle on the door.
    Once we left the orphanage he didn't make any stops along the way to the juvenile home.  So once in the car I had to resign myself to the transfer.  Well, for the time being anyway.

RAINBOW
Medley Of Three Songs
MIDI By the courtesy of the MIDI Picking Harry Todd The best on the NET.

 Chapter Eight