Permanent Stay in Mastersville Part 1

I had just turned eighteen, finished high school and was ready to take on the world. My parents were long dead and I hated my foster family and they hated me, so when I turned eighteen and finished high school our ways parted. I left the small town I had grown up in never to return. I had no real friends in town and certainly no family, so no one would miss me. Like everyone else I had dreamed about the city so that's where I planned to go. But the city was a long way off and I had very little money, so I had to work my way to town. It wasn't hard to get odd jobs in the small towns along the way: washing dishes, cleaning floors, doing a little housework. People were friendly enough and many times told me where work was to be found. I was never very big and I am very slight of build, so no one saw me as a threat.

I had been on the road for three weeks when I came Mastersville. Even before I entered town a police car came cruising up and the policeman inside, a huge man sitting alone in his cruiser, leaned out and asked me: "Passin' through son?" His tone was friendly enough but there was no mistaking the fact that he didn't want any vagrants or troublemakers and that the question was an attempt to sound me out. I quickly replied in my most polite tone of voice: "Yes sir. I'm just passing through." He nodded at this and said: "You wouldn't by any chance be looking for a little work, now would you now son?" The question was definitely friendly and I did need money, so I replied that, yes I did indeed need a little work. Again he nodded and smiled: "If you're interested, I know a little old lady who needs a little help around the house for a week or so." It sounded good so I said that that would be fine and soon I sat on the seat beside him as he gave me a ride across town. I was amazed at my luck and enjoyed the ride to the old lady's place. It turned out to be a grand old mansion about a mile outside town. It lay hidden from the road behind a small grove of trees.