The Common Box and The Bird Cherry

It was eight o'clock in the morning, a bright, cheerful Sunday. Tender sunlight sparkled on the pool of water from which Collins and his little sister Emma was sprinkling water on the newly put saplings of crab apples. Besides these, chanticleer pear unfolded its foliages in the spring, the branches of this fairly large cultivar were completely engulfed in fragrant, pure white flowers.

" I want that common box tree I saw in the garden of uncle Frank."- little Emma cried ecstatically pointing to the shabby corner behind the crab apple.

Colins patted her sister's head; her brown, silky hair in short pigtails danced. " I am fond of bird cherry. How the white blossoms glimmered in front of the uncle's study room garden!"- Colins prated, as this plant was also absent in the garden.

He was a boy of ten and his sister was five. Their big two-story house at Bourneville lane in Barnsbury harboured a little garden; crammed inside the walls.

Their father, Marnus Croft a steel trader, used to work in North London; his Vander Steel & Co. was a reputed steel supplier to the city. His family of four, he and his wife Ada and two little children Colins and Emma, were living in Barnsbury affluently.

"Mamma! Mamma!"- Emma peeped through the window with her little creeping figure while her mother was packing a bag for his husband.

She bashfully demanded to her mother after getting in through the door," I want a common box tree, that was strewn across in uncle's garden. Papa is going there. Tell him please to bring me a common box, I will place it under the cottage shade there."- while she was pointing her finger towards the cottage in the left corner of their house garden, Colins appeared hastily through the door with a grubber in his muddy hand, demanding wistfully his coveted bird cherry. He really liked the smell of the white flowers of this deciduous tree; his old aunt even told him that the tree was believed to ward off plague if a piece of its bark was placed near the door, as it had already worked as medicinal use.

Okay! Okay! My child!" - their mother pacified them. 'Your Papa is going to Westhumble in Surrey to take a short notice of your uncle and aunt, then he will visit his business partner's house there. I'll tell him to bring the two trees from the Box Hill."- her popped up eyes gave the little ones a flash of wonder. They yelled and went back to the garden to spend their own time.

Marnus returned with some apricot hazelnut cans from the grocery at the parkside. Seeing his children busy in upending the bushes and soots in the garden corner, he secretly drew in, lest the little ones should cling to him to implore for new demand. The door was open. His mistress already packed his bag, now was busy in arranging Emma's strewn away frocks and hair bands.

" Oh, you have come!"- she delighted to see him; still snipetting the cotton clout to make a swaddle for Mrs Rhoads' little daughter. "Colins and Emma came to convey their new demand. She needs a common box tree, Colins bird cherry. Both are easily available at Box Hill are. As you are going there, bring some saplings of them for our garden."- she disclosed her children's wish with a semblance of her own.

"Sure! I am leaving for Surrey tomorrow morning. Expect to return after a fortnight. Tell Mrs Samuel to take our children to the school from tomorrow till I come."- he urged.

Yes! Yes! Mr Lazyman! I know how much you bother to wake up at 5 am. I've to rap you till the clock strikes at six, and you hurry to take the road to your firm."- she sardonically pricked him and he shied away.

He left the house in his horse with his bag around six o'clock, before Colins and Emma could wake up. Mrs Samuel took the responsibility smilingly, as an amicable neighbour. "Have you ate your meal full?"- she would ask Emma who would still rub her eyes while going to the school with his brother Colins and Esme, the six-year-old daughter of Mrs Samuel.

"No, aunt! She eats a tiny morsel!"- Colins would show the gesture because his sister was whimsical about eating the full butter toast her mother would give to her at such an early morning.

Ada Croft was quite morose in her mind after her husband was gone. She even did not see his face for some time in the gloom of the morning before he left in his horse.

Though he left early on Sunday, he could hardly travel about twenty miles before a lashing thunderstorm halted his journey on his way through Knightsbridge on Brompton Road." England's uncertainty on the weather", he thought," is next to none." He pondered while standing near the Holy Trinity Brompton church to get a shelter. Suddenly he pointed out a wrinkled face old man was calling him aloud with all his force gesticulating through his quivering hands in the yard of an inn.

He took his horse which was sopping already and went staggeringly towards the inn.

"Hey young man! Do you need help? Will, you stay here for the day and night?"- the old man desperately uttered the words as if Marnus' stay would help him immensely.

"Yes! I am on the way to Westhumble in Surrey. But I do not see any hope to resume my journey today. Will you give me lodging till tomorrow morning;? If the weather gets bright."

"Yes! Yes! Go to that room. The room is empty. I am alone in this home now. You came it is my great pleasure. Generally, I charge one shilling for a guest for a whole but you need not give beyond sixpence."- the old man snickered.

He kept his horse in the adjoining stable and a gave a bundle of husk that was laid in a corner there. He changed his shirt and trouser that were completely drenched to the dry ones the old man gave. In his room there was a fireplace; the fire was bickering lightly. He fused some wood chunks to garner it. He placed his wet dress on a chair near the fireplace. After having chicken bangers as lunch, he slept till the evening when a howling outside awaken him. "Oh! It is the torrential rain!"- he observed the tin shade over the verandah was roaring in the rain. After an hour, while he was on the fireside, a man with a drooping figure knocked at the door, which was ajar. Marnus was frightened with the unknown man but soon he discovered he was equally ill-fated for the day as he himself was. The stranger was one Mr Dominic Albert from Lambeth in South London, as he told him during the dinner with the old man.

The rain was reduced to drizzle in the night and by dawn everything was clear. while leaving the room he saw the stranger was lying on the bed beside the one on which he slept. Thinking he would be disturbed, Marnus left the room without waking him up. He bade goodbye to the old man who was moping the glassdoors and set out for his journey, with his horse. After going around for fifteen or sixteen miles, he took rest under a big tree in the roadside. Suddenly he saw a police carriage stopped near him tinkling. The letter "L" was brightly illuminated, suggesting the police came from Lambeth, the name the stranger called in the previous night.

An officer and two soldiers alighted from the carriage. The officer asked him, " Where are you from? Where did you stay the previous night?" The stern tone quite baffled him but still, he clearly answered all.

"Why are you questioning me, sir? Do you think I am a robber or murderer? Let's have some tea." - he tried to convince the officer but in vain. The police officer then brought out a blood-stained knife. "Are you recognising it? We have it today morning from the inn at Holy Trinity. The caretaker, an old man, was tied by a roped in the stable. People who passed by the road alerted the police. They saw the man who slept with you laid dead in the bed. The old man could not identify any other person as he was thrashed from the back and had his eyes covered with a band.

Now you have to go along with us."- the soldiers quickly fastened a shackle around his hands and the officer put a cover around his eyes: so that he could not see where he was going; as it was customary that time for the police.

It was Pentonville Prison located within Barnsbury where he was sent behind the bars on the conviction of the murder. He was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment with strenuous works like digging the ground or making oil by grinding the oil seeds. He helpless saw the blue sky. Yes! the sky of Barnsbury, beneath which his throbbing family lived with the virtue of happiness till the evil journey snatched all the happiness. Despite remaining some two miles away, he was in the oblivion of the place like the fellow prisoners. The jailor was ruthless to them, leaving no way for their escape from his insanity. Marnus pleaded to him several times about his innocence, his little children in his home; but the jailor paid no heed to him.

The fortnight elapsed, Marnus did not come. Ada was sobbing all the time when the innocent children were away. Mrs Samuel always stood by her in this trying time. No letter. No money order. No trace of him until a police officer came after a month.

"Are you Mrs Croft? One Marnus Croft is in our custody. He is convicted of a murder on his way to Surrey." - the police officer did not even mention where his husband was now, as ruthless and brutal they were.

Mrs Samuel tried to console her, in absence of the children, "Ada doesn't weep. God is there. Keep faith in him. Your husband is surely a victim of some conspiracies. He will soon get released."- a drop of tears from her eyes would make Ada more pained. She would hug her for consolation.

"It is better you leave Barnsbury and go elsewhere away to a place where nobody will enquire about Marnus. Sell this house to Mr Robinson because he is a kind-hearted man looking for a house here, as he is a doctor. I hope God will one-day free Marnus. Then all of you can resettle here. I don't want that little Emma and Colins get a cue about their father's imprisonment. It can harm and scathe their innocent hearts too much. It is better they are known that their father is away for the business issue and can not find time to come here." - this proposal relieved Ada's heart. She prayed for the last time at St. Andrew's Church in Barnsbury. Shadows of elegant memories enveloped her mind. (On her wedding day with Marnus at this same church words of welcome, a few readings, your vows, the ring exchange, and the final pronouncement were still vivid in her mind like a thing of yesterday. The Father told while her children were taken there to baptize, "Galatians 3:26-29 explains, So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." She broke down in emotion, but Mrs Samuel supported her to undertake the long journey to Westhumble because Ada did have little knowledge outside Barnsbury in whole England; except Marnus' brother's house at Westhumble.

She along with little Emma and Colins boarded a carriage with two pence, taking their books, clothes and some necessary articles. By evening they reached at the east slopes of Mickleham in the deep Mole Gap of the North Downs in Surrey.

The atrocities of Mr Larcan was gone after eight years of his tyrant term. The prisoners heaved a sigh of relief when a kind-hearted Mr Fields took the office. Marnus already knew the actual murderer, because he was arrested and sent into the cell just opposite to him around two years ago.

Mr Johanese Hilbert, a clergyman and part-time teacher murdered Mr Carter Welsh at the inn that day, the stranger who gave his false identity was a hardened criminal. He abducted several children of the age group ten to twelve to engage them in his illegal liquor business and stone chips smuggling. Paying them little or no wage, he had confiscated their childhood; subjected to ruthless torture on them for his own pleasure. Johanese got the hint long ago but was in search of an appropriate time to put an end to his nefarious activities. That night he was hiding behind the stable; as soon as Marnus left with his horse, he tied the old man and entered the room, as the door was already open. He later also murdered Mr Carter's accomplice in Barnsbury but caught in the hands of police who did not appreciate the goodness of crime because they themselves proved to be ineffective to bring down crimes committed by such goons. "Johanese was not a criminal; he was a messiah to hundreds of children who could have been abducted by him the notorious Carter."- Marnus always believed.

Now they pleaded to the new jailor for their release. The jailor after investigating the whole case thoroughly, after interrogation with some of the poor children rescued by brave-hearted Johanese and his fellow clergymen, he complained to the higher authority about the callousness of former jailor Mr Larcan under whose tenure criminal like Carter flourished and gentleman like Johanese had to make laws in his hand to stop the heinous crimes.

Marnus and Johanese readily got released with one pound two each as rewards from the jailor. He could again walk through the roads of Barnsbury, the same St. Andrew's church he crossed, the memory of his marriage with Ada, the baptization of his children all fled past down the memory lane. With tearful eyes, he knocked at his house, unknowingly whole the matter till Mrs Samuel came and burst into an extreme joy to see him back.

"By Jove! Whom I see! I always prayed to God for you."- she exulted.

But he was saddened when he heard all the matter from eight years ago- his family' departure, Mr Robinson's buying the house- all made him restless again. After cordially thanking Mrs Samuel for all the support she lent to Ada and wishing good luck to Esme, now a fourteen-year-old chirpy girl, he set out for Surrey, this time in a carriage with no passengers, by shelling out sixpence more to reserve it up to Box Hill, he did not want to stay anywhere in his way whatever the weather might be.

The carriage hurried to Box Hill and reached there before dusk entailed its gloom over the hill. He alighted from the carriage and went to search the nearby village. One clergyman gave him the address to Westhumble where his family was residing in a simple one storey hut. His brother died already, and the sister in law went to her maternal house in Derby.

He saw his children playing hide and seek across the common box and bird cherry- four or five each planted in front of the hut without any other kind of trees.

He came near the door. Last rays of the sun-blushed their astonishing figure. "Papa!" they jumped off the fence and hugged him great glee. His face was quite impossibly unrecognisable, with long beards, shrunk and withered figure; but it was the bond of a father and his children. How could they not recognise?

Ada opened the door. "Yes! Life is truly a hide and seek." he saw his children merrily playing across the common box and the bird cherry.