A Banister To The Past

A Banister To The Past

By Paul McCann

Johnny was always on the pluck with his handcart around the city streets and alleyways picking up stuff that was thrown out from the shops and office buildings . Now and then he was lucky  to find computers and tv sets , scrap metal and other items that had been discarded .

One morning he saw this old derelict children’s hospice .with its windows and doors all boarded up and thought about breaking to see if there was anything worthwhile talking . He saw an old fire escape at the rear of the building and started to climb up to the roof . As he jumped off the rusty old fire escape to the old door on the fourth floor, he managed to kick it in . Inside the children’s hospice he was very surprised to find marble tiles on the walls and carved wooden statues in the corridor .  He was very excited at what he had found . and some of the things would fetch him a lot of money . In cupboards and closets he discovered old suitcase’s and photographs and on the walls some oil paintings covered in dust looked like they could be worth taking . At the end of the corridor was a flight of stairs that went down in a spiral to the ground floor . Some sunlight was coming through windows where boards had fallen off .  As he was standing on the landing looking down at the staircase that went around and round, he thought it might be good fun to ride down the banister to the ground floor . So, he climbed up on to the banister and straddled his legs on both sides like he was riding a horse and released his grip . Suddenly he was propelled downwards at speed on the banister that went around and round to the ground floor . Even though he was sliding down the banister very fast it was taking a very long time to get to the bottom and eventually when he landed on the ground floor he was standing there in the hallway of a what seemed to be a new looking building with lots of activity happening .

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As Johnny walked around the hallway and other areas no one seemed to even know he was there . Johnny walked among the small groups of children inside the building were listening to adults reading from storybooks . Other children were being watching a puppet show ; A little white pony was being walked through rooms to visit children who were sick in bed and the echoes of their excited screams were heard through the cloistered corridoes by all .

The cook was busy stirring the porridge in a big pot , nurses were taking observations , maintenance men were hanging curtains on windows and the post man arrived with a sack filled with letters for the manager of the hospice who seemed over eager to take the sack . Johnny stepped inside the manager’s office before he closed the door .Once the doo/r was closed the manager locked it from the inside  and began to go through the mail .

There were many envelopes with letters and cash that was donated from the public to help boost the ongoing running of the hospice . Johnny watched as the manager put all the letters into the fire and the money into pillow cases before opening the door and walking along the corridor . Johnny flowed   behind . They came to the laundry on the ground floor . . Next to the laundry was another door . The manager stopped and took a look before taking a key from his pocket and then he  opened the door  , He locked that door from the inside and went down some steps to the basement . Then he removed  some loose wall tiles that had covered a safe . Inside the safe were many steel boxes . Then he opened up a few that were empty and put all of the donated cash inside , After that he locked the safe and put back the wall tiles and went back up the steps to the ground floor with the empty pillow cases and left them in a bag in the laundry .

He did a quick walk through some of the rooms before returning to his office .

Suddenly the sound of aeroplanes could be heard over head . The city weas under attack . Incendiary bombs were being dropped and one of them hat hit the hospice . Fire alarms went off . Staff members were trying to evacuate all the children safely out the front door to the pavement outside while the

manager rushed the other way towards the basement door .

Johnny watched in shock as part of the roof fell in and a massive stack of bricks from the chimney fell  on top the manager who seemed lifeless on the floor . Johnny had to return the way he had come in and he began to rush up the flights of stairs to the fourth floor . On his way up the stairs many were in a panic to rush down . Some were carrying children in their arms , others were rolling down , others falling down the staircase . Smoke started to fill the inside of the hospice . The fire brigade had already entered the building to fight the fire .

Johnny ran along the corridor of the fourth floor to the fire escape and started to make his way back down the steps , half way down the fire escape came aways from the wall and Johnny fell to the ground  and went unconscious .

When he awoke, he was lying in a bed at the hospital . He had broken his ankles in the fall but was alive ,

In a month when he was on his feet again, he made his way back to the children’s hospice . He again broke inside and made his way to the basement and removed the wall tiles to uncovered the safe that was there .Inside the safe where many metal boxes filled with cash and some gold and precious stones .Swept away in thoughts of being very wealthy , he started to think about why he had been selected to see the things he did .

\He thought about all those kind people who had made donations for the hospice and he realised he had to do something good and make sure that their donations would be used for the hospice and not for himself .

He made several visits to the basement and removed all the cash that was there . Then he did some research and was able to locate the owner of the building who had gone broke after the fire and didn’t have the money to rebuild the hospice . Johnny asked to meet the owner of the building and on that day, he handed him a cheque  with more than enough money to renovate the old children hospice and return it back to its original condition.

All he wanted in return was to be known as the patron of the hospice .

After the wok was finished, he was invited for the official opening . All the media were there and people all over the country were really happy to see a place where children could be assisted and be part of a positive environment in their everyday needs .

Johnny sat on the roof of the hospice that night feeling thirty feet tall and something beautiful happened , he met a lady there who thanked him for what he had done . She said that he would never suffer any pain in his life and he would have a beautiful death .

Johnny smiled and said thank you  to her and she led him away to a staircase from the roof of the hospice to the stars and in the blink of an eye they were walking hand in hand through the clouds , That night the moon turned red and stars fell down from the sky and there was a light that shone as bright as the day .

The End