Mystery Boy

By Lester Murray

Within the pages of this book comes to life a remarkable young fellow who has all the characteristics every boy and girl, every mother and father, every teacher would love to see in every child. Who is this boy who is found in the middle of nowhere, with no talking ability, no knowledge of anything, who suddenly comes to life inspiring everyone with whom he comes into contact?

He is both loveable, and extremely dangerous, if he needs to be. He is courageous, but emotional, strong, but weak. He is likeable – just like most children in this world. He is a young fellow, always moving forward, but he is as vulnerable as a newborn puppy or kitten. He’s just a kid, but a kid almost every kid in the world could either aspire to, or
wish he was your best friend!

I hope you’ll look forward to reading this book, and the sequel, which is even more inspiring than this, yet the sequel cannot come unless you read and know this book!

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781663211767

Lester Murray

I’ve been around a few days. I spent the bulk of my years teaching and working with children. I’ve been retired from teaching. Then, my son-in-law suggested I start doing substitute work in his district. I’ve been doing that for three years now, and I love being with the children. And apparently the kids and the school district personnel love having me around, too. My life didn’t start off very easy at all. My real Dad left before I was two years old. Then grandma died who was taking care of my older brother and me while my mother worked long hours for the government. With no one to take care of us, my mom had to put us in a real orphanage. My memory began at the age of two and a half because of all the terrible things that occurred there – things you read about in magazines, newspapers, and books. The record is imbedded in my memory. I almost died there when the orphanage officials shoved us into a room with some very sick children. When I recovered after a month of being in that place, matters got even worst. My mother had remarried, and the man she married, saw my brother and me as imposers, so we often were beaten severely. My first terrible beating came at Christmas time – many terrible whacks with a belt, having just turned five years old. I grew up with that the rest of my childhood life, and when I was seventeen, having just started college, I decided to become a teacher, and to try to stop any abuse I could when I could. How? by letting children know that someone else cared besides a parent or grandparents. I was miserable at helping kids at first because of all the abuse I went through, but I slowly learned the process, and as time passed, kids wanted me to tell them stories when they had finished their work in my classes. Now I’m in my early seventies, still subbing, and kids wanting me to be with them every day. I can’t because of my retirement regulations, but every day I can be there to encourage, inspire, lift them up, and challenge kids, I’ll be there – telling my stories, and especially letting them know how much someone else cares. When I couldn’t start this school year because I fell and broke my hip. Then two weeks after I got out of the hospital, I was recovering at home. Something from within inspired me telling me to write a book – this book! And the unique thing about this whole matter was that I was actually living this story of the ‘Mystery Boy’ as if I were an invisible person observing and experiencing everything as it happened to that young fellow. One scene after another, one experience after another, and I was there, invisible, untouchable, recording step by step the whole progress of that remarkable story. So, that’s what I present to you – this wonderful, mysterious, exciting young fellow who has all the best qualities I see in the precious children I meet and work with as often as I can.

Book preview

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CHAPTER 1

Officer Downing of the Crestview City police force in the Ozarks of the state of Missouri was making his usual rounds. It was 4:05 a.m., and everything was running smoothly. His next check-in was at 4:15 that morning, and he had one more stop. Officer Downing had made the rounds of the quarry earlier and then driven through a small subdivision with his lights focused on doors, windows, and the backs of premises. Now he headed down an abandoned road, which had a small empty house at the end on the right side.

Something caught his attention as he pulled up beside the house: the front door was partly ajar. He parked his car and stepped outside to check the area inside and out. As he entered the old house, nothing seemed unusual at first, but as he continued into the back room, he heard a groan. He quickly shined his flashlight in the direction of the noise, and he saw a mass of something covered with all sorts of newspapers. The mass seemed to be shaking. He went over to it and began taking the papers off. There, to his surprise, was the shivering, unclothed body of a boy about eleven or twelve years old. The child was muttering incomprehensible babble. He called out to the child, but there was no response.

He quickly picked up the child, rushed out of the house toward his car, and placed the child in the backseat. He then retrieved a couple of blankets from the trunk of his car, unfolded them, and gently laid them across the boy. Then he got on his car’s radio handset.

Emergency. This is Downing 321. I have a major emergency, he said as he turned on his car to pump on some heat to help the boy warm up.

Contact. Headquarters here. What’s the extent of your emergency?

I found a small, unclothed child, a boy about eleven or twelve, in the abandoned house down Old Snake Hollow Road. I’m heading for County Hospital. Please have a crew ready. This child is suffering from hypothermia. Over.

Will do. Over and out.

With that, Officer Downing backed out and turned the car around. With lights blaring, he headed in the direction of the hospital as the child made agonizing grunts and groans that unnerved him. He headed east on Highway 32 and made a left onto Highway 72. He would soon be at the hospital, where a small crew were waiting at the emergency entrance to wheel the child inside quickly.

Thank goodness they had some heated blankets to cover the child.

The boy was still shaking profusely as he was wheeled into the emergency room, where the staff began taking his vitals. His blood pressure was down but within acceptable limits. His oxygen level was borderline. His breathing was returning to normal. Everything but his temperature was approaching the normal range. His temperature was still low but acceptable.

As the boy came to and opened his eyes, the nurse watching over him attempted to make communication. No sound came from the boy. He was still semiconscious and seemed unaware of the things happening around him.

The nurse couldn’t help but mention one thing to the assistant nearby. Is it me, or do you see how handsome this child is?

The mystery boy was indeed very handsome. He was pleasant to look at, with blondish hair and blue eyes. He had the most pleasing smile.

How could such a thing happen to this child or any child? the nurse thought to herself.

Then the doctor came into the small room and said to the boy, How are we doing? No response. The boy just stared at the ceiling. The doctor snapped his fingers in front of the child’s eyes. No reaction. He tried to rouse the boy by touching his arm. Still no reaction. Well, let’s get this over with, said the doctor.

He examined the boy from head to toe. Not a bruise. Not a mark of any kind. There appear to be no abrasions or injuries. Nothing seems broken, and he doesn’t seem to be hurt. Let’s get a gown on him—and a jacket. Take his temperature again in about ten minutes, and we’ll go from there.

The nurse and the assistant raised the boy up to put hospital pants on him and then helped him put on a hospital shirt, followed by a heavier jacket.

The boy seemed to be somewhat comforted with something warm wrapped around him, but there was still no response from him. All he could do for the time being was attempt to keep his eyes open.

The doctor then said, Better call Children and Family Services. This is going to be a wild one, I fear.

The nurse replied, Already did that. Someone is on the way.

The doctor said, We’ll keep him overnight. Then Family Services can have him.

The nurse said, Looks like another kid in the system for a while. Until someone figures this out, he’ll have to stay in a house full of kids.

The doctor replied, He’s no longer shivering, and his vitals are returning to normal. The doctor and the nurse left the room.

Since the hospital assistant was to remain with the boy until relieved, she took the boy’s temperature again.

You’re at 96.8, she said to the boy. Not bad.

The boy began looking around the room wide-eyed and tried to get up from the table he was sitting on. Nothing made any sense to him. He didn’t know where he was or who the people standing near and over him were. He was frightened by the whole situation.

Hold on, said the assistant as she helped the boy back onto his bed. You can’t be walking around yet. You need some rest. You might fall and hurt yourself! Looks like you’re doing better though.

The boy stayed silent but smiled.

For the longest time, the two of them sat there staring at each other—the boy propped up in his bed and the assistant sitting in a chair facing him—and the whole time, the boy kept smiling at her.

The assistant wondered, What was this boy doing out there all by himself, and how did he get there?

The boy apparently was not able to talk or communicate in any way, which was a problem. All the normal questions—How? What? Where? Why?—had no meaning or answers.

A couple of hospital attendants came and helped the boy onto another bed with wheels on the bottom. They rolled him through several doors, turned to the right, and went down a short corridor and into a room.

As the boy still wasn’t talking, an attendant stayed in the room with him. Soon a nurse came into the room with a small object in her hand. The doctor, taking ordinary precautions, had ordered the boy to have sedatives given to him regularly throughout the day, about every six hours. The doctor felt it was necessary in case the boy might have a compromising reaction to something going on in the hospital. Because of the hypothermia he had experienced the previous night, he was also put on a liquid diet through his arm.

The nurse asked the attendant to hold the boy while she injected him with the strong sedative.

A full afternoon, evening, and night passed. As the boy began to stir, he saw something attached to his arm. He became agitated, frightened by the thing on his arm. The attendant on duty helped to quickly calm him down. She placed her hand over that area and rang for the nurse. The nurse immediately came into the room, removed the needle from his arm, covered the slight bleeding with a small pad, and then placed a piece of tape over the pad.

The nurse said, We’ll get him some very mild food. We’ll see how he reacts to that.

The attendant remained with the boy. Pushing a button, she slowly raised the boy’s bed to a sitting position again.

A few minutes later, someone came in with breakfast: warm chicken noodle soup and some warm tea. The attendant assisted the boy with his meal.

The boy thought to himself, What is this?

After the attendant finished helping him, she said to the boy, You’ll be out of here today. You’re going to a foster home.

The boy just looked at her, smiling.

My, what a handsome little devil you are. You have no idea what I just said to you, do you?

With that, the attendant helped the boy to his feet. He was a little wobbly at first but quickly was able to balance himself. He tried one step and then another until the movement seemed natural. Down the hall the two walked, as though nothing had ever happened to the boy.

The doctor was making his rounds, and when he saw the boy walking, he said, Yes, you’re definitely ready. You’re going to a home today. We’ll give you something to make you go to the bathroom, and we’re sure you’ll be all right.

The boy just smiled at him and continued walking, not knowing anything that was said to him.

The attendant then took the boy back to his room, where the two of them sat looking at each other for a good part of the morning,

About an hour and a half later, a person from Children and Family Services peered around the corner and said, Hello! She was in her late thirties and had a worn look about her.

The child just sat there, wondering who the new person was.

What’s the matter? the childcare worker said.

No communication as of yet, replied the assistant.

Doesn’t matter, said the childcare worker. This kid needs a place to bed down for a few days. We think we’ll have a placement sometime at the end of the week.

With that, the childcare worker, Ms. Grimley, took the boy by the hand and left the hospital. She put the child in her car, fastened his seat belt, and drove off into the early morning.

The drive wasn’t long. Ms. Grimley thought about the child sitting in the back of her car as she drove. Who was this child? Where had he come from? Was he different from other children she had on her caseload? Did he talk? Could he talk? How will he react when I turn him over to Sue, his temporary foster parent?

Soon Ms. Grimley pulled into a driveway surrounded by several houses. She parked the car, got out, and went to the passenger side of the car to help the mystery boy out.

Ms. Grimley called out, Sue?

Yes, I’m Sue.

Sue was a single foster parent in her midforties. She was short and plump and appeared exhausted. Her hair was already graying, but she seemed to still have plenty of life in her.

This is the boy I spoke to you about yesterday over the phone. He doesn’t speak or do much of anything. He’s already had a physical from the doctor, so you don’t need to worry about getting one for him. He must be hungry by now, so give him something light to eat and then a quiet place to lie down when he’s done eating. That would be perfect.

Sue replied,