The Hour of Joy is at Hand

Chapter 1

5/17/1995

Jack was awoken to the fluorescent lights getting slowly brighter until they got to the point where they hummed in the silence of 'Home Sweet Home'. Home Sweet Home was the sleeping area of 'Playcare', which is a large orphanage attached to an enormous toy factory named 'Playtime Co.'.

Jack got up with the other orphans and went to school, it was a Wednesday. The walls of the school were made out of concrete, very little cracks were on them. The school had a faint scent of sanitizer. The classes felt like they were forever, but all the orphans managed to get past them.

...

Halfway through the day, more specifically at lunch, Jack was eating in the cafeteria. Since the only people who sat at his table were ill, he decided to look at the posters hung up around the place.

One had a cartoon pig with a necklace, it had an apple on it, the pig was also eating one, it was encouraging kids to eat healthy things. The pig's name was PickyPiggy. Another had a cartoon dinosaur eating leaves from a tree, on the bottom it said that employees should consume at least 4000 calories a day. The dinosaur's name was Bron. Jack's attention was caught by a caretaker who came up to his table and tapped his shoulder. It was Travis, someone close to him.

"I see that you're sitting alone today. Where did the group go?" Travis asked Jack, sounding full of curiosity. "They all got infected with something, they're in the medical wing getting treated. I tried to tell them that eating food off the ground for five dollars was a bad dare, but they went for it anyway." Jack replied while Travis nodded in agreement. "I see. Well, do you want me and Mia to eat lunch with you until they get better? I could see you looking at the posters around here out of pure boredom." Jack considered this for less than five seconds until he agreed. "Alright then. I'll get her to come here. Be back in a little!" Travis left to get another caretaker who they both were close to, Mia.

...

"And that was the day I realized that being an employee at Playtime Co. was the right job for me." Mia said as they finished eating lunch. "I can closely relate to that story ya'know." Travis said and ended the sentence with a scoff. "Well, the clock says lunch is almost over, so you two should go back to your workplaces. You wouldn't want to get in trouble." Jack said while looking at Travis and Mia. "Yeah, we should. If your friends are still sick tomorrow we'll eat with you again." Travis said, then was quickly followed by Mia saying, "But it shouldn't really matter though, school will be done by this Friday!" "Yeah, okay. Thanks for the reminder Mia, I almost forgot!" Jack said. Then the bell rang and the school day continued.

...

School let out for the day and Jack went to the center of Playcare, where there was a monument with all the Smiling Critters on it. There was DogDay, CatNap, Bobby Bearhug, Bubba Bubbaphant, Hoppy Hopscotch, PickyPiggy, Kickin' Chicken, and CraftyCorn. Jack's top two favorites in no particular order were DogDay and CatNap. Jack sat down a bit and admired the scenery in Playcare for a bit. There was a big fan on the roof spinning slowly with what looked like the sun shining through it. He heard birds chirping nearby, but there were no birds in sight.

There were buildings surrounding the monument. The buildings were the big concrete building, the Counseling Office. A small building that looked like it was made out of polished cinder blocks with blue plastic on the edges, the school. A big cartoon-ish house with medium sized four-panel windows, Home Sweet Home. A small brick building, the toy store. A small circus tent made out of an unknown hard material with a slide on the side, the Playhouse. There were also stairs going up to a cable-cart going up through the metal roof with a blue sky and clouds painted on it.

There was a road going in a circle around the monument in the center. On the sides of the road, there was a statue of Bron the Dinosaur, but his head was turned into a light, turning him into a light-pole on the side of a road. There were also a few benches around the place, especially around the cable-cart.

It was pretty quiet, so Jack pulled out a novel from his bag and read a chapter out of it.

...

Later that day at 4:30 P.M, Jack decided to visit his ill friends at the hospital wing. The hospital wing looked like a big patient room in a hospital with a lot of beds with blue bed sheets and an IV rack next to them. There was a window on the opposite side of the wall with the door, shining a yellow sunlight into the room, despite the lights of the room being on, the yellow sunlight was hard to see. The walls were made of polished concrete, the top half was white, the bottom half was a light blue.

Jack's friends (besides the caretakers) were Layton, Elijah, Hallie, Cameron, Caleb, and Ashton.
Once Jack entered the place and his friends noticed him immediately. "How're you dingus' doing?" Jack said, then sat down in a chair by the door. "I've been missing you very much." Layton said. "I haven't regretted doing the dare, it was worth it." Caleb said. Everybody else's response was normal.

Jack started to read by the door while his ill friends talked to each other. A doctor entered the room and said to Jack's ill friends, "You should be feeling better tomorrow and able to go back to school after lunch." All his friends except Ashton were sad about this news because Ashton was a pretty chill kid about everything. "Come on guys! School will be over this Friday! It's not that bad!" Jack said to encourage his friends. "Well, I guess you're right." Hallie said and laid down in bed to rest a little. "Well, until we meet again!" Jack said and left to go back to the monument to read.

...

It was bedtime at 9 P.M. everyday, so all the orphans had to go to Home Sweet Home to go to bed. Once Jack got in bed, it suddenly became eerily silent, it made his ears ring. Once he got comfortable in bed, he got his assigned toy, DogDay, and pulled his tail to let out a small white smokey cloud with the scent of vanilla, and it relaxed him, which made him go to sleep within the next few minutes.

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