Escape From Evil - Cathy Wilson [43]
Mum didn’t seem in the best of shapes. She was often so lethargic that days would disappear before she even emerged from her bed. And yet she still looked so tired. I began to notice dark rings under her eyes. When I asked her, she said she was fine. Everything was fine. That was good enough for me.
When she wasn’t ill or absent, we had really good times together. Our Telscombe Cliffs flat had such a lovely, light atmosphere, just being there made us smile. Compared to the Preston Park place, it was heaven itself. I couldn’t think of those small rooms without my blood going cold. It had become synonymous in my memory with the evil goings-on of those vile men.
But that chapter was behind us now. Thanks to Grandpa, we had a chance at a new life and I, for one, had taken it with both hands. Mum, in her own way, was relishing the freedom as well. We spoke about how nice it was not to be worried about the next knock on the door. Social workers couldn’t complain because I was attending school. The police had no reason to bother us, Mum assured me, because she had nothing illegal in the house. And the men who’d come close to ruining our lives had no idea where we were. Everything was rosy.
And then, one afternoon, I came home from school, pushed open our front door and heard a familiar voice.
‘Hello, Cathy. Did you miss me?’
About a week earlier, Granny had taken me aside. She was behaving weirdly, I thought, a bit cryptic.
‘Cathy, I think you might need to phone me this week,’ she’d said, and pressed a couple of five pence pieces into my hand. ‘This money is only to be used for the phone, do you understand? Don’t go spending it on sweets. Save it. I think you’ll need it.’
I had no idea what she was talking about, and she wouldn’t tell me.
‘I hope you don’t need to call me,’ she went on. ‘But if something happens that you don’t like, anything at all, then you tell me straightaway.’
I learnt later that Mum had confided to Granny her fear that the men had tracked her down. She didn’t explain how it had happened, although Granny felt that if Mum insisted on still going out to her regular haunts at night, then she wouldn’t have been that hard to trace. Granny had said she would help. She was sorry she hadn’t known what was going on before. And that is why she’d given me the money for the phone box. She knew the men were coming back.
They were there en masse. About fourteen blokes, more than I’d ever seen at one time, were squeezed into our little flat. I could barely see for the fog of joints they’d obviously rolled themselves, but I recognized most of the faces. They’d all been to our various homes at one point or another. They’d all contributed to our unhappiness, even if they had usually done it in pairs or small groups. This crowded approach was very unusual. And very, very scary.
Before I was even out of my uniform, I was rolling Rizla papers as usual. There was no point fighting it. As I entered the kitchen, where the stuff was already laid out next to the huge bong, I froze.
Brian!
Was he here? I tried not to appear worried, but on the pretence of saying hello to Mum, I stuck my head in the lounge. I needed to know, for my own peace of mind, whether I could expect my bedroom door to be opened later by Brian out for revenge. But I couldn’t see him anywhere. In fact, I would never see him again.
Making roll-ups for so many people took a while. By the time I’d finished and I could hear the bong bubbling away in the lounge, I just stood in the kitchen, chin on my chest, waiting for the moment when I’d be sent to my room. When I’d be drugged. When the men would ‘party’ with Mum. I was sick with the anticipation. And then I remembered the coins.
This is what Granny was talking about! She knew the men were coming back.
So why hadn’t she told me? I suppose she didn’t want to ruin the time I had before it happened. There was always a chance they might never have come, after all.
I put my hand in my jacket pocket and felt the coins she’d given me. This is what they were there for. Now, though, I had to use them.