The Little Prisoner_ A Memoir - Jane Elliott [79]
‘You’ve got to get me out of here now, Al. Get the police over here.’
‘What?’ he looked puzzled.
There was a police station right next door to the pub. It would only have taken a few seconds to get someone over.
‘Calm down, Janey,’ Al said. ‘You’re quite safe here.’
I could see that I wasn’t going to be able to convince him and I didn’t think I had much time to spare. I ran into the pub, already breathless with panic. If I could get into the kitchens maybe I could find a back way out.
‘I’m sorry, you can’t go in there, that’s the kitchen.’ A girl barred my way.
‘You’ve got to help me!’ I was shouting. ‘You’ve got to get me out of here and call the police! They’re gonna kill me!’
She obviously thought I was mad and there was no way she was letting me through those doors. Tanya and Al were with me now and were beginning to catch on to the urgency of the situation, while trying to calm me down at the same time.
The girl showed us to a room and said she would go and talk to her manager.
‘Lock us in and call the police!’ I shouted at her, but the more hysterical I became, the less seriously I could see she was taking me. I would have dialled the police myself, but my hands were shaking too much to even hold a phone.
The girl was back a few moments later. ‘My manager says you have to leave,’ she said. ‘You can go out through the back door to the alley and round to the street.’
‘I can’t go round to the street, that’s where they are!’ I shouted, but she was already ushering us out into the alley amongst the bins. I could see the police station from there and in a church next door a couple were getting married. It all looked so normal, but such a long way away.
‘Let me wait here a second,’ I pleaded.
‘I’m afraid my manager says I have to shut the door,’ the girl said and I saw it closing as if in slow motion.
‘Nooooo!’ I screamed as the lock clicked and I heard the screech of tyres in the road.
‘Oh my God, they’re here!’ Tanya shrieked and I saw a gang of six men coming up the alley towards us. The one at the front was brandishing a broom handle. They all looked familiar, but in my confusion I couldn’t work out who was who. Later I was told that the man with the broom handle was my brother Tom, the one who had told me that we loved each other. In my mind he was still a little boy, just like the others. I couldn’t believe that my brothers had turned into this mob of men. They all looked like Richard as they poured into the tight little alley.
Al walked forward with his arms stretched out, trying to block their way, but they smacked him to the ground and just kept coming, trampling over his prone body. The one at the front picked me up by the arms and threw me to the ground. Tanya, who was running out into the street screaming for help, heard the crack of my skull hitting the pavement. For the next few moments everything was a blur as I drifted in and out of consciousness. The man they tell me was Tom was kicking my head and bringing the broom handle down with all the force that I remembered from my beatings as a child. As he hit and kicked, he shouted the same furious obscenities that I remembered coming from Richard’s mouth so many times before. Another man was kicking my head from the other side. I could hear crunching inside my head. Others behind were kicking at my ribs and legs with all their strength. Through their legs I could see two men laying into Al as he lay on the ground.
‘You’re gonna kill her!’ I heard one of the cousins shouting and they began to struggle with one another as some tried to pull others off me, but they kept on kicking.
One man I went to school with had responded to Tanya’s shouts for help, but when he looked into the alley he changed his mind. ‘Fucking hell!’ he exclaimed. ‘They’re fucking nutters. I’m not getting mixed up in that.’ Another guy from school did try to intervene,