Chapter Twenty Seven

 

 

Q. Did you go and visit your real parents?

A. Yes. About a week later, Annie phoned, made the arrangements, and we went. We deliberately dressed in identical clothes, shoes, bags, coats, everything, we do that sometimes - sorry, we did that sometimes - to confound people. Only those who know Annie is taller and bigger than me can tell us apart when we do that. Mr. Gibling stood with his mouth open. Danny had such a look of lust when he saw the two of us it just wasn’t true.

Q. Did you get to meet other relatives then?

A. Did we! We’d only been there five minutes when some younger kids came in, our brothers, no less! Horrid little brats. No girls. And then two sets of grandparents! Oh God, you should have seen Annie, charming the birds out of their nests for these old people! Smelly old people, nasty old people, except for one grandmother who looked very much like Gran Webster, I almost broke down and cried. Only a sharp mental jolt from Annie kept me from crying, and I knew I’d pay for that later. And I did. For the first and last time Annie punished me, pushed me down on the bed and spanked me with her plastic backed hairbrush. Told Mother we were playing, when she asked what the noise was. Playing! If she was playing I don’t want to be on the receiving end of an angry session! God she hurt!

Q. Why didn’t Annie want you to display any emotion?

A. She said we had to show the Giblings how we upper class people really live, can take anything, stiff upper lip, control our emotions and out thoughts, you know the kind of thing. Being very English and all that. I was doing all right till I saw a Gran Webster look alike. But I have to admit, the old people, the kids, the house, smelled as bad as Annie said they did, and it was all we could do to pick at the sandwiches and drink the foul stewed tea.

Q. What did you think of your parents?

A. Hated them on sight. Simple as that. No bonding there!

Q. But you stayed for a while?

A. Oh yes. Got Annie wound up creating huge spiders, making Danny and the other boys run to kill it, then a mouse and Mrs - Mother - said ‘that happened last time you were here, I’m so embarrassed!’ and the mouse disappeared. I thought she’d do the snake but she didn’t. On the way home she said.

“Aren’t they the most awful people you’ve ever met in your life? and they were. Then she said, “you nearly broke down, you nearly gave way in front of them, I don’t allow that, you’ll pay for that,” and like I told you I did, flat on my bed, face buried in the pillow, hairbrush coming down again and again. I was scared, Annie had never punished me before and I didn’t know whether this was the start of a new regime of pain for me. It wasn’t, it was a one off, but I can remember still the feel of that hairbrush and the look on her face and the sheer anger radiating out of her to blast my mind while she blasted my bottom.

Q. What happened next?

A. Uncle Phil started driving lessons for both of us. And Annie pulled her master card, got Mr. Wrayland to go round to the Giblings and pretend to be from the Council, made them clear up the garden and get rid of their junk cars. He hated doing it, she loved it, stood on the corner out of sight and took it all in. His reluctance and embarrassment as he went storming around pretending to be hard, and their fear at Authority coming down on them. Me? I waited at his house for him to come back and cane me.