Mikey
had learnt he was adopted by accident – and in a most
hurtful way. Now, Social Services had become involved, Mikey
had been taken into care and he had been abused by Jim, the
head of the Assessment Centre, but now he was moving on.
For
the first part of this article, see the November issue - click
here
For the second part of this article, see the December issue
- click
here
For the third part of this article, see the January issue -
click
here
For the fourth part of this article, see the February issue
- click
here
For the fifth part of this article, see the March issue - click
here
Although
he was gutted when he moved on from the Assessment Centre it
proved to be good for Mikey, for a while anyway. He went to
the Adolescent Unit, which was really for older kids, getting
ready to leave care. One reason was that it was thought the
older kids would help to keep him in line. Certainly he would
think twice about trying some of his tricks with them. No Marmite
on the toilet seats here.
The
downside was because the big kids were getting prepared to look
after themselves. There was no school, no group outings, or
things arranged for evenings and weekends. One or two of the
staff tried to do things for him, and even offered to take him
out with their families, but Mikey was not keen to get too close
to any more adults, because of the pain of rejection and the
experiences of abuse. I think he spent a lot of time on his
own in his room – well he was used to that. At least now
he could listen to music and read.
Unfortunately
he also got into the habit of going up town at weekends, especially
if there were agency staff on duty, some of whom did not care
a toss where the kids were. He soon drifted into the twilight
zone around Piccadilly. He remembered one of the teachers at
the Assessment Centre joking about how she hurried past the
statue of Eros for fear of seeing someone she knew sitting on
the steps. It was a great place for kids to hand around. Tourists,
those at a loose end, those on the run. He said he used to stare
at the women going by, just in case she came along. He wanted
company and someone to buy him something to eat and he knew
she would.
Sadly,
very sadly, the only person he ever saw who he recognised and
who certainly recognised him was one of Jim’s mates. He
homed in on Mikey like a moth to a candle.
He spent time with him and bought him something to eat all right,
but then he wanted Mikey to go back to his place out on the
east side of town somewhere. Mikey said he had to get back to
the home and bolted. He knew that Jim’s mate, Clive, was
one of the video camera men. At that stage Mikey still had enough
of a grip on things to know he did not want to get involved
in that caper.
Things
dragged on going nowhere. Dad was still attending work. Mum
was mostly tranquillised to oblivion, thanks to a ready supply
of prescription drugs and I kept hoping Mikey could come home.
He seemed happier for me to visit him at the Adolescent Unit,
although we always kept it a secret from Mum and Dad. Did they
know or did they care?
Certainly Mum had cut Mikey out of the family equation and I
think that if he had known Dad would have tried to stop me,
in case Mikey ever told me anything about his less than paternal
attentions.
The
only thing Mikey ever said at that stage was to tell me not
to let Dad come into my bedroom. I thought that this was a bit
strange and I wondered why and how I could stop him if he wanted
to come in. Chatting and saying goodnight was what Dads did,
even when you were too old for stories. Stupidly, I thought
Mikey was jealous that Dad might be spending the time with me
that he used to spend ‘comforting’ him. Only later
I learned he was worried, very worried, not jealous.
In
fact when I started to put the pieces together, I remembered
that on one of Mikey’s very infrequent visits home I had
walked into the kitchen to see that Mikey, who was now taller
than Dad and had been working out with some of the older lads
at the Unit, had Dad pinned to the wall and was saying something
like “Stay away from him. Just stay away, or me and the
lads will come calling”. Dad tried to pretend it was a
bit of a play fight and Mikey left soon after. My big brother
had been trying to protect me, in the midst of his own problems.
One
fine sunny day a few weeks later Mikey was back ‘up the
Dilly’ again. Friend Clive turned up, with a couple of
his mates. There was a bit of chat, some food and as they came
out of the café a car pulled up. Before he knew what
was happening Mikey was in the car, squashed between the two
mates while Clive sat with the driver smiling and swigging from
a bottle of vodka, which had been in the glove compartment.
He handed it round and the goons in the back poured some down
Mikey’s throat. Drink had never been around at home and
after a couple of gulps Mikey was drifting.
They
got to Clive’s place and some more of Jim’s pals
turned up. Vodka and all sorts started going around and always
some nice, kind, responsible adult made sure Mikey got a long
swig or two. Then somebody came in with some pills. Soon after
they all moved into a bedroom that was all set up with lights
and cameras - the lot. Another kid appeared from somewhere.
Mikey later found out he had been locked in a back room for
days.
Mercifully
Mikey did not know much about what happened for the next couple
of hours, until Jim kindly forced him to watch the video when
he visited him at the Unit the next week. He wanted to be sure
Mikey was going to be ‘up town’ at the weekend.
Mikey intended never to go there again – until good old
Jim called.
The
staff were all impressed that he took time to come to see Mikey
and even brought an old video player for the kids’ sitting
room, although he said he wanted to borrow a portable TV to
link up with it in Mikey’s room first, to show him some
videos from the Assessment Centre with Mikey on them. Oh, Mikey
was the star of the show all right. Only it wasn’t the
summer holiday camping trip. It was vile and ugly. Jim got off
on it in Mikey’s room and copied some of the antics on
the screen on Mikey there and then, with staff just a few yards
away, telling each other what a good bloke Jim was and how lucky
Mikey was that he kept in touch.
“Either
you are there old son, or the rest of your mates here get to
see this. Think what your life would be like then. You’d
be locked up for sure”, Jim hissed, before opening the
door and saying, “OK, Mikey. Bring the video out here
and let’s fix it up for the others. I’ll see what
videos I can bring round for you all to share”.
The
next weeks settled in to a regular pattern, with Mikey being
picked up and driven off to various places, given drink and
drugs and used by whoever was there in whatever way they chose.
It always ended with the same threat. Tell anybody and we show
the videos to the Home. Mikey was too scared for ages to realise
that they would incriminate themselves if they did this.
See
what happened to Mikey next in the next issue.
