Breaking the Silence by Casey Watson

Author:Casey Watson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2013-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Happily, despite the copious amount of blood, Georgie didn’t need any stitches. ‘It’s typical of this sort of head wound,’ the kindly and very patient A&E nurse explained. ‘They bleed like anything, so they tend to look worse than they really are.’ She grinned at Georgie, who had seemed in a daze since we’d got there. ‘You’re going to have to lose a clump of this gorgeous hair though!’

I half expected Jenson to whoop, or cry ‘Touché!’, or something similar, but, like all of us, he seemed to have had the stuffing knocked out of him, and merely stood there, looking on and looking miserable.

We made the journey home in silence, too, Georgie clutching his hank of bloody hair tightly to him. The nurse, though bemused by his insistence that she couldn’t have it, had kindly popped it in a bag for him. And once home and I’d given both boys a glass of milk and a biscuit, we quickly put the day to bed as well. ‘We start afresh tomorrow, okay, boys?’ I told them as I led them both upstairs. ‘Start over. Tomorrow is another day. In this house we don’t carry things over till tomorrow, so we’ll say no more on the matter, okay?’

‘I can’t believe all that just happened,’ Mike said, once I was back downstairs. He patted the sofa, and I flopped down beside him. ‘Just can’t believe it,’ he said again. ‘D’you think having these two together is ever going to work?’

‘I don’t know, love,’ I said honestly. ‘But you know what? I’m too tired to even think about it properly. But you’re right. Poor Georgie. It’s like Jenson hates him. He’s really made it his mission to go all out to torment the poor boy.’

‘Steady on, love,’ said Mike mildly. ‘I don’t think it’s that bad. I think it’s more that Jenson doesn’t understand him. Which is different. And then naturally pushes buttons to see what’ll happen next. Just usual kid stuff, if you ask me.’

I turned to face Mike, a little shocked. ‘What, you mean like he just takes a healthy interest in the autism spectrum? Come on, love! You really don’t think there’s any malice in what Jenson does?’

Mike paused before answering, and I could tell he was choosing his words. And I felt annoyed. Was he siding with Jenson in all this? I was also, if I was honest, a little cross with myself. Like all the kids that came to us, Jenson had his issues, and displaying bad behaviours didn’t mean he was a bad person. Just a troubled one. For which I knew I should make allowances. But, strangely, in this case, I was finding that hard to focus on. He seemed to have this unnerving ability to really wind me up.

‘All I’m saying,’ Mike continued, ‘is that Georgie must be a puzzle to him – as I’m sure he is to any other kid of their age. Don’t you remember when Kieron was little and how

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