Nobody Came: The appalling true story of brothers cruelly abused in a Jersey care home by Garner Robbie

Author:Garner, Robbie [Garner, Robbie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harper Collins, Inc.
Published: 2009-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Shortly after that the summer holidays ended and it was time for me to move up into the Juniors. Davie and Jimmy were to start in the Infants.

As we walked to school, I suddenly saw how much my little brother had changed. Where once he had been round, now he was thin. His shoulder blades pressed against the fabric of his coarse shirt. His neck, once ringed with little rolls of puppy fat, was now so slender it hardly looked strong enough to hold up his head. Even his legs had lost their roundness and looked almost stick-like, with blue veins showing through almost translucent skin.

As well as looking different on the outside there were differences on the inside. Whereas before the accident he was often demanding and unhappy, now it seemed that the Davie I knew, both the irritating and the lovable sides, had completely gone.

There was a lack of connection. If I tickled him he didn’t squirm or chortle with laughter. Instead he would just lie limply, his eyes looking at me with complete indifference. He never laughed, and the constant tears that had once annoyed me so much seemed to have dried up completely. A blank passiveness had replaced the emotions of grief, rage and occasional amusement that used to chase across his little face. He still had a deep connection with his friend Jimmy but I hardly ever heard them talking to each other.

When we arrived at school that first day back, Sister Claire took the little boys in the direction of the Infants and pushed me gently towards the more imposing doors that led to the Juniors.

‘You go in there now, Robbie,’ she instructed, ‘and I’ll see you at four o’clock.’

My new teacher, Mr Douglas, looked impatient at my lateness when I entered his classroom. I recognised my fellow classmates from the last term in the Infants, but they ignored me as usual. I saw Mr Douglas’s gaze sweep over me and I felt a sinking sensation. I recognised that look. It spoke more loudly to me than if he had said it out loud: ‘Bastard! I don’t like bastards in my class.’

I knew that the relative safety of the Infants had come to an end. This tall, thin man with sparse, greying hair and a thin little mouth obviously had no sympathy for the boys from Sacre Coeur.

My eyesight was very poor. In the Infants I had always managed to sit near the front of the class, but here all the other children had arrived early to claim their desk places so I was seated at the back. The blackboard and the writing on it was just a blur and classes that I had once enjoyed when sitting at the front now almost reduced me to tears.

‘You, Garner!’ Mr Douglas would demand at the beginning of the arithmetic class. ‘What’s the answer to that sum?’

However much I squinted at the board, the figures were indistinguishable. The first time it happened I tried to tell him that I couldn’t see what was on the board.

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