One Young Fool in South Africa by Joe Twead

One Young Fool in South Africa by Joe Twead

Author:Joe Twead
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: coming of age, child abuse, south africa, family relationships, two old fools, victoria twead, old fools, johannesburg south africa
Publisher: Ant Press


21

Oddballs and Bad Behaviour

With so many boys at the Home, there were bound to be some oddballs. Macky had an uncanny ability to assign nicknames that stuck to various individuals.

One boy, for example, always tapped his foot on the ground when uncertain about anything, especially when claiming innocence for some misdemeanour of which he was clearly guilty. In Mad, a popular magazine doing the rounds, a character (I forget which one) always tapped his foot on the ground. To highlight the behaviour, the cartoonist had inserted toc, toc, toc above the character’s foot. Macky quickly identified the similarity to that of the boy and from then on the poor chap acquired the nickname of Toc Toc.

To discover if Toc Toc was guilty of a crime, one had only to ask him. For instance: “Toc Toc, were you late for prep tonight?”

If Toc Toc denied the charge without moving a muscle, he was innocent. If he was guilty, his toe would hammer a rat-a-tat on the ground. He would also break out into a sweat and show signs of extreme agitation. The odd thing was, when these traits were pointed out to him, his guilty behaviour escalated to the point where we had to calm the poor chap down.

Another boy, Fonebone, arrived at the Home a few years after I did. Fonebone, also a character in Mad, was the nickname Macky allocated him soon after his arrival. Poor Fonebone suffered from epileptic fits.

Before his arrival, we boys needed to be instructed on how to handle any patient afflicted with the malady. Sister McArdle, the Home’s live-in Matron and responsible for all things medical, was on hand to explain everything to us.

“He will behave oddly,” she began, “doing strange things like standing in front of a wall and perhaps talking to it. Don’t be alarmed. Simply follow him around and make sure he doesn’t do anything to harm himself. When the fit is over, he will lie down and sleep. If he is wearing a tie, loosen it and take off his shoes. Make him comfortable. Make sure he isn’t lying on his back because he could swallow his tongue. In a few hours he will wake up and carry on as if nothing has happened. He will be fine then until the next attack. Any questions?”

“Why does he have fits?” somebody asked.

“Stress, probably, so try to make things easy for him. I should mention that he might bubble around his nose and mouth. It’s just mucous and will need to be wiped away.”

We stared uncertainly at one another, unsure that we liked the sound of that.

“Any other questions?”

We had none. When Fonebone arrived we all stared at him as if he was some kind of freak. The expected fit soon arrived and Fonebone behaved just as Sister McArdle had described. We religiously followed him around and, when he frothed, we wiped his mouth and face and when finally he lay down to sleep, we undid his shoes and left him to sleep under a table.



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