The Long Way Home by Phillip Overton
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Sally knew what had happened the moment Simon crept quietly into her classroom five minutes late and slunk down behind his desk. She had just finished marking the roll and the class was uneasily quiet as the other children’s stares now shifted to the young boy seated in the middle of the room, cap pulled down low over his eyes, head bowed and eyes staring absently at the desk in front of him. The only sound that could be heard was the clip-clopping of Miss McKenzie’s high heels across the linoleum floor. They stopped in front of Simon’s desk.
“Simon, you’re five minutes late to class.” She spoke softly. “Is everything okay?”
There was no reply as Simon continued to stare at the scratched surface of the wooden desk. Gingerly she placed her finger under his chin and gently raised his head until her eyes fell upon the sight of his swollen cheek. The gasp she let out took even her by surprise. There was no way of preparing herself for the abuse that was smashed across the young boys’ face. She swallowed back the knot of disgust that formed in her throat and tenderly helped Simon to his feet.
“Children open your math’s books.” She firmly instructed the rest of the class. “I want you to go through what we learnt yesterday again, I’ll be back in a few minutes time.”
She led Simon out into the hallway closing the classroom door behind her, shielding the two of them from the 28 pairs of prying eyes that had followed them across the room. Alone at last she crouched down beside him in the hallway, raising the cap that was pulled down tightly over his eyes and revealing the full extent of his injuries.
“Simon, I want you to be honest with me do you understand?” Her question met only with silence as his eyes again filled with tears. “You can trust me to take care of this, but I need you to be brave. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes.” Simon softly sniffed as he tried to hold all the hurt inside, but it was like a leaking dam wall. It was only a matter of moments until it was going to crack under the strain of emotion and spew forth a torrent of tears. He knew he could trust Sally enough to tell her what had happened, to be able to let out the ugly truth of what his mother had done to him, he only hoped he wasn’t going to get hurt again in the process.
“Did your mother do this to you?” Sally asked directly, her gaze not faltering from Simon.
“Yes.” Simon nodded quickly, lip trembling as the words spilt out at a hundred miles an hour. “She kept hitting me with the box of cling wrap after I found a birthday card she stole from me in the rubbish bin. Even when I was crying for her to stop she just kept hitting me and hitting me until I had blood all over my face. Then she kicked me in the stomach and threw me in my bedroom because I got blood all over her clean floor and I didn’t even get to have dinner.”
Simon felt too ashamed to look Sally in the eyes. He stared at the scuffed linoleum tiled floor in the hallway and watched as his own tears fell onto his worn, black school shoes. The dam wall had just burst.
“Where is your Mummy now Simon?” Sally asked him, trying to keep the lid closed tightly on the anger she felt towards Rowena building up inside her. If it wasn’t for Simon needing her right now, she wouldn’t have been able to stop herself from going over and giving the woman a taste of her own medicine.
“She’s at home on the lounge chair asleep.” Simon sobbed. “She had the man from across the road come over last night and they got really drunk and loud. I was too scared to get out of bed to go to the toilet and I wet the bed, and now I’m scared that when she finds out she is going to hit ….” His words trailed off into a blubbering mess of tears.
The physical damage may have been visible for all to see on his face but there was no way anyone could begin to measure the extent of damage inflicted deep inside. The skin would in time heal, but it was obvious that the scar this had left on the little boys’ heart ran deep, very deep.
“It’s going to be alright Simon.” She hugged him tightly as his little body began to shake. “We’re going to go to the principals’ office and get this all taken care of. I’ll see to it myself that this time you are placed in your Dad’s care so she can’t hurt you anymore. Now I want you to promise you’ll be brave for me, because we’re going to have to get the police to fill out a report and they will probably have to charge your mother. But you have to understand Simon that what your mother has done to you is wrong, it’s called child abuse and it isn’t the first time this has happened. Now take my hand and we’ll walk down to the principals’ office and do this together, okay?”
Simon nodded his head in agreement. As he got to his feet the tears and shame he felt gave way to a new feeling, butterflies welled in his stomach, his heart beat faster and his mind had already raced off ahead of him. Fear hit him hard, like a sharp blow to the stomach leaving him reeled over and gasping for air. ‘What if they didn’t let him stay with his father, what would his mother do when she found out he had dobbed her in to the teachers?’
As Sally McKenzie led Simon through the school reception and straight into the principals’ office, his mother’s voice rang loudly through his already confused head. ‘If anyone asks you about the bruise on your face tomorrow, you’d better lie and tell them that some high school kids beat you up on the way to school. If you don’t, and I get as much as a phone call from the school, then there’ll be hell to pay when you get home.’