Mum’s boyfriend was called Dave Wilson, with no children from his previous marriage. I do not know why that marriage ended, maybe one of them had an affair? I do not know that that moment in time but I soon did! She always knew how to pick them! Dave was very intelligent, Mum told me. He worked for the biggest company in London, where he was the managing director. I can not remember exactly how old is Dave was, maybe late thirties, early forties. When Dave arrived, there was a family like environment. However, now it felt like it had changed. It was more similar to an atmosphere out of a horror movie. I put this down to not having a man in my life for so long.
The following day, I went and visited Dad’s grave. I just sat there. I thought it would look ludicrous if I started talking to a burial mound. The cemetery was peaceful. The only sounds that I could detect were the creaking of the gate leading to the church, the distant sound of the traffic on the M25, the hooting of impatient drivers and the screeching of tyres as the cars and lorries, as they began moving. This all meant that there was either an accident or that someone had broken down in the fast lane. I reminisced on everything that happened last night, I did not want another man in my life, and all I wanted was my Dad! I began crying. At this time, I did not care if anyone at all saw me, all my friends knew. All I could hear in my head was my dad saying to me:
“I will always be with you, no matter what happens. I’ll love you for eternity. You are my baby girl, Sophia.”
With this in my head, I wandered lazily and wearily home, occasionally glancing drearily at the items in the shop windows. All the items reminded me of all the joyful times that Dad and I went shopping together for Christmas, birthday and anniversary presents. Abruptly, something caught my eye. It was Mum. She was in a jeweller’s with Dave, looking at rings - engagement rings. My heart felt as if it had been ripped out of my body, whilst I was still alive. How could she think of replacing dad in our family?
I ran as quickly as I could. All my mind kept replaying, was Mum and Dave kissing each other whilst in the jewellers. When I finally reached the back door, I again broke down into tears. I liked Dave but there was no way that I was going to let him replace my dad. I knew in my heart of hearts that, Mum marrying Dave would help her to overcome the loss that we both had encountered. I felt angry, sad and happy all at the same time. Angry because Mum was marrying Dad and ‘forgetting’ about Dad, sad that this marriage would include all of the family portraits of me, mum and dad taken off the walls to be replaced by pictures of Mum and Dave on their special day. The emotion of happiness come from the feeling of being a proper family now but I knew that no one and nothing could make me forget about the delightful memories about mum, dad and me on holidays, on days out or whenever we were all together enjoying being a family. I realised that this marriage would make me a normal child again with 2 loving, caring and supportive parents, like everyone I knew at school.
The wedding happened on the 22nd of July in Barbados, with the sun-shining overhead representing the joy and happiness that marriage portrays. The rays of sunlight reflected off the tranquil sea then rebounded away from the mirror that was placed at the end of the aisle, so all the guests could see Mum and Dave’s expressions whilst the ceremony was taking place. Mum looked exquisite in her scalloped white lace dress complete with her sun-kissed skin. Dave was dressed in a white suit reminding me of a famous film star at the Oscars. I was dressed in a purple long, elegant dress that looked exactly like what Mum had worn on her prom night at university. I could tell by Mum’s expressions that she was ecstatic, reminding me of a newly decorated room with the sunlight boomeranging of the freshly hung wallpaper.
After the honeymoon, everything went downhill. Mum was always stressed, Dave was never at home and I was left to do all of the housework, cook the tea and get the best possible grades in my GCSEs that I could. What was I? Cinderella or something! The day that most stands out was the day when Dave came home in a very bad mood. He was just like the eye of a tornado, destroying everything that was in his way. His company had lost a major contract, which was worth billions. As normal, I gave him, the evening paper and a large beer. He grunted as he excepted them. I went upstairs to finish my GCES English creative writing coursework, when Dave hollered for me. I turned off my CD player and went down.
He grabbed me by my left ear, causing it to go as red as a lobster that had just been cooked and threw me across the room literally. From there, he punched, kicked and shouted abuse at me. This went on for what felt like hours. I could not scream, his hands were on my mouth and around my neck. I kicked and punched him in retaliation, finally managing to break free. This went on for months, every time that I told Mum what Dave was doing to me, she just told me to stop being;
”a childish, selfish, spoilt brat. Get used to having Dave in your life as he is my husband and there is nothing that you can do!” It was like she was oblivious to everything that was happening.
From there, my coursework and schoolwork went downhill. I began receiving detentions for my ‘hopeless excuses’. My grades went from A*s to Ds. The only teacher noticed that something was wrong was my Physical Education teacher, Miss Mackrory. After one swimming lesson, she asked to see me after I had finished getting changed.
“Sophia, I noticed whilst you were swimming that you have many bruises on your arms and legs. And dear, your foundation has come off, revealing the bruises on your face. Is there something that you want to tell me? I promise that I will not tell anyone if you don’t want me too.”
“No miss, I am just very clumsy that’s all.”
When I got home, I rushed upstairs and packed all of my clean clothes and my money into a bag and took it downstairs. I was planning to run away. I rung Mum and said that I was going to sleepover at my mate’s house where she was having a massive study party and was going to be home tomorrow after school. This was a major lie but it gave me time to get away without Mum and Dave noticing that I had run away.
I brought a travel card to Milton Keynes and boarded the next train that would take me there. It felt very strange being on a train all on my own. I felt as if I was stranded on a desert island! People kept asking me where were my parents, which led to digging myself into a mammoth pit of lies. I kept saying that I was going to stay with my grandparents for the week as I was on work experience, working with my Nan at her office, and that they were picking me up from the train station. When I reached Milton Keynes station, I made a mad dash for it off the platform.
I was starving as I hadn’t had anything since lunchtime, which was 6 hours ago. My mind kept wandering back to home where Mum and Dave would be sitting on the settee all snuggled up together. I found the nearest McDonalds and ordered a big Mac meal. I knew that this would be the last proper meal in ages that I would be eating. My first duty was to find somewhere to sleep. I knew sleeping in a shop doorway was going to be risky because surely a police officer would find me and take me back home to Mum and Dave. The only option I had was to sleep on a park bench.
In the morning, I went to the nearby supermarket and brought a pack of peanuts and two bottles of water. I hate peanuts but it was the only way that I would not die of starvation. I did not want to end up like the dogs you see on Animal Hospital. I wandered around the shopping centres and the shops. Occasionally I thought of phoning my best mate, to tell her that I was not very well and would not be in school, but then I remembered that she would skip a few periods to come round and keep me company. However, then she would ring my mum and tell her that I was not at home. Mum would then tell her that I was at school with her, which would lead to Mum ringing my phone, me answering it and her yelling where was I and what the hell did I think I was doing.
Unaware to me, at home my mum was worrying herself senseless. She had rung Becca to tell me that I had to come home, as something had already been arranged, which she had forgotten to tell me when I rang her at work. Becca had told her that she had no idea what mum was talking about and that the last time she had seen me was on the bus home from school yesterday. This had sparked off a police hunt in London and the media had got involved. I was on the telly and I did not even know. People had been ringing Crimestoppers giving possible sightings of me and what time that they had seen me at.
As I was about to spend my second night away from home, I was spotted by a passer-by, who then went to the police station and reported where I was sleeping. For the second time in a year, the police were involved with my family and me. What was I, a criminal of something? I was taken to the station where they said that they were going to ring the Metropolitan police force and tell them that I had been found safe and well. Before they did this, I decided that the time was right to tell them why I had run away and what was happening at home.
As I had been assigned to a friendly policewoman, I decided to tell her. I told her everything. I told her that it was Dave that was abusing me and that mum had been oblivious to it all. I think at first, she did not quite believe my story until I showed her my bruises. By this time I was covered in them, like a Dalmatian was with spots. She made me write down everything that had happened and pictures of my bruised physique were taken. I was given plenty of fluids and food to eat and then I was assigned a comfortable room to sleep in until Mum and Dave arrived. Before I fell asleep, I thought I saw and heard my dad saying that I had done the right thing in telling the police everything about Dave but the answer to your problems is not to run away.
When Mum and Dave arrived to collect me, Dave was taken in to be questioned about the accusations that I had made. Unfortunately, Dave denied everything and was released on police bail. At home, Mum was informed that a social worker was involved and if she believed that one or both of my parents were abusing me, then I would be taken into care. I did not want to end up like the children in “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” and “Oliver”. An hour before the social worker arrived, Dave confused everything to Mum and gave her an ultimatum: Him or me. Lucky for me and unluckily for Dave, Mum chose me. She said that she would rather be a single parent than be childless. Unaware to Dave, whilst Mum was making up her mind to the ultimatum, I had rung the police, telling them that Dave had just confused everything to Mum and I had caught everything said on a Dictaphone that could be used as evidence in court.
Dave was sentenced to 10 years in jail, with the judge calling him a bad-tempered man who was allergic to children which lead to his obsession of abusing them until they were so badly hurt that they would give to the fight to live. It had been revealed that in Dave’s previous marriage, he had had a daughter, (who would have been about 5 years older than me), whom he severely abused, leading into her committing suicide. In my opinion he was like the greyhounds chasing down the poor, defenceless rabbit in a race that had done nothing to them. Everything went back to normal after Dave went to jail. My grades improved leading to me receiving 1 A*, 6 As and 5 Bs in my GCSEs. This lead to Mum taking me to New York of a week on a massive shopping spree, which had be wonderful. After I finished in Year 11, Mum and I moved to Lancashire were hopefully, nothing like this would ever happen again. However I had feeling that something suspicious was going to happen!
