I Hear You Calling Page 11

  ‘I will,’ Janet said hesitantly. ‘But I can’t let Chris know that I am giving any credibility to the medical thing, he’s not…. well, he’s not good at the moment you see…all this is…’ She sprang to her feet.

  ‘I have to go now, he will be wondering where I am. Can you do anything to help us………please?’

  My heart went out to this poor woman; I recognised the pressure she was under all too well, but all this mumbo jumbo was really muddying the waters for me. I really wanted to help but I honestly didn’t know how.

  ‘I’ll see what I can do,’ I told her. ‘I will have a word with Mrs Wilkes but I can’t make any promises. In the meantime you speak with Tom and your GP.’

  She reached out and took my hand in hers. ‘Thank you so much Rae, I am so glad you are here to help.’

  Standing in the office doorway I watched Janet disappearing onto the busy street and could not help identifying the ironic link between us. We both knew about being at the mercy of a control freak.

  ‘You might not put so much faith in my help if you knew my story Janet’ I said softly.

  ……………………

  Carol Wilkes sat back in her leather executive chair and raised her tortoiseshell glasses onto the top of her head before she gave me a look that made me want to crawl under my chair.

  ‘What do you expect me to do?’ she asked in a voice that made me think of steel girders. ‘The man is refusing to send his child to school; when the boy does come to school he is not really engaging in education and certainly not socialising with his peers. He is clearly mentally ill and causing great distress to my school. Mr Banks is now threatening my governors with a court case. And you want me to help you to move him over to another school without warning the Head of that school about what he or she is letting themselves in for?’

  I sighed deeply, she certainly had a point.

  ‘I just wanted to try Richard with a fresh start,’ I tried to explain. ‘And, as you have just rightly pointed out, any Head knowing his situation here would not be giving him a truly fresh start; they would be constantly looking for it to be happening to them.’

  ‘And so they should be,’ Carol’s voice rose then. ‘You cannot expect me to land a colleague in this situation without preparing them. I can’t and won’t do it and I also think it is unprofessional of you to even suggest it.’

  ‘Then we are trapped,’ I told her. ‘You can’t permanently exclude the boy for any of those reasons you said earlier, not completing his work, not having friends or being mentally ill; so that means you are stuck with him and his annoying father.’

  “Well, in view of the fact that he is currently keeping the boy at home, I rather think the next step will be that I will move to prosecute Mr and Mrs Banks under attendance legislation. I am rather busy Miss Simpson, so I am going to have to end this meeting now. I cancelled something else to fit you in this afternoon and, to be honest, I am now regretting it.’

  I was fuming as I drove home. There was no way any Head would accept a new pupil without speaking to the previous Head about the child. Of course Carol was right, I shouldn’t even be suggesting that we go underhand on this, but it was a catch 22 situation. How on earth could we resolve this if no one was prepared to compromise at all? And in the meantime a nine year old boy was out of education and getting more and more withdrawn. They were damaging him, mentally and emotionally, in their power struggle and it seemed that only Janet and myself could see it. Stopping the car in a lay by I reached for my mobile phone.

  ‘Tom, sorry to bother you but I really need to talk to you about Chris Banks.’

  ‘What’s he doing now?’ Tom sounded a little resigned to the fact that any news of this man was going to be negative or at least difficult.

  ‘Refusing to send Richard to school and looking to bring legal action against them for refusing to allow his son his human rights.’

  There was a huge sigh from the other end of the phone then silence

  Are you still there?’ I asked.

  ‘I’m here, just not sure what to say.’

  ‘Surely you don’t agree with him?’

  ‘Yes and No,’ Tom answered slowly. ‘Yes I agree that our religion warrants as much respect as everyone else’s but No, of course I don’t agree with the way Chris is making his stand.’

  ‘Well, the other bad news is that, now, the Head is taking up the same approach and is threatening to sue him for refusing to send his son to school.’

  ‘Clash of the Titans,’ Tom suggested.

  ‘Exactly, with a supporting cast that, sadly, includes you and me.’

  ‘I was never any good at drama.’

  ‘Me neither, but I think we may both have a role to play here as the voice of reason.’

  ‘OK, I’ll give it a shot. What do you want me to do?’

  ‘Can you meet me at their house tomorrow afternoon at two so that we can try a two pronged attack to move things forward?’

  Tom

  Of course I agreed to meet with Rae and the Banks’ – how could I not? To be honest though I wasn’t holding my breath for a positive outcome.

  I had never before met a man with as much anger in him as Chris Banks and I didn’t believe it was all about his son. Something else had pushed Chris to the edge before this all happened I was sure. How do you reason with someone who is desperate for a fight?

  I felt some sympathy for Rae, who had to try to find the reasoned way out of this, but, to be frank, she could come across as very cold and self-righteous sometimes, which gave Chris another challenge he couldn’t resist rising to. That’s my opinion anyway.

  So I set out for our meeting with some trepidation, and quite rightly so as it happened.

  Rae

  I watched through the rear view mirror as Tom parked his car behind mine; I had been waiting in my car for ten minutes for him to arrive but I didn’t care, I was just determined not to have to go into that house and face it alone.

  Tom gave me a coy wink as he rang the doorbell and it felt good to realise that he was probably dreading this as much as I was. Although we could see the car in the drive there was no response to the doorbell.

  ‘Strange, I told them we were coming.’

  ‘Try again,’ I suggested.

  The front door opened slowly after the second peal of the doorbell and only partially; over Tom’s shoulder I could just see the top of Janet’s head.

  ‘It’s not a good time,’ she whispered.

  Tom, towering over the woman, could obviously see straight into the house; he stepped forward slightly, deliberately completely blocking my view so that I could only see his broad back.

  ‘Chris,’ Tom spoke in the softest tone. ‘What are you trying to do here…? What is this about?’

  ‘I am not trying to do anything,’ Chris’ voice was equally subdued. ‘This happened naturally, as soon as you two walked up our drive.’

  I could contain myself no longer. Pushing past Tom I entered the hallway, from where I could see Richard sitting very upright in the armchair that I had sat in last time. The boy was as pale as alabaster and had a sort of vacant expression on his small face.

  ‘Excuse me, could someone tell me what is going on?’ I was annoyed by all this drama.

  ‘Richard has gone into an altered state of consciousness.’ Janet whispered.

  Suddenly the hallway went freezing cold even though it was a gorgeous spring day outside. Richard turned his head and looked at me, well, it felt like he looked at me but actually both of his eyes were tightly closed. His mouth started to move a little as if he was trying to open it but was finding it difficult.

  And then that voice again, sounding so very like my own Dad.

  ‘Rae, be careful. You need to be careful. You are not safe.’

  I stood perfectly still, every hair on my body was s
tanding up on end I’m sure, and my heart was racing.

  Instantly the cold feeling was replaced by the warmth of the afternoon sun shining through the window by the front door and the electric atmosphere that had gripped them all disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.

  And then a burning ball of anger ran through me. How dare they resort to this?

  ‘I don’t know what is going on here, but I will not be frightened off with your stupid smoke and mirrors stuff.’

  Tom tried to take hold of my arm, but I brushed him off furiously.

  ‘Did you arrange this with them?’ Is this your idea of getting sympathy for the cause? It’s ridiculous, blowing cold air at me and getting someone to copy my Dads voice…..you are all insane.’ To my own surprise I burst into tears.

  ‘Rae – we have no idea what your father’s voice sounds like – how could we have?’ Tom said.

  ‘It is such a cruel trick,’ I sobbed. Coming so close to the kidnapping of Barney this was just too much. Professional image or not I couldn’t control my emotions.

  ‘There may well be consequences for all of you when I report this back to my director,’ I flung back at them as I stumbled back to my car.

  My hands shook so much I couldn’t get the key into the ignition; I could hear my own breathing, shallow and raspy but my mind was quiet, it had given up on even trying to make sense of anything right then. Eventually I felt able to drive away from the wretched house and head towards home. Whenever a memory or thought about what had just happened popped into my head I began to sing loudly to shut it out.

  “Is this the real life?

  Is it just fantasy?

  Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality...”

  Richard

  At least now I know who the “nightmare” man is – he’s Rae’s dad.

  So, Rae is sitting in her car outside and I am watching her while Dad is pacing up and down the living room and Mum is telling him to stop it, he is going to wear the carpet out.

  Then Tom pulls up in his big four by four car and Rae starts to get out of her car. That’s when I hear him, I mean really hear him, clearly this time.

  ‘I need your help,’ he says in my ear.

  Then I feel the hamsters moving around. I must make a noise or something ‘cos Mum and Dad both turn and look at me. Then the mist comes.

  Next thing I know Rae is storming off down the path, Tom is running after her, Mum is crying and Dad is smiling.

  I am feeling dizzy and a bit sick so I know that I have done something again.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘Her Dad came through you and spoke to her,’ Dad laughs.

  ‘It’s not funny Chris, the poor woman was scared to death.’

  ‘Not that one,’ Dad says. ‘She won’t let herself believe that it might be real.’

  ‘She is the only one who might be able to help with the school change,’ Mum sounds really angry now. ‘We can’t afford to upset her like this. I need to ring her tomorrow and apologise.’

  Then Dad’s face goes a bit purple and he splutters when he tries to speak and little bits of spit come out of the corners of his mouth. In the end he gives up, snatches his car keys from the hall table and storms out, again. Dad has got really good at storming out.

  I lie down on the sofa and Mum fetches me a glass of water and sits next to me wiping my forehead until I feel better. Then she gives me a big cuddle and fetches me a great big dish of strawberry ice-cream from the freezer.

  ‘Are you and Dad getting divorced?’ I am licking the very last bits of ice cream from my spoon when I pluck up the courage to ask.

  ‘Divorced? Of course not. Sometimes people argue Richard but it doesn’t always mean they need to get a divorce.’

  ‘I know a few kids whose parents did need to get a divorce. Some of them say it’s not too bad ‘cos they get to have two bedrooms and lots of days out and stuff. But I think I’d rather you and Dad didn’t do it if you can help it.’

  Mum does that thing, where she sounds like she’s laughing but her face looks like its crying.

  ‘I’m sure it won’t come to that pumpkin.’

  She hasn’t called me pumpkin since I was about six. I like it, it makes me feel a bit warm inside.

  ‘OK,’ I tell her. But I’m not sure that I really believe her.

  Rae

  My brain was scrambled. Every time I tried not to think of it I kept remembering his voice. How did they do that? Tom was right, of course they had no idea what my Dad sounded like, but I knew he sounded just like that voice coming out of Richard’s mouth.

  But it had to be a trick, an illusion. I had seen Derran Brown on TV when he did it and he said it was a trick but he didn’t really explain how he did it. Could a nine year old boy be capable of mastering such an illusion?

  Was it me? Was I so desperate to hear my Dad that I made it into his voice?

  But I didn’t believe in this stuff so why would I do that?

  Was Tom in on it? Had he helped to engineer this illusion?

  I had so many questions and absolutely no answers, but I did know that if I kept going over and over it in my head I was going to go insane. Grabbing Barney’s lead from the hook in the kitchen I decided to walk as far away from the woods as possible – there was no way I wanted to bump into Tom Little right now.

  One thing I did come to a decision on as I walked was that I needed to sort things out with this family once and for all. If that didn’t work out then I would pass them over to the attendance officer and then I would never have to see these people again.

  But I couldn’t risk another “evening with Doris Stokes”, so I decided to invite them into the office for a meeting and ask Pam to attend and take minutes. Hopefully this would let the Banks’ know that things had moved onto another level.

  First thing the next morning I asked Pam to arrange the meeting for me and before I could begin anything else my phone rang.

  ‘I need your help with a pupil. I know it sounds ridiculous,’ the Head of Wassell Road Primary continued, ‘but this Reception child, who is no bigger than a toddler, is terrorising my school.’

  Reaching out for my notepad I asked, ‘What exactly is he doing?’

  ‘It’s a she; a sweet looking angelic girl who bites, kicks and punches everyone she comes into contact with and her language is unrepeatable. Of course she has a single mother and 3 siblings with 3 different fathers.’

  That call took me well into the next hour. When I put the receiver down Pam was hovering close by my desk.

  ‘You don’t want Tom Little at this meeting do you?’ she asked.

  ‘I don’t, but they will, so we may as well invite him from the start and save having Chris on the phone blasting us out about his human rights to have representation.’

  Pam put her head back into her work and said nothing. Which was slightly unusual. She lifted her head again five minutes later to check that tomorrow afternoon would be ok for me; when I said yes, that was fine, her head went back down again. Now, I wasn’t the world’s most sensitive person but even I could tell that her mood had suddenly changed.

  I was finding people very complicated at the moment and couldn’t wait to get home to Barney, he was so consistent.

  Richard

  ‘We have been asked to attend a meeting at the Education Offices,’ Mum says as she walked into the kitchen with the phone still in her hand. ‘It seems that Rae Simpson is unable to make a home visit right now.’

  ‘What did you tell them?’ Dad looks up from his newspaper.

  ‘I said yes, we would be there.’

  ‘Do I have to go?’ I ask, hoping she would say no.

  ‘I think you do sweetie. It’s about your school after all.’

  I don’t want to see Rae ever again, not after what had happened. I know she will be angr
y with me.

  ‘I’m not going,’ I say.

  ‘You are going,’ Dad sounds annoyed with me. ‘Otherwise it looks like we have something to feel guilty about.’

  ‘But I do feel guilty,’ I try to explain.

  Dad throws his newspaper down on the table and pushes his chair back, he stands over me like a huge bridge.

  ‘You will not feel guilty, you have done nothing wrong. Do you hear me?’

  Of course I can hear him, he is shouting right by my ear. I want to tell him then that I am fed up of making people upset and angry. I just want them to like me. But I know he won’t listen so I just nod my head.

  ‘We will all go to Miss Simpson’s bloody meeting and make sure that she does her job and finds you another school.’

  Then he grabs his car keys and goes out, again.

  I have done it again haven’t I? Managed to get Dad angry and when I look at Mum she looks a bit upset. God, I hate being me.

  ‘Come here,’ Mum whispers, opening her arms to me. ‘You are much braver and stronger than you think you are, you know.’

  I don’t feel either brave or strong – I feel guilty for causing all of this, I feel sad about not going to school and I feel scared of meeting Rae again.

  Suddenly I feel my cheek go all wet and it is Mum, she is crying as she holds me.

  ‘I will go to the meeting mum, don’t cry now.’

  ***

  I look at my alarm clock, it’s one in the morning and Dad is shaking me to wake me up.

  ‘Richard, I love you and we will get things better.’

  The smell of whisky on stale breath makes me feel a bit sick. I just nod, I am still half asleep really.

  ‘I know you don’t believe me, but I promise I’ll look after you.’

  My lips are dry and it’s hard to open them.

  ‘I know Dad, can I go back to sleep now?’

  ‘Aye, close your eyes now.’