Abandoned (6 page)

After they had all finished their meals, Brian and Jonathon thanked the Beatties for their hospitality and said their goodbyes.

‘I assure you both, the pleasure was all ours, and we can’t wait to see you back here soon, Jonathon,’ Mr Beattie said, as they made their way out of the door and towards the parked car at the end of the lane.

‘See, Jonathon, that wasn’t so bad was it?’ Brian asked, as they got into the car.

Jonathon, bursting with newfound excitement, decided to engage with Brian for the first time in months, as normally he blamed Brian for all the upheaval and failed placements he has been through. Wide-eyed, sensing his life was about to change for the better, he
finally dropped his guard.

‘I can’t wait, it’s going to be great being so close to all those animals every day.’

‘And what about the Beatties?’ Brian then asked him.

‘Oh, they seem pretty cool, too,’ came his reply, as they made their way out of the farm and away from the Beattie household.

A week later, Jonathon moved into his new home with the Beatties and totally threw himself into farm living. He wanted to know all about the cows, sheep and goats that they kept, and would follow Jim everywhere asking question after question. He quickly settled into the responsibilities that came with looking after so many animals, and soon learnt how everything worked. He would help Jim to milk the cows every day, and the two of them started to build up what Jonathon thought to be a strong mutual friendship. For the first time since his parents had passed away, he started to accept that they were gone and he had to start a new life for himself. In that moment, he decided he was going to behave for the Beatties and try to become part of the family. Even Amber had taken a liking to him, and the two of them were becoming inseparable.

***

Jonathon was enrolled and started to attend Silloth Junior School two weeks after moving into the farm, and he soon started making new friends and learning to trust again after being let down all too often in his short life. Everything was really starting to look up for him and he was starting to enjoy life again.

Then, one night, about a month into his stay there, he was awoken around midnight by raised voices. Mr Beattie and his wife were having a heated argument in the kitchen. He could barely make out what was being said, but he could, however, sense the anger and venom in Jim’s tone. He also heard Edna telling Jim to lower his voice so as not to wake Jonathon.

He was taken aback and shocked to hear Jim’s reply.

‘FUCK THAT LITTLE SHIT! IF HE WAKES UP I’LL PUT HIM BACK TO SLEEP, THE CHEEKY LITTLE BASTARD!’

Jonathon did not know what to make of this, as he’d thought Mr Beattie genuinely liked him. He laid there in his bed not knowing why he had angered Jim, pondering what he could have possibly done to upset him. He didn’t know at this time, but Jim would sometimes go out with his friends to the local pubs and drink copious amounts of whiskey before staggering home and becoming abusive towards his wife Edna, often becoming physical towards her too. She had become accustomed to his ways and accepted it as part of her marriage to him, but all Jonathon could do was just lie there, frozen in his bed as he listened to the shouting going on downstairs from Mr Beattie, and then the inevitable sobbing and whimpering from Edna thereafter.

***

The next morning at breakfast, the first thing Jonathon noticed was the swollen cut on Edna’s lip, along with the black eye she had sustained the night before at her husband’s hand. Jim was nowhere to be seen, as he was still sleeping off the after effects of last night’s liquor. Jonathon had never witnessed anything like this before, as he had never even heard his parents argue, let alone become violent. He wondered if he was to blame.

Edna, sensing the look of shock and fear in his face, swiftly tried to put the boy at ease, and tried to play it down by saying she had tripped on the tiled kitchen floor after mopping before bed. Jonathon knew she was lying but chose to accept her version of events so as not to rock the boat. As he left that morning for school, he once again felt isolated and alone; he had an overwhelming feeling that this was to become yet another failed placement. He still believed that it must’ve been his fault that Jim had struck his wife, and therefore decided he must try harder to please him so that it didn’t happen again.

The couple of days that followed were very tentative for Jonathon, as he did his utmost to please Jim, trying to regain the relationship they had prior to the incident in the kitchen that night, as he really had felt a sense of belonging before that had happened and just wanted everything back the way it was. He convinced himself that it must have been a one off, while Jim just continued as though nothing had ever happened. One thing Jonathon knew in his mind though, was that he was sure he did not want to anger him; he was scared Jim might just take it out on him the next time he came home drunk and angry. Jonathon just did as much as he could to help out from that day forward, and he would sometimes spend hours after school tending to the cattle with his new best friend, Amber, by his side. He tried desperately to prove to Jim that it was worth keeping him around, but also, he didn’t to be in the firing line if something was to happen.

That day didn’t come until seven weeks after that initial incident. Jonathon, by this time, had settled back into a routine, and had tried to forget about Edna’s bruised and swollen features. If truth be known, he even started to question the realness of the incident in his own mind — it was as if he had dreamt it. He didn’t want to have a distorted picture of Jim, the man he respected and looked up to for a giving him a home in this picturesque surrounding, the man who had taken him in and befriended him. Before that night, Jonathon had even thought of him as a father figure. Yet after that one evening, seven weeks later, the young boy’s opinion of Jim was to alter forever.

Whilst lying in his bed, not quite awake, but not yet sound asleep, Jonathon was startled by raised voices again coming from downstairs, but this time there were more than just Jim and Edna’s voices. He thought he could also make out the distinct West Cumbrian twang of his Social worker, Brian. This immediately got his young, curious mind thinking. Were they talking about him? Had the Beatties finally had enough of him and called in Brian to come and collect him during the night? With
these thoughts of uncertainty racing through his head, he decided he would creep downstairs and listen to what was being said.

As he got to the bottom of the stairs, he was certain at this point that it was definitely Brian’s voice that he could hear, but still wasn’t sure at this stage of the reason for his visit. As Jonathon crept around in the hall, he was quite surprised to hear Jim and Brian casually chatting away and laughing together. Still puzzled by what was happening, he entered the kitchen under the pretence of needing a drink.

As Jonathon made his way towards the sink, he could clearly see Jim and Brian sat around the dining room table. The two men were smoking cigars, and in front of them were two glasses of whiskey; the rest of the half-empty bottle lay close by. Edna was busy attending to the laundry and preparing to iron Jonathon’s school clothes for the following day.

‘Hey, look who it is!’ Jim said, slurring his words slightly. ‘Come say hello to “Uncle Brian”, son. He’s come to see how you are getting on. I’ve told him you’re doing just grand, isn’t that right, Jonathon?’

All Jonathon could offer in reply was, ‘Yes, everything’s going really well, I like it here, Brian.’ He poured himself a glass of water at the kitchen sink.

‘Well then, son, come and sit with us for a while and tell Brian all about what you have been doing here.’

Jonathon’s panic at the thought of being moved had now subsided as he approached the table where the two men were sat. Mr Beattie playfully ran his sweaty hand through Jonathon’s hair, then picked him up and placed him on his knee. Jonathon didn’t know what to say or do as Jim had never done this before, so he just went along with it to show a united front to Brian to reaffirm just how comfortable he was living on the Beatties’ farm.

Edna, sensing an overwhelming familiarity in her drunken husband’s behaviour, tried to coax Jonathon away from the men and back to his bedroom.

Jim just dismissed her. ‘Have you not got things you
need to be doing, woman?’

Edna knew by the tone of his voice not to argue, and reluctantly exited the room, a sense of foreboding of what was to come next embedded at the forefront of her mind.

‘I’ve just been telling Brian what a good little helper you have been around here, Jonathon, and how we would be lost without you now. You have been practically running the farm single-handed lately.’

Jonathon, feeling a sense of pride and acknowledgement for his efforts over the past few weeks, started to relax and relay to Brian all the things he had been occupying his time with, his mouth spewing out words before his mind could process them. Everything was going well until Jonathon accidentally told Brian about the incident with Jim and his wife seven weeks earlier.

Jonathon knew just how much of a mistake he had made as soon as the words had left his mouth, but it was too late, the damage had already been done: he had broken Jim’s trust. He knew he should have kept his mouth shut. As Jonathon dropped his head and looked at the floor, he failed to notice as Brian winked at Jim.

‘Is this true Jim?’ said Brian in mock-concern. He knew exactly how Jim was towards his wife, but he was of the same ilk as Jim and believed that women should be seen and not heard, and would also sometimes ‘discipline’ his own wife if she dared to ‘step out of line.’

‘Of course it’s not true, Brian,’ Jim responded. ‘That boy has got one vivid imagination, I tell you.’ He pushed Jonathon off his lap and ordered him to go to bed. ‘I will deal with you later!’

‘See Jonathon, if Mr Beattie here says it didn’t happen, then I believe him that it did not happen. And another thing, young man, you shouldn’t go around making accusations that aren’t true, especially against honest, hard-working people that were kind enough to give you a home. Now do as Jim says and get to your room!’

As Jonathon made his way out of the kitchen and through the hall, he could clearly make out Brian’s words to Jim.

‘Make sure you keep that boy disciplined, Jim, he can be a cheeky little shit at times. Don’t give him an inch as he will try and take the piss if you let him!’

‘Oh don’t you worry, mate, he will get what’s coming to him later, you mark my words!’ Jim replied.

‘Good, good, Jimmy boy, I’m just forewarning you as I’ve seen exactly what he can be like at previous placements, and I can assure you that that boy needs a firm hand.’

‘And it’s a firm hand he will get, believe me!’

Jonathon, after overhearing this, quickly ran to his room, jumped back into bed and covered himself with his duvet, hoping on the off-chance that Jim wasn’t actually serious about what he had just said. He thought that if he tried to get to sleep Jim might just leave him alone. This wasn’t to be the case however. As Jonathon lay there for what seemed like a decade, too afraid to go to sleep, he heard Jim see Brian out of the door and exchange goodbyes. Sheer panic set in to Jonathon’s now trembling body as he heard the loud thuds of Jim’s size ten boots coming ever closer up the stairs towards his bedroom. His panic soon became a reality as he watched as the handle turned. The door was flung open and he could see Jim’s large frame silhouetted in the doorway.

‘RIGHT YOU BIG MOUTHED LITTLE BASTARD, I’LL TEACH YOU TO KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT!’

Jonathon watched as Jim removed his solid, brass buckled belt before dragging him from his bed by his hair, then forcefully pulling down Jonathon’s pyjama bottoms and then proceeding to deliver lash after lash of the thick leather belt hard over his backside and tops of legs. The young boy screamed out for help in pain and distress, but as the farm covered many acres there was nobody to hear his screams. Nobody, of course, except Edna, who by this time was on tenterhooks on their sofa, cringing with every blow she heard. She hated herself for being too weak to intervene; instead she prayed for Jim to leave the boy alone.

Eventually Jonathon’s young body could take no more, and he went limp in Jim’s hands as he passed out through shock and pain and fell to the floor, laying there in a bloody heap.

Jim finally gave up and casually rethreaded his belt, straightened his hair, then made his way out of the bedroom and into the bathroom to get cleaned up before taking himself off to bed. Edna waited and waited until she was certain her husband was sleeping; she knew she was safe when she heard Jim snoring. She was shocked and horrified as she entered Jonathon’s room to find him still passed out on the carpet, his body a cold mess, with blood seeping from his fresh, open wounds.

She rushed to get her first aid kit and a warm, wet flannel from downstairs, then gently dabbed the sores and bandaged him up where he lay as he slowly regained his senses. She helped place the terrified boy back into his bed and tucked him in before giving him a kiss on his forehead and instructing him to try and get some rest. As Edna quietly crept out of the room, closing the door behind her, Jonathon just lay there, dumbfounded at what had just happened. He was still reeling from the excruciating pain radiating from his backside, sobbing and too afraid to move in the dark room. He prayed for someone to come and take him from this nightmare, and started to reminisce about his mum and dad. Oh, how he wished they was still alive and everything could go back to the way it once was!

***

This was to be the turning point in Jim and Jonathon’s relationship. From then on, Jim would treat Jonathon with pure contempt. Jonathon never did make it to school that next morning, as he could barely walk after the beating he had undertaken. Edna informed the school that he was unwell, and he had to stay home for the following week so nobody would be alerted to what had happened to him. This incident set a precedent for the following months,
and Jim would regularly beat and take out his frustrations on Jonathon every time he was intoxicated and stressed. The beatings became more and more vicious each time. Jim was even going as far as burning the boy all over his body with cigarettes, then urinating on the wounds. Every single time, Edna would fix Jonathon up and try and make excuses for her husband. As a result, the Beatties’ marriage became very strained, and any rare intimacy they shared was one sided and forced by Jim.