The steam rose from her silhouette on the tarmac, the sound of excited squeals coming from the poolside.. she ran up to the apartment just as the buzzer went. Her mum spoke into it and then rushed down and outside to fetch the copper headed girl who had sneaked into the pool with another family. Only accompanied children could go in.....she had been accompanied...just not by HER family!.....
They drew up outside of a house with a huge yard, a dozen huskies were milling about in the snow. They got out and were invited in through the gates. The steam from the dogs' breath, and the smell of wet hay filled the air. Damp clean animal fur always smells of wet hay.....
The creek was glittering in the sunshine as it babbled contently winding its way through the woods and fields. The smell of steaks being barbecued, and sounds of laughter filled the air. The tallest girl quietly approached her sleeping father and she proceeded to drop a t-shirt full of garter snakes all over him. He jumped up with a shriek! The girls ran!!!.......
As they walked down the bank, treading carefully to avoid slipping down the slope in the snow, they reached the icy creek. They heard the others following, then running. She was pushed from behind and hit the ice with her head, her sister had slipped into the water below a crack in the ice. The others ran off. Her mum put her into a warm bath to prevent or treat frostbite, whilst holding a cloth to the gash in the other ones head.
The roar of the BOEING 747 engines dulled as they reached the higher altitude. Sister on one side and big Ted the other. The stewardess asked if they wanted to hand out chewing sweets to passengers after they'd visited the captain in the cockpit. As they filed out of the airport they saw two women, mum was one, waiting for them. The air in Britain seemed different, the towns were different.
As she tried to find a place in the playground that was quiet she was relentlessly pursued by children who wanted her to 'talk'. they were intrigued by the accent. The bullying started but didn't stop here, following her to secondary school too. This school was even more terrifying. Nearly every pupil was black, mixed or Asian. There had been no ethnic diversity in Canada or junior school.
As I unlocked the front door, my sister came in from out front. We ran up the stairs to our flat and more importantly,the kitchen, where we scavenged for something to eat. Mum wouldn't be home until 7, so we had time to do as we pleased. My friend, who'd come home with us had, unbeknownst to us locked the front door and thrown the key away. Her mum had her climb out of the upstairs window onto her shoulders and took her home. Mum didn't have a spare key, so after returning from work to discover she was locked out and us in, had to call a locksmith to change the locks.
During all of these and the next few years I had no clue as to what sort of things were happening to my younger sister.
She'd been abused by the paper boy in the cellars-(he was learning disabled, they called him a retard), was being groomed and groped by a man 10 doors down, and my friends' dad across the road, and even a supply teacher from our secondary school 'befriended' her and took loads of pictures.
It sometimes feels as though I lived a whole different life from her.
As time went on she was to suffer more abuse at the hands of men. A young man 'kidnapped' her taking her to a building site and under threat from a knife she had to perform orally to arouse him.....a boyfriend a few years later damaged her reproductive parts, years later she was sexually assaulted by three men when she went to the off license to buy some cigarettes at night, and she went on to have a relationship with a dominator before living a short time on her own.
She now, once again lives on her own. Dealing with years of abuse, addiction, phobias, fear and subsequently pain from a chronic case of pancreatitis, she now lives from one dose of medication to the next. Her main comforts are the television and a grey parrot with whom she has a love-hate relationship.
I love her dearly
XXX
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