EJ

Chapter 6: the Mouse

Four weeks, and I'd survived. In fact, I had to admit that I was having a good time. Maybe this girl stuff wasn't so bad after all.

It was mail day. This would happen only every three weeks from now on. Too much outside contact wasn't encouraged. Students and staff were not permitted to have personal phones and the only landline in the place was in Mrs Braun's office and available for emergencies only.

A short letter from Dad. I really hadn't expected anything. It included, 'No success yet, love, but I'm still trying'. That sentence was to become very familiar.

Eva had received a letter also. She was sitting on her bed frowning as she read it. She got up, came over and shoved the letter in front of me. "From my mother, trying to justify herself."

She pointed to a paragraph:

'Eva, I know you think that I'm the worst kind of bitch. But I had to take drastic action. I couldn't stand by and watch that low-life crowd you had got mixed up with destroy my beautiful daughter. I don't expect you to forgive me now. I just hope that somewhere down the track you will understand and appreciate what I felt compelled to do.'

I looked up at Eva and raised an eyebrow.

"Don't you start," she snapped and snatched the letter from me. She threw herself face down on her bed.

I waited.

After a few minutes, Eva turned her head, sort of grimaced at me and gave a half-laugh. We continued looking at each other, slowly smiling more and pulling faces at each other. Eva got up, came across and sat down next to me on my bed. She whispered in my ear, "Jodes, you are something else, you know. Sorry, babe." She kissed my ear.

We sat quietly for a few moments, then Eva motioned with her head towards Minnie. The Mouse (we openly called her that) was sitting on her bed with her shoulders slumped, a letter in her hand. Dory wasn't around.

Eve and I got up and sat either side of our small roommate. "Bad news, little Mouse?" Eva asked gently.

"No, no. It's not that." There were tears in her eyes, but she continued, "I was hoping for another letter."

Ah, boyfriend trouble, I thought.

Eva was more blunt than me, "Let me guess, you had a boyfriend who wasn't acceptable to your folks so they split you up by sending you here?"

Minnie lifted her weepy face, "Yes, yes. That's right, they became suspicious, but we were in love, truly in love. People don't understand what that means."

"He probably doesn't know where to write to, Mouse." I put in while wondering about 'they became suspicious'.

She gasped, her face lightening up, "Of course, of course. That's what it is. He wouldn't know. I didn't have a chance to tell anyone."

"Oh my God, that's it. I have to let him know somehow. But how?"

She gave us teary smiles saying, "We had to keep our love a secret. At least until I got a bit older."

I felt a cold chill go through me.

Mouse was becoming animated, "I know, I'll write to Cathy. I'm sure she'll mention it to him."

"Cathy?"

"His daughter; she was my friend at school."

Oh, shit.

I reached around behind Minnie and grabbed Eva's shoulder. She was already tense.

It all came out fairly quickly. It seemed that it had gone on irregularly, possibly for the past two years. What was obvious to Eva and me, was that when her parents became suspicious, they had not told anyone else or taken the matter further ('probably thinking they didn't want to subject their daughter to the trauma of police action,' I thought grimly).

Eva and I started in on her gently, but firmly. We warned her of the risks of trying to establish contact with her lover; we were sure that letters in and out of Wessex were vetted by Mrs Braun.

If her lover was exposed, that could cause a huge amount of trouble and a lot of hurt ("how would your friend Cathy feel, for example").

"People don't understand love," Mouse said, shaking her head in despair, "they just don't know what real love is. They simply don't know what it feels like."

"Use your love to be strong, pet," Eva urged, "Resist, just sit it out."

"Grit your teeth and tell yourself 'no contact for the rest of this year'. You can do it," I encouraged her, "Distract yourself; get involved in school life."

We left her, we hoped, resigned.

I had to get Eva away.

I had discovered that my friend had a very strong sense of justice, too strong at times. I grabbed her by the hand and dragged her down the corridor to a storage room. Once inside, I slammed the door shut.

Eva exploded, "What a piece of shit, seducing the school friend of your young daughter. Mouse may have only been fourteen when it first started. Arsehole, turd, bastard, grub . . . that fucking scumbag, he's not going to get away with it. I'll find some way to get the prick."

It went on. I just waited.

Less angry, "That poor kid. Obviously her first fuck and she thinks it's love. Geez."

Calm now, Eva came and put her arms around me. I spoke quietly, "That it easy, babe. Don't come up with a solution that's . . ."

" . . . worse than the problem," she finished, "You're right, of course. No 'Eva as the bull in the china shop' stuff. I promise."

She looked me directly in the face, "You must be getting sick of rescuing me from my outbursts?"

"Never," I replied earnestly.

Eva and I were much the same height; our lips were only a few centimetres apart. Oh, lord, how much I wanted to kiss her. I exercised superhuman willpower.