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Day 205
Sunday 19th March 2017 23:35I was woken up by another announcement this morning. The annoying and patronising tones of Ronald Dump echoed across the holiday park. Today he informed us he was having a meeting with his sergeants about security and judging the glamorous granny contest. Like I give a sh*t. I've got enough on my mind.
I was walking past the kids club with Mia and I looked up at one of the hut roofs, remembering how TJ and I sent Mike away last night. I'm still not totally sure how I feel about it. Now I've slept on, it I suppose I feel a bit sad because I was quite fond of Mike in a weird way but his behaviour made him dangerous to be around; plus if the others find out what he did they'd hit the roof and not want anything to do with him. TJ and I definitely did the right thing. I've also learned that if we really wanted to get out of here it might not be as difficult getting over the wall as I first thought.
Mia and I bumped into Mary, who was wearing a flowery dress and a pale purple cardigan. She was walking Ollie and the puppies. "Morning," I said, "You look quite summery. Don't let DeShawn see you in a dress like that; he'll want to keep it for himself." I never got round to asking what Ollie's puppies were called. Mary said that everyone argued about naming them so they all put their names in a hat and the three names that were picked, got to be their names. Mia said she named one of the puppies Princess Tinkerbell Glitter Star, (of course she did!), Troy called one of the male puppies Jackson after Janet Jackson and Auntie Meryl called one of them John because she's sick of being surrounded by people with silly names she can't pronounce or remember.
As I was talking to Mary I looked around and noticed that there were people washing windows, mopping floors and picking up litter. All of them were Black or Asian. "Mary," I said, "What do you notice about the people over there?" Mary looked confused. "They're cleaning?" she said. "They're all BME," I said. "That's not nice," said Mia, "Only a doctor can say that." "What are you on about?" I asked Mia. "You can't say someone's fat because of their BME unless you're a doctor," said Mia, "They're the only ones who can work out your body mass and all that." "That's BMI, you thick cow," I said to Mia. "No," said Mia, "It's BME; body mass exterior." "It's body mass index," I said, starting to get annoyed. "Index?" questioned Mia, "That's an old catalogue shop isn't it? What's that got to do with being fat?" "Play with the puppies and leave me and Mary to talk," I told Mia. Mary said she'd never noticed the ethnicity of the cleaners before. "Oh well," she said, "It doesn't matter does it. Maybe it's just how things have turned out." "I don't believe that," I said, "Every cleaner or labourer is Black or Asian, apart from Troy who is gay." "I didn't think he was gay now," said Mary, "I thought he was straight. I heard he had a wife." "Mary," I said, "I've got a Bible in my bedroom, that doesn't make me Christian. Actually, why do all the chalets have bibles in them?" "Mr. Dump is a man of God," said Mary, "He likes to spread the word of the Lord." "Well he's wasting his time with me," I said, "The only thing that book's going to be used for is a door stop. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that he seems to be treating this place like it's his." "Well it is his," said Mary. "I thought it was ours?" I said, "He's given all the Black and Asian people, and the one gay guy, cleaning jobs and all the women have got stereotypical jobs that women had in the fifties. The guy's an idiot and his attitude stinks." "Well maybe you should ask to leave if that's how you feel," said Mary. "Ask?" I said. "Yes, ask," said Mary, "It's in the rule book." "Well they're just his rules," I said. "Of course they are," said Mary, "He's the leader, this is his place; he established it. We should all be grateful that he's rebuilding society and allowing us to be part of that." "Well some of us aren't happy," I said. "Well I'm sorry to hear that, Luke," said Mary, "But lots of us are happy, including me. I've got a great job running the kids club and looking after the children. I even do a Sunday school and teach some of the kids about God." "Hmm," I unenthusiastically replied, "I'm sure that'll be a big help. Me and Naomi told you about Luke H coming to the supermarket and warning us about this place." "Yes," said Mary, "And Adrian told you he was mentally unstable. I don't know what's wrong with you. This place is great. Everyone's happy here." "Yeah," said Mia, "I'm happy. Mr. Dump's a bit weird at times but he's a nice man. When I do a good job at inducting people he pats me on the bum like my uncle used to." I gave a despairing stare and looked at Mary. "That's not OK," I said, "Mary you can't be OK with this. It's like he's using this place to carry out his own narrow minded activities." "OK," said Mary, "He shouldn't be patting Mia on the bum, but he's a ladies man. He can appreciate a beautiful woman. Maybe he does go a bit far at times but we need to remember that thanks to him we're all safe." "Yeah," I said, "We're safe from the monsters outside but what about the monsters inside?" "Luke, you're exaggerating," said Mary. "Am I really?" I said, "OK. So, apart from the sergeants and the soldiers, have you ever seen anyone else leave this place?" "No," said Mary, "Of course I haven't. Why would anyone want the leave here to go out there?" There was no talking to Mary. I couldn't make her understand the concerns that some of us had.
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