ANGELINE

Cycle of abuse

   "I just don't see how you can possibly justify keeping this from her Mrs Timpson, especially in the light of what's happened today."

Charlene shrunk against the accusation of bad parenting.  An accusation that she was only too used to feeling with both Angeline and her first child, the real mistake in her mind.

       "You do realise that the boy has been hospitalised and that his, erm...well, his fertility may have been permanently affected."

At this Bernard squirmed. But un-ruffling himself, he began his attack on this uppity woman, as he saw her.

      "From what Angeline has said he has been bullying her for the last year or so, I'd say the responsibility is firmly in your laps for not having picked up on this and resolved it sooner."

Ms Daily was one of the few people not taken in by Mr Timpson's charms. She had taught Charlene's first and real daughter in reception and in year 5 and saw the difference in her when he (Bernard) arrived on the scene. She had always suspected that there was at least some potential of sexual abuse when she heard about the pregnancy a few years later but what to do. Everyone and their dog seemingly worshipped the ground he walked on and Rebecca herself would not talk. Angeline was so very much like her mother in spirit and physicality and she felt an almost unreasonable responsibility towards her, perhaps because she felt she had failed her mother at the same age.

      "This does not distract from the fact that what the boy said was based in fact Mr Timpson and we do live in a close knit community. You cannot expect to protect her from the truth forever and more to the point, does she not have a right to know who her real mother is?"

Charlene continued to shrink, like a child, into the pit of security Bernard was providing in the crook of his left arm, away from the cruel and harsh words that spilt forth from that obnoxious red slit of a mouth. Like the Eternal Father, he acted as a bolster between Charlene and Ms Daily, between Charlene and the world.

      "Her mother abandoned her for a life of drugs and sex Ms Daily. Her getting pregnant at 13 was just the beginning. We will decide what is right for our daughter seeing as we are her legally adoptive parents. Perhaps taking her out of school is what is required here, I always thought that Angeline would benefit from home tutoring..."

Mr Timpson continued to talk along these lines but Ms Daily found herself immersed in a plan. One that she knew would have potentially disastrous repercussions upon her 30 year career as a teacher and headmistress but it came to her so fierce and bold. Like a shard of light. Like a bolt of electricity. Like daybreak inside a railway tunnel.