CHAPTER THREE

I was aware of something tapping me on the head and across my back. With a great deal of pain I managed to turn my head and look upwards. I felt the cold drips of rain against my skin and it was strangely refreshing. I needed to get the benefit of something that felt so good and I gingerly turned over onto my back to face the night sky. The drops beat out a rhythm on my battered body as I lay there, the tempo increasing steadily until I realised it was pouring down. I jumped to my feet and looked around for somewhere to shelter.

I glimpsed the barn and suddenly everything came rushing back to me.

I looked at my watch brushing dirt from its face. It was twenty past one in the morning. I must have passed out, surely it couldn't be that late?

I looked at the barn.

They wouldn't still be in there? They would have gone home by now? They would have just left me lying where I was without a second thought?

The questions came thick and fast as I tried to imagine what they would have done but deep down I knew the answer. I remembered they had shut me in a cupboard at school when I was only ten years old and forgot about me. Six hours I had been left there until the caretaker found me. I'd cried for a while and then fallen asleep. A bit like tonight , I reasoned trying to make light of what had happened. No, it wasn't anything like tonight...not in the slightest. I remonstrated fiercely with myself as images from earlier spread through my mind.

The rain was becoming torrential and I needed to get out of it.

Convinced that nobody was around I made my way back to the barn, stepping through the puddles that were forming on the uneven track. I paused at the entrance to listen, just in case, then went inside to shelter. As soon as I was undercover I turned to face outside, I didn't want any visual reminders of what had happened. It was something that I needed to forget.

I shivered. I was cold from the downpour. I needed to think and I leant on the frame of the doorway staring into the blackness of the night.

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