“Damien, it is nice to see you again. I had hoped that it would be under better circumstances.”

“Thank you, Mrs Thompson.”

“Paula, please.”

“Thank you for seeing me again, Paula.”

“I’ve made a call to a good friend of mine. He will be here shortly to talk to you. Don’t be afraid of him. He is a human rights lawyer and is very interested in taking up your case.”

“Eh? My case?”

“It is wrong for you to be sent to one of those camps. That brochure tells a lot, but the reports on the internet say many nasty things about it. Because it is in what they call the ‘Bible Belt’, no one wants to do anything about it.”

“I have no money to pay for a lawyer.”

Paula smiled.
“It won’t cost you a penny. Most civil rights cases involve one side that can’t pay. Thomas Gold does this sort of work, what we call ‘pro bono’. That means free of charge.”

Damien didn’t look impressed.

“What will happen to me?”

“Tonight? We will get you somewhere safe and where your family can’t find you. Then, Mr Gold will start the process of getting you to become a ward of the court. Once that happens, your family can’t force you to go anywhere that you don’t want.”

Just then, his phone bleeped.
“That’s my father.”

He opened up the phone and looked at the message.
“He’s reminding me that I am leading the bible reading tonight and that I need to get home now to prepare.”

“Do you want to go?”

Damien shook his head.

“Then text him and tell him that you are not going to be there and that you are not going to the prison camp in the USA.”

“I can’t say that?” said Damien.

“Yes, you can. If you want to break free from your parents, then there is no better time than the present to do it. They are about thirty miles away if my memory is right?”

He hesitated.
“They are at home, aren’t they?”

Damien nodded.

“Then? What are you waiting for?”

Damien didn’t reply but started creating a text. When he’d done it, he passed his phone to Paula.
“That ok?”

Paula read it and made a spelling correction.
“Being is ‘e’ before ‘I’.”

“Sorry.”

“Well?”

Damien looked at her and then pressed send.

“Wait for it to be delivered, then switch your phone off and remove the SIM Card. That will be the last time the phone or the card is used… Understand?”

“Why? Why should I switch it off?”
“Then he can’t track your phone. Parents have been known to put Trojan horses on their children’s phones just to keep track of them.”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“Borderline, but they still do it. It is all part of wrapping their children in cotton wool until they walk down the aisle, totally unprepared for the big bad world outside their little bubble.”

Damien didn’t look very happy.

“Don’t look so sad, Damien. It is not all bad.”

“I tried to tell them that I was not like them when we had Sunday lunch after the Ascension Sunday services at the end of May.”

Paula stiffened up.

“I said that I’m not that into all this religious stuff, and I want to be an architect and not a pastor.”

She relaxed.
“What did he say to that?”

“He went very red in the face. Then he stormed away from the table. In doing so, he spilt the gravy boat. He just glared at Mum, and off he went. He came back with that brochure.”

Damien closed his eyes.
“Read this. I’m sending you here to get all those evil thoughts beaten out of your body. Satan has taken your mind and body and is testing me. He will not win, understand!”

He’d accidentally picked up two copies of the brochure, so when he wanted one back, I was able to give it to him. He’d go mad if he knew that I had this one. This sort of material is only allowed for the elders.

He shuddered.
“He sent me to my room. From then on, either Mum, Dad or one of the leaders of his church were with me whenever I left the house. Even going to school to sit my exams, there they were waiting for me outside the exam room and very ready to quote the scriptures at me. They seem fixated with the idea that I have been taken over by Satan’s demons, and I need to have them exorcised from my mind and body.”

“Ugh! It must have been horrible.”

Damien shook his head.
“Not horrible… the worst days of my life.”

“How did you get away from them today?”

“I left the house just before dawn and rode my bike to the station. I had just enough money for the train to Waterloo. I’ve been walking the streets ever since. Well… not quite. I went to the National Gallery for a bit. Then I came here.”

“Well, you are here now and help is on its way.”

Damien didn’t seem convinced.

“Do you think that my phone has been bugged?”

“I don’t know, and no one here is skilled enough to find out. Why?”

“If it is bugged, then my father will know where I was when I switched it off. I’m sure that he’ll be on his way here to rescue me from whatever den of iniquity that I have fallen into.”

Paula laughed.
“This is no den of iniquity, but I know what you mean.”

She thought for a moment.
“We aren’t the only business working out of this building. Plus, our name is not on the list of companies in the lobby, so your father would have to go office by office to find us. However, it might be prudent for us not to be here when he does come looking for you.”

Damien managed a small smile.

“Are you ready to ‘Walk on the Wild Side’?” asked Paula.

“What does that mean?”

Paula smiled. Damien’s education was sorely lacking.

“For now, it means becoming the person that you have always wanted to be.”

“Why?”

Paula mentally sighed.

“Do your father and his friends know what you are wearing?”

“Yeah… probably.”

“Then we need to change how you look. What better time to do it? Then the three of us can leave at the same time and act like three women who are friends.”

“I suppose so. I’ve never dared do it before.”

“With us at your side, it will work. All we need to do is leave the building and get into a taxi. We can lose anyone trailing us in the side streets, but we have to move quickly. Are you game?”

“Yes.”
For the first time, Damien managed a small smile.

She thought for a few seconds before saying,
“Stephanie, can you get the dress rack?” she called out to the outer office.

“Already and waiting.”

“Good, I’ll call Thomas and tell him of the change of plan.”

“Follow me,” said Paula.

Damien followed Paula into the outer office. On a rack was a series of very retro dresses.”

He didn’t look happy.

“This is how we dress, I’m afraid. The big plus is that people look at the outfits and not at the wearer,” said Stephanie.

Paula proceeded to take each dress off the rack and hold it in front of Damien. Eventually, she settled on a black and white polka dot number.

She pointed to the toilet/washroom.

“Go in there and get stripped off down to your undies. We’ll pass you things to put on. Don’t worry about padding upstairs. We’ll deal with that once you have changed.”

Damien took the dress and went into the washroom. He closed the door behind him.

Paula looked at Stephanie. She nodded in return before digging into a cardboard box for some other items of clothing.

“What shoe size are you?” asked Stephanie.

“A men’s size seven,” came the reply.

After a few more seconds of rummaging in the box, she shook her head.

“I’ll nip out and get something appropriate to wear.”

Before Paula could argue, Stephanie had grabbed her coat and bag and was walking out the door to the office.

Paula smiled and continued rummaging in their storage closet. They used it for spare clothes for those out-of-the-ordinary occasions that happened every so often, and where there was no time to go home and get changed. The result was that there were bits of everything in there. Some items should have been thrown away, but for some reason, they’d found their way into their office ‘glory hole’.

She found a bra that should fit and passed it into the washroom.
“Wrap it around your body and fasten it in front. Then swivel it around before hooking your arms inside.”

“Thanks,” said Damien and closed the door again.

Paula shook her head. It had been a while since she’d met someone like Damien. Most of the people who came through her office door had at least some experience with female attire.

Stephanie returned with a pair of shoes in his size and a pair of knee-high socks.

“Are you decent?” asked Paula.

“I think so,” came the answer from behind the door.

“Let us see, and I’ll do up the dress.”

Damien emerged, looking petrified.

“Don’t feel bad. You look pretty good,” said Stephanie.

He didn’t react. Paula stepped behind him and did up the zip of the dress.

“Please, sit down and put these on,” said Stephanie.
She gave him the knee-highs.

“Then I got you these.”

He looked at the shoes. His body language was one of relief.

“Try them on. They should fit.”

Damien sat down, and after putting on the knee-highs, he slipped his feet into the shoes.

“They seem ok.”

“Good.”

“But look at my hair and face? It won’t fool anyone for even a second,” remarked Damien.

“All in good time, Damien. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“We don’t have much time, do we?”

“He’s right, Mum. I saw two characters looking at the block next door. One of them looked like an older version of Damien. The offices there are on the other side of that wall,” said Stephanie, pointing at the back wall of the office.

“Stephanie, can you do the honours and make our guest as pretty as you can?”

“I can. Now, Damien… we can’t call you that. What do you want to be called?”

“Faye. Like Faye Dunaway. I loved how she looked in Bonnie and Clyde. We watched it at school as part of our contemporary studies class.”

Both women laughed.
“That is a good style.”

Paula disappeared into her office and let Stephanie work her magic.

“That will have to do for now,” said Stephanie some fifteen minutes later.
She’d just finished applying some mascara to Faye’s lashes.

“Mum, I’m done.”

Right on cue, Paula emerged from her office. She was carrying a wig and some jewellery.

“Well, don’t you look good? These should be the finishing touches.”

Paula deftly placed the wig on Faye’s head.
“It itches.”

Both women laughed.
“You will get used to it. You will have to if you want to grow your hair long.”

Faye nodded.

Paula put some bangles on Faye’s wrists and a couple of rings on her fingers.

“There. We are ready to go.”

“But… what about the Lawyer?” asked Faye.

“He’s waiting for us at his office. I called him earlier when we decided to decamp.”

“Mum, Faye needs a bag.”

“Yes, I know. She can take mine. I’ll carry my briefcase.”

Paula disappeared into her office only to return a few seconds later.

“Here you are, sling this on your shoulder,” she said, giving Faye her handbag.

“I can’t take this?”
The bag in question was covered in the Louis Vuitton logo.
“This is far too valuable.”

Paula smiled.
“It is only until we get away from here.”

“Ok… but only until we get to the lawyers.”

“Good, let’s go,” suggested Stephanie.

“You two go first and call the lift. I’ll set the alarm and lock up,” said Paula.

Faye appeared hesitant until Stephanie put her arm in hers.
“It will be ok.”

“I hope so,” muttered Faye.

The lift arrived, and for a moment, Faye’s heart stopped. All she could think of was her father stepping out and confronting her, Stephanie and Paula. Thankfully, the lift was empty.

The trip down in the lift, while only five floors, seemed to take an eternity. Once again, Faye held her breath as the doors opened. There was no sign of her father or any of his friends.

“Let’s get out of here,” said Paula.

The three of them walked out of the building and into the bright afternoon sunlight. Faye looked around but could not see any faces that she recognised. Paula was looking for a taxi.

After what seemed an eternity, one with a ‘For Hire’ sign lit up appeared. Paula flagged it down, and the three of them piled in.

“Red Lion Square, Holborn, please,” she said in a firm voice.

The taxi moved off, and the doors locked themselves.

They had only gone a few yards when Faye let out a small yelp.
“That’s the man I saw earlier,” said Stephanie.

He’d just emerged from the building next door to the one that held Paula’s offices. He was not looking at them but at his phone.

“That’s Pastor McMaster. He’s the number two at the church. A nasty man who thinks that it is not a crime to hit a child. He quotes the bible. Proverbs 13:24, ‘He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.’ The last time he did it to me, I quoted Proverbs 22:15 back at him. ‘Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him’. He went apeshit, and I received another six strokes of the cane. All illegal, but God’s word is more powerful than any human law. In their eyes.”

Tears welled up in Faye’s eyes. Stephanie gave her a tissue.
“Try not to smear that mascara.”

Faye looked at Stephanie, who was smiling. Faye relaxed.

The taxi carried on along the street as she was frantically trying to work the phone.

Once the taxi had turned the corner, Paula said,
“I turned Damien’s phone back on before I locked up the office. It is very well covered by CCTV, both internally and externally. If he breaks in, then we’ll have him dead to rights.”

Then she turned to Faye,
“You, young lady, are not coming back here until this is all settled legally. Then he can’t touch you.”

Faye visibly relaxed. Stephanie was on hand to wipe a tear from her eyes.

[to be continued]