What me? A Foster Carer? Part 2

By Iona Laing

Chapter Three – Pain and more pain!

(Jessie)

I trudged my way home, the early evening was dark, and the wind was whipping the drizzle full on into my face.

I pulled my jacket hood firmly closed and tried to ignore my misery and get home as quickly as possible.

I was about halfway home, keeping to the main streets with the better lighting as Jenna and I had been taught time and time again, I was just about to turn off High Street into Castle Drive.

Despite the wind whipping past my ears trying to dislodge my hood I became aware of several sets of feet pounding up the street behind me. Just as I was about to turn around to see who it was, I was roughly shoved and sent flying on my face, the pain was intense as I hit the floor and slid along the pavement. But I was certain it just a precursor of what was to come.

My stomach was really not helping, but now my knees and hands were sore where I had scraped along the pavement. As I eventually staggered back to my feet, I found myself confronted by four of the biggest kids, thugs really, who went to our school. All of them thought they had achieved something worthwhile when they victimised smaller, more vulnerable kids and I was one of their favourite targets. I knew that today was not going to get any better, in fact I braced myself for a whole lot of pain and misery.

Alan and Brian Bromley were twin brothers who were just over six foot tall, members of the school rugby team and considered themselves invulnerable to the school rules and regulations as the head never disciplined them. With these two confronting me were Dennis Knott nephew of our esteemed P.E Teacher and resident sadist and Martin Hines, both were almost as big and were as equally violent as the Bromley brothers to us smaller kids.

All four had asked Jenna to dance with them at a youth club social the previous week. When she told them “Hell would have to freeze over first!” and then added “She nor her friends would give them the time of day even if they were the last boys on Earth!” then the four thugs vowed to get even for this public snub and affront to their masculine dignity. Now it seemed I was about to pay for that graphic and very public rebuff!

So here they were, the four biggest bullies at our school and me, I didn’t fancy my odds much.

The traffic was streaming past us at quite a speed, even in this grotty weather, so I couldn’t run across the road to get away. Not only that but I felt really, quite unwell and very close to throwing up.

“Well, if it isn’t Jessica the little fairy!” spat Alan as he shoved me again. I staggered backwards.

“My name isn’t Jessica!” I responded.

“Well, you look like Jenna, your stuck-up bitch of a sister!” snapped Brian as he shoved my forwards “So you must be Jessica!” Insulting my sister was totally unacceptable, I vowed to get a strike in of some description.

The next thing I knew Martin slammed his fist into my stomach which doubled me over. The pain was excruciating; I could see bright lights popping off in my vision and could taste the start of bile in my mouth. As I went down Dennis’s foot kicked my stomach which almost caused me to black out. All around me I could hear laughter and taunts of “Fairy, Gay boy, Girlie, Queer, Pansy!” and many other words that their limited intellect could come up with. Hardly original, but then none of them were likely to be candidates to join MENSA. I was almost giddy from the pushing and shoving. The punches and slaps were not helping me either.

I staggered to my feet again with my book bag now only over my right shoulder as the left shoulder strap seemed to have been broken. Alan grabbed me by the collar of my coat and lifted me clear off the ground and close to his face. His vile breath stunk of tobacco, alcohol and stale food. “We’ll teach you and your slag of a sister to mess with us!”

Never mind me, I knew I was already in deep trouble, but he wasn’t going to get away with insulting my beautiful sister! While his face was that close, I did the only thing I could logically do, I head butted him!

The loud “Crack!” of his nose breaking was almost music to my ears. Less pleasant was the blood and snot that sprayed over me. As he yelped with pain he dropped me to the floor. As I went down, I used the last of my strength and swung my book bag in an arc around my head with as much force as I could muster. My bag, full of textbooks connected with Dennis’s Knott’s face and the zip tag ripped his left cheek open from his ear to his mouth which added more blood to the mix.

“The nastard hab mroken by doze! Kick hid muckin ed in! yelled Alan with both hands clasped to his face in agony.

After that the kicking and stamping started in on me in earnest. One particular stamp to my groin caused me to projectile vomit over my attackers’ feet and trousers as well as myself. Then I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen, I am pretty sure the swearing and kicking seemed to intensify from then on, but I no longer cared. Just as I was losing consciousness and the battle to stay awake to protect myself, I was vaguely aware of a loud horn, the squealing of tyres and lots of shouting, after that it was all blessed darkness.

(Jennifer.)

I was frantically scanning the surroundings and foot paths to either side of the road, when I saw a sight that I would never, ever, forget. It would be seared into my mind’s eye for a long, long time to come.

“There!” I screamed pointing across the road, “There! There they are, Stop, STOP!!” As the minibus slid to a halt, I thrust open the front passenger door and hit the ground at a sprint. Hot on my heels were my husband, our two sons and both our mechanic friends.

I barged through the thugs and saw with horror my little baby, my darling Jessie lying there covered in blood and vomit, his face almost unrecognisable from the angel I had loved and nursed from birth. My “she lion” instincts kicked in and I heard myself screaming and turned ready to tear these mongrels’ limb from limb.

Jeff Snr took me in his arms, lifted me from the floor, spun me around, shouted at me to get my attention, “Jen, JEN, stop, STOP It, we’ve got this, see to Jessie, see to Jessie. I looked down to see the four thugs being pummelled by my son’s and our colleagues, then I knelt by Jessie’s side.

My first aid training started to kick in through the fog of my emotions, think Jen, THINK! A.B.C. Jen, concentrate, A.B.C. In spite of my almost overwhelming mothers’ instincts to pick Jessie up and cuddle him to me, I stopped and forced myself to do the basics.

A; Airway. Jessie has a mouth full of vomit still, which I hooked out with my fingers. His tongue wasn’t blocking his airway! That’s good, good! Next, come on Jen, think, for God’s sake, think!

B; Breathing. Yes, Jessie’s chest was now rising and falling, but not by much, but it was there. He’s breathing!

C; Circulation. I felt Jessies neck and wrist for a pulse. It was weak and fast, but it was there. There is blood everywhere, but no obvious signs of knife wounds to his chest, but I have to open his coat, come on Jen, get your fingers to work damn it!

“Jessie can you hear me? Jessie, wake up, please wake up! It’s Mummy”

It was at that point that Jenna arrived and slid to the other side of Jessie from me and grabbed Jessie’s other hand.

“O Jessie, I am so sorry, this is all my fault!” she wailed. “Speak to me Jess, come on speak to me!”

Jenna then pushed her Mum’s arm to get her attention.

“Mum! Look Mum, Jessie’s groin, she’s really bleeding!”

I looked where Jenna was pointing and saw the blood stain slowly expanding across Jessie’s legs and groin. Taking hold of the thin fabric of the trousers Jessie was wearing I ripped them apart revealing Jessie’s lower abdomen. Jenna pulled the panties that Jessie was wearing to one side and jammed a rolled-up bunch of tissues and a pad, clean from her backpack into the opening, a wound that had been inflicted behind Jessies’ small penis. And she pushed on it with all her might.

There was no way around the fact that I was in shock, but some things were starting to register as out of the ordinary. “She?” “Her?” Jessie wearing Jenna’s panties and her pair of her school trousers? I stared into Jenna’s face and motioned downwards with my eyes, Jenna screwed her eyes shut momentarily, then looked me in the face and gently shook her head from side to side and mothed the word “Later!”

Chapter Four – Help arrives.

(Jennifer.)

By now there were blue lights everywhere, then the whole area was lit by an aerial floodlight. Police vehicles, two ambulances and then strangest of all, the “Whoomph, Whoomph!” of a helicopter landing in the school playing fields across the road

(Jenna.)

I stared down at Jessie; I couldn’t get over how bruised and pale Jessie looked. I was feeling guilty for things I had said to Mum in the heat of the moment, and for how Jessie was dressed, but that couldn’t be helped now. All I knew was that no matter what, I had to keep pressure on Jessie’s wound, hold her hand and talk to her.

“Mum, Mum, it’s an air ambulance, an air ambulance, Jessie, an air ambulance has come to save you, come on Jessie, don’t you bloody well give up, you can’t leave me now, come on Jessie, fight sister of mine, fight damn you, you hear me, fight?” I was yelling in Jessies ear for all I was worth.

A man and a woman in bright orange suits trotted up and came and knelt by Mum, Jess and myself. They started unpacking equipment and began working on Jessie. The woman spoke and said “Right, my name is Lorna, I am a doctor on the air ambulance, who do we have here?”

Mum answered,

“This is Jessie Jones, eleven years old, my youngest child. we’re pretty sure Jessie’s been stabbed in the groin, as part of a violent assault. When we got here those four thugs were kicking and stamping on Jess.

This is Jenna our second youngest and she’s been applying pressure to what appears to be a stab wound, it does seem the bleeding has slowed somewhat. Jessie had vomited and I cleaned out what I could, checked airways, his breathing is shallow, and his pulse is weak and very fast.

Jessie and Jenna are almost like twins, even though there is eleven months between them. Jessie was a premature baby and has had health problems probably as a result of that, respiratory problems mainly. Jenna has been with Jess when he’s been in hospital in the past and they have a special relationship, a unique bond as twins would.”

Lorna looked at Jenna. “Right Jenna, you have done an excellent job, I need you to gently move your hand so I can have a look at Jessie’s wound. If the bleeding starts up, I might tell you to put your hand back on the wound. Tell me Jenna, where did these tissues and the pad come from?”

“They were in a sealed pack in my bag. I knew they had to be as sterile as possible!”

“Well done, Jenna, you have a real aptitude for first aid, perhaps you’ll have a future in medicine of some sort, now, let’s see what’s going on with Jessie, shall we?”

(Jessie.)

I eventually felt myself waking up, but I hurt so much that I decided that it was a stupid thing to do and went to sleep again. Later, when I awoke again, still hurting in so many different places that I wished I hadn’t come round.

There seemed to be lots of blue flashing lights which hurt my eyes. Plus, some pain in the backside kept shining a torch in my eyes asking me questions, that didn’t help matters either. I could hear lots of voices, some shouting and someone crying, which I realised was me and someone else which I just knew was Jenna, I squeezed both my hands and got big squeezes in return.

I hurt, in fact the whole thing was agony so I did the only sensible thing I could and passed out again.

I seemed to remember several other episodes of waking up, strange smells, voices asking daft questions, whispering and crying, then, thankfully it went dark again and seemed to stay that way for a long time, but being I had no way of judging where I was or what was happening, I had no idea how long I was away with the fairies.

(Jennifer.)

I watched as the two medics worked frantically on Jessie, even though it was through a veil of tears. The whole time I could hear Jenna talking to Jessie, although it was hard to follow what she was saying over the noise of the street and the helicopter engine still running in the playing fields. But Jenna was almost besides herself.

“Oh Jessie, I am so sorry, I should have walked home with you and sod the play, . . .

I’ll never forgive myself. . . . .

Come on Jessie, don’t you bloody give up, come on Sis, you can do it, fight Jessie, fight like you have never done before. . . . .

You and me are the twins, we are sisters and I need my sister at my side, I can’t be a twin on my own. . . .

Come on Jessie, squeeze my hand if you can hear me, please Jessie, please, squeeze my hand. . . . .

Mom, MOM, she squeezed my hand, I felt it, . . .

Come on Jess!”

I too feel a tightening of the grip from Jessie and I’m adding my own encouragement to Jenna’s.

Dr Lorna looks at me and speaks slowly and calmly.

“Right Mrs. Jones, we need to intubate Jessie, I don’t like the way Jess is struggling to breathe. With the history of respiratory distress, the fact he may have inhaled vomit and potential rib damage I want to do it now before we board the aircraft, to do this I need to put Jessie into a deep sleep and give drugs that will temporarily paralyse him, once that is done we can better control Jessies condition, do I have your permission?”

“Yes, of course, whatever you need to do but please, save my child!”

“Okay, can you and your daughter step back for a few minutes please so we can get this done as quickly as possible.”

Within seconds there is a hive of activity around Jessie, all very calm and measured, people in orange suits, people in green suits, two policewomen stretching a plastic sheet above Jessie to keep the worst of the rain off of him. They were all fighting to keep my baby alive. I am almost frantic with fear, Jenna has tears streaming down her face still but is fascinated with everything that is being done for Jess.

Within ten minutes Jessie is strapped to a stretcher, drips in both arms, one plasma with various drugs, the other some whole blood, Jess has been immobilised with head and neck restraints and tightly secured to the stretcher with the breathing tube taped to his face.

The doctor is speaking to me again, ‘I must concentrate, come on Jen, concentrate’.

“Right Mrs Jones, we need to get going, well be taking Jessie to City Hospital, they have a surgical team getting ready as we speak, you can come with us, it will be noisy in the aircraft so you won’t hear what we are saying between ourselves, but we are doing everything we can for your child. We need to go now, the Police have told your husband where we are heading so don’t worry.”

I scramble to my feet and try to prise Jenna from Jessies side and into her father’s arms, but Jenna is having none of it.

“No Mum, NO, I have to stay with Jess, I HAVE TO, you know the link we have, I have to be with Jessie, please Mum, please?”

I looked across to Dr Lorna hoping for her to say “No” to Jenna, to save me from being the bad guy in this scenario. Lorna looks at the two of us, then at Jessie. She speaks into her radio, then smiles at Jenna.

“Okay Jenna, because the three of you are small and light you can come with us, BUT, I need you to be a big girl and let go of Jessie’s hand so we can load the stretcher into the aircraft, I need you to sit quietly with your Mum.

When we get to the hospital it will be very busy and scary, but it is all to help us help Jessie. You must stay at the back of the room, and do as you are asked, okay, can you do that for me, if not, you will have to travel with your father and brothers!”

“Thank you! O thank you so much, I will do as you ask, I promise I will be a big girl for Jessie.

I hug Jenna to my side as we follow the four medics carrying Jessie’s stretcher across the road to the rear of the air ambulance, as we are led to a side door strapped in and given headphones to wear. Jenna clings to my arm like a limpet but desperately peers over the rear of the seat to see how Jessie is doing, as do I.

Within moments it seems we land on the helipad at the hospital and a whole mass of people are waiting for us. Jess is wheeled into a curtained bay while Jenna and I are taken to a desk to give them details about Jessie. We have to wait ten minutes before we are allowed to see Jess.

I am horrified at the sight before me, Jess looks so small, frail and very pale. All his clothes have been cut off and he’s draped with one of those awful hospital gowns. They have a thick breathing tube down Jessies throat and lots of machine’s beeping. A large grey-haired man comes to us.

“You must be Jessies Mum and sister, I am Mike Smith, the Senior Registrar on duty this evening. I have to warn you that Jessie is seriously ill and is about to go into surgery where the wounds and damage Jess has suffered will be fully assessed.

The surgery could take some time, but Jess seems to be a fighter, not many who have suffered the abuse and violence that Jessie was subjected to tonight make it this far. We don’t intend to lose them now, so, quickly give Jessie a kiss and tell him you’ll see him soon.

One of the nurses will then take you to a family room and get you a cuppa while you wait for the rest of your family to get here.”

We approached Jessies bed and quickly said our goodbyes. Again, I overheard Jenna talking quietly.

“Come on Jessie, fight for your life Jessie, come on sis, I know you can do it! I love you so much and I am not prepared to lose you now, you hear me?”

Jess was wheeled away to surgery, and we were led to a quiet room. As we were walking through the corridor, a door opened and a youth was led to a cubicle, both eyes were turning dark blue and he had bloodied dressings sticking out of both nostrils, he was also handcuffed and walking between two Police officers. He saw Jenna who tried to break free from my grip.

He yelled at Jenna.

“Ha, dere yu are ditch, I hobe the queer freak dies, dib your fault, you should hab gone out wib me when you hab de chance. Hey, ged off, you hurting me!”

The police men had him face down on the ground by this stage.

The nurse shoved us past the scuffle.

“Rot in hell Bromley, rot in hell!” Jenna yelled as we walked past. I heard one of the officers say
“Well done Bromley, I think you have just added ‘Hate crime’ to the long list of charges you’ll face, so I would keep that big yap of yours shut if I were you.

As we were led into a side room, I could see another youth being led into Accident and Emergency between two more Police officers. He had a huge dressing covering half his face, no matter what he was confronted with, it seemed Jessie had gone down fighting.

That’s my boy, or is he?