As if trying to ignore the growing relationship between Cindy and Luke wasn't enough...she is ten years his senior...struggling to cope with an incredibly limited budget and Joe throwing his weight about wasn't enough...we actually welcomed into our cottage a couple who had allowed their child to die.
I'd advertised some of the ducks for sale and a couple turned up one afternoon to have a look at them...she was awfully pretty...he had an artificial leg and a sour expression. They said they'd have the ducks and we asked them in for a cup of tea...like you do. I don't know what Andy was doing but he was in the kitchen when they came in and he never uttered a word. By this time Andy was virtually a member of the family and when anyone came in he'd be the first to say hello and have a cup of tea with us...
We chatted away happily about this and that and we thought them nice...we arranged to go and visit because they had some sheep which needed attention and Luke and Himself said they were happy enough to look at said sheep and see what could be done.
They lived in a brand spanking new bungalow with every conceivable appliance in the kitchen...I admired the washing machine and state of the art dishwasher and wondered how they'd managed to have afforded all of it...
Luke and Himself went out with your man to look at the sheep...they were back indoors within minutes and Luke looked decidedly green and Himself had that set expression which I knew meant he was cross.
But nothing was said...
There was a girl of about fifteen there...a pale waif of a girl who said little.
The minute we were out of their drive I asked about the sheep and Luke said 'you don't want to know Mother...honest to god you don't' Those six sheep...not a huge flock...just the six...were practically eaten alive by maggots...great open sores on their backs with live maggots crawling about.
When we were home...still slightly shell-shocked...Andy was sitting at the kitchen table with a newspaper in front of him...' These are the people you've been visiting' he said.
And he opened the paper out and pointed...
This couple had around seven children...three had been in care for years. The remainder had been kept so short of food they'd sneaked into the neighbours houses and eaten the sugar out of the bowls...one was so malnourished that when she was sent to England to live with relatives she was taken off the 'plane straight to hospital where she died a day later...
They were taken to court and sent to prison...the remaining children were fostered out. She was pregnant when she went to prison...the baby was taken away and put for adoption.
He'd lost his leg when his car had broken down on a motorway...he'd been run over while waiting for assistance...
And that beautiful bungalow with it's kitchen heaving with white goods...it'd been built and furnished for them...so they'd have a home to come back to. Their original cottage had been vandalised beyond repair by irate neighbours.
We reported the sheep and the terribly hungry pigs whose ribs were showing...and I told the rescue people about the cat...please would they take the cat away as well.
A couple of years later they were back in the newspaper...the frail and waif-like girl had a baby and the father had gone to court to try to gain full custody once he'd been told the truth about the child's grandparents...
I'd lost my innate ability to see someone's true colours.
A Simply Ghastly Birthday...
