A Mother's Word

Chapter Five

Thomas and Elias were acting very quietly lately, instead of getting up to their usual antics after school, they would rapidly walk home at the end of the school day, enter their house, and we wouldn't see them again all evening. The trouble is we didn't see them at school either, there was a rumour that they had been spotted down by the bridge, which was located on the outskirts of the village. The bridge had been left deserted after the fishermen struggled to catch any fish there and had decided to move to a better flowing area, therefore everyone had stopped going there, and it was now overgrown and empty, apart from the homeless people and the animals that passed through regularly.
Jenny had also been missing from school recently and no matter how much myself and Becki had texted and called her, there was no answer and the communication was non-existent - Jenny the girl who was always so popular, happy and craved attention was now a distant memory, and the memories were the only thing Becki and I were able to hold onto.

I had started speaking to Adam again, I had come to the realisation that my motto that I swore by previously 'chick's before dicks' was immature, selfish and pathetic and I actually missed his company more than I let on, I was miserable without our friendship. This took a lot of grafting and making it up to him, he was quite understandably disappointed and upset with me and my actions and I knew I had to regain his friendship and trust. I started messaging him through his mobile number and Facebook account and at first his responses were slow, short and blunt but over time and the more effort and attention I was giving him, he slowly let down his guard and he welcomed me back into his life. I had noticed Becki and Adam had already become good friends, I mean you could understand why, Becki had characteristics that everyone adored and at a guess, I think she had become quite lonely too.

I had been so caught up with my work, school life and Jenny's family that Adam was now fighting his own demons, his dad had to do a short stint in jail after he had ignored the police warnings on several occasions and ended beating up a man who was left hospitalised with broken ribs and required facial reconstructive surgery in an unprovoked attack. The jury had sympathy for him, but they all found him guilty, and the judge had sentenced him to 12 months in prison. He was swiftly taken to Brixton Prison which was a men's prison in the London Borough of Lambeth, South London.
This prison was however located several miles away from Adam and therefore visiting him was not an option, they did however exchange letters on many occasions.

There had been a breakthrough in the murder investigation for Adam's grandmother, a bloke named Tommy Every had been arrested for murder, he had left his fingerprints on the headboard of the bed and after the police had been able to collect and gather more evidence, they finally made the arrest. The beast, however, had to be tasered by the police as he had resisted arrest, and it was rumoured that it took seven police officers to pin him down to the ground. Adam's mum attended all the court hearings on her own and although it was a slow process, at long last Tommy was sentenced to twenty-three years behind bars. Luckily, he was sent to another prison as Adam's dad would have killed him!
Tommy was a known gypsy that caused trouble wherever he went, he would hang around in a group with six-seven other gypsy men and would intimidate anybody that got in his way. He had currently been working on the local fair ground rides, which had been put up in the football field as a yearly event. Himself, alongside other gypsy families, would travel all over the country and take advantage of civilians and their hard-earned money. The police informed Adam's family that he was a 'wanted person', he had attacked a young female one night in the fair field up country and when she refused to have sex with him, he had punched her to the ground and then kicked her violently in the vagina. When the judge had passed his sentence in court, he glared at Adam's mum and shouted whilst smirking "I killed a granny, I killed a granny, the bitch shouldn't have woken up, I killed a granny!" Laughing like a maniac, he was then taken down to his cell by four armed police officers. Adam's mum said the laughing sound was still ringing in her ears. Adam was unable to attend the court, the severity of the case was extreme, and they would be describing the scene and showing pictures, Adam being a young adult with strong emotions would have to sit there and listen, and his mum was not prepared for him to do that, so she had banned him from attending, which Adam was very unhappy about.