A Mother's Word

Chapter Nine

Cut, what does that mean? Why had she been cut?
I walked past our head mistress office and I saw several adults sat around on chairs, it looked serious, the atmosphere seemed tensed. I managed to get my mum's attention and signalled for her to check her phone.
I didn't know what else to do I felt Elias had disclosed this really important information to me because he desperately needed help, and they were far too scared to speak up, so I had messaged my mum with what I had been told, and I really needed her to check her phone to see the message. 
She finally looked at her phone and the expression that crossed her face was alarming, I had never heard this expression before but mum being a social worker was educated with these phrases.

The chairs scraped along the floor as mum and two adults moved quickly out of the office room, they headed straight down the corridor and into a classroom, and then within minutes they were coming back with Elias in tow. They had decided to question the youngest boy without his brother or sister present to stop having any influence on him. He was given a drink and a biscuit which he swallowed without even chewing and begged for another, he was acting quite hyperactive, for a boy that had very little attention he was communicating with the adults quite happily.
I could just make out what was being said from the other side of the door, I knew mum would update me as good as she was allowed to later, but I was intrigued to know what had been happening.
The adults in the room were carefully asking questions whilst they were playing games with Elias, they were having to watch their wording when asking the questions to avoid asking any leading questions, as everything had to be his own words to stand up in court and be used as evidence.

Elias was starting to open up about his home life, he had mentioned an 'Uncle Dave' had been coming in to their house at all hours of the day and night, and he shouts and uses naughty words. He makes them all feel scared, but his mum listens to everything he says, and the children have to do everything they are told too, otherwise they have to sit on the 'Naughty step' and whilst they are sat there they are not allowed to move, not even to go to the toilet which is why they have to have newspaper there at all times. Elias then quietly said that on one occasion, he had a soiled accident which infuriated 'Uncle Dave' and he made him clean it up with bare hands. Elias had pleaded with his mum at the time, but she turned her back and walked out the room. Elias, then turned to my mum and apologised, saying 'I really did try and hold it in, but it was making my tummy hurt'. Elias, then continued to say, that they go out really late at night and when they are in the car they are not allowed to sleep, if they do, they get hit on the knees by a baseball bat to wake up! 'Uncle Dave' and his mum had moved all their beds from their bedrooms, and they had to sleep on the floor which had also been stripped of carpet and was just cold dirty floorboards left, if they cried and made any noise they had to sleep in the dog crates which would be locked, 'Uncle Dave' would bring them in from the garden, so the neighbours wouldn't hear the crying and begging for help. 'Uncle Dave' also carried around a weapon with him at all times, it was his belt. When he thought we had been trouble he would whip it off and then using the buckle side he would whip us causing marks to be left on the skin and in excruciating paint, if we made noises he would do it again until we had learned to not make any sounds.

I could see the adults wiping their eyes with tissues, in a job like this they had to try and hide their emotions in front of the children however, in some situations they just couldn't! After all, they were only human beings!
Elias continued explaining the abuse that he and his siblings had encountered for many months, and he made it quite clear that it all started when his dad had started his new job, apparently according to Elias he was coming home soon, and that was something himself, Thomas and Jenny were waiting and praying for!

Elias then stopped talking and looked towards the door, he looked scared, he had clearly been told and warned about speaking to people, and he knew what he was saying and doing was going to get him into a lot of trouble.
A kind adult in the room with a gentle smile stood up and reached for the biscuit barrel once more, she was pleasant and showed a soft approach. Elias noticed her warm touch and clung so tightly onto her arm, he then burst into floods of tears and his body started to shake.
Through the excessive crying, he started to open up once more about the abuse which was happening behind his family's closed doors.

Jenny had apparently reached an age of "maturity" or so her mother had said, and they had held a special ceremony where a "cutter" was invited. This wasn't allowed to take place at their house, and they had to travel to a deserted location where they were met by 'Auntie Pam' who spoke very little English. 'Uncle Dave' had driven them there, and they had to leave late at night so the 'nosey neighbours' didn't see! When they arrived the only thing that was lighting up the room was three tea light candles, there was also a long table in the centre of the room and what looked like blunt surgical instruments on the table. Elias specifically noticed razor blades and scissors. Jenny was forced to sit on the table and Elias and Thomas were shut in the shoe cupboard, although Elias was unable to see what was happening, he heard every single scream and cry for help from Jenny.

When the screaming had stopped, the adults left the room and Jenny was lied on the table crying and begging for help. Thomas and Elias had managed to push open the cupboard door in which they had been forcefully put in and ran towards Jenny. Elias then said 'blood was pouring off the table and was coming from her vagina, all the tools had lots of blood on them and then Jenny fell asleep on the table'.

Mum looked towards another adult and used the abbreviation FGM - which I later found out was a sickening procedure called Female Genital Mutation.
A procedure that is carried out by a person who has no medical training and knowledge, the procedure is done without anaesthetic or pain relief and the instruments used were often blunt and non-sterile such as knife's, scalpels, scissors and razor blades.
I googled the abbreviation FGM on my phone, and it instantly brought up the most sickening explanation:
'They include removal of the clitoral hood (type 1-a) and clitoral glans (1-b); removal of the inner labia; and removal of the inner and outer labia and closure of the vulva. In this last procedure, known as infibulation, a small hole is left for the passage of urine and menstrual fluid; the vagina is opened for intercourse and opened further for childbirth.
The practice is rooted in gender inequality, attempts to control women's sexuality, and ideas about purity, modesty, and beauty'.

Jenny had been abused and had been through a traumatic time, and all because her mum had said she was now of a 'mature age'. Was this a decision her mum had made, or was she forced to make that decision? Had Jenny’s mum suffered this procedure at a younger age, and was now making her daughter experience it too?

I didn’t know the answers to any of my questions, I just knew that I had an awful feeling in my stomach, I ran to the toilet block and was violently sick. I also felt my legs were tightening as if I was trying to protect my own vagina. I had pictures in my head of Jenny lied there on the table, scared, alone and in tremendous pain, I could hear her loud high-pitched screams, the ones that she used to make when she was younger and had hurt herself and the smell must have been awful. Period blood alone is a very distinguish smell, so add that to blunt instruments and a tool that burned the skin away, and that was what my nose was now imagining smelling. My head was spinning, my skin had gone hot and clammy, and I was sick again. The next thing I remembered was lifting my head off the cold hard floor, I put my hand to my forehead and noticed I was bleeding. I had passed out!