Girl Alone: Part 2 of 3: Joss came home from school to discover her father’s suicide. Angry and hurting, she’s out of control.. Cathy Glass

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СКАЧАТЬ she asked, already on the defensive. I guessed she knew what I wanted.

      ‘Paula is upset by what she found in her doll’s house,’ I said gently.

      ‘Not half as upset as I was!’ Joss snapped, referring, I assumed, to her father’s actual death.

      ‘I appreciate that, love. It must have been absolutely horrendous for you. I can’t imagine how you coped.’

      ‘I didn’t,’ she said, climbing into bed. ‘But shit happens. There’s nothing you or anyone can do about it. And before you ask me, no, I don’t want to talk about it.’ She picked up a magazine and pulled it open.

      I waited. ‘Are you sure?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘All right, I’ll leave you to it, then, but you know where I am if you need me.’

      Joss gave a small nod and I said goodnight and came out of her room.

      That night she had a nightmare. It was about her father. As I soothed her back to sleep, she whispered, ‘Daddy. Daddy gone. Dead.’ And a tear slipped from the corner of her eye. It was heartbreaking. I knew she had all that hurt buried deep inside her and it was trying to find a way out. Interestingly, the following morning she remembered some of her dream, which she didn’t usually.

      ‘I had a really bad dream last night,’ she told me.

      ‘Do you remember what it was about?’ I asked carefully, aware I needed to handle this sensitively.

      ‘It was about my daddy,’ she said quietly. ‘I think, the day he died.’

      ‘Do you remember anything else?’

      ‘Not sure. Were you there?’

      ‘I heard you call out and came into your room to make sure you were all right. I always check if I hear one of you call out in the night. You went back to sleep quite quickly.’

      She shrugged. ‘I don’t really remember. It’s a blur.’

      Joss didn’t offer any more and I left it at that, but my amateur psychology told me that Joss hanging the doll and then starting to remember her dreams could mean that the shocking memories of her father’s suicide were starting to work their way to the surface to be dealt with.

      That afternoon Jill came for one of her scheduled four-weekly visits – to make sure I was fostering Joss to the required standard, to give support and advice as necessary and to sign off my log notes. I updated her on events since the last time we’d spoken on the phone, finishing with the incident of the doll and Joss’s most recent nightmare.

      ‘I’m no psychiatrist,’ Jill said, ‘but it could certainly be a positive sign. Keep doing what you have been doing – providing a safe and supportive environment – and Joss may feel able to start counselling before long and address her demons. Once she comes to terms with what happened and stops blaming herself, she’ll be less angry and her behaviour should start to improve.’

      I greatly valued Jill’s opinion, so I was pleased to hear this, but what happened next showed Joss still had a very long way to go.

Chapter Eleven

       No Progress

      It was Friday morning, and at 9.30 a.m. I received the now familiar telephone call from the secretary at Joss’s school, informing me that Joss hadn’t arrived and that when she did she would be given an hour’s detention at the end of the day. I apologized for her lateness, confirmed that she’d left for school on time and thanked the secretary for letting me know. If a child who usually arrived at school on time suddenly went missing I would be very worried, but Joss arriving late for school was a regular occurrence, so I knew from previous experience that it wouldn’t be long before the school secretary telephoned again to say Joss had arrived. Sure enough, fifteen minutes later the telephone rang – however, it wasn’t the secretary, but a man with an accent whose voice I didn’t recognize. ‘Is that Mrs Glass?’ he asked.

      ‘Yes.’ I assumed it was a telesales canvasser, but what he said next scared me rigid.

      ‘I have your daughter, Mrs Glass.’

      ‘What? What do you mean?’ My heart began drumming loudly in my chest.

      ‘I have your daughter, Joss, here with me. You need to come and collect her. She is a very naughty girl.’

      ‘Who are you? What are you talking about? Where is Joss? Put her on at once, please.’

      There was a muffled sound as the handset was passed over and then Joss’s voice came on, subdued and without her usual bravado. ‘Cathy, please come and get me – he’s scaring me.’

      ‘Where are you? Who is he? What’s going on?’ My concerns grew.

      ‘He’s making me stay here with him until you come. He wants to see you.’

      ‘Where are you?’

      ‘The paper shop on the corner of South Road.’

      ‘The newsagents there?’

      ‘Yes.’

      I knew where it was, although I’d never been in. It wasn’t the newsagents below the flat where Chelsea lived, but one close to Joss’s school.

      ‘And he won’t let you leave?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Why?’

      Joss didn’t answer.

      ‘I’ll call the police,’ I said.

      ‘No! Don’t do that! Please, Cathy,’ Joss pleaded. ‘I’m in enough trouble already. Don’t get the police involved.’

      ‘What’s going on, Joss? He can’t keep you there against your will. It’s illegal. Are you hurt?’

      ‘No. Just come and collect me, please. I’m in his sitting room at the back of the shop.’

      ‘And you can’t tell me what’s happened?’

      ‘He wants to tell you when you come for me.’

      ‘Put him back on, please.’

      His voice came on the line again. ‘Mrs Glass, I was going to call the police, but your daughter begged me not to, so I insisted I call you instead. She’s done wrong and I’m not just going to let her get away with it. Are you coming or shall I call the police?’

      ‘I’m coming,’ I said. ‘I’ll be there in ten minutes.’

      ‘Very well. My wife will sit with her while I return to the shop. I will see you soon. Goodbye.’ The line went dead.

      I had my shoes on and was out of the door and in the car in an instant, still thinking I should call the police. Joss had pleaded with me not to and she’d СКАЧАТЬ