About A Boy

I'm going to call him Tom. This is his story.

Tom was born in England and can remember being told at a very early age that his mother had died when he was born. When he was three, his father, Gordon, took him to live in Australia. They settled in Melbourne.

Tom and his father lived alone at first. Tom vividly recalls awakening one night and realising that he was alone in the house. So he put on his dressing gown and slippers and let himself out of the house to "find" his Daddy. He walked through the wet streets of suburban Melbourne until he came to a house that still had lights on. He knocked on the door. A nice middle-aged man came to the door and, a few moments later, Tom was sipping warm cocoa and sitting on the lap of the nice man's equally nice wife. The police were called. Gordon eventually returned home and father and son were reunited. Once the police were gone, Tom expected to be praised for his bravery in finding Daddy. That didn't happen. Instead, Gordon punched Tom around the head and body until the boy no longer had the strength to scream or cry.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. We know now where Gordon was that night and on many others. He was out seeking gentlemanly companionship. Eventually, he found someone. And so William came into Tom's life. William - or Uncle Bill - did not like Tom very much and would beat the boy regularly for even the smallest infraction, whether real or imagined. Gordon never intervened. He was no less merciless in terms of beatings. Both men regarded the boy as an unnecessary difficulty in their relationship.

For nearly twelve years, until he turned sixteen, Tom lived in a nightmare world of physical, emotional, verbal and sexual abuse. Uncle Bill was an alcoholic who soon gave up work in order to stay home, drink and grow increasingly neurotic and hypochondriacal. Conversely, Gordon's career flourished and he became both successful and wealthy in his chosen profession. He and Bill bought property in a rural area outside Melbourne and set up house there with an occasional hired help.

Gordon had a very controlling nature. Over time, the others in that house - Uncle Bill and Tom - fell under the spell of Gordon's domination. No-one moved a muscle or even dared to formulate a thought without his permission. Certain things he allowed freely though. Bill was always welcome to beat or berate young Tom.

As Bill's various neuroses grew and festered, he came to be regarded as "delicate" and spent much of his time in a smoke-filled room listening to the radio or watching television. From time to time, Uncle Bill would allegedly be so ill that it was necessary to send Tom away to stay with other people until the invalid recovered.

It may sound grand, but Tom was often sent interstate and even overseas to stay with distant "relatives" while Bill recovered. Thus he travelled twice to England and back and also to Canada and even Sri Lanka. It was not so grand because Tom came to feel profoundly unwanted when sent away. He felt like a nuisance, an irrelevance. And he always felt his banishments were a punishment for not having pleased people enough.

On many occasions, Tom found himself placed with complete strangers. They may have been acquaintances of Gordon and Bill, but young Tom did not know them. During one such placement, a young man woke Tom up one night and compelled him to take an erect penis in his mouth. Aged just ten, Tom was very disturbed by this. He had no idea of sex or sexuality and thought what was happening was more unhygienic than anything else. He was also scared by the smells and the pubic hair of an adult body. Worse followed. The same man attempted to penetrate Tom anally. He failed in this, but the oral demands continued. Tom had no idea that anything other than urine came out of a penis until the night it happened in his own mouth.

Comments

I feel shock, anger, pity and dismay. Failure to protect children is always stunning, even when there may be an explanation. The effects are so devastating.
 

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comically
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