he wasn’t allowed to see any of them and that he didn’t know what houses they were in. ‘Ok’, I said, ‘It doesn’t matter’, and we continued to walk home.
When we got back, we met up with all the other children in our house and we all went into the sitting room and I told everyone about Simon my baby brother; then one of the nuns came into the room and she told us to do some homework. But it was only dinnertime and I could see bread, butter and some jam on the table; so instead of doing my homework, I went over to the dinner table and I sat down and began to eat. But for some reason, one of the nuns came up behind me and she gave me a terrible beating around my head, knocking me off the chair and onto the floor. I got up and I began to cry, and as I looked up at her, she told me to go to my room and to stay there until the next day. But my head was throbbing and I could hear a humming noise in my ears, so I told her what was happening inside my head; but instead of her helping me, she continued to shout at me and then she chased me out of the room and up the stairs until I got to my room. I screamed and I shouted back to her that I had not eaten a thing since breakfast when Sister Ann hit me around the head, and then I slammed the bedroom door shut and I sat on my bed crying.
It wasn’t fair, I thought to myself, I had done nothing wrong, nothing at all. About half an hour later, my sisters and Simon came into the room and we all talked and played until it was bedtime; then Simon got into my bed with me and we cuddled up and fell asleep together, just like we used to back at daddy’s and mummy’s houses. The next few days were all the same; we got up, had breakfast and then we went to school. But one day, one of the nuns told us that we would have to go home for our lunch because we couldn’t stay and have lunch in the convent anymore, as they didn’t have the time to feed us.
So Daisy, Simon and I began to walk home on our own and about halfway home I walked across the road and Daisy followed me, then I turned to her and said, ‘Where’s Simon?’ ‘I don’t know’, she said. So we both turned around and looked for him. He was still standing on the pavement at the other side of the road. I shouted to him, ‘Quickly, cross now while no cars are coming’, but the road was wide and he kept saying no and that he was frightened. ‘Quickly, now’, I said. ‘It’s ok. Quick before it’s too late.’ He looked at me and then he ran, but it was too late and at that moment a brown-coloured car came along the road. I shouted again, ‘Quick’, but it was too late and the car hit him and then the car skidded to a stop.
I looked over at Simon and he was lying in the road and, all of a sudden, the road around him began to shimmer in the sunlight. I walked towards him and, as I got closer to him, I realised that it was a pool of Simon’s blood that was shimmering in the sunlight and he wasn’t moving. ‘He’s dead’, I shouted. ‘He’s dead.’ And then Daisy and I both ran over to him. I looked down at him as he lay in the road and his body was all twisted and he was covered in blood; and as I stood looking down at him, his blood began to spread along the road and around his body. I screamed and I began to shake with panic from the shock of seeing his blood drain from his body. ‘Quickly’, I said and we both ran up towards our house, screaming for help.
As I got to the house, I pounded on the front door and I screamed for someone to help us; and as I kicked the door, one of the nuns opened it. She shouted at us to stop and she screamed at us to be quiet and stop shouting, but I couldn’t stop and I kept shouting and I told her that Simon was dead, ‘He’s in the road dead’. Then another member of staff came out of the house and she told me to shut up, then she grabbed me by my hair and dragged me into the house and I smashed my knees on the steps as she dragged me inside. ‘Sit down and
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