Free Amelia's Story (Box Set the Complete Series Books 1 & 2) by D. G. Torrens Page B

fear that I would scupper this opportunity put before me.

Broughton Estate (Back H ome)
    I was back at home once again. My Social Worker walked me up the path to the front door, I’m sure my heart skipped a beat when the door bell rang. As the door opened Jake ran up to me with arms open wide and with a big smile on his face. He was delighted at seeing me and mother seemed quite pleased too, but I sensed an atmosphere between us and I’m sure my pleasant greeting from her was for the benefit of my Social Worker. Mother asked the Social Worker to come in and made her a cup of tea. They chatted for a little while then my Social Worker left.
    The days that followed included the occasional visit from our step-father Robert. I even remember he and his boyfriend taking us all on a week’s holiday to Rhyl in North Wales, a good holiday too - the only one I ever remember going on whilst in my mother’s care. Mother did not come with us, she enjoyed a week off, but little did we know she was lining up hubby number three already. I already knew she had a boyfriend. Jake had told me previously, “Amelia mother’s got a new boyfriend, I don’t like him very much because he’s a bit moody!” I told him not to worry, it probably would not last as mother had lots of boyfriends who came and went.
    Kieran was a violent alcoholic an unemployed man, doing the odd bit of labouring on the side when he was sober. My mother was very smitten with him and hung on his every word. We children always took a back seat when she had a man in her life. Kieran and mother were a bad combination as they were both alcoholics and they both encouraged each other to drink. They would get so drunk that some days our mother would forget to unlock our bedroom doors in the morning; I would be banging on the wall to get her attention and rouse her from a deep sleep. She would then stagger to my bedroom door, unlock it, and tell me to let the others out and go downstairs. “Do not make a sound,” she would say.
    All four of us would sit in the front room watching the “Saturday morning picture show,” followed by, “Champion the wonder horse,” and then there would be a Saturday morning movie, usually a “Norman Wisdom” one set in black and white. Everyone only had three channels back then, BBC1, BBC2, and ATV - not very many people had colour TVs on the estate as this was reserved for the better off. Jake and I would make breakfast for us all and we would all sit together with our bowls of ready brek or cornflakes, still in our nightclothes watching TV. We were very careful not to make a sound, and kept the TV on very low, so as not to disturb our mother and her new boyfriend.
    They would surface around lunchtime, with bad headaches and bad moods. Mother would start her day shouting at Jake and me for making a mess in the kitchen and not putting the cereal boxes away, and then we would be told to get dressed and go outside to play and leave them in peace. Jake and I would take our younger sisters out for a walk. We would take a pushchair each and take them to the big dip, this was a great place that all the kids used to go to play at weekends, and we loved it. The big dip was a large green with a great big hole in the middle, steps had been made down the side of the dip by the council and at the bottom there were slides and swings, lots of trees and bushes, and this was a huge playing area for the local children. However, when we had Jenny and Susie with us, it proved a challenge to get them down to the bottom with the pushchairs especially with Jenny, as we had to be so careful and mindful of her disability; her capabilities were not as ours were. Jenny loved being taken out for walks by Jake and me there were nearly always tears when we had to return home.
    We spent as much time as possible outside of the house as being at home was akin to being in a war zone. Mother and Kieran were always fighting, only this time mother had a boyfriend who gave as