Free Barefoot and Lost by Brian Francis Cox

or all of us will shout ‘Is the PT in the bathroom tonight Mr. Flynn can we join in’ On the nights he is on dorm’ duty, because we can see about half of his door from our dorm’ we will watch, if any boy attempts to go into his room we will shout, ‘Is there PT in your room tonight Mr. Flynn , can we join in?’ Lion reckons that if the Reverend doesn’t know about it he will become curious and investigate, if he doesn’t then we can assume they are all involved, then we will have to think of another way to bring it out in the open. Whatever happens I am going to write to Pop, I know he will believe me and do something about it.
     
         Brian ’s idea is to ask all the boys, between nine and twelve if Flynn or anybody else has tried to touch them or do unnatural things. Lion thinks it will be a waste of time because they will be too scared to talk about it but Brian said he is going to ask anyway. We all think that maybe we will get into serious trouble but have made a pact; we all put our hands on top of each others and swear to stick toget her no matter what. I think it’ s exciting, as Lion said what can they do send us somewhere else? If they did it couldn’t be any worse than here.        
         
         We have hidden our gardening tools, ready for tomorrow morning, down by the boundary fence to prevent anyone else getting them. The afternoons are always free times during holidays. We have decided to play cricket; that is except Lion, he says he will just watch his hands are still too sore to hold a bat. After two hours of standing around and only touching the ball twice I may as well have sat and watched with him.
     
          It’ s raining today s o all outside work is cancelled. W e have been selected to clean every chair in the dining hall, they don’t really need doing but they are not going to let us sit around and do nothing. We have to tip each chair upside down then, with a damp cloth wipe all the legs and the rungs it is very boring. After lunch it’ s still raining, the five of us have come up to the games room but so has everyone else. I have left the others playing cards, a game they call Newmarket . I can’t understand the game at all, Lion tried to teach me without success, so I have come into the library. It is a lot quieter here , a couple of older girls are reading and another one is knitting.
     
         Not sure why they call it a library there are hardly any books, I think that Pop has more in his house than there are here. I have found one that I am going to try to read called, ‘The Talisman’ by Sir Walter Scott ; I think I will like it because it is about the crusades. I want to start writing my letter to Pop but there is no paper and, even worse there are no envelopes. I have no idea how I am going to get one of those. The book is difficult to read, the print is very small. At the start of each chapter the first letter is like a picture, it is difficult to know what it is, not that I have got that far yet, I’m still on chapter one. There is a large notice on the wall that says books are not to be removed from the library; I was hoping to take this one with me to read in bed. Looking around I have found a piece of wool, about four inches long from the girl’s knitting, and this will be my marker. I have not put the book where I found it. On the bottom shelf there are six encyclopaedias about the same size and colour, I have tucked it beside them, unless you are looking for it you wouldn’t know it was there, now I have somewhere to hide my letter while I write and get the chance to post it.
     
         Mam has just come out of our dorm and sees us coming up the back stairs from chapel and calls out, ‘Lionel; I have left a new boy in your dormitory, look after him, his name is Peter, show him the ropes.’
         ‘Yes Mam I will.’ On entering the dorm I can see a small boy sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to us, his shoulders