CHAPTER 41
Cathy turned out to have been absolutely right about the break doing wonders for their exam chances, or else the two girls were ferociously bright. I had guessed that about Cathy on first meeting her, but Nell’s softly-spoken manner hadn’t revealed the true depth of her own intellect. I actually felt a little bit of resentment at their results (all ‘A’ grades!), with a little bit of snarkiness about how two girls from a children’s home had outperformed so many of Daddy’s Little Rich Bitch Princesses, but told myself I was being unfair on girls I had never met.

Aberystwyth snapped the pair of them up, of course, and we began the process of gathering the necessities of a life of study a long way from home. The Summer lay ahead of us, of course, so we had time, and that allowed me to sort out applications for those of my charges who needed a school place. Heidi worked some real magic there, because the last thing I wanted was for any of them to be alone and open to bullying. We had a real sisterhood spirit developing in the House, and it was very much a hedgehog attitude.

Yes, I know bloody well that Romanies are supposed to love eating hedgehogs, but it was one thing Mam and Dad were very firmly against. To them…

I spent a little while in my room at the return of those memories, sitting outside the back door with Dad, two carrier bags of clothing forgotten as the little beasts snuffled and rattled the food bowls by the step.

To them, both of them, hedgehogs were part of the changing year we had lived in. They returned from hibernation as Winter slowly released its grip on the world, and snuffled away to a long sleep as it returned with a nasty grin. As we followed the seasons around the country, they followed their own circle.

How could my parents eat such friends?

That was partly the source of my own prickliness, wondering how I myself might have done with better education, if Cooper and his friends hadn’t cut my life off at the knees. That thought, of course, was swallowed by the realisation that without Cooper, I would never have met my Mam and Dad. That would never, ever excuse what he had done, of course, but I had the life I was living, and no other was available. One per customer; no exchanges or refunds, and no warranties.

Marlene was on hand with a private room for a celebration of the girls’ success, which went exactly as I expected, and then one day in July, we received a knock at the back door. After checking all the girls were accounted for, I checked the little screen for the cameras sparky had rigged for us.

Oily and Elf, and the former must have noticed the camera, for he mugged, waved and pretended to moon it. Bastard! I reassured my brood, and let the two into the kitchen.

Hugs all round, and a big grin from Oily when I pointed out that he was getting worse.

“That’s the plan, Debbie! I want to get so bad that there is no way I could ever get any worse. Live the dream!”

Kim had appeared as soon as she knew who was there, and she was already at the kettle.

“Tea? Coffee? Me?”

Oily hugged her happily.

“How’s that lad working out, kid?”

I turned my serious face onto her.

“Lad?”

She looked hard at the kettle, clearly unsure how to plug it in.

“Um… I did say there was one who was not bad…”

Back off, Debbie. One life per person, and that one was hers. Oily laid an arm over my shoulders.

“All sorted, Debbie. Kim and I had a little chat at new year, while you were stuffing your face I think it was, and I said I’d ask around a bit”

Kim turned sharply, a couple of mugs in her hand.

“Not true! I said I was wondering, and you asked who he was, and then you told me not to worry!”

Elf laughed out loud.

“Exactly! Job’s done, nothing nasty found out, and he will be a good boy. Nobody’s spoken to him, if that’s your worry, but the word is that he’s not a bad’un”

She took her tea from Kim with a nod of gratitude.

“Ta, love. That other one, though: right little shit. Nearly let Patch have a gobble of his bits, and not the sort he would have liked”

Kim looked puzzled.

“Who’s Patch?”

“My top dog, love. Breeder, I am”

Oily muttered “Right breeder, she is”

“Dog breeder, love. Ignore Oily. Patch is a bull terrier. The tosser nearly lost his meat and two veg”

Kim’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times, then she shook her head as her usual grin returned.

“I thought I hadn’t seen him in Ruth’s for a while!”

Elf gave her a much warmer smile.

“Family, love. It’s what we are, what you are. Now, we’ve come down for a reason. Debbie?”

“Yeah?”

“Your two oldest ones in?”

“Living room”

“Mind if we step in?”

“Kim, want to warn the crew? Routine here, Elf”

Kim was back in a couple of seconds, waving us all in, as Maisie and Tricia went to the other half of the House to fetch some more chairs. Oily sat down on a free one, sipping his tea with one of his winning smiles on show for the girls.

“Ah, that’s better. Cathy? Nell? A word?”

Nell was the first to respond.

“In here, or the kitchen?”

“Either way, love. Nothing to worry about. We’ve just got something at the Clubhouse we need moving, so grab these”

He passed the two a buff envelope each.

“Pig and Wildcat heard how well you’ve done at the exams, you two, but you’ve decided to bugger off somewhere a long way away, which is rude, and the travel there and back is going to be a bitch. So those are driving lessons, a package of them each. You’ve both showed us what good students you are, so it’s your job now not to waste those. OK?”

It took a while for the emotions in the room to settle down, and they included cheers, tears and hugs, but in the end what remained were questions. The obvious one met the same answer Elf had given Kim in the kitchen: family.

Oily finished his tea before Elf, but waited until she was done.

“Right. Got some business in Splott, so we’ll be off. Ta for the cuppa, Kim!”

Cathy found her voice at last.

“Oily?”

“Yeah?”

“You said you had something that needed moving, at the Clubhouse?”

“Oh, yes. It’s only a Vauxhall Corsa, but it should do you both for getting to Aber and back”

They were out the door, and the sound of their bikes was fading, before Cathy spoke again.

“Is he saying they just bought us a car? Me and Nell?”

Maisie was nodding.

“Sounded like it. Debbie?”

“Yes, love?”

“This really is a family, isn’t it?”

“You only just starting to realise, love?”

“Yeah, but…”

She gestured at the rest of the girls, several of whom were weeping.

“It’s just, well, look at them. Look at me. Why couldn’t our own--- our old families have been like this?”

“I can’t answer that one. All I can say is that we sometimes need a fresh start. Then it’s up to us to make the best of it. Sod it. Anyone not fancy a drive out to the beach and an ice cream?”

It wasn’t a bad Summer weather-wise that year, and I took ten days off work in August for a proper break, borrowing the minibus once more for a drive out to a campsite inland from Tenby, where there was an old church tower on site and minimal facilities, but it was far away from the actual seaside to be a little less busy than those at the honeypots. The girls were used to the starker campsite in Snowdonia, and after a little session at the big warehouse place, we had some simple tents, bags and sleep mats.

We spent our days on the beach, sometimes in the water (chilly as it always is) and often on stretches of the coast path along the cliffs. I had somehow forgotten to mention how the area is one of the best birdwatching spots in Wales, but they soon worked it out, probably at the moment I had placed my telescope and tripod into the bus.

A few pub meals, many ice creams at the more popular beaches, but most nights spent cooking as a family by our tents. The beach trips were a clear rite of passage for the girls, and we found various ways of hiding ‘unsightly bulges’ and avoiding the really busy spots. I believe that their number helped, because such a group must have left any potential ‘tranny spotters’ confused. Nope, can’t be a boy; look at how many there are.

For whatever reason, it was a successful trip, working the bonding magic I had hoped for. It was just us, no friends, nobody from outside the House, absolute empathy and understanding all round. Even on the trip back to Cardiff, sand everywhere, the girls were singing some crap chart song or other, even Nell, and I didn’t have a chance to play any decent music.

Sods.

There were smiles for days after that, and we got through the second half of August without drama, Cathy and Nell slogging away at rather different examinations after the arrival of their provisional driving licences. Once August was done, the younger girls were off to their school, as a pack. I don’t know what hidden strings Heidi had available to her, but she was clearly tugging hard at them, and each kid was registered in a very different name from those they had been given at birth.

I still sweated blood with worry about them, for the best part of six months, particularly the newer ones, for their previous schools hadn’t exactly delivered safety and acceptance. Each of them went with a mobile phone, and set into each phone’s address book were my number and those of Marlene, Kim and Ruth, as well as each of the others at school.

It was their safety net, but I was still terrified. I had seen so much, too much evil to relax easily. That only got worse a few weeks later, when two brand-new full driving licences set off in a small Vauxhall car for Aberystwyth, with a pile of books, clothing, shoes and dreams.

The first of my brood had fledged; I prayed they would fly in safety.