CHAPTER 8
I thought it was about time to sort things out. The weekend with Tony had opened my eyes to the way life could be, and Joe was not someone I could ever trust to take me there.

He was fun, the one-sided sex was exciting, but it was clearly going absolutely nowhere. I would go out for a last drink, clear the decks, and call it quits.

Once more, Joe had picked a pub miles from anywhere, and I realised he was trying to minimise the chances of being seen with me. He was as charming as ever, and when we walked out into the car park he was clearly expecting his usual little treat.

“Joe, I’m sorry, but that’s it. I’m off home; I tried to drop a hint in the pub, but you weren’t listening much. In fact, I realised you never really listen at all. It’s been fun, but I need to move on”

“One last kiss then?”

Sod it, I thought, and the farewell kiss quickly became his usual performance. Then he grabbed my right breast, which was still mostly padding. I felt him freeze, and suddenly he grabbed me between the legs.

I felt the first punch, but not the last.
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I came to with someone bending over me.

“It’s all right, love, I’ve called an ambulance. Who was it, do you know?”

“Joe Evans….I work with him”

The rest was a blur, till I woke properly in the hospital with a WPC by the bed. A male copper came in, and whispered something in her ear. She gave me a look of utter disgust and walked out, leaving him the chair. An hour or so later, two obvious policemen in suits entered the room, and gave the uniform the nod to go.

“So, Mr Powell, where do you want to start? Before or after we charge you?”

I couldn’t work out what was going on, and mumbled something semi-coherent to that effect. Suit two looked disgusted, and Suit one continued.

“Oh come on, you piece of shit, dirty little drag queen queer tries it on with a straight bloke and gets a fucking smack, and then tries to complain? Let’s see: indecent assault, outraging public decency, wasting police time, I wouldn’t be surprised if we couldn’t fit soliciting into the fucking charge sheet.

“I will tell you your fortune now, you dirty little shirtlifting cunt. You will take the treatment this hospital is required to give you, you will fuck off home, and you will leave real men alone, and if I ever, ever see you about I will make sure you get another lesson, wyt ti’n deall? You got me, you little arse bandit?”

Through my shock and tears I spotted someone at the door, a nurse, and she looked as shocked as I felt. After the two pillars of society left the room, she came in and held a glass with a straw to my lips. In a whisper, she reassured me.

“I heard it all, and I couldn’t believe it. Can’t they see who the victim is here? I’m going to leave you my name and that, and if you want to take it further I will be a witness. I can’t believe it, supposed to be bloody coppers”

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I will gloss over events a bit here, as they are still so painful. After discharge, I went back to pick up my bike, only to find it had been torched. Go to the police about it? Yeah, right. I called in sick and took the train home, home to Mam and Dad, everything wrecked along with my nose and cheekbone.

Elaine came home that evening, obviously after a call from the parents, and I have never seen her so angry, before or since.

“Did you get their fucking names, Sar?”

“Language, Elaine.”

“Shut it Mam. And you, where are you off to?”

“Little bastard needs some fatherly advice”

“No, not now, not ever. We get the shit, but we get the coppers as well, and we get them clean, got me?”

As she issued her instructions, there was a knock at the door, and there was Arris. She cried more than anyone else at the mess I was in, As we dried our tears, and Mam made tea for everyone, she confirmed that she knew Joe, and of his reputation as a ‘lady’s man’

“You are so new to this, Sar, love, you haven’t learnt to recognise the bad ones yet”

Dad looked at her hard. “What do you know about my daughter?”

Arris smiled. “Just about everything, and I also love her to bits, just like a sister. Don’t worry about me”

Elaine came back from the calls she had been making, and I introduced Arris, who got a hug.

“Wheels are in motion, girls. They do not do this to my family. Now we just have to find the right way to deal with Mr Evans”

Arris smiled, in a very cold way. “I might just have something available”

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Oh, the detail I could go into, the complaints procedure, the delay and delay till it was out of time for charging Joe with the assault, the out of court settlement paid by the constabulary to me to ‘avoid unnecessary expense to the public purse’; the promotion for Suit one, and the unfortunate release of all the details of the events, as the police saw them, to the local press. With no crime report, I had an awful job getting the insurance people to pay for the bike, and as I hinted at the very start of all this I got the full treatment at work, from sympathy to creepiness.

Physically, I healed well. Mentally, though…

I just couldn’t take it, and needed to get out of the city, away from streets and pubs that reminded me daily of my shame and pain. Addison’s were wonderful, and Queen Bitch, as I still thought of her, sent me a list of vacancies in other branches. Canterbury was there, and as 1999 became 2000 I set off for Dover on my second hand Honda 600. I found a flat to rent in Park Avenue (I liked having the address) in Dover, and I settled down to the rest of my single life. There was no point in getting rid of the wart. Much as I hated the ugly little growth, I couldn’t face the pain of surgery, and there was no real point in it. I realise now how much I hated myself, and as one week led to a month, and a month to a year, I was almost content in my little pit of misery. I could laugh and joke with my colleagues, but I never went out. I didn’t feel safe, even after Arris called me a few months after the settlement.

Apparently, Joe had met with an accident, one that had left him with a number of broken bones and a ruptured testicle. The accident had involved at least three men, one said to be blond and well over six feet tall. They hadn’t sounded local.

Thank you, Arris, thank you Steve.