I was stunned. ‘Are you serious?’ was all I could manage to splutter. I felt blindsided, like she had swooped in and pipped me to the post.
‘I’m sorry, I know it isn’t nice hearing something like that about your child.’
I shook my head. ‘That’s why I wanted to meet you, actually. It’s just that Finn has been really upset at home and he said Elliot has been calling him fat and saying he looked like a girl. That’s why he wanted to cut his hair,’ I added. ‘And that incident between them in the yard – Finn only pushed Elliot because he pushed him first!’
‘Really?’ Maya asked, hiking her brows in a way that told me she didn’t believe a word I was telling her. Did she think this was damage limitation? That I was making this up to push the blame back on Elliot?
‘Y-yes,’ I said, recovering. ‘It’s been going on a while…’
‘That’s not what Ms Higgins said.’
‘Because she only witnessed Finn pushing Elliot; she didn’t see what had happened before that which led Finn to push Elliot.’
‘Okay…’ she said, sucking in sharply. ‘Well… wow… this is super awkward… I don’t want to accuse Finn of lying?—’
‘He’s not lying—’ I interjected, suddenly finding my confidence. Not only was her son bullying Finn but now she was trying to flip the truth around and accuse Finn of being the aggressor. I had to speak up for my son’s sake.
‘I see…’ she continued coolly. ‘Well, I’ve spoken with Ms Higgins and she confirmed that Elliot has been isolated by the other boys in the class so he’s not making this up.’
So she had got to the teacher first. I felt the blood pump faster through my veins and heat break out across my neck. I had convinced Jay to wait and let me approach the topic with Maya first but I was shocked that she hadn’t afforded me the same courtesy.
‘But Maya, the reason why Elliot’s being left out is because he’s mean to the other kids. He lashes out when he doesn’t get his own way and he doesn’t want to share. You’ve seen it yourself when they’ve been together. We deliberately told Finn not to play with him.’
‘Oh right,’ she said angrily. ‘So basically, you’re the instigator in all of this?’
‘No!’ I cried. ‘That’s not what I said!’ I wasn’t going to have my son blamed for this. I knew Finn and he was a kind and sensitive child. Elliot was spoilt and unfortunately seemed to have a nasty streak.
‘I’ve just told you that my son is being excluded by the other boys in the class and you just told me that you toldyourson not to play with him!’ she cried. ‘It doesn’t get any clearer than that.’ Maya stood up from the table, signalling that this conversation was over. ‘Look, I don’t want us to fall out over this but maybe weeach should just take some space here. Let’s have another word with the boys and try to get their side of this.’
I stood up after her and grabbed my bag. ‘Yes,’ I agreed through gritted teeth. ‘Maybe we should.’
51
LIV
I went home with my head in a spin. Tears pressed forward in my eyes every time I went over the conversation with Maya in my mind. My hands were trembling so much that it took me several attempts to get the key into the lock. I went inside the house and tried to distract myself by doing some laundry but I couldn’t get the conversation out of my head. Jay called me on his lunch break to see how it had gone and I fell apart as I told him what had happened.
‘How dare she!’ he kept repeating. ‘How dare she try and pin this on our son! It was Elliot who started the whole thing and now because we thought we were doing the right thing by advising Finn not to play with the bully,heends up being the one accused of bullying! I actually can’t believe it. I’m off tomorrow; I’ll call the school and make an appointment to see his teacher.’
I couldn’t even formulate a response. I just kept crying.
When I collected Finn that afternoon, I kept my head down and I was relieved when Maya and I didn’t cross paths. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep a lid on my emotions.
We went home and after I had given Finn a snack and revised his phonics with him, we built some Lego together. I wanted tochat to him about the situation with Elliot but I knew he’d just clam up if he sensed I was questioning him so I needed him to be distracted.
‘Did you play with Elliot in school today?’ I probed as I pushed a brick down onto the wall that we were building.
He shook his head. ‘I didn’t want to play with him cos he’s always mean to me and he says bad things to me.’
‘Did you tell your teacher about him being mean to you?’
He shook his head. ‘No.’
‘Elliot said to his mammy that you and some of the other boys were being mean tohim,’ I went on. ‘Is that true?’
‘But you saided that I didn’t have to play with him if he isn’t being nice!’
‘I know, sweetheart, I did. But now his mammy said he is sad because he’s feeling left out.’
