‘That’s all he gives me. May I … may I have your apple core?’
‘I put it in the bin.’
‘I don’t mind.’
She went to the bin and took out the apple core.
‘That’s disgusting, eating out of a bin.’
‘I’m hungry. That food you have. Is there enough for us to share?’
‘He said that food was for me.’
‘But if there was too much for you, can I have the leftovers? Please?’ Her eyes were filling with tears again and I didn’t know what I should feel.
‘No,’ I said, ‘it’s against the rules.’
I tried to ignore her by reading my books, but she wanted to see them. I wouldn’t let her, so she asked me to read out loud to her. I read five pages of Gulliver’s Travels and she said I was an excellent reader and that she was proud of me and that it was a brilliant story. I was wary. I started to cry. ‘I want my dad.’
‘Oh, my lovely boy. He is a bad man. Do you think it’s right that he keeps me locked up out here with barely any food, in the dark, with no books?’
‘There’s no television here either.’
‘Our neighbours had a television. Do you have one here? In this house?’
I nodded. It wasn’t answering questions if I didn’t say anything.
‘Wow. Is the house big?’
I wondered about that. I suppose it was. There were lots of rooms. That day we went to the zoo, we passed lots of houses but most of them were all crammed together. On television, I saw big houses and small ones. I decided our house was big, but I wasn’t going to tell her that.
I went to the pile of clothes that Dad had laid out on the single chair beside my bed and found my pyjamas.
‘Do you need any help getting undressed?’ she asked.
I ignored her and took off my clothes. I looked at my watch. The small hand was between seven and eight. I was late for bed.
‘Oh, you have a watch! What time is it?’
‘Bedtime.’ It was twenty-five past seven. I had just learned to tell the time and I wanted to show off, but there was no point in showing off to somebody as stupid as her. Dad was a bit fed up of me showing off. He said I didn’t have to tell him the time every five minutes.
‘Okay.’
‘I need to brush my teeth.’ I passed her to get to the toilet and, this time, I closed the door.
I did another wee and brushed my teeth. There was no mirror here and one thin towel. When I opened the door, she was kneeling in front of it. She had her arms stretched out wide. I tried to jump past her, but she quickly wrapped her arms around me, pushing her face down on to my head and kissing it. I struggled violently.
‘Let me go, let go of me!’
‘I love you so much, I can’t help it. I thought I heard you through the door sometimes, but he’s put up all this insulation on the walls and I didn’t know if it was my imagination. He never told me anything about you. He said if I tried to talk to you through the wall, he would punish you. I’m so glad you’re here.’ Her arms tightened and I screamed into her armpit.
She released me then and I ran to my corner.
‘I’m sorry, Peter, I’m so sorry. I just wanted to hold you for a moment.’
‘I’m telling Dad. He’s going to punish you so badly.’
‘I need –’
