[Sounds of movement]
I think the tape has stopped, but it is just another long silence. Then there is the sound of tearing and scuffling and the child, me, whimpering. Dad is calm.
Tom: Why did you tear up those photos, Denise?
Denise: They want her. They don’t want me.
Tom: Who?
Denise: My mammy and daddy. They want that girl back.
Tom: That girl is you, Denise.
Denise: I don’t know her.
Tom: Jean told me that it was a stressful visit, Denise. You’re twenty-five now, isn’t that right? Can you imagine what it was like for your mammy and daddy, missing you for all those years, wondering what had happened to you?
Denise: Why didn’t they keep looking for me?
Tom: Well, it’s …
Jean: They never gave up hope that you were alive. Didn’t your mammy say that last night?
Denise: They didn’t try hard enough.
Tom: You know, Denise, it’s not possible to keep looking for someone forever.
[The sound of a child’s whispering]
Jean: What did you say, Mary?
Denise: Don’t talk to her.
Jean: I’m sorry.
Denise: Give me that.
Tom: The doll?
Denise: Give it to me.
[Noise of movement]
Tom: Mary might like to play with a doll. Has she seen one before?
Jean: What are you doing with the doll, Denise?
Denise: I’m doing up all the buttons. She shouldn’t be a little slut.
I stopped the tape. I knew what had happened to Denise. How she had protected me. I did not remember her voice or her face in the photographs, but I was incredibly sad for this stranger. Dad used to say that I had empathy in abundance, but I didn’t use it often enough.
I turned to Dad’s notes and took out a file at random.
Denise Norton D.O.B 05.04.55
26/09/80 WEEK 24
Hard to know if I am making any progress with Denise. Her mental capacity is severely diminished, and I would estimate her mental age at little more than when she was kidnapped: eleven years old. The contradiction is that she is an extremely overprotective mother. Mary can walk and talk, although she never uses her full voice and only whispers. Jean says there is no physical reason for this. She is toilet trained but will only go when her mother is present. Mary is approximately five or six years old according to the doctors and still has not been in the presence of other children. Denise holds her hand and must be in physical contact with her at all times. We have tried a cot bed beside Denise’s bed, but Denise refuses to let go of the child. Mary, sensing her mother’s fear, is also unwilling to let go. There was a mattress in one room and a child’s bedroom in the extension where they were kept, though maybe they always slept together on the mattress. The small bedroom looked uninhabited from the photos I saw. Denise rarely answers questions about their circumstances in Killiney. Jean has some half-baked theories but no evidence of anything.
