-‘I was putting massage oil on him and he got all.. well and ..’- We started giggling. -‘How did you get that thing, um, I mean?’- -‘You’ve seen it then.’- -‘Not like… inflated.’- The Free -‘I got up on the table.’- -‘Oof.’- I said. -‘Only times I got done it was terrible. My dad he..’- I stopped, I’d said too much, how silly I was. Mike Gilliland And suddenly I started breathing in little gasps. -‘Well, uh, sorry.. your dad? Oh shit no, your father?’- Maggie was much too clever. She took my hands in hers and we touched foreheads. She just ignored my wheezing. But I turned my head away, biting my bottom lip till it hurt. I’d let slip a secret I hardly dared tell myself! And Maggie had picked up on it. I shrugged my shoulders again. Blinking back tears. -‘Shh, shh. Tell me if you want.’- she said. -‘It doesn’t matter. um.. I started remembering things.’- I whis- pered, sniffing. -‘You’re blocking it out, sure. You’ll have to tell me it all, okay? So then finally you can really get over it.’- I felt like I would fall into a black hole. I was going to choke. Maggie was rubbing my back gently. -‘When he, um. When he started doing things to me… No I c can’t tell it… Why am I still so scared?’- -‘You’re safe here. You started remembering things he did.’- -‘Yes coz I’d seen through him and, and he lost his power over me! I’ve escaped Maggie!. And I found a wonderful new friend!’- -‘Who’s that then?’- For answer I tickled her waist and we laughed together. -‘You’ll have to tell me all the dirty details.’- she insisted. -‘If not 2011 they can fester inside you.’- 80 *** We moved the stew from the flames, to just simmer and madea salad and got the plates ready. She’d even brought a bottle of their merry plum wine. We re-hung the big blanket over the window, stopping the draft and muffling the noisy wind. Then Maggie threw herself onto the cushions by the fire,ina flowing Tai Chi roll. -‘Come over here with me, Maxie Moon.’- -‘I am here.’- I wasn’t so sure about rolling with this gay lady. -‘I’ve got another shocking secret. I’ve come here to tell you and Barney about it. It’s a secret.’- -‘I won’t tell a soul.’- I swore. -‘Maybe you should turn up the radio again.’- -‘Well it’ll have to be public soon anyway.’- -‘Is it bad?’- I asked, but I could see it was good. She was beaming and nervous. -‘No no I hope not, it’s good good good.’- -‘I’m glad about that, er. What is it then?’- She rolled onto her tummy, elbows on the rug and grinning up at me. -‘Well, remember I told you Barney was just an old friend. Well it’s true..um..’- -‘What are you trying to say?’- -‘That I did make love to him, in my room, on the massage table.’- -‘He did it to you on the massage table?’- I giggled. -‘Well no, uh, really I did it to him. But he liked it. See I was taking care of him when he was all cracked up and out of it, like..’- -‘You gave him, er, special therapy.’- I was surprised and intrigued and nodded her on.. 79 like she was casting a spell, and chucked a splintered plank on the crackling fire… -‘Just the idea gives me a panic attack. But I got my inhaler. Lets do it..’- -‘Yeah maybe, but it would have to be done right, like, not just a Contents spectacle I mean, we.. They’re sadistic, it’s not so much about sexat all.’- She’d finished my now short hair and was rubbing me withher Act One 13 thumbs. We sat cross legged, staring wide eyed into the glowing sparks. Chapter One -‘In some male circles attacking women is seen as -‘Okay wow and Smashing my Aquarium how daring.’- and that… Know what I mean?’- -‘A big, wet, pouting, splash of a kiss..’- 14 -‘And we could change that?’- I wasn’t convinced. Linda ............................. 14 -‘We need to talk to some clever people who know how to do it. It’s a campaign, called ‘Spot a Shit-On.’. With the projects and the radios and the telly and the Pools, and, and more stuff.’- Chapter Two -‘We’ll talk to them, you know them…’- Linda leaves home. I could hear the stew bub-bubble in the blackened pot. -‘Don’t be naughty, little darling, don’t be bad.’- 24 -‘..But would it really work?’- Linda ............................. 24 -‘We could strike a good blow, like.. To shame the rapist in these fellas heads.’- Chapter Three Linda is Maxie Moon My legs were hurting, I stretched them straight, but she moved -‘Running through that suddenly golden snow.’- 31 so I leaned back into her arms. Linda — Maxie ........................ 31 -‘My tits are small and boring.’- I confided, with a sigh. -‘You look just fine…’- she said. Though I knew my face was more Chapter Four battered than ever. Wonderful Maggie -‘..Now that’s enough about that. We won’t decide anything yet, all -‘You can trust me, you’re my sister.’- 47 right?’- Maxie ............................. 47 But I had already decided. Chapter Five It was Maggie made me strong. It was too good a chance to just Barney the Play Worker throw away. -‘Just bop Groucho Marx on the nose.’- 57 -‘All right. Okay.’- I said. -‘But what about dinner?’- Maxie ............................. 57 78 3 Chapter six -‘You’d have to be well gone from here, you’ll have to move from Testerical Morons here you know that now.’- -‘Don’t get silly and hysterical, honey.’- 64 -‘Or my dad will get his nazi friends to track me down. Imagine, Maxie ............................. 64 Killian Bate, he hates my guts.’- I realized I would have to move on. -‘The Brother-Hood? Worse than the cops if you ask me,andnow Chapter seven they’re funded because..’- Maggie’s Secrets -‘But the police don’t even know who I am.’- I interrupted. -‘I could She whispered something shocking in my ear. 74 change my looks again!’- Maxie ............................. 74 -‘That would be fun.’- said Maggie. -‘We’ll talk about this later on okay, and see the video. It’s just a chance, and I want you to know Chapter eight everything from the start.’- Christo joins The Free -‘Hey here comes the old lap dog himself.’- 87 I said nothing. The wind rattled the window again. I could smell the stew beginning to cook. I was ravenous. Chapter nine -‘It’s scary for me. I don’t want my body all over posters but.. But Sliding thru Walls if it stops other women being attacked I, I’ll just do it. I’ll do anything -‘I’d just spoken the unspeakable in public.’- 101 I can..’- Maxie .............................101 I can’t believe I said that. That popped out by itself. Really I was shaking in my short school socks. Chapter ten Horny, Bossy and Wild. She was putting the sofa cushions in front of the fire and wesat Shaking out the feathers of my giant snowy wings. 116 down together. Now she’d decided to brush my raggy hair. act two.. re-creating 126 -‘It’s even more than you think. Things are on the point of changing totally right now, like. The old ways are just going out the window. Chapter eleven After centuries of shit.. Really!’- Cuddly Toys -‘Good riddance to bad rubbish.’- -‘Scaly lizards and twisting lilies’- 127 -‘If we splash this exposé properly, and go on reminding everyone, Macker ............................133 it could discredit and discourage all sexist and rape attacks around here.’- Chapter Twelve -‘We should go for it then. If we can cover up my face. We could Macker the Magician get it on Pools TV. That’d really show them up for the bastards they -‘I am here to astound! ..I am here to amaze!’- 140 are.’- Macker ............................148 -‘Chuck in a witch’s cat with the cocky pigeons.’- she hissed, 4 77 -‘We can find out where they live.’- she said quietly. -‘through the Chapter thirteen women’s groups in the Pools, I know loads of them. We could shame Maxie & Macker them, tell their families. Or we could put it out on our radio and TV -‘You’re the magic boy I found on my doorstep..’- 154 or.. Or if we let their local CLANs in on it, they’d have them fried with Macker ............................154 bacon for breakfast!’- Maxie .............................157 -‘But, but people wouldn’t believe us.’- Chapter fourteen I was getting dressed now, trying on the frilly knickers she’d The Ragwort Free brought me. -‘Then I find Maxie has you captured in her bed!’- 167 Suddenly I was happy. Posing in the mirror I’d broken. -‘I mean, we’ve no proof of anything. I’m a nobody Maggie.’- Chapter fifteen -‘To me you’re a super somebody ’- She came back over. -‘And I Homosexual Sinners wish I had a body like yours.’- -‘God will forgive you my son.’- 174 -‘My legs are too short. My bottom sticks out, look. Anyway your Chapter Sixteen body’s perfect.’- Spot A Shit-On -‘A bit fat though. Don’t I look pregnant?’- She laughed strangely. -‘For this I come to see the horse’s mouth.’- 181 -‘Pleasantly plump that’s all.’- I said, and squeezed her hand.