My mum waved goodbye to me as the two men drove me away.
The lady at the office had explained that my mum was not well enough to take care of me since my dad had died. Mum told me that I would be going to a boarding school for a while. I didn't really know what they all meant.
In my eleven year old brain I assumed that meant I would be returning home after a while.
I never did.
My mum and I had cried for ages. She had hugged me and as I waved goodbye to her I could see that she was crying so I began again too.
One of the men told me kindly that I had to stop crying, so sobbing became sniffing and I rubbed my eyes.
It was dark when we finally arrived. A big boy called Dave showed me to the room I would be sharing with him. He didn't say much but he took me to a large kitchen and gave me a sandwich and some cold milk. He led me up to the bedroom and told me I had to wash and get into my pyjamas and that the headmaster would see me at 8.00 o clock. He said he was going to wach TV wihth the pthers and would come and get me at 7.55.
The home seemed quiet but I could hear the sound of a TV in the distance.
At the appointed time I was led to an office. Dave knocked at the door. I heard a man say ''come'' and Dave opened the door and pushed me in the middle of my back so I entered the room.
The man was big.
''Thank you Dave'', he said.
Dave left and shut the door.
I stood in my cotton pyjamas.
The man said ''good, how old are you boy''
I replied ''I'm eleven'' and added ''sir'', like we did at school.
The man went to a cupboard and got out a cane. I was frightened.
''Bend over that desk'' the man said pointing with his cane.
I did not want to get into any more trouble than I was already in so I walked over and bent my body across the desk.
The man walked up behind me and lifted the back of my pyjama jacket up my back. Then he pulled my trousers down so that they were around my ankles.
I started to cry but he told me to be quiet.
He put the cane on my bottom and I felt it moving across my bottom.
He whacked me twice and I cried out each time. He told me to pull up my trousers and go to bed. I walked out of the room.
The next evening he hit me twice with the cane again and pushed the tip of the cane into my bottom after he had whacked me. It hurt. This went on every night for about four weeks.
Then he stopped.