I awoke the next morning and it was not yet light. It was not completely dark and I got out of bed and went to the window in the room. I opened the blinds and looked out to see the place which was now my home. I was very excited.
The town we had come to live in with my new father was very different to my village. I could see other houses across the road and cars in driiveways. I had never seen so many cars in my life.
I could see two front doors on each building. This was new to me as well and I was interested in seeing this. The houses of two families were attached to one another!
I turned and saw, to my utter delight, that there was a small television on top of chest of drawers and a desk with a small chair. Apart from that there was a closet in the corner of the room next to the door. The door was closed, but, wnating to use the bathroom, I crept slowly and quietly to the door and found the bathroom. I was as quiet as I could be and returned to my room and shut the door.
I was truly thrilled by my room. A new life had started for me and I had my own TV as well. If my old freinds in xxxxx could see me now, I thought. Of course I was nervous as well. I would be starting a new school in a few weeks time and I had a new father.
I decided to push the button on the TV. This was a mistake.
The TV made a loud noise, I remember thinking later that the volume button had been turned on to full but I was unfamiliar with the controls so I panicked and tried to find the correct button. I guess I was not quick witted enough to realise that the best thing would have been to turn the TV off.
The door of my room suddenly opened and my fater appeared in the doorway. He looked even older than before with his grey hair tousled from sleep and he wore a large red dressing gown and red slippers. I could tell he was mad at me but he just came into the room. I srambled back into my bed as father turned off the TV. He looked at me and said
''You are to stay in bed until I come and tell you that you may get up....do you understand Christopher?''. This was the first time I had been called by my new name and I nodded that I did understand.
As he left my room he said
''There will be no television for one week''.
The door was closed and I was left to think about what had happened.
Would he be long before coming and allowing me to get out of bed?
Would I be in trouble?
I felt dejected at having messed up and it was not even light outside yet.
I sat up in bed and thought about all the exciting things I would do today.
Some time later I had drifted back to sleep because father woke me when he came back nto my room.
''You may rise now Christopher'' he said ''you will find new clothes for today in your top drawer and your shoes are in the cupboard. Come down stairs when you are ready and we will all have breakfast''. I was curious about where my old clothes were but there were apparently none.
I jumped out of bed and had removed my underpants that I had slept in before father had closed the door. He looked back at me as I headed for the drawers and he smiled at me. I guess he had forgiven me for waking him earlier in the morning.
I took a clean pair of white underpants and a light blue teeshirt from the drawer. I was surprised to see that the only other things in the drawer were a pair of dark blue shorts and a pair of blue socks. Father had boall these for me before I arrived and whilst all the clothes fitted the shorts were tight. Had I had the forsight to read the labels I would have seen that the teeshirt was for aged 11, my correct age but the shorts were for an aged 10.
I went to the closet to find my shoes.
I opened the closet and stepped back. Leaning against the wall inside the closet was a thin school cane, the sort that I had seen older boys beaten with at my old school. On a hook on the same side wall hung a small wooden thing which looked smaller than a ping pong bat. I as not stupid so I immediately realised that these things were probably intended to be used on me if I was a naughty boy.
I was still staring at the cane when I heard my father call my name form downstairs to hurry along.
I quickly took out the white trainers from the closet and put them on. They were too tight and my first reaction was not to put them on and to explain that they did not it correctly to my new father.
Glancing at the cane again, but not daring to touch it, I pulled the trainers on and ran downstairs.
As I found my mother in the kitchen room she smiled at me and told me to sit down at a chair next to my father. I walked over to my new father and now thought of him in a different way than I had before. Although he was smiling at me I knew that life here would not be easy. I knew that the cane and the other thjing hanging in my room were intended for me but I had never been beaten before and I was a little scared of daddy now.
Father tolsd me to kiss mother good morning before sitting at the table and then added ''you can kiss daddy as well son''. I kissed my mother on the chhek and then daddy and sat down. I was quiet during breakfast that firts day and I hardly heard what my new dady was saying to me.
At the end of breakfast he looked at me and then my mother
''I'm not sure that Christopher is fully awake yet, my dear. I think the best thing will be if we go to his room where he can write it down for himself to have as a reminder''.
I remember my mother just smiling back at daddy and nodding in agreement.
''Upstairs to your room'' daddy announced and I stood up. I cannot tell you the number of times I was to hear these words over the next few years and the fear that they instilled in me.
''thank your mother for a good breakfast'' he added. I thanked my mother and left the kitchen room and walked to my bedroom.
I sat at my desk chair, not knowing what daddy would have wanted me to do. When he arrived he closed the door behind him and sat on my bed. He starred at me and I avoided his gaze.
''In the drawer you will find a pen and some paper'' daddy announced. ''get it out now''
The pen was not an ink pen fortunately and I picked it up poised to write.
That morning I wrote out the list of my chores. They ranged from shoe cleaning, mine, my mothers and his to weeding the yard and cutting the grass. Each assignment was given a time and day to be done. Daddy told me that his shoes were to be polished each morning when I awoke, to be fresh and shiny for his office.
When the list was written daddy told me that I did not have to remember everything but that I should not loose the list. ''By the way''...he told me ''you will have seen the cane and paddle in your closet. These will be sued when you are punished so remember to be a good boy and do as you are told and when you are told''
''Yes daddy'' I replied. I decided that I would always do as I was told and never to get the cane.
I was then told that I could go into the yard and play with my new soccer ball.
I was also warned not to get too dirty and we would be going round to his neighbors house later that morning.
As I left the back door of the house I saw that it had been raining. The yard had a large area of grass but I worried that if I ran on it I may slip over. I bounced the ball against the wall at the back of the hosue.
As I looked up at the house on the other side of the fence which divided our building I saw an old man looking down at me from an upstairs window. I wondered if this was the person I would be meeting later that morning.
Next part. Christopher meets his new tutor, the retired school master who lives next door and is a friend of his daddy. Years later it was discovered that he, the neighbor, had financed Christopher's fathers trip to xxxx where he found a new wife and son. He had even chosen Christophers name.