Popcorn

by Clare Nonhebel

CHAPTER 5

  June was wishing she had worn something cooler.

  ‘What do you wear for a case conference, anyway?’ she had asked Jim.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Jim had said. ‘It’s not in my social etiquette book. You look very nice.’

  ‘I don’t want to look nice,’ said June. ‘I want to look responsible and motherly. I feel like I’m on trial.’

  ‘Me too,’ said Jim. ‘Even more than you. What if they think it was me?’

  ‘Don’t be silly!’

  ‘There are some pretty sick people around. How do they know I’m not one of them?’

  ‘I’ll say I never let you out of my sight for a second. We’ll say you’re impotent, if you like.’

  ‘Oh God, this is awful, June.’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I know.’

  So now she was sitting here with the sweat clinging to her face and hands and in the crook of her arms, waiting for Mr Fisher to complete the group. There was Jim on her right and Miss Janes on her left, and Mrs Hobgrass from Springfields.

  ‘So sorry to keep you waiting.’ Mr Fisher settled himself at the table and rustled his files. ‘Mr and Mrs Donnell. How do you do? Mrs Hobgrass. Miss Janes, would you like to start?’

  ‘Susanna Becket, aged sixteen on the third of August.’ Miss Janes read from her notes. ‘Mental age of about four. Given into council care by her mother at the age of fourteen, when her mother found she was expecting a third child. One younger sister, Beatrice, still at school, and a younger brother, a toddler, Ben.

  ‘Soony spent thirteen months in Springfields Home, under the supervision of Mrs Hobgrass and her staff. Menstruation commenced shortly after Soony’s admission to Springfields but was irregular. Soony was supervised at first in dealing with her periods, but later was able to cope on her own. There were tantrums if anyone tried to help. Mrs Hobgrass reported that Soony was emotionally immature and showed no sign of physical interest in the opposite sex. In view of this, and the fact that she had not yet begun to menstruate regularly, the decision was taken among staff at Springfields and myself that it was not necessary to put Soony on the pill.’

  ‘Was the doctor’s advice sought?’ Mr Fisher intervened.

  ‘Yes. He thought that as she suffered from headaches and was overweight it would not be advisable to put Soony on the pill until the staff considered it necessary.’

  ‘I see. Thank you, Miss Janes.’

  ‘Four months ago’, Miss Janes continued, ‘Soony began a full-time foster placement with June and Jim Donnell.’ June and Jim reached for each other’s hands underneath the table. ‘Mrs Donnell noticed that Soony was putting on weight, and she was sick a couple of times – isn’t that right, June?’

  ‘She said it was the sausages,’ June said, and gulped. Mr Fisher looked at her.

  ‘Mrs Donnell believed that Soony was menstruating, although irregularly,’ continued Miss Janes. ‘She phoned me on two occasions because she was worried that Soony was late but each time she called back to say it was a false alarm. Would you like to tell us about that, June?’

  June cleared her throat. Jim gripped her hand. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘I’d shown Soony where the ... things were kept and everything. And Miss Janes had said Mrs Hobgrass had told her that Soony knew what to do.’ She looked pleadingly at Miss Janes, who nodded. Mrs Hobgrass frowned. ‘So when I found the ... that Soony was .... was using them, naturally I thought that she was...’

  ‘Naturally,’ said Miss Janes. ‘And when did you realize that Soony was only pretending?’

  ‘She wasn’t pretending,’ June defended her. ‘She did it to please me.’ Everyone looked at her. ‘I think she knew I was worried,’ June explained. ‘It was only the second time when she said she had a period that I suddenly realized that each time she came on, it was just after I had been on the phone to Miss Janes to say I was worried that she hadn’t.’

  ‘Would Soony have understood what you were saying to Miss Janes, do you think, if she had overheard?’ Mr Fisher asked.

  ‘She could have picked up the word and put it together with the fact that I was worried,’ June said. ‘Soony’s very sensitive to people’s feelings,’ she added.

  Mr Fisher nodded. ‘I see. So you phoned Miss Janes?’

  ‘Not straight away,’ June confessed. Miss Janes looked down at her notes. ‘I ... we ... my husband and I decided to take Soony to the doctor’s first for a test. When it was positive, Jim ... my husband ... rang Miss Janes.’

  ‘How far advanced is the pregnancy?’ Mr Fisher asked.

  ‘She’s going to the hospital next Monday for a scan. Jim and I reckon it must have happened before she came to us.’

  ‘Is there any evidence of that?’ asked Mrs Hobgrass. ‘Couldn’t the doctor say how many weeks pregnant she was, approximately?’

  ‘Not without examining her,’ June said. Two patches of pink appeared on her cheeks. She wiped her hands on her skirt.

  Mrs Hobgrass raised her eyebrows. ‘You didn’t ask the doctor to examine her?’

  ‘Soony’, said Jim, ‘didn’t take to the idea. Either from our regular doctor or a woman doctor, who did attempt to, but would have needed body armour.’

  Mr Fisher chuckled, then stopped abruptly. ‘Have you any idea yourselves when it might have happened? Has there been any opportunity that you can recall, since she’s been with you?’

  ‘No,’ said June and Jim simultaneously.

  ‘She’s hardly met any men while she’s been with us,’ added June.

  ‘The only time we could think of,’ said Jim, ‘was that weekend she spent at Springfields, but we reckon it must have happened before then, while she was actually living there.’

  Mrs Hobgrass stared at him. ‘If the first period she had after going to you was genuine...’

  ‘I don’t think it was,’ said June. ‘It would be too much of a coincidence, just after I’d been on the phone to Miss Janes. And when I saw her the second time, just throwing the things away without using them, she said that was the way she always did it.’

  ‘You didn’t check?’ said Mrs Hobgrass.

  ‘No, we didn’t,’ said Jim. ‘Did you?’

  ‘Certainly,’ said Mrs Hobgrass. ‘One of the staff was always on hand to ensure that sanitary items were changed at regular intervals.’

  ‘Oh, she changed them,’ said June. ‘I saw that, too. She changed one clean one for another.’

  ‘I doubt that happened while she was with us.’ said Mrs Hobgrass. ‘Supervision at Springfields is very close.’

  ‘So how come she got pregnant, then?’ said Jim.

  ‘I think,’ said Mr Fisher hastily, ‘that until we have the result of the scan – and perhaps even afterwards, if its accuracy is in doubt – we shall have to assume that Soony became pregnant either shortly before or shortly after leaving Springfields to go to the foster home. Has anyone any theories? Anyone she particularly associated with at Springfields, Mrs Hobgrass?’

  ‘She had friends of both sexes,’ said Mrs Hobgrass. ‘But no sexual interest was ever shown at the time she was with us.’ She emphasized the last phrase.

  ‘Have you talked to your staff about it?’

  ‘Yes. They say the same.’

  ‘Are there any staff who have left Springfields in the last six months, Mrs Hobgrass?’

  ‘One or two.’

  ‘Any male staff?’

  ‘Mr Fisher, you are surely not suggesting ...?’

  ‘We have to consider every possibility, Mrs Hobgrass.’

  ‘There has been one,’ she said.

  ‘I would like you’, said Mr Fisher, ‘to let me have his name and details and a copy of his criminal records check, before the weekend, together with the details of all male staff who worked at Springfields while Soony was there. And a copy of the records of all the male residents of the Springfields. Miss Janes, would you please arrange a meeting with the doctor and the psychiatrist attached to Springfields and with the assistant matrons at the home.
Is that all right with you, Mrs Hobgrass?

  ‘Mr and Mrs Donnell, can I ask you to think very carefully and compile a list for me of all the male visitors to your home in the last four months, with details of who they are and how well you know them? And indicate any who might have had the chance to spend any time alone with Soony. And have a think about any time you have taken her out when she might have spent time on her own. Miss Janes will call round – early next week, Miss Janes? – to go through the list with you. All right?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Jim and June faintly. They were still holding hands tightly under the table.

  ‘So now,’ continued Mr Fisher, ‘we have to discuss the next course of action. Miss Janes?’

  ‘I think that the obvious course,’ said Miss Janes, ‘is to arrange for a termination as soon as we possibly can.’

  ‘Oh no!’ said June. ‘Please no!’

  Soony was having a nice day out at Springfields. She played football for a while with Alice and Ian and Jason, and wandered into the pottery room to say hello to Mr Ford.

  ‘Sit down and join us, Soony,’ Mr Ford invited. ‘How would you like to make an ashtray to take home with you?’

  ‘Not today,’ she said. ‘I have to go and see my friend.’

  Walking across the lawn, she saw Keith cleaning the van. ‘Hey, Keith!’ she shouted. ‘Have you seen Popcorn?’

  ‘Seen what?’ he said.

  ‘Popcorn. She’s my friend.’

  ‘That’s a funny name for a friend. Can you eat her?’ he asked.

  Soony giggled. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I ate her all up.’ She kicked some gravel at his feet.

  ‘Don’t do that, Soony, you old bag!’ he said, punching her playfully. ‘Look at this nice clean van then. Want to come for a ride in it?’

  ‘I think it’s the only answer, love,’ said Jim. ‘I really do.’

  ‘It’s not the only answer,’ said June. ‘Shouldn’t we think about other ways as well?’

  ‘What would you suggest?’ Mr Fisher asked her.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said June. ‘It’s just that Soony loves babies, you know. It just doesn’t seem right. And I can’t bear to think of her going through ... that.’

  ‘Can you think of Soony going through childbirth, June?’ said Miss Janes gently. ‘She would be terrified.’

  ‘There is pain relief,’ said June helplessly. ‘We could explain it all to her, and I'd stay with her all the time. Or couldn’t she be completely knocked out or have a C-section??’

  No one said anything.

  ‘At least, ‘said June passionately, ‘she’d have something at the end of it. Something of her own. She hasn’t had much of her own, has she, in her life?’

  ‘But would it really be her own?’ said Mrs Hobgrass.

  ‘What do you mean?’ said June.

  ‘You haven’t been able to have children of your own, have you, Mrs Donnell?’ Mrs Hobgrass said.

  ‘If you mean I want her to...’ stammered June. Tears came to her eyes. ‘I don’t think that’s fair.’

  ‘Neither do I,’ said Jim loudly. ‘June’s only concerned with Soony’s welfare, that’s all. Our own situation has nothing to do with it.’

  ‘Of course not,’ said Miss Janes quickly. ‘We are all concerned with Soony’s welfare. But Mrs Hobgrass is right, June, that if Soony had a baby the task of caring for it would fall on you. In that sense it would be yours rather than Soony’s. And you would have both a foster child and a newborn baby to care for.'

  ‘She could still love it,’ said June. 'And I'd cope.' She fumbled for a hanky and blew her nose.

  ‘It seems to me that we’re getting away from the main issue here,’ said Jim, ‘which is who is responsible for getting Soony into this mess in the first place? That’s the first thing I want to know.’

  ‘We’ve done all we can, for the moment, to look into that,’ Mr Fisher pointed out. ‘But I agree with you: we’re discussing two separate issues here. How about if we leave the second question till we’ve had the result of the scan? Presumably a termination can be arranged fairly promptly, if this is decided on – Miss Janes, yes? So I think we have nothing to lose by leaving the matter a few more days. Shall we meet again then? And Miss Janes – I think a doctor’s report? Perhaps’, he added drily, ‘the doctor can be persuaded to actually examine the patient this time.’

  ‘They think it might have been me,’ said Jim. ‘I could see it in the way they looked at me. When you said Soony didn’t meet many men at our house.’

  ‘If that woman thinks I would put Soony through having a baby just so that I could have a child...’ June wept. ‘I think it’s a wicked thing to say.’

  ‘She’d obviously been negligent,’ Jim said. ‘She was trying to cover up by putting the blame on to us. I tell you one thing: Soony’s never going to Springfields again.’

  ‘She’s there now,’ June reminded him.

  ‘Good God, we should never have let her go!’

  ‘Oh well, it’s too late now the harm’s done, isn’t it?’ said June. ‘She might as well be left to have a bit of fun, if that’s what she is doing,’

  ‘June!’ said Jim, shocked.

  ‘Well? She’s no different from the rest of us, is she?’

  ‘The rest of us don’t get raped by maniacs posing as members of staff,’ Jim raged.

  ‘We’ve no proof it was him! And if it was, then I’m sure it wasn’t rape, because Soony would be scared of him if he’d hurt her. And if Soony was quite happy about it, then he isn’t a maniac, is he?’

  ‘He’s a criminal! Soony was under age.’

  ‘Yes ... if it was him. We can’t go round accusing people, Jim, without knowing.’

  ‘June, you don’t seem to realize the seriousness of what he’s done!’

  ‘I do. But look, would you be just as angry if it wasn’t him, if it was one of the disabled boys?’

  ‘No. I suppose not, no. But that wouldn’t be the same, would it? That would be more normal.’

  ‘So it’s normal for people with mental disabilities to have sex together, and for normal people to have sex together, but not normal for one disabled and one normal person...’

  ‘She’s a child, June! She has the metal age of four!’

  ‘And a body of sixteen. It’s her body that got pregnant. It might have been illegal at the time but you can’t say it’s not normal. Can you?’

  ‘He could do it again, to the other girls there! They have to be protected.’

  ‘From sex? If they enjoy it? They have to be protected from getting pregnant, OK! That Mrs Hobgrass needs to sort her ideas out. I bet she’ll be handing out pills with the Weetabix tomorrow.’

  ‘You’re going to have a lot of extra work on this one,’ said Mr Fisher. ‘What’s your caseload like for the next week? Any emergencies?’

  ‘Only the O’Sullivans and I should have time to call in there before the weekend. Nothing else that can’t wait a week or ten days. It’ll have to, anyway.’

  ‘Good. Any chance of you going along when the girl has her scan? It’ll speed things up if we can get a verbal report on the spot.’

  ‘I’ll try to.’

  ‘I’d like you to go if you can. Don’t rely on a second-hand account from the foster mother; she’s in an emotional state at the moment.’

  ‘She’s usually level-headed,’ Miss Janes said quickly. ‘It’s just that she’s become very involved with Soony.’

  ‘Good,’ said Mr Fisher. ‘So a foster mother should be. We’re not all head and no heart, you know, Cathy – even senior social workers!’

  ‘No,’ Miss Janes agreed. ‘What about her idea of letting Soony have her baby?

  ‘Oh, I think that’s out of the question,’ said Mr Fisher. ‘Don’t you?’

  ‘Theories are all very well,’ said Mrs Hobgrass, ‘but if I said we were going to get all our girls seen to as soon as they reached puberty I'd be out of a job by tomorrow. It's not a police state. They can set all the polici
es and spout all the theories but it’s us who get the blame when anything like this happens. It’s all right for the foster parents: they’ve only got one girl to keep an eye on; I’ve got twenty-six residents here. Let them try keeping twenty-six mentally disabled teenagers living like monks and nuns.’

  ‘Impossible,’ said Mr Greaves sympathetically.

  ‘I mean, you know and I know’, said Mrs Hobgrass, ‘that we can’t keep 24-hour surveillance of every resident, but that isn’t what the authorities want to believe, is it?’

  ‘They want the smaller, family-type units with the liberal atmosphere, combined with the discipline of a max security jail,’ said Mr Greaves.

  ‘Well, they won’t get it,’ said Mrs Hobgrass. ‘It’s either one or the other. But from now on it comes complete with contraception.’

  ‘Is there going to be a witch hunt over this?’ asked Mr Greaves.

  ‘A warlock hunt,’ said Mrs Hobgrass. ‘Full details by the weekend of all male residents and staff.’

  ‘Staff?’ said Mr Greaves.

  ‘Strictly in confidence,’ said Mr Fisher, ‘there could be a lot of trouble over this. I would rather call them than wait for them to call me.’

  ‘Trouble for you?’ asked his secretary.

  ‘Is it ever anyone else?’ he said morosely.

  ‘When would you like me to fix the meeting?’

  ‘As soon as they’ll come. Say it’s an urgent matter of policy review.’

  ‘If they ask what about ...?’

  ‘Contraceptive precautions for minors in council homes.’

  ‘There have been umpteen meetings about that before, haven’t there?’

  ‘This one will be different,’ said Mr Fisher grimly. ‘If they need any convincing, tell them I’ve got a case study to make their hair stand on end. And Sophie,’ he added, pausing at the door.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘If the local paper calls and I’m not here, say nothing except that I’ll call them back. Absolutely nothing, you understand – not even yes or hmm or no comment.’

  ‘OK,’ she said, looking at him curiously. When he had gone out, she shrugged and went back to her typing.

  ‘Did you have a good day, darling?’ asked June when they were in the car.

  ‘Yes,’ said Soony. ‘No.’

  ‘No? Why not?’

  ‘No,’ said Soony. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did you see Keith today?’ Jim asked.

  ‘Yesno,’ sang Soony. ‘No-yes, no-yes, yesno.’

  ‘Which?’ said Jim. ‘Yes or no?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Soony. ‘No.’

  ‘Soony!’

  ‘She’s doing it to annoy you,’ said June. ‘Leave her alone.’

  They drove on in silence. Soony hummed under her breath.

  ‘What’s that tune?’ said June suddenly. ‘Did you learn it today?’

  ‘What?’ said Soony.

  ‘That tune. Did someone teach it to you? It’s nice.’

  ‘Yes,’ Soony said.

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Popcorn.’

  ‘She’s getting good,’ June said. ‘That one the other day was nice too.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Soony happily.

  ‘Was Popcorn there with you today, Soony?

  ‘Course she was.’

  ‘Yes, of course. Who else did you see?’

  ‘Yes,’ Soony said.

  ‘Alice and Doris? And Keith?’

  ‘I did some humming,’ Soony announced.

  ‘Yes, with Popcorn. But who else was ...?’

  ‘June,’ said Jim. ‘Do you want me to stop for a takeaway? Save you cooking?’

  ‘Yes,’ said June. ‘Good idea.’

  ‘No, not with Popcorn,’ said Soony, but no one was listening.