Prodigal Son (Jensen Family Series)

by Michelle Day

  Paul shook off the hand holding his hair and stood up straight both hands at his sides making no attempt what so ever to cover his engorged penis. He knew the kind natured Mr Roberts wouldn’t do a thing about this but he hadn’t counted on Games Master Shore being his back up that morning. Realising he had made a huge error in not checking the duty rota, Paul had two choices, cow tow to this man, apologise and cover up or tough it out. His need to be at home in his normal surroundings gave him the courage he needed to keep his hands at his sides and his gaze fixed on the large man screaming at him.

  Mr Roberts was sent to get the Principle while the Games Master continued his tirade of insults. Principle Baxter listened to his teachers’ accounts of what they had caught Paul doing as he surveyed the still naked boy in front of him;

  “I have dealt with boys like you before and broke every single one of them, what makes you think you are any different? I will tear you from your mothers apron strings if it’s the last thing I do.” he hissed in Paul’s face, turning to his staff he said “Seclude him.”

  Wrapping a sheet around him, the two teachers led Paul to a small cell with no furniture and a tiny window, before locking him in, the sheet was taken from him, leaving him naked and alone for the rest of the day.

  As night fell Mr Roberts unlocked the door to the cell and came to stand in front of Paul. Handing him his boxer shorts, he glanced over his shoulder to make sure they were alone then spoke quietly to the boy

  “What are you trying to achieve Paul?”

  “I want to go home Sir.” Paul replied, he couldn’t help but like this man, he was the only one who used the boys’ Christian names and always treated them fairly

  “All that’s going to happen to you is endless beatings, you’ve put yourself on the Principles hit list and he won’t stop until you obey the rules and start to work.”

  “He’s going to have to step up the punishment a bit then, so far he hasn’t even hit the level that my father is at.” Paul told him.

  “This is a battle you can’t win.”

  “There are only so many rules I can break before I get kicked out, a few beatings aren’t going to stop me.”

  “Paul, he will never expel you because he knows that’s what you want. Why not just tow the line and get through this as painlessly as possible?”

  “Because that would be giving in and that’s not something I’m willing to do.”

  “I wish you would apply the same determination to your studies.” Mr Roberts sighed.

  “It’s nothing against you Sir, you’re the only decent teacher here, I just want to go home”

  “I appreciate your words and under different circumstances, in a different school, maybe I would be able to help you but my hands are tied, I have a family to support, just know that I wholeheartedly disagree with what comes next and I urge you to reconsider your actions.”

  Paul felt the first tingle of fear “What’s going to happen to me?”

  “I can’t tell you, I think it’s unjust and that you should be given the chance to apologise and turn yourself around but the faculty has cast a majority vote on your punishment, I was sent to get you as I’m the only teacher you haven’t presented any problems to, I’m so sorry.”

  “Sir…”

  “Bring him out” Games Master Shore bellowed.

  “Come on.” Mr Roberts urged.

  “No.” Paul shrunk back into the corner of the cell.

  “Don’t make this worse than it has to be, please Paul just come with me.”

  Paul stepped forward and felt the trembling grasp of his science teacher around his wrist. He was led to the common room for his dorm where the two other boys who had a habit of getting into trouble were standing, also only in their underwear, in front of the vaulting horses that had been brought up from the gym, a hefty sixth former on either side of the boys, two more stepped forward to grasp Paul’s arms and lead him to the centre vault horse.

  At a nod from the Principle, all three boys were turned to face the horses, their arms stretched out to their sides; they were pulled so that their chests rested against the gym equipment, their backs to the room. Each boys’ crime was read out along with the number of lashes he would receive, Paul’s head began to swim as he heard his punishment would be forty lashes, considerably less than the boy either side of him, he could feel the sting of the cane on his backside even before the punishment began not realising that now most of the lashes would be aimed at his back.

  He looked up into the eyes of Mr Roberts as Principle Baxter asked each boy in turn if they would like to make amends for their crimes, only one boy caved in order to receive less lashes,

  “This is barbaric.” Paul snarled at the teacher “It needs to be stopped.”

  “I can’t.” the teacher replied looking away from the boy’s furious face.

  Paul bit down on his lip as the first lash hit him across the shoulders, with his eyes screwed tight shut; he refused to cry out in pain. He woke in the infirmary, the other two boys whimpering in the beds opposite him, he had to find a way out of this school, breaking the rules obviously wasn’t going to achieve that, he’d have to run away. Gasping in pain as he tried to sit, he bit down on any further noise escaping from him when he saw the matron at the end of the ward, looking around, he saw the other entrance to the ward was unmanned, if he was going to get out of the school, escaping from the infirmary would be his best bet as it was away from the main school building, lightly staffed and close to the Comprehensive school next door, he was sure the chain link fence was climbable if taken at speed. He noticed his school uniform neatly folded on the chair beside his bed, his stay in the infirmary would clearly only be a short lived one. He lay back in the bed and feigned sleep waiting for the Matron to go off duty, leaving the ward unattended. As soon as she was gone, Paul was out of bed and pulling on his clothes.

  “What are you doing? Get back into bed, we’ll all get punished again.” One of the boys pleaded with him.

  “Sorry guys.” he whispered “I’m going, you didn’t see anything ok?” he slipped from the ward and began his journey to the quad. He was halfway across the tarmac when the security lights came on; stranding him like a deer caught in car headlights “Shit.” he cursed as he heard his name being called. He turned his back to the school and regarded the chain link fence, a little higher than he had imagined and topped with barbed wire, he hesitated, how the hell had he missed the barbed wire? Running footsteps behind him galvanised him into action, going from a standstill to a sprint in a matter of a few paces, he hit the fence and scrambled up it, flinging his body clear of the barbed wire he thought he had cleared the fence until he felt the flesh on the inside of his right arm tear, the barbs ripped into his skin and held fast causing his body to slam into the fence on the opposite side to the boarding school. He felt his blood pour from the wounds on his inner arms soaking his shirt and trousers then his vision began to fade, he was vaguely aware of someone supporting his weight by grasping his legs and raising him up while someone else shouted to call an ambulance before he passed out.

  He came to in the ambulance; his arm heavily bandaged and elevated trying to prevent further blood loss.

  “Back with us hey, what were you thinking kid?” the paramedic asked.

  “I thought the fence was lower than it was, I forgot about the barbed wire.” he smiled weakly “Am I going to be ok?”

  “Looks like it, you may need surgery though, school can’t be that bad can it?”

  “It’s worse than bad.” Paul swallowed “I think I’m gonna be sick.”

  The first Monica heard of Paul’s indiscretions was the phone call from the hospital asking for her permission to take him into surgery. After a detailed conversation with the doctor in charge of Paul’s case in which said doctor voiced his concerns of the treatment the boy had been receiving at the hands of the school, he made light of the swollen red welts on Paul’s back over the phone, preferring the child’s parents to see them with
their own eyes.

  Finishing the conversation with the doctor, Monica then dialled Michael’s private office line, something she rarely did and had a very curt conversation with her husband telling him in no uncertain terms that a plane had better be waiting for her at London City Airport by the time she got there, she then told him to call Suzanne’s parents, explain the situation and ask them to have Tessa for the night,

  “When you’ve done that, you’d better get yourself up to the hospital. This is your fault Michael, you’d better pray that Paul is going to be alright.” she didn’t wait for his reply, she slammed the phone down, marched out of the house and made the airport in record time.

  Paul was out of surgery but still drowsy when Monica arrived. She got taken to the head surgeons’ office where the extent of damage to Paul’s arm was explained to her.

  “He’s going to make a full recovery Mrs Jensen, he didn’t damage any nerves and we managed to repair the damage to his veins and muscle, his arm is swollen however and he may experience some tingling in his fingers for some time and he’s going to have two rather large scars, he did lose quite a bit of blood so we are having to transfuse him at the moment but I’ll take you to see him, he may still be slightly groggy.” the doctor held open the door to his office and followed Monica through.

  “You mentioned he had other injuries unrelated to his accident?” Monica asked.

  “Yes, we had to cut his uniform off him I’m afraid, he was in no fit state to remove it himself and it was covered in blood. When we rolled him to remove his shirt we discovered that his back is covered with deep welts consistent with being beaten, two of the welts have actually split his skin, not badly, and we have closed those wounds with temporary stitches, there appear to be older welts across his buttocks as well. We have questioned the school about these wounds who deny all knowledge of them, as yet we have been unable to ask Paul how he got them.” he opened the door to Paul’s room. “Go on in, I’ll get his nurse and we will show you his wounds.”

  Paul was asleep, flat on his back, the sheet pulled up under his arms, a bag of blood suspended above him and his right arm heavily bandaged. Monica stepped up to the side of his bed and pushed the thick black fringe from his forehead bending to kiss him there and gaze on her son’s sleeping face. She looked up as the doctor returned with a nurse and between them they turned the sleeping boy onto his right side.

  Monica gasped when she saw the wounds, reaching out, she tugged the sheet lower, regarding the older welts and bruises covering Paul’s backside. “I’ve seen enough.” she stepped away “How long until he wakes up?” she asked.

  “I should be able to wake him.” the nurse replied “He’s just drowsy from the anaesthetic.” she reached over and lightly shook Paul’s shoulder saying his name as she did, Paul reacted slowly, swallowing then opening his eyes “Hi” the nurse smiled “You have a visitor.” she stepped back and allowed Monica next to the bed while she busied herself checking his bandages and pulse and marking her findings on her chart.

  Paul regarded his mother silently, he was relieved to see her but at the same time incredibly angry that she had left him at the school; he turned his face away from her and closed his eyes causing both the nurse and Monica to frown.

  “Paul, I know you’ve been through a rough time sweetie, look at me, we need to talk about what happened.” Monica spoke softly and slowly Paul turned to face her. Using his uninjured arm, he tried to push himself into a sitting position; the nurse was at his side in an instant helping him.

  “If you start to feel dizzy just lay back down ok?”

  Paul nodded at the nurse and gave her a weak smile then once again turned to his mother.

  Monica stepped back from the look of pure hatred her son shot at her; he’d never looked at her like that before. Not caring that the doctor and nurse were still in the room, he took a deep breath.

  “You left us there.” he accused.

  “I had no choice, it wasn’t my decision to make.” Monica replied.

  “You could have put your foot down, you do it enough with Matt and me, you are after all, the one who takes care of us most of the time.”

  “I’m sorry, I wish I had refused to let you go, I can’t say anymore than that. I’m here now, tell me what happened.”

  “Isn’t it obvious? I was beaten, several times, the last time put me in the infirmary, that’s when I decided I was going to try and get home.”

  “Did you do anything to deserve punishment?” Monica asked even though she really. didn’t need to, she knew her son and should have taken his threat of getting expelled from the school seriously.

  Paul chuckled. “Yeah, course I did”, his answer causing his nurse to smile.

  “What exactly did you do?”

  “I’m not sure you really want to know the details Mum,” Paul answered “Some of them aren’t for your ears.”

  Monica shook her head, what was she going to do with this boy? She loved him dearly and was relieved that he was going to be fine; she was more relieved that the look of hatred had left his face, now he just looked tired, she bent and kissed his forehead again.

  “How long before I can take him home?” she asked the doctor.

  “It’ll be a couple of days yet Mrs Jensen, I want to make sure his arm begins to heal properly and that he doesn’t get an infection.”

  “In that case, I’d better find a hotel and wait for your father.”

  “Dad’s coming?” Paul asked “Oh.”

  “It’ll be alright, he’ll be fine and I need him to confront the school with me when I go to get Matthew.”

  “You’re taking us home?”

  “Absolutely, you won’t be going back to that place and neither will your brother after today. I suppose I should let you rest.”

  “I’ll take good care of him Mrs Jensen.” the nurse assured her “I’m on the night shift so I’ll keep an eye on him.”

  “Thank you my dear. What is your name, it just sounds so terribly formal to keep calling you Nurse.”

  “I’m Cindy” the girl smiled.

  “Well, Cindy, thank you for your obvious concern for my son, I’ll leave him in your more than capable hands. I’ll see you in the morning Paul, try to get some sleep.”

  Monica left the hospital but only got as far as the car park where she waited in her rented car for Michael, she left her car as soon as she saw the dark blue Mercedes enter the car park and waved to get her husband’s attention.

  “How is he?” his first words.

  “He’s going to be fine Michael but he’s been beaten to within an inch of his life. We will have to get Matthew out of there, today, and I want answers from the Principle about Paul’s wounds.”

  “Can I see him?”

  “Not today, he’s resting, he told me he did break some rules and did deserve to be punished but Michael, you should see the state of his back, it looks like he’s been flogged.” her composure broke and her voice began to tremble.

  “Monica, I can only apologise, I should have listened when you told me boarding school wasn’t a good idea for our boys.” he wrapped his arms around his wife.

  “Yes you should have and I hope from now on you will listen to me when it comes to the welfare of our children.”

  “Without question.” He assured “When can we take Paul home?”

  “The doctor said a couple of days, the staff in there are all very nice, we’ll have to find a hotel, after we’ve had it out with the school.”

  Chapter Five

  Turning up at the boarding school unannounced really wasn’t the norm but given the circumstances, the faculty had been warned to look out for the Jensen’s and direct them to Principle Baxter’s office where the best bone china was once again waiting for them.

  “Mr and Mrs Jensen, I have to say, I wasn’t expecting to see you quite so soon.”

  “I’ll bet you weren’t, tell me why I had to hear my son was injured from the hospital and have yet to hear from the
school?” Monica waded in.

  “Monica!” Michael was shocked at his wife’s out right attack.

  “No Michael, I’m not going to sit here and let this sycophant sugar coat what has happened to Paul.”

  “You’re son is no angel Mrs Jensen.”

  “I’m well aware of that and having spoken to him I understand that he did indeed expect to get punished, the extent of his injuries are unacceptable and I would like them explained” Monica turned once again on the Principle.

  “Surely Mr Jensen, you aren’t going to let your wife speak to me this way?” Principle Baxter turned to Michael, immediately undermining Monica’s authority.

  “Actually, given the circumstances, I think my wife’s tone and questions are spot on, I’m more than happy for her to continue.” Michael replied, Monica had become somewhat subservient over the years, nothing like the feisty Latina who had stood up to him at the Debutants ball, he should have known that anything to do with their children would cause her temper to stir and he liked it.

  “I want answers.” Monica demanded.

  Furious at having to deal with a woman, Principle Baxter decided not to spare any details,

  “Paul began by fraternising with the girls at the adjoining Comprehensive School which he followed swiftly by smoking in his room, refusing to wear nightclothes and sleeping naked, refusing to attend lessons and when we did get him to lessons, refusing to work or take part in any way, he was rude to staff members and we finally caught him masturbating yesterday morning, all of the aforementioned misdemeanours are against school rules and all are punishable.”

  “I agree he should have been punished but the skin on his back has been ripped to shreds, explain that.”

  “He was punished in line with recommendations and with two other boys who received considerably more lashes than your son, both of whom are fine and back in lessons, I would suggest that Paul worsened his own injuries and that perhaps his lifestyle up until now has caused him to become a little soft.”