scrawled in giant letters: ‘BASTILLE’.
‘Dad, what’s Bastille?’
Unusually for him, he didn’t explain, but carried on sponging the wall and said, ‘Look it up.’ So I headed back in for the encyclopaedia.
‘Bastille was a fortress in Paris. For most of its history it was used as a State Prison . . .’ The rest of the day we spent on tenterhooks. It had got to Mum. And Dad too. He just shut himself up in the front room for hours. I didn’t think it had anything to do with me.
‘I bet it’s those kids,’ Mum said.
Our mantelpiece was inhabited imperiously by Wedgwood figurines: maidens with long necks and flapping ducks on their way to market. There was a disparaging tone towards the next-door neighbours because they didn’t go to church. They couldn’t afford Wedgwood. And they spent their money on bingo – gambling is the Devil’s work, after all. The grass grew wildly in their garden and their children were scruffier. But I liked them. I liked my neighbours and I liked their children. I liked everybody. Why wouldn’t I?
Mum had short black hair and dark eyes. She had stern teeth with a slight overhang. She was the louder personality. When she and Dad argued, she’d smash plates, throw ladles. I’d sit on the stairs listening to the chaotic cacophony, the clatter that underlay the stress of relationships and parenthood. She was volcanic and volatile. I never ever imagined that the arguments might have been about me.
She smelled like mums smell; there must be a smell a child is attuned to from being a baby, a cross between baby powder and witch hazel. I don’t believe that an adopted baby gets any less love from their parents than a child naturally born to them. For ages, until the end came, no matter how volatile the day had been, I would pray that she’d open the bedroom door before I slept. I’d pray that she’d sit on the edge of my bed and sing me to sleep as she did when I was younger: ‘You are my sunshine, my only sun-shine, you make me happy when skies are grey . . .’ I believed her.
Her smile seemed like it was fighting back sadness or tears. Dad was broody, tall, witty and silent. In contrast to Mum’s agitated discordance, Dad did dad things quietly. He read the paper and occasionally let it all out on the squash court. One of the social workers wrote that he was ‘basically shy and at ease talking about academic matters but more difficult when talking of personal matters’.
Mrs. Greenwood looked more tense and anxious and talked about her job and husband’s new job rather a lot. Husband not too good about putting himself forward so is thinking he may have taken on too much by becoming Head of Junior school. He is basically, a shy person. One has to work very hard to draw him into discussions; he seems alright when discussing at an academic level but isn’t really too good when trying to communicate at a feeling level.
Told Mrs. Greenwood that we had no intention of removing Norman. This promoted further discussion on the management of him but it was obvious that things would not change overnight. She accepted this as being so but it was threatening to her to think that she and her husband with their expertise may have gone “wrong” somewhere!!!
Obviously need to support this couple through their unverbalised anxieties.
Norman continues to thrive; on the whole a satisfactory placement for him.
The front room was his library. It was the quiet room, which doubled up as a posh room for visitors. The bay window looked out to the laburnum tree, which at night threw grue-some shadows back at us.
Cornerstone books for me back then were the Bible and books on the books of the Bible, the Famous Five series, Secret Seven, of course, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. C.S. Lewis was a rock star in our house. All of the books stacked along the bookshelf in the front room waited for our hungry eyes. I don’t remember other novels or poetry – except T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, which was my favourite, and I memorised it.
Mum and Dad said I was like Macavity. It felt affectionate then, but later I realised something wasn’t right. Macavity was dark, quick and a thief. Macavity was such a contrast to my blond blue-eyed brother Chris. His affectionate nickname was Bunty.
11.12.74
There are no problems with Norman. Mrs. Greenwood does not think of the boy as a foster child. He has been with this family since he was a couple of months old and Mrs. Greenwood considers him as theirs. The foster parents have spoken of adoption but they are afraid that investigations may lead to his mother.
Norman is learning to play the piano and he said to be an exceptionally bright boy. He is very much aware of his colour and often asks why he could not have been born to a white lady. He has asked if he will have to marry a “black lady”. Mr. & Mrs. Greenwood are very proud of Norman and expect a lot of him academically in the future.
11 December 1974
I was a questioner. In the Baptist Church, our church, we were taught to question why. The answer was often ‘Because we are sinners’. At school I was subject to all kinds of questions about my race, which I couldn’t answer. I brought all these questions home.
‘She left you . . . she didn’t want you . . . if I find her I will scratch her eyes out . . . how could she . . . ?’ My mum’s love was elevated by how much she hated my birth mother for leaving me. That’s all I knew. All I knew was that my birth mother, the woman who had my face and my blood, was from Africa and Africa was where poor people were.
April 1974
I’m seven.
Mr & Mrs Greenwood, realize that there will be many problems ahead with Norman, as well as a lot of happiness. Sometimes he gets very emotional about his colour, and when this happens he can be very aggressive. Norman is not usually aggressive he shouts but he does not fight.
Mr & Mrs Greenwood have come to terms with the fact that his personality is very different from their own and that of their children, he is naturally an extrovert, happy when he has an admiring crowd round him. He thrives on praise and affection, in fact he can not do without it, this is part of his heritage, and the Greenwoods acknowledge this. Norman has asked several times recently whether he is adopted, they have answered him honestly that he is not, they do not think he really understands what it means but that it is just something that he has heard talked about at school. This child has a very real need to belong. Mr & Mrs Greenwood get very concerned about Norman’s future, the only family he has known is theirs, and he loves them, and is loved very deeply in return.
CHAPTER 4
Raise me with sunrise
Bathe me in light
Wash all the shadows
That fell from the night
I developed a sense that there was something wrong with me around the time I began attending junior school. R.L. Hughes Infants was my first school. It was straight up at the top of Osborne Road. We’d normally walk with Mum when she could take us but later I reached the age when I could walk on my own with
