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and they’d grabbed him. They held on to him as tight as they could whilst he screamed and cried and tried to kick his way to freedom. His Mummy couldn’t have left him. Why had she left him? He’d been a good boy. He’d done everything she wanted. He hadn’t been naughty. He’d eaten everything on his plate. Why would she want to do this to him? He’d just started school. The other kids had a Daddy but he’d never asked her where his Daddy was. The big man who’d started to come round hadn’t talked to him. He’d tried to talk to the big man but the big man wasn’t interested.  ‘Mummy!’ he wailed. ‘Mummy!’ Why had she just left him there? He wanted to run all the way home but he didn’t know the way. Maybe he could’ve got round to his Grandma’s house but he couldn’t remember how. His Mummy only took him there once in a while but his Grandma cuddled him and made him feel nice.
    ‘I want to go home to my Mummy’ he said.
    ‘You can’t, sweetheart,’ said Rita, her heart breaking for him. When she’d got to work that morning she was asked by one of the Nuns if she could do something with the new boy. She knew what that meant. If he didn’t shake himself out of it soon the Nuns would beat the shit out of him until he couldn’t cry anymore.
    ‘Your Mummy left you with us. We’re going to take care of you now.’
    ‘But I want to go home to my Mummy!’
    ‘This is your home now, Sean,’ said Rita. She was running out of time. Once the Nuns got hold of him he’d know about it. They could be cruel. They could be sadistic. Rita had witnessed them break the spirit of many a child. They always said that children born out of wedlock were an offence to God but Rita didn’t buy any of that. The offence was made by the stupid parents who dumped their kids here and didn’t seem to give a flaming damn. She remembered Sean’s mother. She’d seemed respectable enough. Nice coat, nice shoes, leather handbag. Hair had obviously only recently been done. What the hell was she doing walking into a children’s home with her son and walking out without him?
    ‘This is not my home,’ said Sean, ‘and where’s my Daddy?’
    Rita held his hand. ‘Sweetheart, you’ve got to get used to it. You’ve got to accept that your Mummy isn’t coming back and you’ve got to start fitting in and behaving yourself. I know you can’t make sense of any of it, love, but you’ve got to try. And I’ll be here to help you. I promise. I’ll be here to help you get through it.’
    Sean was sobbing his heart out. ‘Will I be able to see my Mummy?’
    ‘ No, sweetheart,’ said Rita who then cuddled him close, ‘but I’ll be here. I’ll be here always but you’ve got to promise me to be a good boy otherwise the Nuns will get cross with you and you don’t want that. So promise me to do as you’re told and try not to wet the bed.’
    Whenever the nuns were getting a child ready for shipment they never gave a hint to the child as to what was about to happen to them. Packing their clothes, what little of them that some of them had, took place whilst the child wasn’t near enough to notice. Rita hated doing this. She hated looking into the eyes of a child who’d already been rejected by their family and who was about to be sent to the other side of the world without them knowing anything about it or being part of the decision. They were already bewildered by what had happened to them so far but the nuns didn’t have any thought for that. They could make some money for their association from trading children with other Catholic societies, even in a far off land. These children were mostly born from immoral acts as far as the nuns were concerned. That made them unworthy of the same consideration that was given to children born into normal families. Normal families? Rita herself had been lucky that George had wanted to marry her after she became pregnant with Michelle. If he hadn’t then her child might’ve ended