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stitches to his ear, that's about it. You can send them all home after you're through with them.' You can see the blood that's soaked the cotton wool pad peeping through Bozo's three fingers. I'll send my report on to you later,' Dr Wallis adds.
    'Good on ya, Doc,' Sergeant Donovan replies.
    Doctors in those days were really somebody and even though I'm shitting myself at Sergeant Donovan's presence in the classroom, I'm still pretty impressed at the easy way he handles Dr Wallis. Nancy's always said Sergeant Donovan was a good bloke and a good Catholic, if we ever got into trouble, to tell him 'The truth and nothing but the truth so help me God'. It was years before we found out where she'd got that expression from.
    The doctor finishes off with Bozo, who only does a couple of tiny.
    winces when the stitches go in, and then the doctor and the nurse take their leave.
    We've all been standing and now the sergeant says, 'Sit, boys, take the weight off your legs.' He indicates the ink-stained school desks stretched out in front of him. There's the usual scuffle as we go to sit down, Bozo and me to the one side and Brent Middleton and his mates to the other.
    Some of the blokes have bites on the bum and you can hear them wincing, probably exaggerating, as they slide themselves into a desk.
    Then there's silence. Nothing. Sergeant Donovan looks up at the ceiling, then out the window and slowly he fixes his eyes on all of us.
    I'm gone, shit-scared and ready to confess to anything he wants. I look 29
    his broken face gives nothing away, although his eyes
    flicker briefly as he looks at me before he looks to the front.
    'Hmm .' the policeman says. Then nothing again.
    We all look down at the desk in front of us, not willing to meet his eye. The nothing continues.
    Then suddenly, so we all get a start, 'Tell me, Mister Middleton, is Page 25

    Mister Maloney here a mate of yours?'
    'No, no, sir,' Brent Middleton stammers, looking up, surprised at being so formally addressed.
    Now Sergeant Donovan turns to the other blokes on Brent
    Middleton's side of the classroom. 'And, you lot, are you friends of Mister Maloney?'
    'No, sir,' they all mumble, not looking at the policeman.
    'Why is that?'
    'Dunno, sir,' they mumble.
    'Is it because he's a Catholic?'
    'No, sir,' they chorus anxiously.
    'Just don't like each other, hey? Well, that happens sometimes. Just don't like the cut of a man sjlo.
    The classroom remains quiet as a mouse.
    'Mister Middleton, would you stand up please and come up here, you too, Mister Maloney.' Bozo gets up out of the desk and so does Brent Middleton. 'Up here on the platform, please.' They both step up onto the teacher's platform. 'Now stand back to back, if you'll oblige me please, gentlemen.' Bozo turns and he and Brent Middleton touch backs. The pocket of Bozo's khaki shirt has been torn and hangs in a flap, he's got blood down the front of it and two buttons missing as well, Sarah's not going to be too happy when we get home. Sergeant Donovan turns back at us. 'Right, now who would you say was the tallest and the heaviest, Mister Middleton or Mister Maloney?'
    'Middleton, sir,' several of us mumble.
    'By a good head, I'd say and by what.., say, one and a half stone in Page 26

    weight?'
    Silence from us all.
    'Eight inches and twenty pounds, that'd be about right, don't you gentlemen?' We don't say anything. Brent Middleton is the biggest bloke in the school and he knows it, that's what makes him the school bully and head of a gang, everyone's been shit-scared of him until Bozo today.
    'Righto, you two can separate, but stay up here if you will, please.'
    Bozo goes to stand with his back to the blackboard. Brent Middleton stays where he is but turns front on, looking down at us. 'Now, tell me, who threw the first punch?'
    'He did, sir,' Brent Middteton says quickly, wanting to gain the advantage.
    'Oh, I see, the little bloke attacked the big bloke, is that it?'
    'Yes, sir, he king-hit me and knocked me