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floor, with me gradually taking her
clothes off her and trying to pick the lice off her body, one by one. As I revealed her skin, I gulped with dismay. I’m not easily shocked, but I was that day. It was the first time I had
seen her completely naked and I had to try not to show my horror at her thin, bony body, covered with bruises of various ages and colours. They were everywhere from the top of her scalp down to her
thighs. Many more than I could count. How could this be?
    I gave her a big, gentle cuddle as we sat together on the bathroom floor, watching the others having fun in the bath. With Caroline on my knee, I gave Simon a gentle wash. This didn’t seem
to faze him as he sat still and accepted my using the flannel and the sponge, as long as my hands didn’t touch him. All the while, I continued to talk and encouraged them all to play with the
plastic ducks and the bubbles, hoping this would help calm Caroline’s irrational fear, although by now I was beginning to wonder if perhaps it wasn’t irrational.
    Finally I had calmed her down enough to lift her into the bath, where she sat trembling between Hamish and Anita, her plaster-casted arm sticking up over the edge. It was quite a squash, and
despite the others’ fun, Caroline screwed up her face and flinched every time I made a move towards her or the others splashed her. If my hand or arm strayed too close, she pinched and bit
me, desperate to get out. She clearly didn’t like this ordeal one bit.
    Gradually, I washed them all, their skins changing colour from grey to cream, though I had a job scrubbing the thick grime off their feet.
    It was time give the children’s hair and scalps a thorough wash. I reached for the spray attachment and began with the boys, whose heads had been shaved, with just a short stubble coming
through, so didn’t take long.
    ‘Your turn next, young lady,’ I said to Anita.
    ‘No, I don’t want my hair washed,’ she protested.
    ‘But I’ve got some special princess shampoo for you.’ I reached to show her the pink bottle with its silver lid. ‘Look at that princess in the picture.’
    ‘She’s got long hair,’ Anita said with a smile.
    ‘Well . . .’ I nodded, ‘this shampoo will make your hair grow like hers.’
    That worked and Anita allowed me to massage and rinse her head. Now I got out the nit comb. I could see this was going to be a challenge.
    ‘No!’ she wailed. ‘You can’t do that.’ She looked with horror at the metal comb. ‘It will break my hair.’
    ‘I’ll be as gentle as I can be,’ I reassured her. ‘But I must get all those nasty lice out, so you don’t have to scratch your head any longer. Then your hair can
grow faster.’
    ‘Really?’ She looked uncertain, but she allowed me to drag the comb through her newly clean hair, a few strands at a time. I deposited the lice and nits in a deep tin, along with the
body lice I had picked off them all earlier. Eugh!
    Caroline looked on with increasing discomfort. Finally it was her turn. As I aimed the light spray over her bruised and filthy scalp, gently wetting the clumped wisps of thin hair between her
bald patches, her horror overcame her. She screamed and screamed. Anyone would have thought I was trying to murder her. I had to hold her steady as I persevered, stroking the baby shampoo all over
her head to calm her. When I started to use the spray again, she freaked out and struggled to get out of the bath, splashing us all, and half the bathroom too. Finally I applied the conditioner and
combed through her tufts of hair, extricating what lice I could before giving in.
    Now that they were all clean, I could see that they each had a few bruises, but none of them as many as Caroline. Both the girls had black eyes, though Caroline’s was going yellow now. As
I picked Simon up out of the water, I noticed again the deep cigarette burn on his ankle.
    I lifted them all out of the bath, one by one, wrapping a huge, fluffy towel round