Chapter 13

I had showered thoroughly and was just trying to decide what to do next. I had to control the Uncle John thing somehow; the only thing I could think of was to try and catch him with Mum and video them and threaten to tell my Dad if he didn’t leave me alone. I didn’t mind the sex; it was the manipulation, the forcing me to do it with him.

Dad came home and called out as he came in, “I have fish and chips; Mum won’t be home; she has gone to see Auntie Peg, who is under the weather.”

I knew exactly where Mum would be; pity it was too far for me to walk, or I would have gone and photographed her car in the car park. Well, Dad would be lucky later tonight then. I ate chips with Dad, chatted about college and pleaded with a headache and went to bed. I wasn’t in the mood for Dad’s advances.

I was trying to work out how I would know if Uncle John was coming over. I decided that on a couple of days a week I would tell Mum that I had full days at college, so I wouldn’t be home. My old phone still worked on the Wi-Fi, but it didn’t have a SIM. I wondered if I could set it up somewhere to record whilst I was out. I didn’t really know how to do that, and I for sure did not want to ask anyone else. I would think about it and do some research and see what I could do.

Ash texted me and asked if I was free to go round the next day. I said yes, in the morning, only if there were no boys going to turn up. I had the basis of a plan for dealing with my uncle, and I had the promise of a nice day. I awoke a little later to the sounds of my parents having sex. So, perhaps what my uncle said was true, and that she had met him, had sex and then come home and done it with my father, to still any doubts he may have had. I wondered if Uncle John did the same with Auntie Peg when she was at home. And then it was morning, and I awoke to sounds of Mum showering.

I decided I would not give any clues about Mum and Uncle John. When she asked how lunch had gone, I just said, “As expected, Mum, as I expected.” When she had gone out, I went and explored their bedroom. I had to find somewhere I could hide the phone where it would not be immediately obvious but where it could see any action on the bed. There was a pile of clothes on top of the drawers that had been there for a while as far as I could tell; I think they were destined for the charity shop. I put my old phone in amongst the clothes with just the lens visible. I went and lay on their bed and looked. I knew it was there, but it wasn’t obvious.

Next, I searched the app store and found an app that could do what I wanted. It was aimed at capturing wildlife, but I reckoned it would do what I needed. It was a movement- or sound-activated video recorder app. When triggered, it recorded for a pre-set time, and I decided to set it to recording, and it would reset after 30 seconds of inactivity. I made sure that the phone was fully charged, set a new passcode on the phone and hid it in the clothes. I would look tomorrow and see if it had worked. It should catch Mum or Dad coming into their bedroom and record for a minute. Assuming it wasn’t found, if it was, then I could just say that I had lost that phone ages ago. No one would be able to unlock it without resetting it, and so its purpose would be safe. The only flaw was that the battery would have some charge in it. Nothing I could do about that.

The next day I made it clear to Mum that I wouldn’t really be home all day; I had college and would be seeing Ash and hopefully Jase. I intended to stay out all day and then see what, if anything, the phone camera app had captured. Ash had declared that she did not want to go with a boy the way that I had with Ali. I tried to be supportive and asked if she was okay with me and Jase; she said, ‘Yes, of course she was.’ Apparently, Jase and I were a public thing; she and I were a private thing.