Chapter 4: As If Nothing Had Happened

‘I thanked him for coming and wished him well for the future. We shook hands again, and he headed for his car. I waved as I watched him drive away, I had no quarrel with him. I stood for a moment collecting my thoughts, then went back in.’

‘How dare you write to the bishop!’ Mum screamed at me, ‘What will he think of us?’ ‘Who I write to, speak to, or make friends with, is up to me.’ I told them. ‘I have done nothing wrong, even if you are too worried about how you appear to others to care about that or about me.’

‘Why you little... ‘ dad started to say as he headed towards me. ‘That’s enough!’ I said putting my hand up in the stop signal. ‘Lay one finger on me again and I’ll go to the newspapers. I’ll tell them what the church did to me.’

‘Then I’ll tell them that my parents were so scared about upsetting the church that they didn’t care a damn about their own son. I’ll also tell them in explicit detail what you did to me to destroy the evidence. What will people think of you then?’

‘From that point, a silence descended on the house which continued until I moved in with grandad. On the bright side, not speaking to me made it difficult for them to try to persuade me to go to church or to confirmation.’

‘I stopped spending any time with them except for mealtimes. I had to watch those carefully. As they no longer called me when a meal was ready. But apart from a few missed meals, I managed. It helped that mum was very set in her timetable. I also made quite a few new friends at school when word got round that I’d dumped the church.’

‘A few of them were Catholics, who clearly wished they could do the same as me. Even so it was a sad and difficult two years, brightened by regular visits to see grandad. He looked up at Lewis, gave a big sigh and said, ‘There you have it.’

‘You suffered very badly,’ Lewis said, ‘Everyone connected with it behaved despicably, but you coped remarkably well. I’m sure your years with grandad helped ease your painful memories too. Did you ever hear anything more about Father Gregory?’

‘Yes,’ Jim told him. ‘My pal at school mentioned him one day. He’d heard he had been attacked and beaten up by a parent and been in hospital as a result. He didn’t know all the details, but he said that no charges were brought against the parent, and Father Gregory was kicked out of the church.’

‘That must have helped you,’ Lewis told him. ‘Also, bad as it was, it could have been worse. What your dad did could have done you more damage than the rape. Whether he adjusted the water pressure because he knew that, or whether it was just a fluke, we’ll never know, but you were very lucky.’

‘How long did you feel any pains after the rape?’ Lewis asked him. ‘About two weeks,’ Jim replied, ‘Although I have no idea how much of them were due to Father Gregory and how much to what dad did to me.’ ‘After the pains had gone, did they ever return?’ Lewis asked.

‘No, never.’ Jim told him. ‘The pain from the rape was entirely due to the size of the priest’s cock being so much larger than the opening to your bum.’ Lewis told him. ‘What you felt was your bum being stretched considerably and at speed. If he hadn’t oiled his cock first, it would have been even worse and then his cum would have stung your insides terribly for days.’

‘So, after a few weeks, how would you describe how or what you suffered until you moved house?’ Lewis asked. ‘The silent treatment was stressful,’ Jim said. ‘Even though I made sure that I showed no sign of it to my parents, the knowledge that they cared so little for me was heartbreaking.’

‘But I always got a lovely hug from grandad, and I soon found myself thinking of him as my parent, even before there was any suggestion of me moving in with him.’ ‘How did you sleep after it happened?’ Lewis asked. ‘The first few weeks, I cried myself to sleep most nights.’ Jim admitted.

‘Mainly because of how little my parents thought about me. But occasionally it was remembering the pain of the cock going up my bum. Then after I’d got to sleep, sometimes I had a nightmare that the rape was happening again.’