Chapter 7: Dudleys Debut

Tuesday at morning break, Michael found Dudley in the playground. ‘One of the swimming team was rushed into hospital last night with acute appendicitis,’ he told him. ‘Then this morning another one was sent home when he twisted his ankle. So, our team is down to six. As of now you are our first reserve.’

At lunchtime the team were to meet at the pool for a final briefing. As they assembled there were only five plus Dudley. Just then one of the teachers arrived to say that the other member of the team had just been taken to hospital having had a bad fall and hurt his head.

Michael said, ‘Right everyone, Dudley will be joining the team. I’m sorry to throw you in at the deep end Dudley,’ he said as everyone laughed. ‘I’d hoped to bring you in gently. Just do your best.’ Everyone wished Dudley luck and they returned to their classes wondering what else could go wrong.

After school all the swimming team assembled at the school’s pool along with the swimming team from the rival school. There was to be a six-length relay race to start. Three from each school would dive in and do three lengths of crawl, then three others would dive in and do the second set of three.

The second race would be the same but doing the back stroke. The third and last race would be the first three lengths crawl and the second three backstroke. Dudley’s school hadn’t won for a long time so having lost three regular team members, no one was feeling optimistic.

Michael came over to Dudley and told him, ‘In the first race you’ll be in the first three for the crawl. In the second you’ll be in the first three for the backstroke. I’ll decide on the final race later. Good luck.’

The seats had filled up with people from both schools. Lewis had heard on the grapevine about Dudley taking part, so he and Ella had gone to watch too.

When it was announced that due to absences, Dudley our sponsorship king, was making his debut in the competition, all of his school gave him a rousing cheer.

Dudley lined up with two other team members plus three from the other school. The starting whistle blew and all six dived in. By the end of the second lap Dudley was half a length out in front and was getting rousing cheers. As the second group dived in, Michael had taken over the lane from Dudley. With the lead Dudley had given him, he won easily. The school audience went wild.

The next race was the backstroke. Again, Dudley was in the first group. The race started and cheered on by the crowd now shouting Dudley, he reached the end with a quarter of a length lead. As Michael took over for the last three laps, he kept the lead right through and won.

During the five-minute break before the last race Michael said, ‘We’ll change round. I’ll start off with the crawl and you do the last section with the backstroke.’

When the race started, at the end of the first lap, Michael was very slightly ahead. At the end of the second lap, he was a couple of feet ahead and at the end of the final lap of the crawl, he was a good metre in the lead.

Dudley’s nerves meant his take off didn’t go as smoothly as he had hoped, so he lost a bit of the lead. But by the time he was coming down the second lap he had not only made up the loss but increased it.

Turning for the third lap, he surged ahead increasing his lead another foot. To the screams of ‘Dudley, Dudley, Dudley,’ he reached the end a clear winner.

The crowd went wild, or rather half the crowd did. The other school didn’t look too pleased having expected to walk it as usual.

The final result was Dudley’s school a first in each race, plus a third in two of them. When Dudley climbed out of the pool exhausted, he was mobbed and hoist shoulder high for a parade around the pool. It had been very clear from the spectator’s seats that the bulk of the lead was down to Dudley.

When he was asked how he felt he replied, ‘I’m delighted, but don’t forget it wasn’t me that won, it was the team.’ When he finally got his feet back on the ground he headed straight for Alison and gave her a kiss, then he gave Michael and Lewis a hug.

Suddenly finding himself the school hero, there was an extra surge on the issue of sponsorship forms. When they discovered what he was doing, most of the other team and their supporters took forms too. Later that evening Michael texted him to say he had had over three hundred pounds handed in from the swimmers and supporters that day.

WEDNESDAY

On Wednesday, Lewis got a text from Alison to say she had done what he suggested re-Erica. ‘To my surprise she was delighted,’ Alison told him, she said, ‘That’s wonderful I’m so glad for you,’ then she burst into tears. As I comforted her, she told me she had had a terrible experience a while ago and assumed it was always like that.’

‘When I asked her what had happened, and could I help she said she couldn’t possibly tell anyone about it as it was too embarrassing. But she was evidently pleased that I cared enough to ask. I told her I knew someone our age who was an expert at sorting out people’s problems and said if she talked to you, you would never tell a soul anything she said.’

‘I hope you don’t mind,’ she said, ‘I gave her your phone number and told her to at least speak to you and see how she felt. She promised to think about it.’

Lewis texted back saying, ‘No problem with the phone number. At least now you know something happened to her, she won’t feel so alone.’

THURSDAY - ALL ABOUT ROBERT

When Robert had left Franks on Saturday morning he had been in agony from his bum. But he was very relieved at having escaped before being castrated. He hadn’t realised that some of the pain he was feeling was from the tourniquet around his scrotum.

As a result, he sat in his car for ages not wanting to go home and explain why he was in such pain. He called on one of his pals and spent a few hours at his sitting in the bath soaking. It wasn’t until he got out and got dried, he realised some of the pain was coming from his scrotum.

When he felt around, he couldn’t feel the cord which had sunk into his skin. But he realised he couldn’t feel his balls either. So, texting his mum to say he was staying with a college friend for the week, he took himself off to hospital.

He told the nurse that he was having terrible pains in his bum and couldn’t feel his balls. He was stripped and checked over by a doctor who spotted the tourniquet immediately.

When asked why it was there, Robert couldn’t think of any reasonable explanation so was very evasive. The doctor gave him a blood thinning injection then after it had had time to take effect, he cut the tourniquet.

The sudden start of blood flowing was agonising, as blood tried to force its way through the now collapsed blood vessels. Robert was soon screaming with pain. When checks showed that despite removing the tourniquet, no blood was flowing in his testicles or part of his scrotum, he was rushed to the operating theatre.

Whilst he was in theatre a camera was put up his bum showing severe scratching and signs of recent past bleeding in the bottom fifteen inches of his large intestine. His scrotum was cut open and his testicles found to be beyond saving. They were both immediately removed. Also, a section of his scrotum.

After theatre he was admitted to a ward.

The next day the Doctor came to see him and asked him what had been pushed up his bum to cause such damage. He also explained that as the torniquet had been on for too long, they had had to amputate his testicles.

When Robert told him nothing had been up his bum and he had no idea how the torniquet got there, the doctor suggested he called the police in case he had been attacked.

When Robert was adamant that he was not to do that, the doctor had to follow his wishes. Robert was given painkillers and antibiotics and kept in for a few days. Then told to return to outpatients in a week to have his stitches removed, he was then discharged.

He stayed with his mate for a few days then went home. After questions from his parent’s, he admitted where he’d been and told them he was too embarrassed about losing his testicles to tell them where he was. He didn’t explain why his testicles had had to be removed, nor mention anything about his bum which was still painful but starting to fade. Except that is when he went to the toilet. Then he struggled not to scream.

‘I’ve decided to pack up my course.’ told his parents. ‘My boss says I can keep my job anyway.’ His parents demanded that he rang Franks parents and apologised for worrying them, which he did.