Can't Anyone Help Me? by Toni Maguire Read Free Book Online

about the other furry animals my uncle had given me when we played ‘the game’.
    He showed me how to wind it up and how, once I had placed it on the floor, it ran around in circles. Watching it, I was just a child enjoying a new toy, a child who clapped her hands together with delight. Wanting to share my enjoyment of the pig’s antics, I turned to the two adults with a wide smile that lit up my face.
    ‘Pretty little thing, isn’t she?’ the chubby man said to my uncle, who murmured his agreement. I felt a mixture of shyness and pleasure, as small girls do when they hear a compliment that they know is for them.
    I was given some lemonade and, forgetting about the time when I had been made to drink it, I swallowed it eagerly. Again, it was sweet and syrupy, and just a few sips made me giggle.
    The chubby man produced a pack of cards from his pocket. Quickly he shuffled them and then, to my delight, showed me a couple of tricks before laying them down on the table. ‘Do you like playing games?’ he asked.
    Not knowing what was expected of me, I looked at him with growing wariness.
    It was then that my uncle mumbled a few words about having forgotten something my aunt had asked him to buy. ‘I’d better pop down to the shops quickly, won’t be long. You be good, Jackie,’ he said. ‘Look after my guest.’ He left me sitting with a man whose smile never left his face as he explained the game we were about to play.
    And as he told me the rules, I clutched Paddington closer to me.
    It was called Happy Families but, he explained, he wanted to make it more fun. So when I picked the right card a sweet would come my way. If he picked the right one a kiss would be his reward. But whenever either of us got a wrong card, a piece of clothing was to be removed.
    The cards were dealt. Innocuous pictures of bakers, postmen and members of other families smiled up at me. He dealt me another card. It was the right one and, true to his word, he gave me a sweet. But when he dealt the next one to himself, he gave a small triumphant shout. This time he had won. He pulled me towards his seat. ‘Kiss,’ he said, offering his cheek, and dutifully I did as he asked. I didn’t like the feel of his face for he hadn’t shaved as closely as my uncle did and the stubble was prickly against my lips.
    ‘Now, Jackie, you must take something off.’
    I shook my head – and that was when the twinkle left his eyes.
    He grabbed me and undid the bow that tied my hair. ‘There now – there was no need to make a fuss, was there?’
    I wriggled away from him and nervously sipped some more lemonade. The room swam, and I heard him say that I had chosen the wrong card again. It was my shoes that he told me to take off next and my fingers were clumsy as I fumbled with the buckles.
    Within the next few minutes, he was down to his vest and underpants.
    I stared at my cards to avoid looking at him. I didn’t want to see the greying hair that was growing on his chest or the thick blue veins on his white legs – and especially not the outline of something that appeared to be growing in his underpants.
    It was when he dealt me another wrong card that he moved. ‘Your turn again, Jackie,’ he said, and pointed at my dress. ‘Put your hands up over your head and I’ll help you.’
    Reluctantly I did so. It was as though I had no will to protest, no ability to resist. The dress was pulled over my head, leaving me standing in just my white knickers.
    They went next, then his underpants – and all I could think of was, Where’s my uncle?
    He picked me up, cradled me against him, then laid me down on the rug. He rubbed cold ointment of some kind into me before his finger went between my legs and inside my body. I lay there unable to move and it was then that I switched my mind off from my body until I was floating somewhere above it. From there I watched a little girl lying on the floor, her arms held stiffly at her sides and her skinny legs pushed wide