Think back
Go on
How old are you?
About eight?
Yeah, about eight
And you're ok, you are
All in all
It's probably the summer
That's why it's still light at 7pm
You've just got out of the car
And there are two peacocks in the car park
The ones with all the coloured feathers
Man ones
You're holding three bags of doughnuts
For the doghnut eating competition
(Where you have to eat a whole doughnut without licking your lips)
At the youth club for kids in care where your mum works
You're not really supposed to be here
But your mum's boss has turned a blind eye
Because of what your mum's been through recently
Oh, look
There's Samantha
You don't know her yet
She comes to talk to you as soon as she sees you
She tells you she's 14
(Wow, you think)
And that she's been coming here for two years
And that she has Down's Syndrome
And that she's been in 12 foster homes
And that the reason she's been in so many
Is that people can't cope with her
They couldn't cope with me, says Samantha
I have aggression
What kind? You ask
Just the normal kind, she says
Samantha looks at you quite a lot
And you look back at her just as much
She asks you why you're here
And you don't know what to say
Samantha says, are you in care?
And after about five seconds
You shake your head
Samantha holds your hand
And takes you inside
And makes you a Ribena
And she says, you're really kind to me
As she passes it to you
And you win the doughnut eating competition
Even though you cheat
Now
Fast forward about 15 years
You're eating a school dinner
In a school hall
You've just performed a show for some of the kids
Oh, look
There's Amy
You don't know her yet
But she comes to talk to you as soon as she sees you
She tells you that she's 12
And that she's been at this school since September
And that there's a girl on her bus who wants to beat her up
And that she's been in about seven different foster homes
And that she's never met her dad
And that she really liked the show
You ask her what her favourite part of the show was
She says she liked the whole thing
She tells you that the reason she's been in so many foster homes
Is that people can't cope with her
They couldn't cope with me, she says
Because of aggression and anger
She tells you all about it
The words that she uses to describe herself
Are words that she's heard adults using about her
Antisocial
Hyperactive
Attention seeking
Difficulty bonding
Acting out
She tells you that she misses her mum
But that her mum had to give her up
For loads of reasons
And that she only sees her every now and again
She tells you that she's been told she'd be a good social worker
You ask her if that's what she wants to be
And she laughs in your face
And says, no way
And she pulls her tights right up to her waist
And asks you if you can come and do a show every week
She doesn't really look at you when she's speaking to you
But that's ok
You get it
