warrick had polio & was in crutches/ he never
left his backyard & used to hop along kicking an
old football/ but the girls in the street liked him
because he was thirteen & had shoulder length
blonde hair/ but he reminded me of a chained dog
& we only ever talked to him over the fence while
he had crutches on/ then we tried to forget about
him/ in kindergarden anthony kept pulling my hair
when we played outside in the trolley sandpit &
peter sutherland, who ran around on top of school
desks over everyone's opened books, so the teachers
couldn't catch him, picked on me & i told mum/
she said 'give him a good hard kick in the shins'/
so i polished my black school shoes & called him
into the storeroom/ he never picked on me again/
a policeman came to tell us about the traffic lights
& gave us all jelly beans but was really there to
tell us over & over to 'never talk to strangers'/ we
called it 'stranger danger' & not to accept lollies
off anyone but your parents & relatives/ i ate as
many lollies as i could get my hands on & debbie's
teeth went rotten & she got a stinging red ear from
a girl from the spastic centre next door to the
school/ whose older sister was a blonde hood in a
few grades above us/ they all stood around on the
sports oval & the spastic sister did a dance until
we laughed/ sometimes they tried to make us
touch her & when we refused they lashed out/ i
bloodied natalie walter's nose in my first year
of school/ then i got the cane because they said i
rubbed soap into a girl's eyes in the infants toilet/
the old headmistress mrs hay whacked the backs
of my legs with a big wooden cane in front of the
rest of the class as though she was playing a game
of golf/ i refused to take my hands down off my
hips/ i jumped on the spot involuntarily when she
hit me/ it was that hard i felt i nearly could have
lost consciousness/ i stopped breathing as the
blood rushed to my head/ but i managed to stay
upright/ my friend jane got into trouble as well/
for being with me/ later that day her mother came
around to our house to talk/ mum pulled down my
sock & saw the blueberry welt & she said 'don't
worry about coral, she probably deserved it'/
later on in the playground vincent caught me in
catch & kiss & i punched him in the face/ from
then on he avoided angry dark haired girls/
prefering to catch amanda the ordinary blonde
from the ordinary background/ 'it's what men
want' mum told me later when i was in high
school/ 'you are sultry, too aloof & stand offish/
you're fairly attractive but unapproachable'/
men don't want that'/ i said 'good because if
anyone comes near me they're in trouble'
