Rising from Adversity - Helping Others - Part V
Rising from Adversity - Helping Others - Part V
Read Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV of this story, before continuing on this fifth episode.
(a 5 minute read - less if you are a fast reader)
This happened in the last school term after I left the Christian brothers boarding.
Richard was my classmate, a handsome boy of fourteen with a great smile. He and I went back a long way in our friendship. We were together in junior school some five years ago. He and I were in the Christian brothers’ formative school together. Richard’s mother and my mother were friends and were distantly related.
Richard and I were now in the same class in the college, I, travelling from home every day, having left the boarding some months ago while he was a resident at the dreaded boarding school.
I had been a big brother to Richard from the time we both became friends. It did not take me long to observe that he was becoming increasingly quiet in class. He was not his usual self. He was dropping in his school grades. I found him brooding and staring into the sky. He was not paying attention in class.
I could not stand while my friend appeared disoriented. I went into action and quizzed Richard. With tears in his eyes, he disclosed that Chamuel, the predator from the boarding school had been abusing him sexually for months. Richard was helpless to stop it. I fucking flew into a rage. The suppressed anger I had about my life in the boarding school came out in the open, in the only way I knew.
I sprung immediately into action telling no one what I was going to do. I came home from school that day, got on my bicycle. I rode all the way to Richard’s home some eight kilometres away. His mother was surprised that her son’s friend turned up unannounced at her home. I took his mother aside in her kitchen and told her what was happening to her son in the dreaded boarding school. I implored her to bring Richard home immediately.
Richard’s mother was upset. His father was at work. I returned home. His parents went into action immediately and brought Richard home. I later learnt that Richard’s father had confronted Chamuel and threatened to hurt him. Which father would not?
Richard left the day school and joined his previous school after this episode. He later told me that he struggled for two years to recover his lost years and get on top of his studies.
I had not much idea that I had liberated my friend from serious danger. I suppose any daring sixteen-year-old boy would do the same for his friends. I had a good idea what sexual abuse could do to a young soul. My own experiences were just a year ago with Evander and to a lesser extent, with Chamuel. With my fearless action, I probably cleared the demons from a turbulent past of my own.
After this episode, Richard and I became closer. He regularly visited me at home and our friendship developed further.
Much later Richard told me that Evander too had manipulated and abused him far worse than my experiences with the Evander. He had given Richard a love note: "I love you". The paedophile had written it in his own blood, a deliberate and criminally inspired act to confuse and manipulate a young boy. Evander was the adult in charge of Richard. Evander was thirty-eight years old at the time of these crimes and Richard was a pubescent boy at only fourteen years old. Imagine a 38-year-old manipulator writing a love letter to a 14-year-old in his own blood. Could a pubescent young boy of fourteen handle this aberration? Should society tolerate this gross violation of a child's right to an innocent childhood?
Irrespective of this analysis, I write this part of this survival story so that everyone would know how two mentally deranged paedophiles had complete control over forty-five students and groomed many of them for their sexual pleasure. These are serious, punishable crimes that should result in long prison sentences in countries with proper justice systems.
Richard and I are the lucky ones. From a survivor, I became a rescuer. Richard and I are the winners, defying adversity. From victims, we became the victors.
When you defy enemies, and stand for yourself and your friends at such a young age, it generates so much power within you. I reached for that power. Both personally and professionally, I have had a fantastic life and done things others dream of. I have raised four great kids who are thriving in this world. I have lived a full-on life. The world was my oyster.
I am outspoken about what they did to me as an innocent child. The shame is on them and not on me. I am really proud of myself. I am now a goodwill ambassador to everyone I come across in life and shower them with my honesty and love.
Richard and I continue to remain lifelong friends. He lives in a western country today and does not fail to regularly thank me for saving his life from evil. I don’t think much of it. It was my duty. That’s what friends are for.
I never disclosed to my parents what had happened to their beautiful boy who they thought had been given to their God, in that dreaded institute. They were devout Christians, and had already had their hearts broken to part with their eldest child. I did not have the courage to break their hearts again. There were many times, I wanted to tell my father to whom I was very close and from whom I hid nothing. But it would have broken him terribly and irrevocably. I chose to protect him and my mother from further anguish. They had raised me well to fight the devils on my own from a young age. And I did.
I later learnt that my father had cried inconsolably after handing me to the Christian brothers' boarding school for the first time. It was just before I reached 12 years of age. I was in the institute till 15 years of age. Not all four years were bad. In the first two years, I was cared for by two great Christian brothers in a different facility away from Colombo; I am grateful to them. One of them was one of my role models. In the last two years, I had these two monsters.
By sixteen, I was no longer the victim. I did not thrive on victimhood. As a boy, I relinquished that past. A lot of that credit needs to go to my father, who had no idea what his son has been through in a wretched institute. His unconditional love and allowing me to enjoy my boyhood beyond that point helped heaps in my recovery. Also, my best mate, Ajit looked after me, showering his unique brand of kindness, acceptance and love.
Read the final chapter Epilogue
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