perfect stooge, trailing behind in their contemptuous wake, needing their approval, wanting to be just like them: the mysterious, all-powerful twins who were at the centre of their own universe where, stupidly, he also wanted to be.
That was before he became scared of them.
Once, when they had said he could join in with their latest game, they had put a blindfold around his head and shoved him into cold water. He was only six and they said all he had to do was swim to the other side of the river. It had rained constantly for the last week and the river was higher than usual; as the force of the water rushed pell-mell down the hillside, the strengthening swell had swept him away. He could still remember their laughter as they ran along the bank beside him, and it wasn’t until he banged his head on a rock and began to scream that they hauled him out. They shook him hard, pulled his hair and slapped his face to make sure he didn’t pass out, then marched him back up to the house. ‘We found him down by the river,’ Caspar told Val, ‘causing trouble again. It was lucky for him we happened to be passing, otherwise he might have died.’
Caspar was the most convincing liar Jonah had ever come across, then or since.
By the age of nine he had wised up and kept his distance from his brother and sister, shutting himself away in his room. But whenever they got the opportunity they played their games with him. They would sneak into his room late at night when he was asleep and steal whatever was precious to him - stamps, comics, books, pocket money. Gradually, though, he learned to outwit or second-guess them. He discovered that he was smarter than they were, and by the age of eleven he was spending more time in their father’s library than anywhere else. He discovered that trying to gain Gabriel’s approval and respect was infinitely more worthwhile than being accepted by Caspar and Damson.
Until then his father had been little more than an occasional visitor in his life, for ever away on business, immersed in his own affairs, an autocratic figure. But when Jonah showed an interest in the books Gabriel had collected over the years, the two almost connected.
Jealousy caused the twins to step up their bullying campaign but they soon found themselves in more trouble than they could have imagined. Late one night Gabriel discovered them in his library, defacing two of his most highly prized first editions. Their plan had backfired. They were grounded for a month, their allowance was stopped, their combined birthday party cancelled, and they were put to work by Val to clean out the attic. It was then that Val began to question the previous crimes Jonah was supposed to have committed.
They never discussed any of these things as a family, that would have been far too open and communicative, much better to sweep it under the mat and pretend it never happened.
On one occasion, aged thirteen, Jonah had behaved completely out of character. It only happened once, but it was such a shocking act of violence, that, even now, the memory made him flinch. He had been away at school, and the bully of his year had picked on him once too often: he had stolen a fountain pen Val had given Jonah for Christmas. Incensed, Jonah flung himself at the boy, pushed him to the floor and beat him mercilessly. With no teacher in the classroom, everyone else had left their desks and grouped around to watch the mild-mannered swot bashing the living daylights out of the boy who, in Jonah’s mind, had become Caspar and Damson rolled into one.
But while he was hailed by his peers as a hero, the headmaster was less inclined to .praise him: Jonas was caned and made to write a five page essay, answering the question ‘Which offers man the greater chance of survival: pacifism or violence?’ Ironically, his essay was so good that he was awarded a prize for it at the end of term.
If Jonah had a less than generous opinion of his brother and sister, the regard
That was before he became scared of them.
Once, when they had said he could join in with their latest game, they had put a blindfold around his head and shoved him into cold water. He was only six and they said all he had to do was swim to the other side of the river. It had rained constantly for the last week and the river was higher than usual; as the force of the water rushed pell-mell down the hillside, the strengthening swell had swept him away. He could still remember their laughter as they ran along the bank beside him, and it wasn’t until he banged his head on a rock and began to scream that they hauled him out. They shook him hard, pulled his hair and slapped his face to make sure he didn’t pass out, then marched him back up to the house. ‘We found him down by the river,’ Caspar told Val, ‘causing trouble again. It was lucky for him we happened to be passing, otherwise he might have died.’
Caspar was the most convincing liar Jonah had ever come across, then or since.
By the age of nine he had wised up and kept his distance from his brother and sister, shutting himself away in his room. But whenever they got the opportunity they played their games with him. They would sneak into his room late at night when he was asleep and steal whatever was precious to him - stamps, comics, books, pocket money. Gradually, though, he learned to outwit or second-guess them. He discovered that he was smarter than they were, and by the age of eleven he was spending more time in their father’s library than anywhere else. He discovered that trying to gain Gabriel’s approval and respect was infinitely more worthwhile than being accepted by Caspar and Damson.
Until then his father had been little more than an occasional visitor in his life, for ever away on business, immersed in his own affairs, an autocratic figure. But when Jonah showed an interest in the books Gabriel had collected over the years, the two almost connected.
Jealousy caused the twins to step up their bullying campaign but they soon found themselves in more trouble than they could have imagined. Late one night Gabriel discovered them in his library, defacing two of his most highly prized first editions. Their plan had backfired. They were grounded for a month, their allowance was stopped, their combined birthday party cancelled, and they were put to work by Val to clean out the attic. It was then that Val began to question the previous crimes Jonah was supposed to have committed.
They never discussed any of these things as a family, that would have been far too open and communicative, much better to sweep it under the mat and pretend it never happened.
On one occasion, aged thirteen, Jonah had behaved completely out of character. It only happened once, but it was such a shocking act of violence, that, even now, the memory made him flinch. He had been away at school, and the bully of his year had picked on him once too often: he had stolen a fountain pen Val had given Jonah for Christmas. Incensed, Jonah flung himself at the boy, pushed him to the floor and beat him mercilessly. With no teacher in the classroom, everyone else had left their desks and grouped around to watch the mild-mannered swot bashing the living daylights out of the boy who, in Jonah’s mind, had become Caspar and Damson rolled into one.
But while he was hailed by his peers as a hero, the headmaster was less inclined to .praise him: Jonas was caned and made to write a five page essay, answering the question ‘Which offers man the greater chance of survival: pacifism or violence?’ Ironically, his essay was so good that he was awarded a prize for it at the end of term.
If Jonah had a less than generous opinion of his brother and sister, the regard
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