13
TWO AUNTS AND A COUSIN
Todd’s aunt had gone into overdrive. Hardly a day went by when Todd didn’t turn up for school sporting new cuts and bruises, always with a tale to tell about heroic fights in a fantasy g**g war that I knew existed only inside his head. My trips to the piano confirmed the truth about the marks of war that covered Todd’s body. His aunt was responsible for them all.
Dad had once said that if you keep beating a dog it will turn vicious and bite everybody in sight. Todd was turning into that vicious dog, and somebody was going to get hurt.
Keeping my distance helped, but there’s only so far you can run in a school playground. I was averaging a good thumping roughly every eight or nine days, as Todd tried to share out his attentions democratically. A ‘thumping’ coul
