“When I was about fifteen, I had a problem with a boy in school and I had to tell my mother because I had cuts and bruises on my face. I didn’t tell her what he said though. Anyway, the next day, Mum heard that that boy’s mother had said ‘serves the weirdo right’. The next thing I knew was that the whole family had been involved in a car accident and the boy had to go into care for months while his parents were in a coma.
“Dad got to hear of it and he asked me why I had old Mum. ‘I told you she was a witch!’ he said. As if I was supposed to have known what he meant, but he thought that I had grasped his meaning. He was blaming me for what had happened to that family, because I had told Mum and that was like setting a dog on someone.
“After that, he said, ‘never tell those two anything ab
