He’d already told me I was going to get six and he couldn’t give me more than six, but I was still terrified. When he took the strap out, though and put it where I could see it, folded over ready for use – at that point I couldn’t help myself. I started talking, I was so scared and the whole story came out about the stealing and the threats and the fact that they’d also threatened this little kid. I told the truth out of a hope that I might escape with some remission of sentence.
As it was, I got away without a strapping but only by the skin of my teeth (at least they let me think it was by the skin of my teeth – honestly, I escaped by the skin of my teeth so many times, that had to be a ploy on the teachers part – let us think we’d been closer to a belting than we really were.