Apple of My Eye Read Online Free PDF

she shook her head. ‘Ronnie, it’s wrong to talk like that. You mustn’t do it any more. You’ll upset me if you do.’
    Another silence. He stared at her with eyes that seemed suddenly like those of a stranger.
    Then he smiled. The little Ronnie Sunshine smile that could lift her darkest mood.
    ‘I’m sorry, Mum. I love you.’ He continued to read.
    Lunchtime. In the shadow of the grim Victorian school building the playground swarmed with life. Boys chased footballs or each other. Girls twirled skipping ropes, jumped hopscotch squares or played little mother over dolls.
    Catherine Meadows, bored with skipping, watched Ronnie Sidney sitting by himself.
    He was drawing. Just as he always was. Miss Sims said that he was very talented. Miss Sims liked Ronnie. When Miss Sims wasn’t there, Alan Deakins called Ronnie and Archie Clark teacher’s pets and Archie cried and everyone laughed, but Ronnie just shrugged and carried on with whatever he was doing until Alan grew bored and started teasing someone else.
    She walked over. ‘What are you drawing?’
    Ronnie didn’t answer. She leaned over to see but he pressed the paper to his chest and hid the image.
    ‘Are you drawing me?’
    ‘No.’
    Catherine sighed. Her friends Phyllis and Jean thought Alan was the best-looking boy in class butRonnie was Catherine’s favourite. Sometimes she tried to talk to him but he never seemed interested, which was strange because she was pretty and her father was important and everyone else wanted to be her friend.
    She stood, waiting, but Ronnie just ignored her. Catherine wasn’t used to being ignored so she stuck out her tongue then went to rejoin the skipping game.
    Ten minutes later the lesson bell rang. A groan echoed around the playground. Ronnie stood up, looking at the picture he had drawn, his expression thoughtful. Crushing the paper into a ball, he dropped it into the bin and followed the other children indoors.
    Catherine walked over to the bin and removed the paper, hoping to see an image of herself. Instead she saw two separate drawings of a fat woman with an angry face standing in a garden behind a railway line. In the first drawing the woman was shouting at a small boy, unaware of the bomber plane flying overhead. In the second drawing a bomb had blown the woman into pieces and the little boy was waving to the pilot while twirling her severed head by the hair.
    Disappointed, Catherine put the drawing back in the bin.
    Summer 1952.
    ‘… an
excellent year. The sky’s the limit for a boy with Ronnie’s brains and application. I predict great things for him
.’
    *
    November. Ronnie sat at the kitchen table with Peter. Though the living-room door was closed it could not block out the sound of Auntie Vera’s voice.
    ‘Stan had to plead for you! He might have lost his job, and why? Because you’re too stupid to do your own!’
    Silence. Ronnie willed his mother to shout back but she said nothing.
    ‘But stupid’s your middle name, isn’t it?’
    Ronnie struggled to understand what had happened. His mother had made some mistake at work. Something about a lost order. She had nearly lost her job over it.
    ‘Look at Ronnie. Anyone with a brain would have had him adopted. Given him a decent start in life. You still could but you won’t because you’re too stupid!’
    A chill ran through Ronnie. Beside him Peter began to giggle. Thomas was away, visiting a friend from his new secondary school.
    At last his mother spoke. ‘Leave Ronnie out of this.’
    ‘Why? It’s true. Not content with ruining your own life, you want to ruin his too!’
    Peter kicked Ronnie under the table. ‘No one would adopt you. They’ll put you in an orphanage with all the other bastards.’
    ‘That’s enough, Vera.’ Uncle Stan entered the fray.
    ‘Why? It’s what everyone around here thinks. And why are you sticking up for her? Just for once give me some bloody support!’
    Peter prodded Ronnie with his finger. ‘You’re going to