I just wanted to crawl in bed with Miss Scunthorpe, I had been working very late, she must be asleep by now, but no, there was a little girl from the first class dressed in a nightie in the main building.
“Good evening, Harriet. Turn around and we will walk back to your dorm together.” I took her hand and we walked out of the main building. It was very dark, a new moon. “That's the Milky Way up there.”
Harriet opened her mouth. “I don't want to, but she says I must, she is so lonely, I'd rather be in the dorm with the other girls my age, I want to help her.”
“I'll talk to your dormitory mother tomorrow, it's Miss Hartlepool, isn't it? I will promise you something, I will try to help her. Good night, Harriet!”
I walked back to the main building to the single bedrooms for the senior girls. I knocked.
“Come in, come in, Harriet. I've been waiting for you. I need you so. Come to me, your big sister Tricia needs to hold you tight.”
I entered the room, it was dark, I pulled off my clothes and got into the bed. I didn't have to ask, she told me all I needed to know.
“Oh, Harriet, the loneliness is gone, you are here. You feel so good, Harriet. You have no nightie on. Harriet, have you grown? No, no! You are not Harriet. You are...”
She told me all her problems, her loneliness, how she liked girls, how she needed her little sister and and and...
“Yes, I really like girls. Aren't you worried that I might do things to you?”
“No.”