I need to look at you.
He leaned away but she pulled him close and examined his face and looked briefly in his ears and felt along his neck, and then she lifted his shirt to feel if he was hot and then she found the dark bruises on his back and below the belt of his pants.
She peered into his face. Richie, she said. Did somebody do this to you?
He looked frightened and he wouldn’t answer. She turned him around and drew down his pants and underwear. His thin buttocks were crosshatched with dark red welts. In some of the places the welts had bled and clotted.
Oh, my God, she said. You stay right here.
She left and went next door and came back at once with the principal. She lifted the boy’s shirt and showed the welts to the principal. They began to ask the boy questions but he was crying by now and shaking his head and he wouldn’t say a word. Finally they called his sister out of her fifth-grade classroom and asked her what had happened to her brother. Joy Rae said: He fell off the slide at the park. He had a accident.
Would you go out? the nurse said to the principal.
All right, he said. But you let me know. We have to report this. We’re going to find out what’s going on here.
The principal went out and then the nurse said: Will you let me look at you too, Joy Rae?
I don’t have anything wrong with me.
Then you’ll just let me look, won’t you?
You don’t need to look at me.
Just for a moment. Please.
Suddenly the girl began to cry, covering her face with her hands. Don’t, she said. I don’t want you to. Nothing’s wrong with me.
Honey, I won’t hurt you. I promise. I need to look, that’s all. I have to examine you. Won’t you let me, please?
The nurse turned to her little brother. I want you to step into the hall for a minute, so we can be alone. She led him out and told him to wait there near the door.
Then she came back into the room and took the girl gently by the shoulders. This won’t take long, honey, I promise, but I need to look at you. Slowly she turned her around. Joy Rae stood sobbing with her hands at her face, while behind her the nurse unbuttoned the back of her blue dress and drew down her underpants, and what she saw on Joy Rae’s thin back and thin buttocks was even worse than what she’d seen on her brother.
Oh, honey, the nurse said. I could just about kill somebody for this. Just look at you.