30 minutes on a very cold bench

This evening I took the short cut across Bournville Green.   Someone  was sitting on the stone bench opposite Woodbrook Road.  This is normal - its where all the trendy art college students hang out - so black t-shirt and goth hair cut was nothing out of the ordinary.  Something made me turn back and ask "are you alright"?

Black t-shirt... it is November, its 7PM and its is a bitter night...

Bournville Green - The Xmas Tree

"I don't know where I am."

"This is Bournville Green - you are next to Cadbury's factory, can I help you?"  

"I've run away from the mental home?"

The poor girl has rows of cuts and needle punctures on her upper arms and both forearms are bandaged - I can see fresh blood seeping through - a self harmer - but calm and lucid.

"Do you want to go back?  Is there someone I can contact?"


What to do? - I don't want to call 999 - its not an emergency - but do the mental hospital do a call out?  I am only going to get an office number from directory enquiries.  So I called the 5th emergency service 118 118 and they put me through to the Bournville Lane Police Station - very professional - collected all the necessary information - age (16), name <****>, mental state, physical state, my name, address and mobile number and said they would sort something out.

So there I sat for half an hour - it was a very cold stone bench.  <****> seemed depressed and withdrawn, not surprising, and we had nothing in common as a subject for conversation so I chatted about what I did at Cadbury and pointed out the Wispa and Wholenut buildings and I managed to get some smiles and a few laughs.  A very sweet girl especially when smiling.   I described the Carillon across the road and we had a bit of a "European Geography Quiz"...

I felt guilty not sharing my coat - as I had this and a fleece - but *blood* - I decided that if she shivered once - she would get the coat.

An ambulance turned up - as usual none of the information had made it through so I briefed them - did not seem keen to take <****> to the mental hospital - favouring A&E - not a good idea at all.

At this time of night fifty people and hundreds of cars must have walked/driven past the figure on the bench - either without noticing something was amiss or did and decided not to get involved.

Very sad, very sad indeed - not sure I would be cut out to be a carer - but it would be nice to be able to help.  Feeling a bit sad.