Thydney  

- the story of a young cub from New South Wales

Thydney found his way into our household after my sister Patti had befriended him at "the Wall" - a notorious pick up point for young rent boys in Sydney's Surrey Hills.  Patti found this young cub out cold, a little worse for wear, bleeding above the eye and lying on the floor.  She'd taken him to the nearby St. V's [St Vincent's Hospital], where the staff had cleaned and patched him up, still unable to talk and in a state of shock.  Fortunately no stitches were needed.

 Patti who left the following day, had before we got up left a note beside him on the pillow as he lay asleep, which explained that she'd given him the name Sidney in St. V's.  With no response to the questioning of nursing staff, she volunteered the name rather than the John Doe, which would have gone down on his records.

 It has been six weeks now since the night of his ordeal, and the young cub is starting to come out of his shell and reveal a little about that night.  There are some gaps in the sequence of events, but what we can gather is that he was trying to drum up some business from the passing cars as they slowed down checking out the boys as they strutted their stuff.  This cub is a bit stockier and more hirsute than the normal young chest that you'd find on the wall and maybe that's what made him stand out.  Businesses being a little slow that night Sidney approached a car with more than one 'punter' in it.  I'll leave you and your imagination to fill in the gaps………………. fortunately this Homophobic attack wasn't as vicious as some.

 Oh yes Sidney has changed his name, we also discovered that he has a sense of humour too, as well as a lisp.  He rather liked the name Patti had given him, but kept teasing us that we weren't pronouncing it correctly.  He'll now only responds to his new adopted name [he's changed it by deed poll] if we pronounce it 'Thydney the way he says and now spells it.

 'Thydney has this notion of running a garden centre, we have given him a bed in our family home as long as he needs it until he gets on his feet.  There is no wall in Melbourne, so maybe he will enrol in college in a couple of month's time and follow his dreams - we'll be there to support him as long as he wants!