Getting Lost in Abingdon
Two Little Girls Chapter 6
When she was eight, she went out to the sweet shop.
Sarah took a wrong turn and found herself on a road that stretched further than she could see. Privet hedges too tall to peer over lined either side of the road. Trees gave the appearance of an arch petering off into the distance.
Now and then, there was a decorative iron gate to stop lost children from entering. Through the curlicues, she could see the pastel-painted mansions. Their colonnades and columns stood guard outside front doors made for giants.
The little girl walked along this alien road, looking for someone to ask for directions.
In the end, she sat on the kerb and waited. Teresa would wonder where she was. Her tummy rumbled. At last, a lady came out of one of the gates. Sarah stood up and ran over to her before she could get away.
“Do you know the way to Winterbourne Avenue, please?” she asked.
“Yes, I take you.” The lady replied.
They walked a little way along the road. Sarah lifted her head to see the lady who smiled down at the little blonde girl. Sarah smiled back.
“What is the name of this road?” Sarah asked.
“This Park Road.”
“Is it far to Winterbourne Avenue?”
“No far.”
“You speak funny are you from Poland?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, I know a Poland lady she lives with me. Do you know her?”
“What her name?”
“Teresa. She’s from Warsaw. Where are you from?”
“I from Warsaw.”
When they reached the top of Winterbourne Avenue, the lady pointed into Sarah’s road. The little girl thanked her and ran to her house.
Teresa came out of the kitchen and said, “where you have been?”
“To the shop.”
“What you buy?”
“Sweets, but I ate them,” she said as she hung her head. She’d forgotten about going to the shop.
“You gone long time, I worried.”
“Sorry, Teresa,” Sarah mumbled at her chest.
“Lay the table, Sarah, you Dad home soon.”
“Yes, Teresa. What’s for dinner?”
“Schnitzel, potatoes and peas.”
The girl smiled. But she dreaded the fat and gristle hidden under the orange breadcrumbs. She prayed there wouldn’t be more burnt butter and breadcrumbs tipped over the potatoes.
A few days later, Teresa asks Sarah again about her trip to the store. The woman Sarah met while lost, bumped into Teresa in the supermarket. They knew each other from the Polish Club. They got talking.
The little girl’s stepmom wants to know why Sarah said she went to the sweet shop. Sarah realises she didn’t want anyone to know she got lost. Being eight-years-old means finding your own way home.
A year later, the family moved house. Sarah didn’t remember moving house. Looking back now, one day the family were in a modern semi-detached house, the next in a cobwebby old Victorian terraced house.
The girls had to wear jumpers and when their fingers were cold, their dad would tell them to put gloves on.
Sharon and Sarah bathed in front of the coal fire. A big brass guard shielded them from sparks. After Teresa scooped Sharon out, Sarah got in. She sat in the plastic baby bath with the soap crud and murky water. One side of her covered in goosebumps and the other rosy red. She splashed herself clean and stood up, ready to be swaddled in a rough towel by Daddy.
He rubbed the giggling, squirming child dry through the towel, then put the towel over her head and rubbed her hair dry with vigour as she turned her head back and forth under it.
With her nightdress over her head and dropped into place over the rest of her, Daddy would carry his eldest up to her bedroom. He tucked her in and turned off the light.
As a grown woman, Sarah met Rob in a nightclub. They hit it off. He asked for her phone number. A woman could lose her hands in his bountiful coal-black hair.
A day or two later he called, and they went out on a date. They drank a lot and went back to his place.
Sarah has no recollection of anything physical happening but then neither does she remember anything of the years she spent sleeping with Steve her first proper boyfriend.
She does recall Rob standing her up in his bath and washing her the morning after their drunken night. As he towelled her down, she giggled and squirmed.
Moving to Marlborough Road Two Little Girls Chapter 7
Barbara for Teresa Two Little Girls Chapter 5
Enter the Au Pair Two Little Girls Chapter 4
Frances Two Little Girls Chapter 3
Miles Two Little Girls Chapter 2
Sarah Two Little Girls Chapter 1
Two Little Girls and Other Life Moments Kindle Edition by Karen Madej
© 2018 Karen Madej. All rights reserved.
