Breaking Free

The journey on the ship had been pleasant. They decided they would
go to London because they thought there was more opportunities there
than Liverpool. When they docked in Liverpool they decided to take a
train to London and find a "Bed &; Breakfast".

"Surely there must be a train soon. We've been waiting here for over
half an hour!" Sadie exclaimed.
"Oh Sadie, I can't believe you can't wait for a train without getting
annoyed! Look we'll be on a train to London soon, I promise". Kevin
tried to reassure Sadie, but in his own mind he was getting a bit
annoyed.
When the train finally arrived ten minutes later, they got on. They
knew it would take some time for them to get to London, but they had
got this far.

"I wonder what my Mum will think when she finds me gone! She probably
thinks I'm out with some friends. What am I going to do for clothes,
Kevin?" Sadie asked.
"We'll think of something. I can give you some money to buy clothes".
Kevin suggested.
"Yes, I suppose. How much money have you got?" Sadie queried.
"About ?50, I've been saving up for a while. I suppose I could try and
find a job tomorrow".
"Okay, I've got about ?10 on me", Sadie just remembered.
"About your clothes, we could easily write to Tommy and ask him to
post your clothes to us".
Sadie didn't say anything after this, she just leaned against Kevin in
the carriage, she was tired and hungry. Kevin lightly kissed Sadie on
the forehead and sat back, going to sleep.

They arrived in London late in the evening, feeling cold, tired and no
place to go. They walked along, looking for a "Bed &; Breakfast",
they spotted one on the corner of "Vine Street" and got a room there.
Immediately as they walked into the room they fell on to the bed,
exhausted from the journey. They felt they could sleep forever.

In the morning they awoke, refreshed and ready to start a new day.
They went down to breakfast, after getting dressed.
"How are you today, my sweet?" Kevin joked to Sadie, meeting in the
doorway.
"Oh, I'm fine. I could eat a horse, I'm so famished!" Sadie
exclaimed.
They ate cereal, toast and drank coffee. After breakfast Kevin went
out to buy a paper for any jobs and Sadie went out to buy some
clothes.
As she walked along the streets of London, she started to think about
back home in Northern Ireland. Of Tommy, her Mum, her Father and of all
the other people who she loved or who she hated. Yesterday she had
thought leaving her family to be with Kevin was the best solution to
the situation between them, now she was starting to get a little
niggling feeling in the back of her mind. Of course, it had been the
best solution or had it? Sadie didn't want to think about what might
have happened if she had stayed...
Now all she wanted to think about was the future! She passed a Post
Office and decided to buy some writing paper to write a letter to Tommy
back home, he would understand.

"Oh, where's Sadie? Do you know where she is Tommy?" Sadie's Mum
frantically asked Tommy.
"How should I know. I'm not her keeper! She's probably out with some
friends, don't worry about her", Tommy replied.
Though, on the last day when he had seen Sadie, she had been in a
hurry to get somewhere. He thought it strange that she wasn't back home
yet from wherever she'd been, Sadie usually wasn't away for two days,
unless she said where she would be. Tommy was getting restless, Sadie
was in trouble or something else had happened to her.
He decided to go round and pay a visit to Brede, maybe she would know
something. After all Sadie had been seeing Kevin, Brede's
brother.
"I'm going out for a while. I'll be back in a bit", Tommy announced,
getting up from the kitchen table. He felt he was going to find out
about Sadie.
He walked down the street, passing the remains of Mrs McConkey's shop,
the Police had cornered it off for further investigations. Just as
Tommy was going round the corner, he practically tripped over Linda
Mullet.
"Well, well, I haven't seen you around, Tommy or Sadie for that
matter. So where is she?" Linda enquried.
"She's away, visiting some relatives", Tommy quickly supplied.
"Oh, well, when will she be back?"
"I don't know. Look, I'm pretty busy, Linda and I'm just about to see
someone, bye", Tommy hurried off, leaving Linda stood there watching
him go.
When Tommy walked down Brede's street and to her front door, he wasn't
sure of what exactly he was going to say. But when Brede opened the
door, he was sure she knew something.
"Oh, it's you, Tommy. What do you want? Come in", Brede offered.
"That's nice! I just wanted to know do you know where Sadie is?" Tommy
asked.
"Sadie? How would I know! ... Oh, you don't know about Kevin?" Brede
asked.
"Kevin? No".
"Well, Kevin's gone to London. Maybe Sadie's there", Brede
suggested.
"Maybe, but why didn't she tell me".
Brede sat thoughtfully for a few minutes, Sadie had done something
stupid, leaving Northern Ireland to be with Kevin, but what could they
do, go to Londoon and talk Sadie into coming back...

Sadie posted her letter to Tommy. She had put all her heart and soul
into the letter, but as she was writing it the feeling that had started
to grow in her mind was starting to make her think more why she was
there, with Kevin. She had needed him, she couldn't bare to see him go
or had she just followed him because it would mean she was out of
Northern Ireland for good. No, she told herself, she loved Kevin.
She had bought some clothes and it was a start. Sadie now sat in their
room, watching television, some music blaring from another room. It was
4:00pm, it was still light, suddenly the music stopped, Sadie was glad
of this. She started to cough, what she didn't know was smoke was
coming under the door from another room where two children were playing
with matches. Sadie didn't know this when the fire alarm went off,
someone on the landing had set it off after seeing the smoke. Sadie
rushed towards the door, but when she got there she found it was
jammed. She banged and banged, but it was no use. The smoke was rising,
her only way out was the one window, they were on the top floor, all
she could do to ensure a safe landing was to take the sheets off the
bed and the mattress, throwing them out the window.
She did this but by now the smoke was all around, she knew if she had
shouted for help, she would have wasted her breath, everyone was
probably trying to get out themselves, why should they help her! She
climbed onto the window sill ... and jumped. It felt like a life time
until she felt the impact. When she landed she couldn't feel anything,
she didn't open her eyes. The conflict and struggle with the smoke was
over ... when would someone find her lying there, still.