�Hell yes! One time a girl said that because I couldn�t afford to get a hair cut she�d do it for me. She got a pair of scissors and chopped my ponytail off. You and Jo had the right idea getting out of here. I wish I�d got as far away as humanly possible, somewhere like Australia seems very appealing right now.� She laughs bitterly.
�Why don�t you go? You still could you know.�
�What, with two kids and the wage from a department store? Are you insane?�
�You have two?� Anna asks as she glances around to try and see where the other is hiding.
�Yeah, Stacy�s her name, she�s five now but she�s spending the weekend at her dad�s.�
�Is that the reason you stayed here? Because of Stacy?�
�Yep, and her dad. I was sixteen when I first met him and he seemed like a good idea to just drop out of school and hook up with him, and for a while it was a god idea: everything was fine. But after Stacy was born he just got bored and left to live with some other tart. So bang went all my plans!�
�I�m sorry.�
�Hey, what have you got to be sorry for? It wasn�t your fault.�
�I know but-� Anna is cut of mid-sentence by the piercing scream of Donna�s baby.
�I�m sorry but it looks like I�m going to have to get going, the baby�s playing up again and once he starts like this he don�t stop for hours.� Anna nods and quickly rips a page out of her notebook, scrawls her phone number down and hands it to Donna.
�Phone me, yeh?� They nod quietly and go their separate ways. Anna�s head is spinning so fast that she doesn�t know where she is going, she walks the route that comes most naturally to her and when she stops she finds herself outside her home. The paint on the red door may have chipped and faded, the metal number may now be rusty but it is still the same place, even the damp in the walls is the same shape as she remembers.
With a shaking hand she knocks on the door. As she waits she wonders, once again, why on earth she is putting herself through all this again but as soon as the door creeps open all these selfish thoughts fly from her mind. She can�t help but stare open mouthed at the creature that used to be her mother. She�s coming up for sixty now but Anna hasn�t seen her in the flesh for almost two years now because of her hectic work schedule they have only been in contact through phone calls and letters so you can see why seeing her mother like this is such a shock. She may only be sixty but the years seem to have pilled on since the last time they met.
�Hi mum.� Anna says as she continues to stare. As her mum goes to hug her Anna sees the reason she is here. Her mum�s left arm is in plaster up to the elbow from where she fell down the stairs. Well, I say fell but I actually men pushed. Pushed down the stairs by robbers. Anna can see the bruising that covers her mum�s face and she wonders why on earth she left this sweet old lady in this Hellhole.
�Come in Anna, come in.� Her mum says as she ushers her daughter from the tiny hall into the equally tiny living room.
�Tea?� She questions as soon as Anna sits down.
�I�ll make it.� Anna replies as she goes to stand but is soon pushed back down.
�Don�t be ridiculous Anna! I�m perfectly able to make a cup of tea.�
�You look awful mum.�
�Thanks a bunch. That does tons for my self-confidence.� She laughs
�I�m sorry mum, I didn�t-�
�It�s okay Anna. Don�t worry yourself over it.�
�How are you though? How are you coping?�
�Really? I�m not coping at all. I haven�t been out of the house since I got back from hospital, Jessica next door had to do the shopping for me yesterday. I don�t know how I�m going to cope when I�m too scared to even leave the flat.�
�Oh mum,� Anna says as she feels tears the size of boulders welling up in her eyes. �I�ll get you out of here soon. I promise mum, as soon as I get the money I�ll-�
�Anna.� She cuts her off. �It�s not your problem, it�s not your fault. You understand?� Anna nods slowly and tries to force back the tears.
Shakily she drinks the scolding tea that was placed in front of her, she knows it should be hot, boiling even, but she doesn�t feel a drop of it go down. Her mum babbles on constantly about this that and the other but it all washes over her. An hour and a half, that�s what the nurse who phoned her had said. An hour and a half her mum had laid, unconscious at the bottom of the stairs before anyone had bothered to call an ambulance.
�Anna? Are you listening to me?� Her mum calls.
�No, sorry, what did you say?�
�I asked how your work was going.�
�Fine, it�s fine. I�m starting at Holby in a weeks time.� She says distantly.
�That�s great! You excited?�
�Of course I am, well, more nervous than anything.�
�Nervous of what?�
�Of making the wrong choice when I�m working.�
�What, you mean like giving the wrong diagnosis? I�m sure they wont expect you to do that when you�ve only just got there.� She tries to comfort Anna.
�That�s not what I�m worried about. I�m worried about saving people�s lives, about saving the wrong people.�
�What do you mean?�
�Saving the wrong people. Like the people who mugged you in broad daylight or, say, the people who picked on me at school. I don�t know if I want to, if I�d be able to, help them. And I don�t know if they deserve to be helped.� Anna says quickly. �Picked on� was the only thing she�d ever said to her mum about the bullying that she had put up with for 8 years of her life. She never told her how they threw water on her because they said she never took a bath and mud stuck to her and that was why she had brown skin. She never said how they had spread rumours that she sacrificed animals, how they pulled her hair our in handfuls, how they called her every name under the sun or how they told Jo that she was �easy� and he�d tried to� to rape her. No, she�s never mentioned any of that.
�All people deserve a second chance Anna. They all deserve to be saved.�
�Even the ones that mugged you?�
�Even them.�
Anna stands against the window and watches, as it gradually gets darker. She sees people come and go from the pubs in the next street. Around eight o�clock when her mum is in the kitchen she sees a sight that stops her heart. Down in the street below her, walking along as if on top of the world are her old classmates. About half of them are still there, slightly older, different clothes but still the same people. Laughing, joking and drinking, just like the good old days. But now they aren�t laughing at her. Now they probably have a new innocent victim to pick on.
�You made my life hell for so long, I can never forgive and never forget. But could I save you?� She asks her reflection as she stares down at the figures walking off into the darkness.
�What�s that Anna?� Her mum calls.
�Nothing mum. Just saying how good it is to be home.�
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