Chapter 2

Poppy caught up with her sisters as they rounded the corner before Helen’s building. Someone must have seen them coming, as the outside door clicked open as they arrived.

Helen lived with her partner Nita and Jojo, her protégé, in a huge apartment spread across the top three floors of a Georgian gentleman’s residence. The apartment, which was a gift from an admirer she’d never even met, had more floor space than Alex’s house; including a sitting room that could easily accommodate a couple of dozen guests.

This last fact was a shame, as she was gifted the apartment after she’d left the mainstream glamour industry, so no longer had enough friends to invite to a party that warranted a room this big.

It had taken Helen a long while to realise the people she thought were friends only hung around because she had drugs, booze and money. Now, though her friendship circle was smaller, she knew these friends were true friends who would die for her if the situation arose. Something that was proven when Poppy, Lia and Jenny went in search of Belle when she was kidnapped by Poppy’s tormentor.

Helen was standing in her doorway as the girls reached the top of the stairs, sweeping Belle into her arms, hugging her like her life depended on it.

“I was so surprised when Lia called, it’s a while since you’ve been round. Why are you here? Not that you need a reason...”

“Belle has something to tell you later,” Lia replied, “so you probably need to release her before she expires.”

“Ahh yes, it’s good news I hope.”

“It’s great news, but don’t press her, or she’ll explode.”

“And we don’t want that to happen, at least not until after you’ve seen Jojo’s new photos.”

“Are there any nudes!” Belle asked.

Helen put a finger to Belle’s lips, “there might be, but try not to be so obvious.”

“I’m trying to train her not to act like a teenage boy,” Poppy sighed as they moved through to Helen’s kitchen.

“Hey girls,” Nita called from the lounge, “how’s it going?”

“It’s going great,” Poppy replied, “we’ve just visited a shelter one of Marina’s model friends found.”

“She didn’t just find it, she went in and made sandwiches. The women who run the shelter were stunned that a famous model had just strolled in off the street to help out, and what’s even more amazing, Shannon said Izzy, Marina’s friend, didn’t even take any photos for her Instagram.”

“That’s brilliant!” Helen exclaimed, “it’s great that your work has inspired so many people to help the homeless. That visit was important to Izzy, not just an excuse to promote herself.”

Lia lifted the shopping onto the worktop and helped Belle unpack the ingredients for dinner.

With a meal to prepare, Belle became serious, she didn’t even stop work as Jojo wandered into the kitchen to give all the girls a hug.

“What’s for dinner?” Jojo asked as Belle began to issue instructions to her sisters.

“Hopefully, we’re having mango curry with rice and beans. I’ve not made the curry before, so it could be a disaster.”

“Surely not!” Jojo cried, “nothing you cook is ever a disaster.”

“There’s always a first time,” Belle smiled, “anyway, you’re all being treated to the proper version, then I’m going to try to streamline it so we can cook it at Karim’s one day.”

“Are you still using Karim’s? I thought you’d managed to find a kitchen.”

“We’ve got a building,” Lia replied, “Tower Hamlets have given us a perpetual lease on an old depot. It used to be an equipment store, so it’s almost perfect for us. There’s a big yard for all our bikes and vans, plenty of storage space for food, clothes, and all the other stuff we’re distributing now. We just need to convert part of the space into a big kitchen. Ernie and Mick are drawing up plans for me at the moment, then we’ll get it costed.”

“How much is that costing?” Nita asked.

“Well, the building is free, which is fantastic. We’re going to be paying about £10k a year for the lease, then Mick thinks it will cost about £50k to hook the site up to the high voltage network ... I’m not sure what that means, but it’s something to do with chargers for the electric vans. The kitchen equipment will cost about £200k, that’s Ernie’s rough estimate, and another £200k for building work and new fences. Taylor gave us a million, so we’re not worried.”

“One really good thing about this new building,” Poppy added, “it’s in Tower Hamlets, so it will help us extend our operations.”

“Yeah,” Katie continued, “at the moment, we’re mostly working in Camden and the surrounding areas; Hackney, Islington and Westminster. From Tower Hamlets, we can extend our operations into Newham, and across the river to Southwark and Lambeth, and up to Waltham Forest.”

“You’ll need more staff and volunteers, I suppose,” Jojo noted.

“Volunteers aren’t a problem,” Lia replied, “now Amy has got her people involved, we have more volunteers than we can find work for. Staff though, yes, we’ll need staff to work in the depot and manage the extra volunteers for the new areas ... Katie, could you remind me to speak to Flower tomorrow, we’ll need to arrange a meeting to work out a staffing rota for the depot. Taylor’s money is in a separate account, we can use any remaining money for salaries for a while.”

“I love how organised you’ve all become,” Helen said as she pulled a couple of bottles from her wine fridge, “twelve months ago you were...”

Poppy checked the date on her phone, “twelve months ago I was wandering London waiting for someone to finally put me out of my misery. Twelve months ago, Belle was living in Kings Cross, and Lia was ... where were you sleeping this time last year?”

“Late October, I was in Camden, where you found me. Mostly sleeping under the laundry vent.”

Helen stepped up to Poppy, giving her a quick hug, “is that what you were hoping? That someone would kill you?”

“I definitely wanted to die. Every time I put myself on the edge of a train platform, something made me step back. I wanted to die, but someone upstairs was unwilling to let me die ... that’s why I survived that final attack. Look at all those bruises, why didn’t I have any broken bones? All those burns, where have they gone? Why am I still here, Helen?”

“I’m not religious,” Helen replied, “we’ve both seen too much evil to believe there’s a god looking out for everyone. But I do think there must be some higher power looking out for a few important people.”

“How am I important?” Poppy asked, “surely there’s loads of people way more important than me out there...”

“What have you all just been talking about?”

“The new depot and kitchens...” Poppy replied, quietly.

“And what will happen there?”

“We’ll cook meals, sending them out across the area.”

“To feed people who would otherwise have nothing. I’d say saving lives is pretty damn important, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes...”

“And who started it all? You did, that’s who. You set the ball rolling during a conversation in my brother’s kitchen. You’re incredibly important Poppy, because out of all the millions of people in this city, you were the one with the vision to start a charity that’s feeding thousands of people every night.”

“But...”

“But nothing Poppy, you don’t do the work because you’re still legally a child, you still go to school. Once you’ve finished school you can start working full time, and I bet you’ll work even more miracles, because that’s what you’ve done so far. You’ve persuaded companies to give you food, clothes, sanitary products, medicine, books, all kinds of things...”

“It’s mostly men, they’re helpless when I show them cleavage.”

Helen laughed, “your cleavage helps, but I’m willing to bet Lia could go in the same places, show the same amount of cleavage, and leave empty handed; because beauty and boobs only go so far. What you have on top of beauty and boobs is presence, you have this aura Poppy, I felt it that first day.”

“She’s a goddess, I keep telling you,” Belle called from the cooker.

“Maybe you are, Poppy, maybe you are...”

Alex and Jenny arrived just as Belle was finishing off the curry, Lia distracted her while Alex hid the box in the lounge.

“The food smells amazing,” Jenny announced as she joined the girls in the kitchen, “what are we having?”

“We’re having Jamaican mango curry with rice and beans.”

“She’s used real mangos and real coconuts,” Helen added, “I didn’t realise I had a knife strong enough to chop a coconut in half.”

“And I didn’t realise I had a daughter strong enough to chop a coconut in half,” Jenny laughed.

“Poppy did it,” Belle replied, “we’ve just been discussing how she’s some kind of superhuman...”

“Let’s not get into that, or I’ll have to reapply my make-up all over again.”

“We had tears,” Helen whispered, “I’ll tell you later.”

“Ahh, we’ll have them again in a bit, for a couple of good reasons,” Jenny whispered, “but that’s for the girls to tell you.”

“If you adults can stop whispering, it would be great if you could help Lia and Katie set the table,” Belle told the adults.

“Yes miss,” Helen replied, coming to attention and saluting Chef Belle.

“Less of the sarcasm, or I’ll give you the smallest portion,” Belle laughed as she poured a little more coconut milk into the curry.

After the meal, Alex sat back and rubbed his tummy, “another triumph Belle, you said you’re going to streamline it for the street kitchen...”

“Well, we couldn’t possibly afford to make this in the street kitchens. The mangoes were £1 each, and I used five to make the meal for nine of us. That’s 50p per meal for one ingredient, and we normally work on a total budget of 30p a meal. Anyway, when me and Poppy were in the food reclamation wholesalers the other day, I noticed they had a pallet of dried mango, almost a tonne for £100, so I bought it. Then I realised I had no real clue what I was going to do with it, so I’ve been planning things.

“We’ll need to soak the mango pieces before we cook them, so I’ve also been thinking of things to do with the leftover mango water. It will probably make a nice drink, but we’ll see after I’ve made the street version at home tomorrow. We’ll also be using creamed coconut instead of real coconut, and milder, dried spices instead of the fresh peppers we used tonight.”

“Like I said before, it’s amazing to see how you’ve all become so professional in the last 12 months,” Helen told the girls, “And we’ll leave it there, to save Poppy from have to reapply her make-up.”

Jenny handed Belle a stack of envelopes, “why don’t you tell Helen your news while Alex and I clear the table.”

“Oh my god! I’ve been bursting all day to tell someone,” Belle said whilst looking for the correct envelope, “this is a secret, we’re not supposed to tell anyone, but you’re not anyone, you can keep secrets. Here, read this...”

Helen took the envelope, “this is addressed to Poppy.”

“Yes, I know, that’s the important one,” Belle told her.

Helen watched Poppy as she opened the envelope, wondering what could possibly be in the letter that so animated Belle, but was causing Poppy to cringe slightly. She scanned the letter, then read it more slowly before replacing it in the envelope and passing it back to Belle.

“Are the other letters the same?”

“Lia’s is the same, me and Katie have an MBE.”

“Fuck me, you girls don’t hang around do you,” Helen laughed, “do you know who nominated you?”

“Amy says it’s Marina, and her friend Geoff seconded the nomination,” Lia replied, “naturally, Marina denies it.”

Helen turned to Poppy, “you know what I said before, about how important you are, this letter proves it; you too Lia, the work you’ve been doing, keeping everything running smoothly, you both deserve this honour.”

“But Belle and Katie only have MBEs,” Poppy whispered, “Belle deserves so much more.”

“You still don’t get it do you,” Helen replied quietly, “without you, none of this would have happened. Belle and Lia would still be on the streets, Katie would be dumped in a boarding school, Alex and Jenny wouldn’t have met, Nita and I would still be fighting far too often and Jojo, none of us would have met her and she’d still be with her abusive agent; and most importantly, a lot of people would probably have starved to death. It’s all on you Poppy, and you deserve every honour that comes your way, because you started everything with your kindness and your love.”

“And I’m too little for a fancy OBE,” Belle told her as she climbed on Poppy’s lap, gifting her one of her most life-affirming hugs.

“But...” Poppy started, only to be stopped by one of Belle’s most life-affirming kisses.

“Listen to Helen,” Belle gasped as they separated, “she’s much cleverer than we are, she knows how important you are.”

“But why did I have to go through so much pain first? Those last few days, every single second was pain and horror...” Poppy could say no more as the tears started.

“Ahh ... could someone get me a towel,” Belle asked.

Katie, who saw this coming, was already on her way back with one, which she passed to Belle.

“We almost had this earlier,” Helen told a shocked Jenny, “I was telling them all how professional they’d become in the last twelve months, and Poppy said that twelve months ago she was still on the streets, then she tells us she spent the last few months on the streets hoping someone would kill her. I think this OBE letter has brought some of her insecurities to the fore again. I tried to explain that she was kept alive because she had important work to do, which I firmly believe is true. I guess we now need to work out why she went through such pain before she was saved.”

“Mmm, I think I can help here,” Jojo interrupted as she swapped places with Helen.

Belle kissed Poppy tenderly, “Jojo wants to speak to you,” she told her quietly, “I think it’s important.”

“I’m really sorry,” Poppy whispered, lifting Belle’s t-shirt to wipe her eyes, “mmm, and I’m also sorry for getting makeup all over your nice t-shirt.”

“I’ll let you buy me a new one,” Belle laughed, “are you ready to listen to Jojo.”

“Yes, I’m ready ... can someone get me a glass of water, once again I feel like I’ve cried all the liquid out of my body.”

Once Poppy had taken a drink of water, she turned towards Jojo the best she could with Belle still on her lap.

“As strange as it may seem,” Jojo started, “I did Religious Studies GCSE, I got an 8, which is a miracle in itself. So, there’s, like, thousands of religions. Some have one god, some have hundreds, some don’t have a supreme being at all. What a lot of religions agree on though, is that people’s faith must be tested; Abraham was asked to sacrifice his own son to God...”

“He didn’t, did he?” Belle cried.

“No, an angel appeared just as Abraham was about to kill Isaac and gave him a ram instead.”

“Thank fuck for that, I don’t think I like a God that would do that.”

“Indeed, then there was Job who suffered all kinds of trials and tribulations, yet he still worshiped God instead of Satan. Other religions have similar stories; usually ... and don’t take this the wrong way, Poppy ... usually these trials are to atone for sins. I’m not saying this is the case, because everything you did was pretty much forced on you...”

“Not always, I worked in the sex clubs because I enjoyed it,” Poppy replied.

“But the money, it paid to feed us,” Belle replied.

“Yes, I didn’t keep the money, but I enjoyed fucking the guys in the clubs ... well, most of them. Some of the guys were nasty.”

“I did say that part didn’t apply to you,” Jojo explained, “it’s just that most religions seem to enjoy having people suffer on behalf of their gods, and if we’re entertaining the idea that someone was looking out for you, they may have wanted to test that you’re worthy. And I’m pretty sure you are worthy of any honours given you.”

“Mmm, maybe they could have handed me to some less vicious people to test me, and it would have been nice if Misha hadn’t died in the process.”

“While we’re on the subject of comparative religions,” Helen joined in, “many eastern religions have the concept of Karma; basically, this is payback for doing bad shit. I think you saw to it that Mikey got payback.”

“Indeed,” Lia added, “he definitely didn’t enjoy the last few minutes of his life.”

“Yes! And there’s that shopkeeper, Keisha told me about what you did to a shopkeeper who tried to rape Flower.”

“Oh my god! I’d forgotten about Keisha ... she was a really nice kid, I’m glad she got off the streets, Jeremy found her a family, a nice one, not like those bastards she ran away from ... mmm, now the shopkeeper, oh yes! I never liked him; it was lucky I was walking past. I heard a scream and ran in to see what was going on, and there he was, cock in hand, ready to rape Flower, so I punched him in the head. Quite a lot of punching I seem to remember, Jeremy took me to hospital because I had one of the guy’s teeth in my knuckle, I’ve still got the scar, look...”

“No, you don’t,” Belle said quietly, “you don’t have any scars, anywhere.”

“I do, I was stabbed once, in my side, it fucking hurt,” she moved Belle a little and rolled up her top, “look, the scar is there,” she added, pointing to an unblemished area of skin.

“Nope, nothing there either,” Belle told her, “there’s not a mark on you, anywhere. You’re perfect, Poppy. Perfect in so many ways.”

“Why am I perfect? Where have all my scars gone?”

“We’ve no idea,” Jenny told her, “and what we’re going to do is make sure you don’t get any more scars.”

“Mmm, did you ever get any STIs on the streets,” Helen asked.

“None,” Poppy replied flatly, “I had checkups every few months ... oh wow, with the number of dirty dicks I’ve had in me, I should have caught something ... I should have got pregnant too, but I never did. Oh shit, what am I?”

“You’re blessed, that’s what you are,” Lia told her tenderly, before turning and whispering to Alex, “get the box, we need a distraction.”

“Shall we have more wine?” Jenny suggested as Alex fetched the box.

“Yes, wine sounds good,” Poppy replied, once more wiping her eyes on Belle’s t-shirt.

“I fetched a towel to wipe your eyes,” Katie told her.

“Yes, but the towel doesn’t smell of Belle,” Poppy replied, with her first proper smile of the evening.

“Maybe someone needs to invent a Belle scented fabric conditioner, so I don’t have to wash your make-up out of Belle’s t-shirts.”

“That would be a best seller, definitely,” Poppy as she lifted Belle off her lap, “save me some wine, I’m just nipping for a wee, and to fix my make-up. Don’t make me cry any more tonight, or I’m using your t-shirt next, Katie.”

“Oh, what’s this,” Poppy asked as she returned, looking and sounding brighter, but her red eyes told of her recent tears.

“It’s got your name on it, look, Miss Poppy Harrison,” Belle replied.

“It also has your name on it, look, Miss Belle Harrison-Dean.”

“One of you needs to open it,” Jenny told them as she dropped a knife on top of the box.

Poppy pushed the knife across to Belle, “you open it, because I stole your opportunity to tell our secret before.”

“Has anyone checked it’s not a bomb or something?” Belle asked.

“I put the tape on the box,” Alex replied, “I’d hardly be standing this close if I thought it would explode.”

“Ahh, that’s OK then,” Belle said as she carefully ran the knife down the tape to ensure she didn’t damage the contents.

With the tape cut, Belle lifted the flaps and removed a layer of tissue paper, “oh wow, look Poppy, it’s your book.”

“Our book,” Poppy reminded Belle, pointing to their names on the cover.

“But...” Belle started, Poppy quieted her with a finger to her lips.

“You saved my life, Belle; without you, I’d have been dead long ago. Despite what you all think, I don’t think I’m immortal. You kept me alive, so your name belongs in the charity name, and it belongs on the front of our book.”

Belle lifted one of the books from the box, “our home...” she whispered.

Katie had found a photo of the Walthamstow squat in the local newspaper archive, the building used to be a warehouse and general store, built around 1801. It had been abandoned for over 50 years by the time Max found it and turned it into a home for a rotating collection of up to 10 women and girls.

“I remember the first time I saw it.”

“And it still makes me cringe that I made you climb the wall and jump across to the fire escape.”

“Maybe you were testing me,” Belle replied, “to see if I was worthy.”

“You proved you were worthy by applying that ointment to my arse the night before,” Poppy replied, “I was still a bit fucked up that first night, but the next few days, I realised you’d been sent to save me, Belle. I should have said something, told you I loved you ... maybe if I’d been honest, I wouldn’t have got all fucked up again and forced to run away from you...”

“Don’t cry Poppy, look around you, we’re safe, everything turned out OK.”

“You’re right, it did,” Poppy replied, wiping her eyes on her shirt sleeve, “maybe I should give up and wash all this make-up off, save ruining anymore clothes...”

She ran to the bathroom, Belle put the book down, “nobody open the book until we’re back...” she called out as she ran after Poppy.

“Is looking through the book a good idea right now,” Katie asked, “do you think Poppy is strong enough at the moment.”

“I think she’ll be fine,” Helen replied, “right now, Belle will be assuring Poppy that everything in the past is gone, they’ve survived, and they’re safe.”

Katie and Lia loaded the dishwasher and made coffee while they waited for their sisters to return. They brought the coffee through as Poppy and Belle emerged from the guest toilet. They were both make-up free, and a little flushed.

“Are we good?” Lia asked.

“Very good,” Poppy replied, “plus, no make-up to run if the book makes me sad.”

Belle rushed around Poppy and turned the book over, “look, Taylor! You can’t be sad when you’re looking at Taylor.”

“That’s very true,” Poppy replied, “Oh, this isn’t the photo I thought we were using.”

“Ahh, I found one with Taylor’s lipstick on your cheek,” Katie replied, “so I decided to use that one.”