Chapter 2

It took Poppy 20 minutes to change shoes, because it also involved a change of clothing, to keep everything matching, she was back to jeans, a t-shirt and blouse, black Converse trainers and black leather jacket.

I pocketed the two tubs of lotion as we left Helen’s room and we were set.

I showed Poppy the gate code as we were leaving, you have to enter the code to open the gate from either side. There’s a phone app to do it, but Poppy doesn’t have a phone yet, so she’ll just have to remember the 6 digit code for now.

We walked hand in hand up the road, even without the heels Poppy is pretty tall, it felt comfortable walking together, our hands were naturally at the same height.

First stop was the shopping precinct. We visited a health food store for the lotions, they had large pots of both, I bought one of each then we went up the road further to my bank, where they dispensed £1,000 in a mix of £20, £10 and £5 notes.

“A promise is a promise,” I said as I handed it to Poppy, she tried to refuse it, so I opened her jacket and slipped it into the inside pocket, “You’ll need pocket money” I told her as I zipped the pocket shut.

“Ok, I’ve never had so much money before.”

“Don’t go mad with it.”

“Can we go buy some underwear then, now I have some money.”

There was a quite fancy lingerie store in the area, but it was a bit staid, so I decided we’d pop into London and buy something from a department store, first though, tea and cake in the park, and a walk round the tennis club.

It was too cold to sit at the outdoor seating, so we took a table inside. Poppy was almost overwhelmed by the choices on offer, after much debate she decided on 4 different cakes, millionaires shortbread, Key Lime Pie, Dundee cake and chocolate fudge cake. I’m certain she’ll have the lion’s share of them all, I just loved watching her eat.

Kelly, the regular waitress came over to take our order.

“Hello Alex, I’ve not seen you for a while. Who’s your friend?”

“Hi Kelly, this is Poppy, my girlfriend.”

That felt so good, calling her my girlfriend, Poppy liked the sound of it too, because she beamed as she looked up at Kelly.

Poppy insisted on paying, handing a crisp £20 note over and refusing the change. I was so proud of her just then.

Over cakes, washed down with mugs of tea I told Poppy about why I’d been alone for so long.

“I was engaged to be married, we’d been dating for 5 years, and engaged for two while we planned an extravagant wedding, then a week before the wedding Beth, my cleaner, came to my office, she told me straight out that the day before she’d seen Tammy in bed with Ellory, up to that point Ellory was my best friend, and was to be my best man.

“It must have been so difficult for Beth to tell me this, and I was so angry I threw my computer across the room, I’ll show you the damage later. Poor Beth ran away and didn’t return for a month. I doubled her pay as compensation for my outburst.”

“Oh shit, I don’t know what to say. I take it you called the wedding off.”

“Too right I did, I literally kicked Ellory out of the house, I never saw either of them again. Helen told me they married quietly a few months later and apparently are still together, which surprises me, as someone who can pull shit like that on their fiancé and best friend can’t really be trusted ever again.”

“So, I guess the big house, it was supposed to be for a family.”

“That’s right, we were supposed to live there together, as a family, but that didn’t happen. I couldn’t even face sleeping in our room after that. Helen has the room we were using, that’s why she has the biggest room and a nicer ensuite bathroom. She bought my honeymoon tickets off me, went with Nita, two weeks in the Maldives.”

“So, is this why you have trust issues Alex, why you’ve been so careful that everything I do is absolutely what I want to do?”

“Got it in one.”

“Ahh, well, just so you know, despite my traumas, I love sex, there’s been a few people I’ve been with over the last couple of years who have been tender and nice, and I really enjoyed our sex, but they were in the minority. I want to have sex with you Alex, when I’m better, and I want it to be nice, and I want you to be the only person I ever sleep with, forever, because I can see in your eyes that you want me as much as I want you.”

I had tears in my eyes as she said this, Poppy reached across and dabbed my eyes with a napkin. At that moment I made the decision, she was the one, the person I’d been waiting for these last 5 years since I ended it with Tammy. I reached into my pocket and took out my spare keys.

“Poppy, I want you to have these, the keys to my house, I trust you, for the first time since then, I’ve found someone I think I can trust. I want you to feel you can come and go as you please.”

“But, what about Kenzie? What if he finds me.”

“Well obviously if you don’t feel comfortable going out, then you stay in, but you have keys, just in case you want to go out.”

Poppy put her hand on top of mine, she looked deep into my eyes, “Thank you, for trusting me, it means a lot.”

We finished our cakes, well more accurately, Poppy finished our cakes, and picked up all the crumbs, because I wouldn’t let her lick the plates.

“I’ve never had anything as tasty as those cakes before, thank you so much”

“No need to thank me, you paid for them.”

“But without you, I’d never have had a chance to taste them.”

We left the cafe to walk around the park, then across to the parts of the All England Club we could see from outside. Poppy was fascinated to see the club, so famous from the TV and media coverage, one of the world’s greatest sporting arenas, right here on our doorstep.

Afterwards we walked over to the train station. I stopped in a newsagents and bought Poppy an Oyster card so she could use public transport without jumping the barriers as she’d been doing in the past.

“Oh you’re so uptight and middle class,” she joked as I gave her the travel card.

As we rode the train into central London I broached the subject of ID.

“You know how I mentioned ID earlier?”

“Mmmm yes,” Poppy answered.

“Have you ever had anything, like a library card, or bus pass, or even a bank account?”

“No, never. Mum really didn’t care about that stuff, I never had a bank account, and the only books I read were from the school library.”

“That’s what I thought. I guess we’re going to have to start from scratch. Do you know where and when you were born?”

“We moved around so much, I know my first school was in Tower Hamlets, maybe it was there. My birthday is 1st June, don’t ask me what year though. I only know my birthday because it’s the same as Marilyn Monroe, mum mentioned that a few times.”

“Great, we can work with that, and do you know your full name, I know you mentioned you forgot your real name for a while, have you remembered it now.”

“Yes, I know it now, but you can never, ever use my birth name.”

“Not a problem, you’ll always be Poppy for me.”

“Melanie Nichola Theresa Francesca Roberts.”

“Wow, that’s a mouthful, and also pretty unique, should make finding your birth certificate easier.”

“Can we change my name legally?”

“Yes, that’s pretty simple, but until you’re 18 I think you’ll need your mother’s permission to do it legally, we’ll ask when we go to collect a copy of your birth certificate. With that we’ll get you sorted with a bank account and registered at the library, we can go and see the college tomorrow, or you can leave it for a while.”

“Ohhh, this is too much to think about right now.”

“Not to worry, we’ll take it at a pace you’re comfortable with. I’d like to get your birth certificate today though. We can do everything after that whenever you’re ready.”

“Ok, I’m happy to do whatever you think is best. While we’re shopping, I’d like to get some hair dye, as a disguise.”

“That’s a great idea, what colour are you thinking of?”

“I was thinking pink, like candyfloss.”

“Mmm, so to disguise yourself you’re going to make yourself more noticeable, an interesting concept.”

“It will work, believe me. Anyone who knows me will be looking for dirty blonde hair. They’ll see pink, it will make my whole face look different, then if I’m wearing even a little makeup, like today, I’m hardly wearing any, but I rarely wore it before, so even a little totally reshapes my face.”

“You’re the expert Poppy, you do whatever makes you feel right.”

The train terminated at St Pancras, we transferred to the Underground, which is always busy at Kings Cross St Pancras station, the biggest station on the network, with a maze of passageways and about a dozen entrances.

Poppy kept very close to me, holding my hand tightly the whole time we were in the station. She turned to me and spoke quietly in my ear as we walked quickly to the Victoria Line platform, “We used to beg in this station, I’m sure there’ll be somebody here I know.”

“It’ll be a good test of how different you look now, even without pink hair, if you see someone and they don’t recognise you.”

We walked through the underground maze between lines until Poppy squeezed my hand, pulling me up short.

“That’s Flower and Belle,” she whispered, “they lived with me in Max’s squat.”

I looked where Poppy had indicated. Two girls, both around Poppy’s age were sitting in a corner, well clear of the flow of people, they had a cardboard sign saying ‘hungry and homeless’ and a McDonald’s coffee cup to collect change.

“Can I give them some money Alex?”

“Of course you can, you’ve a pocket full of cash, it’s yours, you can do whatever you like with it.”

“I don’t know how much to give them?”

“How much is a night in a hostel?”

“We hardly ever used them, we rarely had enough money. What if I give them like £20 each, is that enough, too much, I don’t know Alex, help me please.”

“Most people just walk past, a few will give them a few coppers, maybe a pound, surely you know this.”

“I do, I do, but now I’m on the other side, and I’m freaking out.”

“£20 is probably way more than they’d expect to get, so give them a £20 note each.”

“Come with me please, while I go talk to them.”

“Are you sure that’s safe?”

“Pretty sure, Flower was always lovely, and Belle is so sweet, look how pretty she is, even when she’s filthy, she’s gorgeous.”

So we took a deep breath, said a quick prayer and forced ourselves through the crowd to the other side of the concourse. Poppy crouched down in front of the girls, at first they ignored her, probably readying themselves from some abuse from a posh girl, then the girl on the left, the prettier one, so probably Belle looked up, and after a moment or two she must have recognised Poppy, because her eyes lit up, and with a broad smile she cried out, “Oh man, Poppy, I am so glad to see you, we thought you were dead!”

“Well, it was a close call, that fucker Kenzie nabbed me and did some damage, but a knight in shining Burberry found me.”

“You look so good,” the other girl, Flower, said, “fancy clothes and shiny hair, you’ve done so well.”

“Who’s the straight?” Belle asked.

“That’s Alex, he rescued me, he’s so nice, so is all his family, his sister got her girlfriend round to help me with all the horrible bruises from Kenzie and his fuckers.”

“I always knew you’d get lucky girl, you’ve always been better than the rest of us.”

“I don’t know about better, but I did get lucky, and now I can pass some of that luck onto you, but you have to promise me one thing.”

“Anything,” Flower said, “we’ll never let you down.”

“You never saw me today, I’m out of the life now, I won’t survive if I go back, so I definitely don’t want Kenzie or Parker finding me.”

“Fuck no, you’re gone girl, we never saw you.”

“Thank you. I mean it, thank you, without your help I’d have probably died long ago, you and Max and Evie, you pulled me out of the shit.”

“You deserved it honey, and you deserve your knight in shining burberry,” Belle said.

“Have you seen Max and Evie at all?”

“We’ve not seen Evie at all have we Belle, we bump into Max occasionally, she’s in a squat in Camden, there’s only 6 in there now, not like the Walthamstow squat, so there’s no room for us, we’re living down the tunnels, there’s like this old maintenance office, me, Belle and Suki, we share it, no-one else knows about it, there’s even power, so we’ve got lights, and a radio, and a cooker, it’s amazing.”

“I’m so glad to hear it, you three need somewhere safe. Look, I’ve got to go, here’s some money, can you give some to Max please, when you see her next.”

“Of course we will.”

Poppy reached into her pocket and handed a pile of money to Flower, then she grabbed my hand, pulling me away as quickly as she could. I looked across and she had tears running down her face.

Once we found another clear spot I stopped her, and gave her a tissue.

“Thank you, I couldn’t stay there any longer, but I hate to leave them, they’re my friends, I can’t go back to that life though, and you can’t help everyone. Fuck, why did I have to see them, that was heart breaking, I didn’t expect that at all.”

“Did you give them all your money?”

“I did, are you angry?”

“Good god no, why should I be angry, I’m pleased, you didn’t need to give them all that money but you did, that showed great kindness.”

“I was worried you’d be upset, but I couldn’t in all conscience keep that money when my friends are living rough.”

“Come on, let’s get the train, we’ll buy you some undies, then we’ll try to find the Tower Hamlets town hall so we can get a copy of your birth certificate. I’ll get you some more money later.”