Chapter 3

On the way back to the DLR station we stopped in a McDonalds for a quick bite to eat, as we finished our food in the all but deserted upstairs dining room I slid the birth certificate onto the table.

“Poppy, I don’t disbelieve anything you’ve said to me, so don’t get distressed, I just need you to make sure you have everything straight, because according to your birth certificate you’re only 15 years old, with your timeline I thought you were perhaps 16 or 17. If you’ve been on the streets for 2 years, you must have left in year 8, or even year 7, when you were 12 or 13.”

“I don’t know, it’s all been such a mess Alex, I’ve totally lost track of time.”

“It’s ok Poppy, really it is. Nothing has changed except that it would be illegal for me to sleep with you.”

“Why? I don’t mind, I want to, and I’m mature enough to make that decision, surely my body is mine to do whatever I want, for the last couple of years other people have been doing whatever they want with me, now it’s my turn.”

“Poppy, it’s fine, please relax, I only said it would be illegal, not that I don’t want to sleep with you now. It’s just one more thing we will have to keep secret from my neighbours, we’ll tell them you’re 18, nobody would guess, because you do look 18, in fact when we met I thought you might be in your early 20’s.”

“So you still want to have sex with me?”

“More than anything Poppy, once you’ve healed properly down below, so you can enjoy it fully, and I’m not worried I’m hurting you, because that will so spoil the mood.”

“What about Helen?”

“What about her? Do you want to have sex with Helen as well?”

“No, yes, no, that’s not what I meant, although I wouldn’t say no to her, she’s very pretty, how old is she?”

“Err, a few years younger than me, 28 I think.”

“Mmm, well, anyway, what I meant was, she’ll find out how young I am.”

“How will she find out? I won’t tell her.”

“I don’t know, maybe I’m over thinking, I just thought, if she’s around regularly, she might hear us talking or something, or next year when it’s my birthday, and I’m 16, you might say something. Oh I don’t know.”

“She’s bright, is Helen, she might have already guessed how old you are, or Nita might have from looking at your skin and lady parts. But why worry about that right now, what we’ve got to do is pick you a name, because I want this deed poll form filling in ASAP so we can get you a bank account opened.”

“Well, it’s Poppy, that’s what I want to be called, obviously.”

“Just Poppy? No surname, no middle name.”

“Oh yeah, hahaha, I never thought. What’s your surname, god Alex, we’ve nearly had sex and I don’t even know your surname.”

“You had my credit card earlier, didn’t you look?”

“No, I was too nervous trying to remember your card PIN.”

“It’s Harrison, Alexander David Harrison.”

“Do I have to have a middle name, is it like, law or something.”

“Not at all, Helen is just Helen.”

“I’d like to keep Francesca, but spell it with a K, it’s a bit more exotic, and for a surname, I’ll take yours, Nigel already thought you were my dad. I nearly shouted out you’re my boyfriend, not my dad, then I thought maybe that was a bad idea, so I kept quiet.”

“I’m glad you did, because even though he was pretty relaxed about handing over a birth certificate without ID, he probably would have frowned about a 15 year old dating someone old enough to be her dad, he would have been well within his rights to contact social services.”

“Poppy Francheska Harrison, I like that.”

“Are you sure you want my surname, you can pick any name you like.”

“I don’t know anyone else, so I don’t have any other surnames I could pick. What’s Nita’s surname?”

“Oh, I don’t think you want her name, Nita’s dad is Sri Lankan, her surname is about a mile long and utterly unpronounceable. Helen uses the name Taylor professionally, how about that.”

“No, I want your name, so Harrison it is then.”

I’d picked up a pen from the Registrar’s office counter, so I passed it over to Poppy, who looked at the form, thought for a minute then she started filling in the blanks. I had to smile, because she was concentrating so hard to write, her tongue was sticking out the side of her mouth as she wrote her old and new names in the blanks.

Poppy’s writing was very neat, though she obviously wasn’t used to writing, as it took her a long time to complete the form, but it was completely legible.

She asked for a piece of blank paper to practice a new signature. I couldn’t find any, so I ran downstairs to see if they had any paper we could use, the manager happily handed over a few sheets of used printer paper. Poppy spent about 5 minutes trying different ways to write her new name until she eventually latched onto one she was happy with, she signed the form twice, in her old and new names then passed it to me to complete.

I filled in my parts and we had proof of the name Poppy wanted to use henceforth

I, Melanie Nichola Theresa Francesca Roberts of 28 Home Park Road, Wimbledon have given up my name Melanie Nichola Theresa Francesca Roberts and have adopted for all purposes the name Poppy Francheska Harrison.

Signed as a deed on 12th November 2020 as Melanie Nichola Theresa Francesca Roberts and Poppy Francheska Harrison in the presence of Nigel Evans, Registrar, Bromley Public Hall, and Alexander David Harrison of 28 Home Park Road, Wimbledon.

I signed next to Nigel’s signature, below Poppy’s old and new signatures, and slipped the form into the envelope with Poppy’s birth certificate.

“I don’t remember ever being this happy,” Poppy said as she clambered out of the booth, “this really is my second chance isn’t it.”

“It’s the first day of the rest of your life, how you handle the rest of your life is up to you Poppy. I don’t expect it to be 100% smooth, but you’ve got a safety net now, there’s me of course, but also Helen and Nita, they’ll be there for you if there’s stuff where you’d be better talking to other women.”

“I’ve never really had a family before, this is all so new to me, it’ll take some getting used to.”

“A day at a time, it’s a cliche, but it’s true.”

“What are we doing now?”

“I want to go back to the bank, then it’s whatever you want to do.”

“Great, I want a wee first, then bank, then I’m going to cook you dinner.”

“That will be nice, it’s been a long time since someone has cooked me dinner.”

“I’ve no idea what to cook though, so have a think, but it has to be something in a recipe book, I don’t remember a whole lot of recipes any more, but I’m really good at following recipes and making little twists and stuff, so think of something and I’ll make it. Now I really, really need a wee.”

Poppy dashed off to the toilet, I sat back in the booth and had a really good talk with myself about falling in love with a 15 year old girl I only met yesterday.

Whilst I was mentally slapping myself my phone rang, I flipped it over and saw Helen’s name on the screen, I took the call.

“How’s it going brother?”

“I don’t know, there’s a bit of a wrinkle.”

“Oh shit, what’s wrong, is she behaving badly.”

“Just the opposite, she’s an absolute treasure, beautiful, delightful and pretty well behaved. She’s also got a great conscience, I gave her some money, as spending money, and she gave it all to a couple of homeless girls on the tube, they were her friends. So she’s a great kid.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“Well that’s it, she’s a kid. We’ve been to the registry office to get her birth certificate, so we can get her sorted with a bank account, and ID so she can go to college.”

“So, that’s good, right,” Helen said, a note of relief in her voice, “you’ve got a birth certificate, she exists, the story she’s told you, it’s true.”

“Oh yes, it’s just the dates are out. I’d been working on the assumption she’s 17, based on her leaving home at 14 and being on the streets for three years, which is what she thought was the case.”

“And she’s not, I suppose.”

“Nope, she probably left home at 12 or 13, she’s been on the streets for two years at least, because she remembers three winters, but she’s only 15, and I don’t know what to do.”

“What’s the problem?”

“Well, for a start, she’s under age, and we’ve been planning on having sex.”

“Just do it, she’s mature, she’s sexy, and she certainly knows what to do.”

“The second thing is that legally I should hand her over to social services, she’s a minor, she can’t just decide to live with me.”

“Look Alex, I saw you this morning, this kid has wormed her way into your heart, you’re smitten. And I saw the way Poppy looked at you, you’re her hero right now. What you need to do is sleep with her, get it out of your system, then in the morning see how you feel. Personally I think you’ll be even closer, because I’ve got a good feeling, the chat we had this morning, she seemed like a really nice kid who’s been dealt a shitty hand.”

“Could I ask you something, before I told you her age, what would your guess have been? I’m wondering what my neighbours will think.”

“Honestly, this is what Nita and I spoke about when we got home. At first sight, we thought she was late teens, 18 or 19, but once Nita had examined her, before you arrived Nita had done a pretty thorough examination, checking her as best she could for internal bruising...”

“Oh god, is everything alright internally? I can take her to my GP.”

“Don’t panic, internally she seems fine, no kidney or liver pain, which is often a problem with bare knuckle punches to the lower back. She was treated brutally, Alex, but she’s tough and generally seems ok physically. Anyway, as I was saying, Nita strongly suspected she was under 16, maybe as young as 14 based on her skin and genitals.”

“So you were pretty sure she’s underage and didn’t tell me.”

“Well, I saw how much you liked her, and didn’t want to upset you. It’s been so long since Tammy hurt you, it’s way past time you had someone in your life to make you happy, and I really think Poppy is one for you, so frankly I don’t care if she’s underage, because she’s mature enough to make her own decisions in that area.”

“Thanks Helen, and on the subject of my nosy neighbours, she’ll pass as 18?”

“Definitely, she can easily pass herself off as older, nobody will notice, and I think she will charm the socks off all your neighbours.”

“Thanks Helen, I feel so much better now.”

“Oh yeah, one quick message from Nita, she says she’ll call round Monday evening to check out the bruising, she’s requested you both try to control yourself until then, because the vaginal bruising and tearing is worse than it looks.”

“Ahh, ok. Poppy is kind of desperate, but I’m sure if I explain. Oh, she’s coming, speak later Helen.”

“Before you go, I can speak to Poppy if you like, reassure her.”

“Thanks, that’ll be great Helen.”

Poppy sat down across the table, I passed her my phone, “it’s Helen, she’d like a word.”

“Oh really, that’s nice.”

She put the phone to her ear, “hey Helen.”

I tried to listen to what Helen was saying, but the music in the restaurant blocked it out, all I could hear was Poppy’s side of the conversation.

“Yes, oh yes I do ... really! Oh wow ... yes, I really do want to, he’s been so kind ... that long! Oh I don’t mind waiting, but that’s, like days away ... really, yeah that would be great ... oh thank you, and thank Nita, she was so kind this morning ... yes, I’ll pass you back.”

I took my phone off Poppy, “everything ok?” I asked.

“Seems she’s desperate, so I’ll see if Nita will take a look on Saturday, you’re a lucky guy, she’s a hot one, and so pretty.”

“She said much the same about you...”

“Really, that’s nice. Shame we’re both taken, ahh well, all the best ones are straight.”

And with that she cut the call.

“She wanted us to wait until Monday, I can’t wait that long Alex.”

“Me neither, but we need to make sure you’re ok, no point rushing if we just end up hurting you more...”

“Yes, she said that as well. You’ve no idea how much I need to feel you inside me Alex.”

I heard footsteps on the stairs so I motioned for Poppy to lower her voice.

“And do you know what? She said that although I look old enough, Nita had said I was probably only 14 or 15, and even though she knows I’m underage, she knows I’m mature enough to have a relationship with you. Isn’t that great, you have the best sister.”

“Like I said before, she can be a pain in the arse at times, but most of the time she’s great. She was very supportive after Tammy, and just now she told me it’s time for me to let someone back in my life, and she was certain you were exactly the right person for me.”

“Really! Oh that’s so nice.”

We left the McDonalds and walked, hand in hand, to Bow Road tube station where we caught a District Line train across London to Southfields Station, and from there it’s just a short walk to my bank.

On the tube we’d decided that Poppy would pretend to be my foster daughter. I couldn’t think of any other way to explain her sudden appearance, Poppy was happy with this and assured me she’d keep an appropriate distance at all times while we were in the bank.

There’s an assistant in the bank whose only job is to show people how to use all the self-service machines. I asked her if I could speak to my account manager, we were shown to a small side office and advised Jeanie would be in shortly.

The office had one of those pod coffee machines, so I made us both a coffee while we waited for Jeanie, who’d been my account manager for 5 years now, since I separated my accounts from Tammy’s, that was pretty messy, but Jeanie made the process as pain free as possible, which means I’ve kept her as my personal banker ever since.

“I’m so sorry,” Jeanie said as she bustled into the office 5 minutes later, “I was on a call to another customer.”

“Not a problem, we can’t expect instant service if we’ve not made an appointment.”

Jeanie looked at Poppy, “hello, I don’t think we’ve met before.”

“Oh no, I’m new to this area.” Poppy replied politely.

“This is Poppy, my foster daughter.”

“Oh great, you need someone to help you fill that house.”

“Indeed, so we’re here to give you some work Jeanie, I hope that’s ok.”

“It’s what I’m here for, so how can I help you both today.”

“Well, Poppy has had quite a chaotic life up until now, she’s never had a bank account, a library card, a passport or anything, and I’m looking to rectify this.”

“Ok,” Jeanie looked at Poppy kindly, “and so you’re here to open your first bank account.”

“Unless you can sort me out with a library card...” Poppy laughed.

Jeanie looked blankly at first, but she gave a little laugh, “Haha, sorry, I can’t help you there, but I can help you open a bank account. As I’m sure you understand, we’ll need some ID before we can open an account, unfortunately we have to follow the rules even for our most loyal customers.”

“Of course, but all we’ve got at the moment is Poppy’s birth certificate,” I said.

“And, I don’t want to use that name anymore, it’s linked to some bad memories.”

“So, we filled in an un-enrolled deed poll while we were in the registry office,” I added as I slipped the birth certificate and deed poll across the table to Jeanie.

“Ahh, normally we’d require an enrolled deed poll, or a court order for a minor, but I’m guessing by what you’ve both said that mum isn’t contactable to make this all legal.”

“Err, no, I’ve not had any dealings with my mother for a few years. Right now I don’t know if she’s alive or dead, and frankly I don’t care one way or another.”

“What about social workers, they can help with stuff like legal name changes.”

“The only social workers I’ve dealt with wanted to take me back to mum, so no, I’m not involving them.” Poppy was sounding quite irate now and looked ready to leave, I gave her hand a quick squeeze and she calmed down a little.

“Look, Poppy’s been on the streets for a while, I’ve agreed to help her get back on her feet, so is there anything you can do, please.”

“I need to speak to the manager, see if we can use our discretion for a known customer such as yourself. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Poppy looked really angry, she turned to me as Jeanie left “she seemed so nice, why is she now being awkward, we only want a place to put my wages.”

“There’s all kinds of laws concerning bank accounts now, they need to be sure we won’t be using it for illegal purposes, like tax evasion, or for laundering illegal earnings, from drugs and prostitution and stuff.”

“I guess, but they know you, they know you won’t be doing anything illegal.”

“Let’s wait and see what she says when she comes back, Jeanie is very good, and very efficient, she’s done a lot of good work for me in the past, I’m sure we’ll be ok.”

Jeanie was away for over 10 minutes, I refilled our coffees while we waited, Poppy started to fidget, bored of sitting around. Damn, I should really have bought her a phone while we were out, then at least she could play a game while we waited.

Eventually Jeanie returned, her manager in tow, they both took a seat at the table.

I’ve had very few dealings with the branch manager, after all Jeanie’s job is to keep the customers away from him, I couldn’t even remember his name, so it was handy that Jeanie introduced us all.

“So, Mr Turnbull, this is Alex Harrison, he’s been a good customer here for several years, and this is Poppy, his foster daughter.”

“Very good, and I understand you want to open an account for the young lady, but not in her legal name, is this correct?”

“That’s correct sir,” I replied, “at the moment we’re in the early stages of rehabilitating Poppy into regular mainstream life, a bank account is a priority so she can learn to handle her own finances, she’ll be getting a job soon and will need a bank account to receive wages, and a debit card so she can spend them.”

“Yes, yes, this is understandable, it’s the name we have a problem with, because you must realise banks have to follow the rules, and having an account in a made up name is strictly forbidden.”

“And I appreciate that, but Poppy’s legal name holds bad memories of abuse, her mother is not contactable, so at the moment our only recourse is an unenrolled deed poll.”

Mr Turnbull looked at Jeanie, “Can you vouch for Mr Harrision, Ms Fletcher.”

“Yes, I can vouch for him.”

“Very good, you can go ahead and open an account for the young lady.”

Poppy actually cheered, “yayyy, thank you so much.”

My Turnbull had no idea how to respond to her enthusiasm, so he just stood and left the room.

“So, down to work. What accounts are you looking to open?”

“Poppy will need a debit card, so whatever teen account will give her one of those, and I also want a savings account opening, I’ll pay in regular monthly amounts, and I’d also like her to have a duplicate of my credit card, for emergencies.”

“Super, I’ll get all that sorted. I see you withdrew £1,000 this morning for Poppy, will you be using any of that to open the account?”

“Ahh, no,” Poppy said, “I accidentally gave all of that to some of my homeless friends.”

Jeanie looked shocked when she heard that.

“It’s absolutely fine,” I reassured her, “I’d much rather she gave money to people who need it than waste it on expensive shoes or clothes or whatever. I’d like you to transfer another £1,000 out of my account into the new instant access account, and £10,000 into the savings account.”

“Would you like to add your signature to the savings account.”

“Absolutely not, it’s Poppy’s account, she has full control, if she throws it all away then it’s gone, that’s it. My only stipulation is the savings account is a notice account, so she’ll have to wait a week to make a withdrawal, I assume you can set something like that up.”

“Oh yes, that’s a good idea, the notice accounts attract better interest payments as well.”

“Great, I’ll speak to you later to arrange a regular payment into the account.”

“Would you like a separate credit limit for Poppy’s credit card.”

“Not at the moment, I’m starting Poppy’s new life on the basis of 100% trust.”

We signed many forms, I had to sign for Poppy’s accounts, but I made sure that neither account required my signature for withdrawals.

“Ok, I’ll get the accounts opened today, you’ll get all the paperwork and terms + conditions through the post in a day or two, the cards will follow a little later.”

“Thank you so much Jeanie, once again you’ve gone above and beyond to help me out.”

“If I didn’t help you out I’d never hear the last of it, you’re my boy’s favourite author, every night he asks me if you’ve been in.”

“Well let’s give the lad a treat shall we, we’ll do a selfie for him”

We stood either side of Jeanie as she used her phone to take a photo.

“He’ll be made up with that, thank you, he’ll grill me for hours about your new daughter.”

As soon as we were out of sight of the bank Poppy took my hand, “I can’t believe you’ve opened two accounts for me, and so much money. What’s the £10,000 for?”

“It’s just in case money, if you suddenly decide this is all a huge mistake, you’ve got some money set aside to start afresh.”

“Why would I even do that?”

“I’ve been let down before, when Tammy left my life it was a horrible mess, we’d been together a long time, and we had a joint bank account, joint car loans, it was a real mess. So that savings account, it’s your safety net Poppy. I don’t want you to run away. I don’t expect you to run away, but neither of us have any idea what the future holds.”

“I really think I love you Alex, for the first time in my life I see blue sky in the future, I see stability, I see myself happy with someone. I don’t want to think of a time when I’d throw it all away.”

“I think the same, but I had my life torn apart before, so I guess I’m a natural pessimist. If you want to look on the bright side, you could use the savings account to buy a car, or to start a business, or to buy an expensive camera, whatever you like.”

Poppy pulled me close, she hugged me tight as she kissed me, “right now, my life is perfect, I woke up this morning and felt warm and safe, I was snuggled up to you, I felt loved for the first time ever. You have no idea how much that means to me Alex. To endanger that would be like taking the Mona Lisa off the wall and pissing on it, a total desecration of perfection.”

“Waking up with you hugging me was so special. I think I will always fear complete happiness, because of the worry it will be taken away from me.”

“I think we’re going to spend a little while fixing each other aren’t we, but in the end it’ll be worth it.”

“Helen said you were the perfect girl for me, and she’s never wrong.”

“Us girls never are.”

I kissed Poppy again then we walked hand in hand to Waitrose to buy the ingredients for our evening meal.

Poppy wasn’t lying, she is a good cook, and she didn’t even need to follow a recipe. She quickly knocked together a creamy chicken and mushroom pasta bake. We ate it in the kitchen with the rest of the second bottle of Helen’s favourite pinot grigio we opened last night, it was wonderful.

While we ate, Poppy spoke about her hopes and dreams for the future. Apart from learning a skill, and working for me, or someone else, she just wanted to be useful, she also wanted to help street kids like herself, so we talked about the kind of work that needed doing that perhaps other charities were missing.

“Mmm, it’s a bit awkward talking about this, it’s still a little bit taboo talking about periods with men, and I don’t know why. Anyway, there’s real issues around periods on the streets. Tampons and sanitary pads are too expensive to buy, and hardly any charities distribute them to street girls. So I was thinking maybe that’s something I could set-up.”

“That’s a fantastic idea, it’s definitely something we could look at. My publisher has an entire division that works with charities and non-profit organisations. I’m meeting my editor tomorrow, I’ll see if we can sort a meeting out with them, they can give us advice, and help with publicity.”