SALLY AND HER DREAMA Story by Bill Grimke-Drayton A young woman struggles with two young children on her own. One day she "snaps". Sally is a single Mum, who tries to make ends meet, living in a cramped flat on the second floor of a tenement block. To get from ground level to her place you have to negotiate the stairs, because the lift is invariably out of order, and carrying shopping with two youngsters in tow is no joking matter, and often tempers get frayed and then the howling begins which sets things up for an argument with the old battleaxe who lives at the bottom. She clearly dislikes having children anywhere near her. Sally thinks she may be frigid and has therefore never had a man kiss her. When Sally reaches the top, at least it is on the level to her front door, but she has to manoeuvre through all the junk people leave behind them - such as the remains of several takeaways. The council workmen have not been round to clean the landings for months. Perhaps they are afraid of being mugged or set upon by a local gang of youths, most of whom are out of work and probably unemployable anyway. They just roam the streets, looking for mischief, such as a parked car, waiting to be stolen, or a pile of bricks, to be thrown at windows, even those behind which people are eking out a miserable existence just like them. It is dog eat dog around there. No mercy for the weak and vulnerable. If you are out on your own or with your children, you are a sitting target. That is why Sally never goes out at night. She has no social life at all. She is too afraid for her safety and that of her children, when she is out. Besides there is no-one to look after them who she could trust. Even her family have all abandoned her. She has been without them for years. Ever since they found out about Kevin, that wastrel, as they described him, who had moved in with Sally. Everyone had warned her that he was up to no good, but would she listen? No. Well, she can rot in hell, as far as we are concerned, they told her. That was the universal opinion of her family. Sally had experienced the cold shoulder. Eventually she had managed to persuade Kevin to leave after he cheated on her with another woman once too often. She had to get the help of the police and local council who were extremely reluctant to get involved, but somehow it had all worked out. She had even managed to meet a kindly Good Samaritan who paid the County Court to get Kevin served with the injunction, banning him from within a far enough distance away from the flat. And from that day onwards she had not seen hair nor hide of Kevin. She was relieved but very lonely. The Good Samaritan moved on and disappeared from her life. That was a few years back now. Sally’s daily routine never varies. From the time she wakes up until the time she manages to get to sleep in the early hours of the following morning, it is a constant battle satisfying the needs of her children, both of whom have not yet reached school age. They always crave for her attention, and she is unable to decline their wishes ever. She is always at their beck and call. She loves them both so much. She is their mother, who protects them from the outside world which is cruel and unyielding in its opposition to families like theirs. She is absolutely exhausted. There is no let-up in the drudgery of the day. She tries not to look at herself in the mirror, because she doesn’t want to shock herself. She wants to have this romantic image of her in a ball-gown, being wined and dined by a handsome prince. She even visualizes what he looks like. She is Cinderella to his Prince Charming. Somewhere she has the golden slipper, which will transform her situation and she will one day become Queen. For the moment she can’t find it, so she dreads the knock on the door, in case his manservant turns up and she is not ready. What a disaster! While she daydreams, she forgets she has two little ones to look after, and they belong to her. Will her Prince Charming also make them princesses in the royal household? Bang! Something crashes to the floor, and wakes her out of her reverie. It is a saucepan full of hot boiling water she left on the stove and one of the children has managed to grab hold of the handle and tipped the whole thing up all over herself. There is screaming! Pandemonium! Sally cannot think straight, except to wrap her poor darling in a wet towel. She has not the faintest idea if she is doing the right thing. With the casualty in her arms and the other one holding her hand tightly and walking by her side, she grabs the keys and her purse and rushes out the door. Suddenly in front of her stands her Prince Charming, who smiles and takes her child from her arms. “You poor thing! Let me cuddle you in my arms! Now we are going to a place where you can get better.” Sally follows with her other little one in his wake, as they proceed along the passageway and then down the stairs. The lift of course yet again is still not working. Sally is aware that everything is happening so quickly that she can hardly catch her breath, but she enquires: “Where are we going? To the hospital?” “No, my dearest. To a much better place where you and your children can all be looked after and live in safety with me. Now, come along. Look, there is the coach, all in its shining livery, waiting for us down on the pavement. The footmen are keen to get us on our way.” Sally hears this enticing voice of comfort in her head and taking her children out of the front door, she does not go down the stairwell, in order to fly away from this place. She takes the direct route. POSTSCRIPT Here is a woman who is trapped in circumstances which are beyond her control. She is alone and without any assistance, and so with scant resources to face the challenges that come from living where she does with her precious family of two little children. The authorities have all let her down. Even though these organisations employ people to work within their hierarchical structures, they come across as entities without any “soul” or “compassion” - which prevent their employees from being human beings. This woman deserves better treatment, but gets it neither from the latter nor from her own family, whose high moral principles also prevented them from engaging with her and seeking to help their kith and kin, and in fact whose same high moral principles were used to ostracize Sally from their midst as though she did not belong to them - a totally unnatural state of affairs. As the saying goes, blood is thicker than water. Sometimes, people behave in ways which are completely alien to their true nature.
© 2015 Bill Grimke-DraytonAuthor's Note
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3 Reviews  Last Updated on November 28, 2015 Author
Bill Grimke-DraytonNantwich, Cheshire, United KingdomAboutI was with WritersCafe before, and found the site again. I have completely rewritten the information about myself. So much has happened in the last few years. Firstly and most importantly of all I ca.. more..Writing
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