Disclaimers and other bumf - see part one.

Plus bit of child abuse - beating - in this one. Don't read if it bothers you. It's not graphic.

Sex - not really and not graphic either - I'm crap at sex scenes. But it is two women, well girls, so if you know you shouldn't - don't.

Thanks due to Elisa - the one responsible for the throwaway line at the Keeper's that started all this.

Comments, complaints, questions, phone numbers to insane_brit@hotmail.com

The Day After

By Insane Englishwoman

Part Three

Breakfast.

She was hungry.

As the pair walked towards a workmen's café on the corner of Lisle Street a thought hit her and she stopped dead.

Sally turned round. "What?"

She looked down at the roadway, awkward and uncomfortable. "No money. I have absolutely nothing other than the clothes I'm wearing."

The woman's expression softened. "My treat. Call it payment for the life story you're going to give me later."

"I can't impose like that." Still looking uncomfortable.

"So polite! It's not an imposition, luv. I want to know your story. I want to find out why a bright, polite and well educated little cockney sparrow is wandering round the streets with no-where to go. I want to know what you did that was so bad your mother felt that," pointing towards the girl's back, "was necessary or come to that, justified. Nothing short of murder deserves a beating that bad!"

They stood, silently staring at each other before the girl inclined her head. "Thank you".

Sally tucked her hand through the girl's arm and they walked on.

ÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉ

Sally sat back and lit a cigarette. "You were hungry I take it?"

Amused. She watched the girl mopping up the last of her egg with a slice of fried bread.

Sam grinned in response to the older woman's smile.

"Yeah. Gotta make it last!" She was only half joking; suddenly realising that she could no longer count on knowing where or when her next meal might be found. "Thanks. That was great."

"Right", Sally tipped her head sideways and raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Your life story is required; at least, whatever led you to my doorstep last night. Let's hear it then - with no deviation, hesitation or repetition!"

Sam grinned her crooked smile again, recognising the source of Sally's comment. "Just A Minute! I love that programme! It'll take me a bit longer than that! Where to startÉ.."

The girl leant back balancing her chair on two legs and accepted the cigarette that was offered.

Watching the blue smoke spiral upwards she let her mind drift back two days.

ÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉ

She'd bunked off school and gone to see Julie.

She'd found her at 9.30, outside the Tech; the local technical college where Julie - almost four years older than Sam - was studying to be a shorthand typist. Julie already had a provisional job offer on the cards; it would be waiting for her as soon as she finished the college year in the coming June.

They'd talked about that; Julie getting work. "I'll get a flat and we can live together." Sam had made a sound, a murmur that could have been taken for agreement if anyone listening had chosen that way. Privately Sam had thought 'not a chance. I'm too young to be tied down. I'm just starting out, here!' Wisely she'd not voiced that to Julie.

Julie had smiled a greeting as she'd caught sight of Sam across the road. She'd muttered something to the two girls she had been standing with. They entered the college without her as she'd dodged the traffic; crossing to greet Sam.

"Hey Sam".

"Wotcher Julie"

"What're you doing here?"

"Mitching off. Wanna go play?" Sam's smile was positively devilish.

Julie blushed. Then smiled back. A wickedly seductive smile. "Where?"

Sam's smile grew wider. "Mam's gone for the day. The little 'uns are in school. Got the house to myself!"

"What are we waiting for then?" Julie had held her books out and Sam had taken them; wrapping her free arm around Julie's waist, the two of them had returned to Sam's home.

They'd gone straight to the room Sam shared with her sisters. And straight to bed of course. They'd made love all morning. Kissing and caressing for hours. Surfacing briefly at lunchtime for food.

Julie had been straddling her, teasing. She was so good at teasing! Sam had said something about keeping an eye on the time. The little 'uns would be home from school soon. Sam had lost track of whatever it was she'd been saying, as Julie had run her nails along the inside of her thighs, heading north.

Sam gasped and pulled Julie's head down in a passionate kiss. Julie shifted, lying down, covering Sam's body with her own as she began rocking her hips.

Time had stood still for one brief moment before being shattered into a thousand pieces by a scream.

"Sinners! Filthy, disgusting, perverted sinners!"

Sam tore her mouth from Julie's. "Bugger. It's me Mam!"

Martha Pattison had continue to rave and scream without seeming to pause for breath as Julie had scrambled into her clothes and run from the building.

Leaving Sam.

Still in the bedroom. Still naked.

The screaming had died to a whisper. One word repeated over and over, "Pervert, pervert, pervert", before Sam had noticed that her mother was holding something in her hand. Her father's old belt. Thick leather with a large and very solid steel buckle on one end.

'Oh-oh'.

Sam stood slowly. "Mam, please..."

"I am not your mother you filthy spawn of the devil. No child of mine is a degenerate."

Sam had tried again. "Mam..."

Her mother didn't bother to speak. She raised the belt and Sam turned her face away just in time to feel the buckle end strike her shoulder.

She hunched over and presented her back. Trying to protect her head. Her mother's arm rose and fell. Time after time she felt the buckle rip into her back. Time after time the strap fell. She was driven to her knees. Then to the floor. She had no idea how long the beating lasted. Her last thought before she passed out had been to wonder if her mother would tire before she had died or if she would simply beat her corpse until it disintegrated.

.."I came to somewhere around an hour later I suppose. The little 'uns, my two brothers and two sisters, were in the room with me. They were all crying. My mother was ranting and raving to them. Telling them they no longer had a big sister. That I was evil and they were never to speak my name again.

I was a bloody pulp. I didn't stop to wash or anything. I just dressed and got out. Mam told me as I left never to come back or she would kill me."

Sam looked up to see if Sally was bored with her tale.

Sally wasn't bored; she was sitting in stunned silence, with tears streaming down her face.

part 4

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