LITMIR.BIZ

      Oh Oh Oh I do love Fin very much and I ask Mister God evernighte if I can marry Fin and have a hows and som baby too. If I am six and Fin is tweny then I can mary Fin when I am tweny and Fin is tirthy fore. I ask Jacky and Sally and Corry if they marry Fin first can I too and they say yes.

      For nerly everybody down our stret say up the top (of the street) is bad, but it is not becase Fin say it is not bad. Nerly everbody say they are very wicked and they are not wicked becase Fin say we must not say that. Only Mister God can say that and Mister God is very good.

      At the top corner of the street was a house that was a lot bigger than the rest. In this house lived Millie, Sally, Corey, and a few other young ladies. The fact that these young ladies were for the most part prostitutes was the reason why it was commonly called the ‘dirty house’. Anna had a vague idea of what it meant but that was no reason why she couldn’t be friends with the girls. In fact, she thought that Millie, who was usually known as the Venus de Mile End, was the most beautiful girl in the world and I would never have argued with that. The care and protection that these girls gave to Anna could not have been sweeter. I had known them for a number of years, and I knew them as very good friends. Given other circumstances they would have been different, but with poor homes, little education, and even less money, prostitution was the only way they knew how to make money. I have known these young ladies save over £200 to send little Maria to have her leg corrected after the ravages of rickets. It was more than I could have done.

      Many times Anna and I have sat with them and so often the talk turned to the subject of religion and God. The passing years have made me realize that they were among the few people who could admit to themselves that they were sinners, but then they had families to keep and it was the only way they knew how.

      Anna’s friendship with these young prostitutes taught her a lot – perhaps a bit too much, who knows. I do know that they were very careful in what they said when Anna was around, but things slip out occasionally and Anna, like most children, would often repeat what she had heard the older people say without knowing what was meant by it.

      What was puzzling for me was the fact that some of the girl’s customers did regard themselves as good solid citizens, to say nothing of good churchgoers, but that was my problem, not Anna’s. For her the girls were just nice to be with. What puzzled Anna was how such nice people could be called ‘dirty’. Anna would have none of it, neither would I. Millie taught Anna how to make bead belts, necklaces and bracelets. All the adults for streets around knew what the girls did, but it was only Anna and her friends and me who knew what they could do. They were a bit special to those of us who knew them and definitely not dirty.

      One of the thing that make me very sad is this. I wuld like all the big girls up the top to have real propre sweet love. Fin culd do it so gentle and sweet and culd make the big girls so hapy and holy and it wuld be so lovly.

      Fin go up the top to see them and Fin mummy say I can go too and Fin mummy rote this on some paper and say to put it in my book. If they are blind, give them your hand, if they are in the dark, give them a candel. And then she laft out loud and say a candel calld Anna.

Chapter Five

       Once Upon A Time

      Whenever Anna was confronted by the latest miracle or had one of those important children’s questions to ask, she wrote it into a little story. This could be very confusing, since you could not ask a question of an oak tree that was meant for a beech tree, neither could you ask a black cat exactly the same question you could ask a ginger cat. Her little stories were nearly always about some aspect of a thing or person.

      This habit of writing about some aspect of a thing or a person meant that there could be as many as ten or more little stories about dogs or whatever, which had to be put together before any one could understand her more complete picture of dogs, or whatever she was writing about.

      Anna’s ‘Once upon a Time’ was the result of many, many little stories that were finally put together after a long time. This putting together was a very solitary and intense activity which could totally absorb her for many days. Nothing was allowed to intrude into this part of Anna’s life. It took me some while to realize how important this ‘putting together time’ was for her.

      Since those days I have heard Anna’s ‘putting together time’ called by many names, but I still think ‘Talking with God’ is the best I’ve found so far!

      When I wok up in the morning it was stil neerly dark and it was just becuming ligte and I thort this is not a nice day. So I pull the sheets over my hed and just my nos wos out and then I here sumthing. It was going drip, drip, drip. And then I was very sad becase I thort it sownd like all the angels criing. But then I here it more drip, drip, drip, so then I no it was rain that was making the noise.

      When I luk out of the window I see the sun was all like blood and all the miss was everwere and it was very cold to get out of bed and as I stud at the window I fel my tows get cold and I think of my bed wich is warm so I go bake to bed were it is nise and warm. Then I

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