Dear Diary,
Here’s a little short story I’ve written, currently called “Elizabeth & Sabrina”. A quick five-ten minute read, maybe still needing some work, but fresh off the drawing board (or keyboard I should say!)….Designed to be enjoyed over a quick cuppa during a break, on a train or a bedtime read before lights out!
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She stood completely still, too scared to move a single muscle. Through the tiny gap in the door she could see them. Were there five, six? She couldn’t quite tell. They’d woken her. They were loud and laughing as they chinked their bottles of beer together. Her eyes scanned over to the table in front of them, overflowing with glistening jewels and big black bags, then fixed on the end of the table as she spotted the gun. Long and sleek. He was up to his old tricks again. Her chest rose and fell, fast and heavy, as she battled to keep her breath silent. The loot on the table caught the dim glow from the single light bulb above, sending sparkling glints and twinkles around the usually dingy room. One of them kicked back his chair to stand. Her heartbeat quickened and she fled as silently as she could, down the hallway and back to her bed.
“What was that?” their glances shot towards the door.
“Nuffin! You’re imagining it. Get this lot packed away and keep it down will ya, or you’ll wake Lizabuff. Shut that door”
The men obeyed the angry command and she heard the rickety door click shut. Elizabeth lay in her bed, too scared to move. Clutching her doll close as she screwed up her eyes in the darkness, she willed herself to go back to sleep. Sabrina was all she had, her best friend in the world and all she had left of her mother. She remembered the day her mother had bought the doll home, a special treat as her father had provided more money that week and apparently, they were going to be alright now, her mother had said. In fact, there were lots of special treats that week. That was before her mother had died. After which, her father had tried to go straight and provide for them both, but the drink meant he couldn’t hold down a job or give up the life of crime he’d become so accustomed to.
The early morning sun poured through Elizabeth’s curtain-less, dirty window waking her early. Chills rushed up her legs as her bare feet landed on the cold, wooden floorboards. In just her grubby, thin nighty, she made her way across the hallway to the bathroom. The rickety green door to the back room was still shut but hadn’t blocked the smell of stale smoke from lingering around the dark, narrow passageway and peeling the yellow-stained wallpaper further from the walls. Clutching Sabrina, she crept towards the door and put her ear to it. Silence. Heart pounding, she very gently twisted the brass door knob and quietly eased the door open a tiny crack. Only empty beer bottles and filled ashtrays decorated the table now, the men were gone, even her father. An empty whisky bottle lay in his thread bare armchair which doubled up as his bed just lately, a sight all too familiar to Elizabeth. The smoky stench of the room caught in her throat as she glanced around. No sign of those big, black bags or any twinkles or sparkles now, and most importantly, no sign of that gun. A small pouch on the floor, next to the chair leg, caught her eye. Shivering, she crept further into the room, crouched down and reached under the chair for the pouch. It was soft, dark blue velvet with a black cord gathering it shut. Elizabeth grabbed it and retreated quickly back to the safety of her bed.
With her door closed and sitting on her bed with Sabrina, she carefully pulled open the pouch and emptied the contents. Twelve shiny clear stones. Twinkling and gleaming so loudly, Elizabeth could almost hear them. With her eyes full of wonder, she struggled to catch her breath. She had never seen anything quite so beautiful, so perfect in fact, their sparkles were mesmerising. Without taking her eyes off them, she reached for the security of Sabrina. She knew she was looking at something pretty wonderful.
The slamming of car doors jolted her back into the moment. Panic. She hurried as she gathered the shiny stones and poured them back into the pouch. Her father’s voice rang from outside along with others, they were loud, shouting. She scurried down the hallway, breathing fast, through the green door and threw the pouch back under the table, by the chair leg, before turning and running, face flushed, heart thumping, back to her bed and pulled the covers over her shaking body. Clutching Sabrina tighter than ever, she heard the key turn in the lock as the front door flung violently open and her father stumbled through it followed by thudding footsteps and raised voices.
“If they’re still ‘ere then we’ll find ‘em, won’t we. If we don’t, you’re dead” Her father’s deep, aggressive voice yelled at one of the whimpering men.
**
Elizabeth shook her head quickly to try to void the memory, but even now, thirty years later that day replayed through her mind so vividly that she could almost still smell the stench of stale cigarettes, alcohol and crime. That gun.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost love” the car boot sale stall holder, shouted over to her.
Elizabeth’s hand shook as she reached across and picked up a somewhat worse-for-wear, doll.
“Erm, sorry, I was miles away…I just spotted this. I know this doll. I’m sure it used to be mine” she tipped the doll and on hearing it’s old familiar rattle, she hurriedly turned it over, lifted the now filthy skirt to reveal the faintest scratches of the initials E+S on the dolls lower back.
“It is! It’s mine, it’s Sabrina!” she allowed her excitement to over spill as her hands shook and her eyes filled with tears.
“Alright, calm down love, it’s just a doll”
“Oh” cried Elizabeth, “She’s so much more than that! How much?” She fumbled with her purse, not letting go of Sabrina.
“I dunno, it’s broken on the inside…..call it a quid?”
Fighting back the tears she handed over the money, then straightened Sabrina’s skirt and gently ran her fingers over the dolls weathered face and tangled hair before gently placing Sabrina into her bag.
On the bus ride back home, with her heartbeat ringing in her ears, again her mind replayed memories from years ago. She’d moved in with her Great Aunt on her Father’s side, after his arrest. As Elizabeth’s only family, her Great Aunt had raised her well and kept her safe and warm for the first time in Elizabeth’s life, but that didn’t mean money wasn’t tight. Her Great Aunt had struggled to make ends meet and unknowingly, when Elizabeth was in her early teens, Sabrina had been bundled into a bag of old toys and books and sold off to a passing collector for a few extra pounds. They’d hunted high and low for Sabrina and Elizabeth had been distraught when they made the discovery. Her Great Aunt had done her best to comfort and console her but she understood that the doll was the only connection Elizabeth had with her mother.
As time had moved on, Elizabeth had found a small cleaning job, whilst caring for her Great Aunt in her old age, just as her Great Aunt had cared for her. Whilst they didn’t have much, they had each other. Those very early childhood memories of police constantly pounding on the front door and her mother’s tears as their home was stripped of its wares, even down to the rugs on the floor, still haunted Elizabeth. The last time, when everything bar Sabrina had been repossessed, it had been too much for her dear, fragile mother. A cold and grey day, Elizabeth had been unable to wake her mother from the armchair, at just 6 years old, she hadn’t realised the significance of the whiskey bottle in her mother’s lap and the small, brown, empty pill bottle which lay on its side with its lid on the floor.
Elizabeth shuddered. Rain hitting the window of the bus brought her back into the moment as she realised her stop was approaching. She hurried down the outside steps and inside her tiny basement flat, locked the door behind her and took a seat at her small, battered kitchen table. Carefully removing her from the bag, she held Sabrina close whilst closing her eyes and breathing a slow, deep breath.
Memories continued to flood her mind with the sound of the drunken punches her father had delivered to that whimpering man on that day. They did eventually find the small, blue velvet pouch, on the floor, by the chair leg, in exactly the same spot as Elizabeth had found it before them. Elizabeth had stayed completely still, wrapped in her blankets, tucked away in her room, as the Police had burst through the front door catching the men red-handed. It was chaotic and noisy as all the men were arrested, including her father. Elizabeth was scared, she had clung to on to Sabrina, with her fists clenched tight. Even when the nice lady police officer eventually found her, she still clung to Sabrina for safety. Unbeknown to Elizabeth at the time, for that particular burglary, the gun had been used. The owner of all that beautiful jewellery had been shot dead. An old, very rich, single miserly man apparently, an easy target. Elizabeth’s father was a ‘wanted’ man and had received life imprisonment this time. She never saw him again as he passed away just a few years later, with cirrhosis of the liver, so she was told.
With her gaze soft, she looked deeply into Sabrina’s eyes. Her old, faithful friend had been through so much with her in those early years of her life, keeping all her secrets. The doll was worse for wear, it had been thirty years, but still, Elizabeth’s feelings now were overwhelming. She tipped her up once more, to hear the old doll’s familiar rattle. Sabrina hadn’t always rattled of course. Elizabeth twisted Sabrina’s plastic leg around by 180 degrees, and then the other leg to match, just as she had done all those years ago, wrapped in her blanket, on her bed, whilst the police were making their arrests in the back room.
She pinched the dolls feet inwards and the round plastic leg joints popped out from the sockets where they met Sabrina’s body, in exactly the same way as they had done thirty years ago.
Thoughts of the newspaper articles about the robbery, that her Great Aunt had shown her when she was in her teens, now flashed through Elizabeth’s mind. The old man’s family had apparently been delighted to get all of the stolen jewellery back. There was an absolute fortune in jewels and priceless family heirlooms. They were particularly surprised and delighted with the small, dark blue velvet pouch of diamonds, that nobody knew he’d had, all ten of them, the highest grade, worth an absolute fortune apparently.
Elizabeth shook the doll, and sure enough, from the leg holes in the plastic torso, two perfectly beautiful, glistening diamonds fell out onto Elizabeth’s kitchen table. She smirked as she kissed Sabrina’s head, knowing her life would be very different now.
©
DL Albright 2020
