Free Sabrina Fludde by Pauline Fisk Page B

disappointment he left behind.
    Abren willed him to return, but he trudged down the river path and never once turned back. She watched him disappearing. Phaze II tried to make her come in, but she barked out that she wanted to be alone. She remained like that for most of the night, still willing Bentley to come back, but he never did.
    In the end she fell asleep, with only the narrow ledge between her and the river. It was a miracle thatshe didn’t fall in. She awoke in the morning to sunrise over the English Bridge. But she didn’t notice it. Spring was in the air, and the blackbird was singing again, but it didn’t raise her spirits.
    Abren sat up on the bridge, feeling strangely empty, as if a chance had come her way but then been snatched back. When Phaze II came high-wiring along the girders to ask if she was all right, she didn’t even answer. He carried on to town as if he couldn’t care less whether she wanted to talk to him, and had better things to do with his time, anyway.
    When he had gone, Abren went back inside, looking for breakfast after a night out in the cold. But no food remained in the Best-by-End-of Chest, only a mess of rotting leftovers which even Phaze II’s hardened stomach obviously hadn’t been able to take. Abren searched the entire room, rummaging among Phaze II’s boxes and bin bags, and beneath the long counter of the tea bar, but finding only china plates with mould growing over them. A pall of dust covered everything – a lurid, grubby sheen lit by plastic icicles.
    Abren looked at it all, and suddenly she hated it. Hated the mess, and the manky smell which came from bodies living without proper ventilation. Hated Old Sabrina’s wretched bell which had started ringing as if she’d heard someone moving about. And, worst of all, she hated herself.
    â€˜What’s the matter with me? Am I crazy? I might have had to stay when Phaze II was sick, but I don’t have to stay now! What a dump! I mean,
look at it!
’
    Old Sabrina rang again. Abren went through to find that the fire had gone out and a plate of food had fallen off the old woman’s lap. It was obvious whatAbren was supposed to do, but she strode down the room to Phaze II’s boarded-up window. She was off, she told herself, never to return! Let Old Sabrina freeze before the ashes of her fire! Let her food rot on the plate, if she wouldn’t pick it up for herself!
    Leaving the bell ringing, Abren squeezed out of the window on to a rusty, disused railway track. Weeds grew between the sleepers, and litter lay everywhere. A stony bank rose in front of Abren, and along the top of it stood a row of advertising hoardings upon which massive toucans, torn and ragged, advertised a drink called Guinness. Beyond the hoardings stood an old station platform, abandoned in favour of a modern station across the tracks.
    Abren climbed the stony bank, squeezed between the hoardings and jumped on to the platform. Here she discovered that it spanned the river, forming one side of the railway bridge. She hurried away, hoping that nobody would notice her. At the end of the platform she found an iron gate. She slipped through it, passing a sign which read RAIL PERSONNEL ONLY, and found a footpath on the other side, cutting down between the station and the castle. Following it, she found herself in town.
    Here the bustle came as a shock after weeks hidden in the darkness. People pushed around Abren as if she were in the way. Everybody seemed in a hurry except for her. What was she doing here? She didn’t know. Where was she going? She didn’t have a clue.
    She reached the high town cross, and the sun shone all the way down Pride Hill. Abren looked at daffodils in tubs and leaves bursting on the trees. Blackbirds sang and sparrows chirruped between rooftops. Thiswasn’t the town Abren had left on Christmas night. It was a new town, and a new day. And suddenly it was a new adventure too.