The Runaway by Grace Thompson

fishmongers, where she had been a regular customer, an ironmongery, a corner shop selling the usual assortment of foodstuff and a place selling children’s toys. What she reallywanted to do was return to teaching but she was afraid that would make it too easy for Matt to find her. Later, perhaps, but how much later? Matt wasn’t the kind to give up.
    She knew she had to face him sometime but the further away that day was, the better she’d be able to cope with his questions, his hurt and the anger, aware that she had so little time made her face up to making a decision, and she made her first enquiry at the corner shop. To her dismay she was told quite rudely that they needed an assistant with experience. At the toy shop she learned that the place had been filled but, interested in her, they took her name in case the new person didn’t suit. At the ironmongers she was laughingly told they needed a man who knew something about tools and how they were used. She felt like a beggar, asking for something to which she wasn’t entitled, a scrounger, expecting more than she should.
    There was only the fresh-fish shop and she turned away from that. No. Handling the cold, wet fish was not something she could contemplate . Perhaps the best thing was to first find a room. She didn’t want to end up sleeping on a park bench! Having a base and enough money to last a few weeks would give her a chance to look around, go to the employment exchange and hopefully find something she would enjoy.
    The columns in the local newspaper offered several rooms to let. When she knocked on the door of the first, in a neat road behind the hospital, it was answered by a woman about her own age. She was shown the room, which was at the back overlooking a rather unkempt garden. She took it and paid a week’s rent in advance. The landlady, Jean Painter, explained that she needed some extra money as her husband Roland was still a student, studying psychology.
    After a friendly chat Faith stood to leave, smilingly convinced that she had found herself a safe haven. ‘Now all I have to do is get a job,’ she said, having briefly explained her situation.
    ‘Could you cope with looking after three children? I know someone who needs a nanny for three months while the parents set up their business.’ So there it was, a home and a job.
    After meeting the parents of the three children, and agreeing to start on the following Monday, Faith returned to the house, where subdued voices and the sombre, darkened rooms reminded her of the friend she had lost. Despite her sadness she found great pleasure in telling Samuel that she would leave straight after the funeral.
    ‘But you won’t be attending,’ he said. ‘This is a private affair, family only.’
    ‘But your mother was my friend as well as my employer!’ she gasped. ‘How can I not say goodbye to her?’
    ‘You’ll be here, setting out the food.’
    ‘You told me I must leave, without giving me time to find a suitable place, tell me I’m not to go to the funeral, then expect me to deal with the food?’
    ‘The shopping is done, there will be no more than fifteen people coming back. Hardly an arduous task, is it?’
    ‘Can you see to it that my wages are made up,’ she said. ‘I expect it later today. All the details of my employment are in the bureau. Before tomorrow, Mr Thomas. And I expect to be paid till the end of the month!’ She went to her room, sobs threatening to burst from her. What was it about her that made people behave so badly? The shopkeepers spoke to her as though she were an idiot. Samuel treated her with mistrust. Matt’s mother had treated her like a subservient fool. Matt had lied, or at least, hadn’t told her the truth which was much the same thing. Did she look like a doormat for everyone to use without a thought?
    She walked to the corner and telephoned a shop near Winnie. Being careful not to give her name, she asked the man if he would go and fetch her friend to the