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𝐹𝑂𝑈𝑅𝑇𝐸𝐸𝑁
There was no room for guilt as Anna made her way across the pier, still hobbling slightly across the uneven stones. Remnants of the disease that had plagued her were still evident, with the easy fatigue and the quickness of her breath. She was somehow more unfit than when she had came and Anna wondered if she would ever be able to run as well as she once had those years ago.
But even now, those years seemed so out of reach and so long ago. Like another lifetime, almost.
She had done this run before, escaping from home and slipping away as far as she could. Anna had been caught each time. It was why she was in Australia at all. But this time would be different. She would make it home.
She hadn't said a word to Mr and Mrs Bagley as she left. Slipping out without being seen was easy enough. But she couldn't bring herself to say goodbye, to explain in full to their aces, so she wrote a note, telling them of her need to go home and of her gratitude and thankfulness toward them both. She told them that she would write, that she would tell them about everything and that she would see them again. Anna wrote to them to say that she was sorry, that she couldn't face saying goodbye and that it had to be done.
The dock was flurrying with life, just as busy as it had been the day she had arrived in the country. Stalls selling fresh fish and crab lined the seafront, the smell pungent from many yards away. Small boats were at the front, in places that were easier to anchor for their littler size. Larger ships, like the one she had been pushed onto, were toward the very end of the dock, still towering even from where she stood by the seafood market.
Her suitcase was heavy in her hand and almost falling to pieces. It was so tattered that Anna was scared to hold it in one way or place for too long, afraid it would fall apart at any second and send her things scattering, just waiting to be trampled by the bustling feet that scurried all around her. She couldn't bury the fear that Mr Elsner would pop out somewhere and drag her to work for him too.
The largest ship toward the back was far grander than the one she had come on. It must have been a holiday one, of some sort, for the people who could come and go across vast seas as they pleased. The wealthy people. The amount of bags, lined with gold and silver and not falling to pieces like hers, being tossed onto the hold basket was evidence enough.
Anna's eyes landed on a rather plump woman, hair tied at the low back of her head, who read from a clipboard. She looked important, or as important as someone could be when they worked on a boat. Her nose sniffled slightly, upturned as the fumes swirled around her, but the woman was obviously used to it, as she carried on.
Anna rushed forward, her suitcase rattling in her hands and shoes scuffing lightly from the weight of it. What an awful sight she must have been, she thought. The woman turned, as if on instinct, her brows raised as she looked down her nose.
"Excuse me, I see you work on the boat to England and-"
"You want work," the woman snapped, glancing down to her clipboard once again. Her voice was rattling, like a children's toy.
Anna was taken aback by the abruptness. "Oh, um, yes. Yes I do."
"Have you got a passport, any documents?" She asked.
Anna stuttered.
The woman looked her up and down. "What does it matter? Well if you're still fit by Friday you've got it. Be at the edge of the docks at dawn and I'll give you your answer," she said, sounding rather displeased. "It's kitchen work. You got experience?"
"Yes," Anna blurted.
"Friday."
She turned with nothing else said, strutting away with a swagger of her hips and Anna couldn't help but think the woman thought very highly of herself. She stayed staring after her fro a few moments. Friday was two days away still, and she couldn't go back for the Bagley's now that she had left, and she couldn't bare to see Elliot or Maya one last time.
She would have to sleep by the docks, she realised. Though she could deal with the noice, having lived in an industrial part of England for most of her life, she wasn't sure about the smell. For a few hours, she could perhaps withstand the putrid reek of fish but for two nights... She wondered how the workers had become so immune, but she supposed she had no room to cry for luxuries when she had gone for so long in life with barely more than the bare minimum she needed to live. She had never been one to complain about smell, not when she lived by the factories and her home had a constant smell of smoke and metal.
The end of the dock, leaned against a building that once must have been a community centre once, would be a good place, she thought. Anna had come to love Australia, but still, she hated the newness of everything. There was a lack of feeling behind the buildings, unlike those in England. She hated what it was built on too- stolen land, that was what she had heard many times in the pubs of Stafford or aboard the boat across. Whether it was true or not, she didn't know, but rumour always had a way of having an ugly truth about them.
By the short, brick building, there were few crowds unlike by the beaches and though she wouldn't hear the sea's song as it brushed against the sand beds, it wouldn't be as busy and she was less likely to be disturbed. But in the fact, with less people came more danger, and Anna couldn't help but swallow back the nerves that crept up her throat as she sat against the wall. The quietness always found a way to creep up on her.
Placing her suitcase by her side, Anna lay her head atop the hard casing. It was rough and uncomfortable, but a difficult night sleep was much preferable that her suitcase being stolen, especially when it contained the only possessions she owned. And though she had eaten her fill before she left the house that morning, as she lay with her eyes held tightly closed, she could hear nothing but the rumbling howl of her stomach. What a long night it would be...
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Small one today x