Lingard174

166

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"I wonder why he doesn't phone," said. Sadie. Each morning she dusted
the telephone, wondering if it would ring for her that day. But there
it sat, black,and squat, and silent.

"He will," said Mr Blake. "One of these days. Perhaps at the
moment it's too difficult. ^{He's got all sorts of things to work out."}

"I hope he's all right."

She^Sadie worried about him but there was nothing she could do. She
could not go to t his house and ask for him.

"You're quiet these days," said her mother. "Are you sickening
for something?"

" No."

"You don't go out much either. It's not like you."

"I've nowhere to go."

She sat in her bedroom, reading sometimes, ^or writing letters to
Kevin that she tore up afterwards, often just sitting staring out
through the window at the bunting that linked the houses in the

street. The ^{flags and} banners were out, and the flags; and each evening she
heard the sound of bands practising for the big day. Drums beating.
Children shouted in the street, excited by the noise and colour.
The army had been reinforced to max keep down the amount of trouble.

Kevin might be ill. Or he could had^ve been beaten up again by Rafferty
and g his gand^g. Or perhaps he had just did not want to see her
again^{any more}. He might have found another girl, one from his own street,
whom he could take out without complication. All the possibilities