Dangerous at Night - Part 1 - Sarah Survives a Tragedy
Dear Loyal Readers: Please join me for an extended tale of young Sarah Morrison's adventures in the British Security Service.
Prologue
The London tabloids called her survival miraculous. Helen held the tiny bundle in her arms on the way home from emergency services and grieved for her brother and his wife, who were instantly killed when a lorry collided with their car in dense fog. The baby girl, only six months old, was found unhurt in a field next to the motorway.
"Sarah," she whispered, "God didn't want to take you. I will do my best to be a good aunt and mother."
Chapter One - A Nighttime Foray
Sarah was on her third practice night out. It was her first event with opposition.
The tiny ground floor apartment had an entrance opening on an unlit mews. She was completely clothed in black, her face covered by a mask. A route was plotted to Regent's Park through a maze of alleys, and she moved rapidly to the park. The hour was well past midnight. She worked from one hidden place to another without detection. The park was closed, but she went over a wall with ease and dropped into the shrubbery on the far side. Her visit here last week, on a dismal, dripping night, had been the most fun ever. She had even flitted around a patrolman sitting at his station watching a forbidden television set.
Tonight, the task was to set off one of the kiosk video alarms and elude the pursuit which resulted. She had done a daytime reconnoitre and picked one near the north gate and the Zoo. Her escape route was to stay out of the leafy lanes near the wall, which were armed with motion detectors, until she could take a straight run at a section and bound up and over the top. Things were going swimmingly, with the two patrolmen who had come out of the Hub lagging behind, until she dropped over the wall. Instead of landing on the cobblestoned walk outside, she found herself in the arms of her mentor, Jeremy.
"Nicely done, Sarah. You would have gotten well away if I hadn't guessed the technique you would use tonight."
She struggled in his arms, but he wasn't letting go. "Let me down. You aren't supposed to oppress the recruits."
He leaned against the wall with her still in his arms, which felt fine. She teased, "Are you going to kiss me? Are we just on a late night date?"
He growled, "I have a hot girlfriend, which you know very well, and am going to marry her in the summer. I can't be kissing any old female who leaps over the wall with stolen property."
Sarah did know Carrie and liked her a lot. "Your Carrie is a great woman, but kiss me anyway. Go home and confess and say I grabbed your head and planted my lips on you and..."
It was not a peck. It was warm and wet and lasted several seconds. Then she was gone, dashing down the street in the dark, back to her little apartment.
Chapter Two - Excitement at School
Helen and her husband, William Morrison, adopted little Sarah as soon as the authorities permitted it. They had their own daughter, Mary, who was three years old and loved little Sarah, who became Sarah Morrison. It was never explained how she was unharmed in the field next to the accident, but Helen was religious and attributed it to divine intervention.
Once they were in school, Mary and Sarah saw less of each other, playing with their age group friends. So, it didn't show too much that Mary was on the slow side, and Sarah was incredibly bright. But a few bullying incidents at school taught Sarah that it was not a good idea to be smart in front of others, so she adapted by becoming deferential to everyone, and always offering to help with chores before others. Helen went out of her way to be kind to the little girl, and one day after Sarah cleaned up a terrible mess in the kitchen from making a birthday cake for Mary, she nicknamed her the Adorable Mouse. The name stuck, and from then on, through all of her school days, Sarah was known as Mouse, or AM for short.
One morning, the year she was fourteen, Sarah was called to the headmaster's office during recess. This was not according to Sarah's notions of being invisible, and she was worried. The headmaster, whose name was Nathan Auerbach, invited her to sit in the chair across from his desk. On one side was her English teacher, Miss Carolyn Anthony, and on the other side a gentleman she did not recognize. Her anxiety only increased when she was introduced and discovered he was the Deputy Superintendent of all the schools in the surrounding district of north London.
Nathan had only spoken to Sarah once or twice in the whole five years she had attended his school. "Young Sarah," he spoke firmly, staring directly into her frightened eyes, "I am afraid there is no easy way to say this. You have been found out!"
Sarah was desperately thinking of disappearing down a rabbit hole, like Alice, when Miss Anthony pressed on her arm, "He is teasing!"
"Nathan," she said, "the poor girl is frightened to death. Please be kind."
From that moment on, life improved dramatically. The Headmaster said, "I am sorry to be so dramatic. I didn't mean to be cruel. The reason you are here is that your scores on the last set of systemwide tests were the highest in the school. In any grade."
He paused to let that sink in, and continued, "I've asked your teachers if there is an explanation, if by chance you have found a way to cheat on the tests. They assure me that you were not cheating. They reason that you have been hiding your light under the bushel basket, so to speak, in order to avoid any conflict or bullying with your classmates."
He looked at her carefully, trying to maintain a smile, and waited for an answer. Finally, she looked up at him with a fiercer frown than he had seen on a girl of her age, and said, "Yes, sir. My classmates do not have the desire for learning that I have, so I spend spare time on extra assignments, which I never turn in, and in the British Library Reading Room, which is only a few minutes by Underground."
"My, my, my," the Deputy Superintendent said, "We are failing this student and apparently have for years."
There was a long tense silence, at the end of which Nathan said, "Sarah, would you please excuse us for a minute. There is a seat right outside my door."
Sarah tried to relax, since being found out seemed to be an ok thing. After ten minutes of voices talking loudly behind the Headmaster's door, Miss Anthony came out and sat down next to her.
"Dear Sarah, they are upset and want to find a way that you can have better school opportunities. They are even more upset that we did not recognize your talent sooner. There are several programs for exceptional students. Do you suppose that I could come and visit with you and your parents tonight or tomorrow?"
Thus began a whirlwind of change for young Sarah. The Morrisons, her adopted parents, immediately appreciated what Carolyn was saying and asked how they could help. The other teachers got wind of what had happened and were solicitous and kind. Several evenings after school, she accompanied Carolyn to an imposing house in Knightsbridge, which seemed fit for a king. Carolyn's father, who was a senior academic at the London School of Economics, explained the curious history, in which a loyal aide to Wellington, who stepped in front of the General at the precise moment a bullet arrived, lived to fight again. In gratitude, Wellington had prevailed on the monarch to cede royal land for a house nearby to the hunting preserve known as Hyde Park. Successive generations of the Anthony's had lived and prospered in the dwelling, so much so that Reginald Anthony could devote himself to scholarship without needing funds from employment.
"But," he said to Sarah, "you are not here to hear stories, we must talk about your education and your future." That was the first of many evenings where Sarah's view of the world expanded rapidly.
There was, however, a delightful moment at the end of term. Without telling her why, Carolyn took them shopping for a dress. Two dresses, in fact, since Carolyn decided the event, which she would not describe, required a dress for herself as well. Back at the Knightsbridge home, she took Sarah to her room and demonstrated what makeup and being a grownup woman was all about. Leaving out, of course, certain details about sex that a fourteen year old should not be expected to know.
On the second to last day of school before the term ended, a note was posted in every classroom declaring that there would be an assembly of the whole school at ten the following morning, after which the students were excused until the beginning of the new term.
At nine-thirty the next day, Carolyn appeared at the door of Sarah's classroom and nodded to the teacher, who asked Sarah to please take her things and follow Miss Anthony.
"Sarah, we are going to the teacher's lounge. You are part of the program this morning, and we must change into our good dresses."
In the lounge were two other teachers, smiling and helping with the dresses, the fixing of hair, the application of makeup, the slightest amount of lipstick, and a gorgeous pair of shoes with a bit of platform built in.
One of the teachers leaned down and said, "Sarah, it is a big secret, but also a wonderful surprise. Please concentrate on holding your best smile!"
Carolyn took her hand and they waited patiently until Sarah was sure they were late. A face appeared at the door of the lounge and signaled them to follow. When they got to the assembly room, Sarah was frozen stiff. Carolyn and she were the last to arrive!
