Anita Parsons was on the eight fifty four. Normally she caught the five seventeen and so by this time she would have been home, had her bath and dinner and been curled up in front of the telly deciding whether she would pop off to bed after this program or the next one.
She led, as you will have deduced, a very orderly life. This, though, was stock-take day and as one of the few people Mr Hammond trusted she had been asked to check that what figures were put forward were actually correct. In fact they were and her late night was caused by Mr Hammond's galloping paranoia.
"Still," she thought, "it was nice to be in demand."
And in any case she would be home in twenty minutes or even less with no traffic at this time of night.
After a good long run the bus slowed and, curious, Anita peered at the front door to see who was getting on. She saw a girl scramble on and immediately start fishing through her pockets for her money. Some way off but closing fast a group of very aggressive young women were running at the bus.
"Oh God, Oh please, close the door driver," the girl pleaded and her plight tugged at Anita's heart strings.
"Well now, you haven't paid your fare yet, have you?"
With the women ten yards from the bus Anita, who had never before said a word out loud on a bus stood up.
"I will pay her fare Driver. Now for goodness sake secure the door and drive on."
Immediately the driver operated the door close mechanism and it shut just as the first of the women was about to board. He swung out and accelerated sharply. This threw the girl along the aisle and left her sprawled just short of Anita who had been thrown back in her seat by the force of the acceleration. She felt wonderful, the adrenalin was flowing through her veins and she had the joyous sensation of having Done Something.
Ordinarily she wouldn't have done anything but this time she had and goodness it felt so good.
"Could you just stop a minute driver so I can pay for our friend here and get her seated?" She asked a few minutes later for the driver had taken the escape part to heart and barreled along as if he were vying for the lead in the Monte Carlo Rally.
She had a commanding voice when she wanted and immediately he checked his mirrors and drew to a copybook stop. The other passengers clapped and Anita though that that was rather nice for them to applaud an excellent piece of driving, it really wasn't done often enough for these hard working unappreciated drivers when she saw they had turned to her and that it was her they were applauding.
She blushed and made waving gestures with her left hand to suggest it was nothing but then the girl got to her feet and with tears running down her cheeks said.
"They were going to kill me." At which a large lump wedged itself firmly in Anita's throat.
She got to her feet again and standing in the aisle steered the girl to the seat by hers then walked as calmly as she could to the driver and paid cash for the girl's fare.
"How far?" the Driver asked and even before she could think the words were out of her mouth.
"Rushmore Road, where I get off."
She had revealed an awful lot more in public than she would ever normally do but she was rather proud of being the good Samaritan and so this time she would let the world know. Beaming faces looked up to her with a few hands raised for high fives which she slapped cheerfully on her way back to the seat.
"There you go," she told the girl encouragingly," All sorted."
She got a very subdued nod in return and when she sat back down the girl leaned against her. Anita had never been a demonstrative person but now she put her left arm round the skinny wee thing and took the girl's hands in her right.
Anita had never married. Oh yes there had been some sweethearts but she had been the last daughter and so had stayed at home to look after her parents until her father had passed away aged fifty nine from cancer and then her mother aged seventy four and by that time, as she liked to say, "the world had passed me by."
Had she made more of an effort most likely it wouldn't have as she was a very presentable mature woman when her mother had finally passed but a solitary life suited her and so she had been content to live in her home on her own for the past six years. Now she was bringing a complete stranger in to live with her for how long she had no idea.
The girl, who's name was Prudence- after her great aunt from who's will Pru's mother had hoped to get a few bob in return for perpetuating the ghastly name, bathed in the feeling of security this old fashioned lady gave her. Oh yes, she was a lady this one. The way the driver had obeyed her immediately and the way she had said "secure the door" rather than "close the door" or "shut the door" which most other people would have used and the way she had just taken charge.
"We get off in a few minutes," the lady told her and Pru nodded then, feeling she should do the right thing, said she could duck away somewhere.
"Can't allow that, I'm afraid," the lady told her and obediently Pru nodded.
At the stop two of the male passengers got out and stood at the stop watching for any unsavory characters following then, when clearly there weren't they got back on the bus which drove off with driver and passengers waving to the slight, undernourished girl and the trim middle aged woman leading her into Glade Court.
Glade Court was quiet, which Anita liked, and the neighbors kept to themselves which she also liked. Everyone had their curtains drawn which in a way disappointed Anita who had never, to her mind anyway, been the center of attention and had hoped that she might be bailed up by one of her neighbors to be forced to recount (with understated modesty) what had gone on before.
However it was not to be and less than a minute later the deadbolt on Anita's impressively solid front door clicked shut causing Pru to let out a long and heartfelt sigh of relief.
"I'll run you a bath and then I imagine you might be a bit peckish," she told the girl who really was an engaging little soul.
She got a nod and a mumbled reply which appeared to include the word thanks.
Parking the girl at the small dining table she flicked the jug on before going into the bathroom and turning the taps on. Back out with Pru she put teabags in two mugs, guessed the girl would want white two sugars, put in three just in case, and handed the girl's to her.
"Bit Hot," she warned.
"You didn't have to," and the girl's glance swept the room to mean "everything."
"I rather think I did," Anita replied after a few seconds.
She was off over to the kitchen again and put a selection of cookies on a side plate for the girl then went out to check on the bath. She poured bath salts in, found a big fluffy towel for her then on impulse put her little niece's rubber duck in as well.
Her heart was beating nineteen to the dozen and she was trembling.
"Everything OK out there?" she called putting on a jolly voice.
"Yes, yes thank you," came back timidly.
She had called because this girl, well young woman actually, she corrected herself, now meant so much to her. Silly really, a good night's sleep and a decent meal inside her and she'd be on her way. Never see her again probably and for no good reason her eyes brimmed and her blood ran cold. She checked her reflection in the bathroom mirror flicking a lock of hair off her forehead then adjusting her bra and straightening her blouse.
With the bath deep, hot and covered in bubbles she went into the spare room where she still had some of her mother's clothes for the simple reason she had never been able to face putting them out. Her mother had been slender all her life- gaunt at the very end of it- and this girl was about her height.
After a bit of a rummage she found what she was after, a nightie, dressing gown and panties (nice expensive silk ones). She brought them to the bathroom and put them on the vanity.
Now she went back to the dining room.
"Your bath is ready," she said in the same voice in which a child might tell her mother she has breakfast in bed ready for her.
"Oh you don't have to go to all this effort," Pru managed in a voice so weak that Anita knew for sure that she was bang on target with what she had done.
"Why ever not? Now come on, sorry love I never got your name- rude of me, sorry."
The girl smiled. It lit up her face and Anita's eyes widened in surprise. She blushed and immediately brought her arm up to cover her face.
"Its Pru, Prudence unfortunately- after some great Aunt."
"Anita, Very pleased to meet you Pru."
They hugged, as women do on meeting each other, then went to kiss each other on the cheek but the turns were out of sync and their lips met instead. Anita, not wanting Pru to think the wrong thing about her, almost immediately turned a bit further and kissed Pru on the cheek. She led her down to the bathroom and was delighted with Pru's response to the bubblebath, as well as the things she had left out for her.
"Well if you're alright in here I'll go and see what I can rustle up in the kitchen," she announced cheerfully.
"Don't go."
Pru stood slumped slightly looking forlorn. She had her hands clasped and resting under her chin and right then Anita could put herself in Pru's place and the world suddenly looked a big and daunting place.
"OK love."
Love, that was the second time she had used that word, she tried to think of something more appropriate but couldn't.
It happened quickly, Pru's knees were going and in a flash Anita had both taken her weight and moved her round so she could sit on the bathroom chair.
Oh dear. A bath would do young Pru the world of good but if she was this weak she might slide under and that would never do. There was a solution but it would hardly be appropriate she thought. Then the rebel within her fought back. She had been going to see Pru naked and that was fine because Pru had asked her to stay. So what was so all fired precious about her body that Pru couldn't see it? After all, in the circumstances it didn't really matter, did it? And sadly the answer was that it did matter, it mattered a lot because Anita wanted Pru to like her body and that suggested deeper things she did not want to deal with.
However baths don't stay hot and she had to get a move on.
"I will go in with you, my dad was a tall man so we have a very big bath and we'll both fit, are you OK with that?"
