Sadie Was A Lady by Joan Jonker

yer up.’
    ‘What does he want?’ Brenda wasn’t very happy. ‘He’s never wanted to talk to yer before.’
    ‘I’ll let yer know as soon as I find out meself.’
    Alec was a tall, well-built lad with a mop of mousy-coloured hair and hazel eyes. His best feature was a set of strong white teeth which he showed as Sadie approached. ‘I was wonderin’ if yer’d like to come to the flicks with me on Saturday?’
    Sadie shook her head. ‘I always go out with Bren on Saturday. I wouldn’t let her down.’
    ‘Ask her if she’d like to make a foursome up with Bobby here. We’d show yez a good time, wouldn’t we, Bobby?’
    Bobby was a foot shorter than Alec, and slightly built. He had ginger hair, greeny-grey eyes and a face marked with pimples and blackheads. He never had much success with girls, so he jumped at the chance of making up a foursome. ‘Yeah,’ he said, nodding his head vigorously, ‘we’d have a great time.’
    ‘I’ll ask her, but I know she won’t come. Yer see, her mam doesn’t like her bein’ out late, so we go to the first house.’
    Alec wasn’t interested in Brenda, or her mam, but he was interested in Sadie and she hadn’t said she had to be in early. Once Brenda left them he’d soon get rid of Bobby. ‘We’ll go to the first house – it’s all the same to us.’
    ‘I’ll ask her and let yer know.’ Sadie had no intention of asking her friend because she didn’t fancy going herself. But as her feet covered the ground a little voice in her head told her that if they went to the pictures with them, then the boys would pay. And the money she’d save would buy her a bottle of that Californian Poppy perfume all the girls in work were raving about.
    Brenda was being served when Sadie got to the chip shop and she handed one of the parcels over. They stood on the pavement outside the shop while they made a hole in the newspaper wrapping so they could get to the chips, then started the walk back to the factory.
    ‘What did Alec want?’ Brenda asked, blowing on a chip before popping it into her mouth. ‘Anythin’ exciting?’
    ‘He asked if we’d like to go to the pictures with him on Saturday night.’
    ‘Him take the two of us, yer mean?’
    Sadie shook her head. ‘In a foursome with Bobby Bennett.’
    ‘Bobby Bennett?’ Brenda nearly choked as a piece of chip lodged in her throat. ‘Yer’ve got to be kidding!’ Then she narrowed her eyes. ‘Ay, yer not soft, are yer? You with the big handsome one an’ me with that pimply-faced little twerp! Anyway, me mam wouldn’t let me go ’cos she said I’m too young to be goin’ out with fellers.’
    ‘D’yer have to tell her? We’ll meet them outside the picture house and leave them there when we come out. What harm is there in that? We’d only be sitting in the seats next to each other like we always do, but they’d be paying. And yer’d be home at the same time, so yer mam wouldn’t know the difference.’
    ‘I’ll go if I can sit next to Alec,’ Brenda said, a petulant droop to her mouth. ‘But not unless.’
    ‘You can sit by who yer like, I don’t care! As long as someone wants to pay for me to go to the flicks, I’m not worried who I sit by.’
    ‘You’ve changed,’ Brenda said. ‘Yer never used to be so hard.’
    ‘Oh, I’ve changed all right, I’ve had to!’ Sadie said heatedly. ‘And I’ll tell yer why, shall I? We’ve been friends since the day we started work and although I envied you yer family and yer nice house, I’ve never been jealous of all the new clothes you get. I’ve always paid yer compliments and told yer how nice yer look, even though I only had the one scruffy dress to me name. But when I manage to scheme to get a second-hand dress from the market, which I think looks nice on me, what do you do? You put me down, just like me family, as though I’m a nobody and haven’t the right to a decent life.’ Sadie screwed the newspaper into a ball. ‘I’ve always given you yer