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 The Girl

   Hi my name is Tony and I am 21 years of age.  I was an only child and my
mother died recently, my father had passed away several years previously.
So now I am an orphan.  I have just finished my apprenticeship as a motor
mechanic, and next week I am starting work at the local Ford dealer's
service department.  But I guess in some ways I am rather lucky because I
have a nice home which is fully paid for and which was left to me by my
mother.  I also have some money in the bank and a good job waiting for me.
But I must admit I am lonely.  I don't like going out drinking with mates
just for the sake of getting drunk and I don't have a girl friend.  Perhaps
I am too fussy!

   I spend a lot of time just standing in my kitchen watching people
walking past the house.  I like watching people, and in the summer I
sometimes go into the local park and sit by the lake and I watch people
having fun and I try to guess what they are really like if I got to know
them properly.  I like to watch people when they are happy.  In particular,
I love to watch young children playing and being happy.  Their whole life
being very absorbed in the game they are playing at the time.  I suppose if
you wanted to describe me, you could say I am a people watcher.

   For some time I had noticed a young girl walk past the house about the
same time every day when the local schools had finished.  She was nothing
special, just a young girl, looking a little sad at times, but never with
any friends.  I did notice that she seemed to be rather poorly dressed and
I came to the conclusion that she came from a poor family.  When it was
raining she never seemed to have a raincoat, and when it was cold she
seemed to lack warm clothing.

   One rainy day she had already gone past my house to go home, to my
surprise she returned a few moments later in a hurry going in the opposite
direction towards the supermarket at the bottom of the hill.  I was about
to turn away to start cooking my evening meal when I saw her slip and fall
on the pavement.  I heard her cry out.

   When she sat up I could see that her leg was bleeding badly and she was
crying as she frantically searched the area where she had fallen.  I ran
out of the house and helped her up.  I said.  "Come with me and I will put
a dressing on your leg for you" "I can't I've lost my money.  I must find
it please." "How much was it?" I asked...  "I had two one pound coins and
I've dropped them." As she spoke she burst into tears.  "That's all our
food money." She said through her tears.  "Don't worry, let us get out of
the rain and get your leg dressed.  We will worry about the money later." I
lifted her up and helped her into the house and sat her on a chair in the
kitchen while I fetched the First Aid box.  Now I could see her properly
close up, I could see that she was in her own way a quite pretty girl of
about sixteen.  She was quite slim with sort of pixyish features and nice
blue eyes.  Her shoulder length hair was the colour that is frequently
referred to as `dirty blonde.  'She did not wear any make-up, or nail
varnish or anything like that.  Which I thought was a little unusual for a
young girl of that age.

   I busied myself cleaning and dressing her knee and as I worked I said.
"My name is Tony, what is yours?" She did not answer me.  When I looked up
at her, she was crying quite hard.  The tears were running down her face. I
felt so sorry for her, I was sure that her crying was from despair, not
from the soreness of her knee.  I could not help myself I just took her in
my arms and hugged her close...  "What is the matter?" I asked. 
"Everything" She replied succinctly.  "Tell me." But she just burst into a
renewed burst of crying and flung her arms round my neck and just hung on
to me tightly.  Her clothes had been soaking wet when I had brought her
into my house and now so were mine, as she hugged me.  I was not
complaining as I had not been hugged like this for a long time and I was
almost enjoying it apart from the cold wetness soaking into me.

   Eventually she calmed down and she said.  "I was going to Tesco to get
some bread and soup for my mother.  She is ill in bed and has not eaten at
all today." "Where is your mother now?" I asked.  "She is at home in bed,
and she seems to have a bit of a temperature." "Right, I have some soup and
some bread, so we will take those to her, but your clothes are all wet." I
thought for a moment and then I suggested.  "My mother passed away a short
time ago and she was a smallish woman, lets go and see if there is anything
there that will suit you." It was quite amazing what we found in my
mothers' wardrobe, we found some jeans that she thought were a reasonable
fit and some blouses and also a raincoat.

   Then I asked her again.  "What is your name?" "My name is Kerry." She
said and for the first time her face lit up into a wonderful little smile.
It was like the sun coming out from behind a cloud and suddenly from a
plain looking girl I could actually see how beautiful she really was.

   She took me to her home which was one of the older houses in the next
street.  I knew they were scheduled for demolition shortly and Kerry told
me that her and her mother rented it.  The house was cold dark and damp. 
The electricity and gas were run from meters and the money had run out, so
I quickly found a couple of coins in my pocket and got some heating and
light going.

   Her mother was in bed and was very feverish.  I judged that she was
quite poorly and so I decided to call for a doctor from the emergency
service.  When she came I could see the doctor was worried, and called for
an ambulance to take her to the local hospital.  We followed in my car and
when we got to the hospital we found she had been admitted with pneumonia.

   We sat with her for a while but she was almost delirious and kept
falling asleep.  I took Kerry back to my house after giving the hospital my
telephone number, so that they could call us if there was any deterioration
in her condition.  After a lot of convincing Kerry agreed to sleep in one
of my spare rooms.

   It was about midnight when Kerry crawled into bed with me, she was
wearing a thin nightdress and I took her in my arms.  She said.  "I never
sleep alone I usually sleep with Mum can I come in with you please Tony." I
took her in my arms and quite naturally we made love and then dropped off
to sleep her head on my shoulder and my arms round her thin body.

   The following day was Saturday and we decided that her mother could not
go back to that damp house again when she came from hospital.  The rent was
overdue and so we removed their few personal possessions to my home, after
much protest from Kerry.

   Her mother came out of hospital a week later and I moved her into my
house with Kerry and me.  She did not object to Kerry and me sleeping
together, but joined us.  To my surprise Kerry did not object to my making
love with her mother as long as I did not ignore her.

   A year later Kerry and I got married just before she gave birth to my
daughter, her mother gave birth to my son a week later.  Now I have my
wife, my mother in law and two lovely children living with me.  I am not
lonely any more.