A Cuckoo in Candle Lane Read Online Free PDF Page A

dream. She had been flying, free as a bird, skimming low across the sky with the dawn light casting a glow on the rooftops below. A small smile played across her face as she recalled the joyous feelings of weightlessness that had held her enthralled.
    The sound of a door banging penetrated the thin walls and she heard muffled voices, then laughter. Of course – it was the new neighbours. The house next door had been silent since old Mrs Richardson died and now the unaccustomed noise had woken her.
    I wonder what they’ll be like, she thought, remembering the lady who had stared at her so strangely and the brief glimpse she had had of two children, one of them a girl of about her own age.
    Stretching out, her ears were pricked for sounds of movement from below. The front door slammed and she scrambled across to her window, just in time to see her father striding down the road.
    ‘Mum, can I wear me new coat to school?’ she asked later, gulping the last of her porridge.
    ‘Oh, I don’t know. If yer dad catches you wearing it, he’ll go mad.’
    ‘Please, Mum. The other kids are always taking the mickey out of me ’cos I’m so scruffy. I’ll come in ever so quietly, and if Dad’s home I’ll go straight to me room as usual.’
    ‘Well …’ Ruth pondered as Sally widened her eyes in mute appeal. ‘All right then, but please be extra careful,’ she added worriedly.
    Sally leaped to her feet, anxious to get the coat before her mum changed her mind. She rummaged in the back of the cupboard, pulling it from its hiding place and shrugging it on over her old school clothes. Then, grabbing her satchel, she made a dash for the door, running outside to find the Lane suddenly, and almost totally, engulfed in a thick, choking smog.
    It took her ages to get to school. She fumbled along in the grey, eerie atmosphere, only able to see about eighteen inches in front of her face, heart jumping when people occasionally loomed up in front of her, most clutching scarves or handkerchiefs over their faces. At last she reached the main road and could hear the muffled sound of traffic as it crawled slowly along, headlights barely piercing the gloom.
    The bell was clanging when she finally arrived at school, thankfully joining a queue of children in the playground as they filed into the building.
     
    The classroom was quiet and she was struggling with maths, her most hated subject, when the door opened and Mrs Brooks came in, followed by a girl who kept her head shyly lowered.
    Sally’s jaw dropped. Was it the girl she had glimpsed yesterday?
    The headmistress handed her over to Miss Penfold and her teacher’s eyes scanned the room before coming to rest on the empty seat beside Sally.
    ‘This is Ann Jones and she is starting school today. I’m going to sit her next to you, Sally. Will you help her to settle in, please?’
    When at last the new girl lifted her face, there was a gasp of surprise and muffled sniggers. One of her eyes was lodged in the corner of the socket and the other appeared to be leaning drunkenly towards it.
    Oh, the poor thing, Sally thought, her feelings of pity deepening when the sniggers in the room rose to loud laughter.
    ‘That is enough!’ Miss Penfold shouted. ‘I will not have this behaviour in my classroom.’
    The room fell silent and heads bent over desks again, with only a slight titter to be heard as Ann took her seat. Sally smiled encouragingly, leaning towards her and placing the arithmetic book between them. She pointed to the section they were working on and heard a whispered, ‘Thanks.’
    For the rest of the morning they worked companionably together, until the dinner bell broke the silence. Then there was a cacophony of noise. Desk lids banged, chairs screeched across the wooden floor, and a stampede of feet rushed for the door, drowning out Miss Penfold’s shout of, ‘Quiet! Quiet!’
    Sally waited, as she usually did, for the classroom to empty. ‘I ’ave school dinners,’ she told