Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #18 September 2015 | Page 77

Jayne knew thieving was wrong, but on their
estate if you weren’t one of the ‘in crowd,’ they made
your life a misery. Anyway, they only let her hang out
with them because of Sharon, her sister, and the fact
that she was so slender meant that she could get into
places noone else could. She’d lost count of the tiny
windows and padlocked gates she’d squeezed through.
Being forced to do it didn’t make it any easier.

At night, Jayne whispered her worries to the
little picture on the old lamp by her bedside. It wasn’t
much of a lamp. Like everything else in this dump, it
didn’t work. On the blue base, someone had glued an
old picture of a fairy talking to a butterfly; it was pretty and had taken her fancy, so she found herself telling
the little fairy everything. All about ‘the Man’ who
bought the stuff they stole, and how he would give her
sweets and call her a ‘little treasure,’ then rip them off
and pay stupid prices for their goods.

She also told her little friend about the time
the ‘big kids’ locked her in a shed because she had
said she was frightened of the dark and how she had
cried all night. When they had opened the door in the
morning, Jayne had sworn never to tell anybody of
her fears ever again. She felt as if the little fairy was
the only friend she had.
It wasn’t all bad, you couldn’t beat a fish
supper when mum hadn’t been shopping for a week
and the new trainers had been needed,which was why
Jayne had pretty much reconciled herself to being
‘The Ferret.’That was the nickname Joe had given her.
So she kept her head down and did as she was told,
then they left her alone, and she could escape into her
books when she wasn’t needed.

77

“Jayne! Jayne! Joe wants you! Get off your