1

6.8K 156 1
                                    

october 17th, 1919, brooklyn new york

ANNA ROSE from her sleep swiftly as she slept in and forgot about her work, she clambered about the tiny room she was forced to sleep in

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

ANNA ROSE from her sleep swiftly as she slept in and forgot about her work, she clambered about the tiny room she was forced to sleep in. She got dressed and she quickly fixed her makeup and then ran into the even smaller room beside hers. Her son's room.

"Alexander, time to wake up, it's time for school and Mummy has slept in", she said gently, as not to fright him.

He stirred for about a minute before he comprehends what was happening and hid under his blanket, "Mum please I don't want to go to school", he said as he wriggled under the blanket.

"I know you don't like it but you need to be able to read to get a good job, and Mummy needs to go to work", she said as she sat on the bed beside him, putting her hand through his raven hair.

"Okay mum", he said and she smiled at him. She was so lucky to have him as a son, he was understanding, and caring, and didn't care once that he was living in a dingy flat.

Anna went out to the kitchen area of the apartment and made Alex some lunch, and quickly put it in a plastic bag.

Alex then came running up the hall and took the bag from his mum, "Thanks Mum", he said as she bent down and gave him a kiss on the head, "You hurry on now, you'll be late", she told him.

She heard the door shut and she left out a sigh. It was so hard juggling two jobs and a child. She was lucky that she had an aunt who lived near her in New York who helped in the beginning. She found out she was pregnant when she was living in New York 2 weeks. She was working as a factory worker to save up money to rent herself a flat, and also she wanted to save up and do a course in nursing but when she found out she was pregnant the nursing had to take a pause. She living with her aunt for the first 2 years of Alex's life and saved up every penny she had and then rented a flat, and also took a nursing course. Currently, she still is a factory worker but only on the weekends and she was an assistant nurse at a hospital during the week. She couldn't deny the money from nursing wasn't bad but she loved how she helped people get better.

Her brother, Sam just got back from the war about 9 months ago, and she was delighted to hear his voice on their phone calls, but she knew, France changed him, his voice, was deeper, there was no emotion, she knew he was a different person. She just wondered how Tommy was, was he okay?

She blinked out of her daydream and she grabbed her bag with all her essentials, she then walked over to her front door, until she got a phone call, that changed her life.
————————————-
She cried, she lay upon her bed and cried. Her father had passed. The man that looked her and her brother when her mother left them, who gave them his last penny, who did horrible things so that they could eat, have nice clothes, and be happy. She knew she had to be strong, for her brother, he rang her and broke down, he had been shot by one of the Lee's.  Everyone else was away, he was the only one in the betting shop and they killed him.

She heard the door open and she quickly cleaned her eyes with her sleeve, trying to look presentable, though her eyes were red raw.

"Mum, where are you", the young boy shouted.

"In here", she said.

He ran into her room happy going to tell her what he and his friend did today, but he saw her tear-stained faced and his face dropped.

"What's wrong mummy? Are you okay", he said quickly running over to her and give her a hug.

"Yes darling, Mummy just found out some bad news.. you know your grandfather, he died sweetie and Mum just a bit sad you see", she told him as she rubbed his back.

"I'm sorry Mummy", I hope you'll feel better, I'll miss grandfather, he always sent over the best presents", he said with a frown.

"I'll miss him too", she said running her hand through his hair before getting an idea.

"What about if we go visit where Mummy is from, and we can see Uncle Sammie, he's very sad too you see, and he has nobody there, he would love to meet you, Alex"

"Really Mummy really?", he said with bright eyes.

"Yes, pack up some of your stuff if we leave tonight we might get there by next Sunday if we are lucky".

"Thanks, mum!", he said giving her a hug and running out of the room.

Annabella had rung around her jobs telling them that she would need a month due to her father's death, the hospital agreed but the factory fired her. She didn't care though, as it wasn't worth the money she was getting anyway.

She and her son were getting on the boat to England it would roughly take about 6-7 days and then the travel from the docks to Small Heath would be about 1 day. She said goodbye to her Aunt who left her at the harbour and of they went, back to a place Anna never thought she would be back at again.


Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Nostalgia | tommy shelbyWhere stories live. Discover now