Got another letter today.
Just another reminder.
Just like all the others.
Then.
Times were different and some still say if you remember what you were doing you weren't there. But I remember. It was great. Saturday nights dancing at the 'Apples and Pears' with all the other Mods and then off we'd all go Sunday morning to Southend or Margate, for a laugh. For me though it only took one big mistake to make all the good things stop and that was seeing that stupid card in the pub window down the Old Kent. All it said was, 'Fence - Good Money, Ask for Chick Before Closing'. So, for a dare really, next Saturday, after listening to new singles with the girls down Woolworths, I went over there and asked for Chick. Don't really understand what it all meant back then. Do now.
Now.
Down the market this afternoon, people commented about my lovely sixties hairstyle and how it suits me, some even asked after mother. But I don't like talking, never did, so I just got on with things. I mean, after all those years inside I learnt to keep myself to myself. And as for mother, well least said really. So here I am. I keep myself clean and live off the money I got given on release. It's what they owe me after all, seeing as how I've kept my mouth shut all these years. So when each new letter arrives like the one today, I'll read it just once and put it away with the others. There's no way round it, I am what I am, a rich woman with no life.
Pity mother isn't alive to share it with me really.
From 'Tin Collectors', 2015.
