Far From Home by Anne Bennett Read Free Book Online

saw a very haughty woman behind a nearby counter who seemed to be keeping a weather eye on them, and so they wandered back to the main floor. No one paid them any attention there because it was very busy and Sally watched the smart shop assistants standing behind gleaming counters, confidently punching numbers into gigantic silver tills. Sally had seen tills before, but never any so large or magnificent.
    They visited other stores, too: Sally found the most entertaining were those that had no tills at all. There the assistant would write out the bill and put it with the money into a canister. This would be carried on wires crisscrossing the shop until it reached the cashier who would sit in a high glass-sided office. She would issue a receipt and this, together with any change, would be put into the canister and the process reversed.
    After Sally had watched this a number of times, Kate said, ‘If I’d known that this would entertain you so much, I wouldn’t have bothered to take you to town at all. I could have just taken you to the Co-op by the Plaza and you could have watched it all afternoon – they use the same system.’
    â€˜Do they?’ Sally said. ‘I think it’s a great way of going on.’
    â€˜Maybe it is,’ Kate said with a smile. ‘But I want to pop into C and A’s as we pass Corporation Street on our way to the Bull Ring. Let’s see what you think of an escalator.’
    â€˜What’s an escalator?’
    â€˜You’ll soon find out,’ Kate said, taking her sister’s arm in a firm grip and leading her into the street.
    â€˜They move,’ Sally exclaimed a little later. ‘They’re like stairs but they move up on their own.’
    â€˜And down,’ Susie said. ‘Round the other side they go down as well. D’you want a go?’
    Sally shook her head. ‘I’d be scared.’
    â€˜Nothing to it,’ Kate said airily.
    â€˜Oh, just hark at her,’ Susie said with a hoot of laughter. ‘Let me tell you, Sally, your sister was shaking like a leaf when she went on the escalator first.’
    â€˜I was not!’
    â€˜Yes, you were,’ Susie said. ‘I well remember it. Come on, Sally,’ she said, offering her arm for Sally to link, which she took gratefully. ‘Don’t let Kate get one over on you. Show her how brave you are.’
    â€˜Right, I will then,’ Sally said, and stepped forward, boldly holding Susie’s arm.
    After the initial tingles of nervousness, Sally enjoyed the escalator, and went up and down quite a few times and on her own too before Kate and Susie could get her off it. ‘I’ve had such a lovely time already,’ she said as they hurried along. ‘And now I have the Bull Ring to look forward to.’

THREE
    By the time the three girls reached High Street and the top of the incline leading down to the Bull Ring, dusk had fallen. Sally gasped as she surveyed the market below them. ‘Oh,’ she exclaimed, ‘it’s just like you said, Kate. Fairyland.’
    And it was, because every barrow in that large vibrant market was lit by gas flares, just as Kate had told her it would be. She smiled at her younger sister’s enthusiasm, and Susie led the way down the incline. And when they reached the cobbled streets of the Bull Ring itself, Sally looked around in some amazement at the swelling throngs of people all around her. The chatter, laughter and general buzz of the whole place rose in the air, punctuated here and there by the banter of vendors still plying their trade.
    â€˜The traders do good business on Saturday night,’ Kate said. ‘You won’t see the flower girls, though. They usually stand round Nelson’s statue there,’ she said pointing. ‘If there’s lots, though, the others cluster around St Martin’s, the church over there.’
    â€˜And that’s the Market Hall,’ Susie told