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you were sat on the train on your way to small heath, birmingham. the place you grew up, fell in love and got your heart broken. it's been a year since you left, and now you're were on your way back with extra baggage. a 3 month old baby. his 3 month old baby. he was your precious bundle of joy, he had smooth, pale skin, soft lips and the brightest blue eyes, which were obviously inherited from his father. everytime his big, blue eyes caught caught yours, you'd see him.
your first love, the one you needed. you had never told the father about your pregnancy, because you came to the conclusion that it was better he didn't know about the baby. or your parents thought that. they had decided to drag you and their family out of small heath the moment they heard about your pregnancy, and it broke you. no goodbyes to anyone. not tommy, not ada, not polly, not even john. you just disappeared. no one had any news of what had happened to your family. even rumours spread that you were dead and that you had been kidnapped, non being true of course. as the months went on people slowly began to forget about you, even your love. john. but now you were going back. you didn't really have any idea what you were doing or where you were going to stay. but you were going back.
as your train came to it's stop at the station you had a sudden wave of nausea. it hit you that you were going back to small heath. that people were going to see you baby and you were going to see john. you had no idea how he would react. would he run up and hug you? would he just run away? thoughts ran through your head, flooding your mind with anxieties and worry. you couldn't go back now. you were here.
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you pushed the pram down the cobbled streets of small heath, receiving the odd stare every now and then. snowflakes leaving gentle kisses on your rosy cheeks. it all looked exactly the same as when you had left. you checked your wrist watch to read the time. 7pm, it was getting dark and you had no place to stay, and you were left with one place left to go. polly's.
as you approached polly's house you noticed all the downstairs lights on and the sound of people in the house. you walked up to the doors and left 3 soft knocks on it. after 2 minutes no one answered so you began to walk off, but as soon as you did a light emerged from the door and the sound of a woman calling for you. "excuse me!" yelled the woman. as you spun yourself and the roam around you were welcomed by a familiar face. that of polly gray. a very shocked polly gray. polly had always been fond of you growing up and she always saw you in a daughter way, so, as expected, she was very distraught when you left without a word.
"florence?" whispered polly.
"polly" you replied.
and that's when everything hit you. your son, george, was wailing, the snow was beginning to layer on your coat and the pram. the tears began to drip down your cheeks as polly came over and engulfed you into a hug.
"you're back?" asked polly "for how long?"
you shrugged, "i have no idea pol, i don't know what i'm doing right now." you said as tears began to freeze on your face.
"let's get you in" said polly, wiling the tears from under your eyes. and with that she led you inside.
as you walked in the house the chattering and laughing got quieter until it came to a stop. all eyes were on you, but one pair caught your eye. john. his eyes moved gently from yours to your son's. his son and he cracked a soft smile at you. everyone was speechless and the room stayed in silence for what felt like hours until tommy managed to cough up "welcome home flo" and with that your face formed a slight smile. however that smile soon dropped as you noticed a woman with her armed linked in johns. her long, brown in a braid, layed against her shoulder. you felt your heart drop at the thought of him moving on but, who could blame him?
