The Forest (Complete Unedited)

The Forest Chapter 19

MARY

I am so eager to meet Alice's grandparents, so I have arrived early. The meeting is at the police station for a reason though. I've given enough evidence and information to help arrest his murderer, I wish there was no bad guy to arrest. I wish that we had just lost each other and we were going to reunite dramatically. I wonder how my information helps, I only told them about where we lived and worked. Plus I had some notes jotted down

After that day I had stayed at the laundrette, Sam had told me he would come and get me so I waited. I stayed there with just my baby bag and Alice. Luckily I had my checkbook and some money.

Even though he'd told me not to go back to our room, I'd gone back the next day. The rest of our ruined things were in bin bags outside. Someone had already moved into our room. I rummaged through it all but, the only things worth taking were Alice's clothes. All our pictures were destroyed.

I was carrying Alice as she'd fallen asleep, and with the bag of clothes I'd squeezed into a phone booth to call the landlord. He just made me cry, he said we had damaged the room and he had to repair it so we couldn't stay. He was glad to rid himself of trouble. I had no contract and no proof, our rent was lost. I remember thinking he can't do this, we paid up to the end of the month!

I just stayed at the laundrette, at least we had clean clothes. Days turned into weeks but he never came back. There was a storage room at the back where we could sleep. There were so many abandoned items so I just used them if they hadn't been claimed. The owner popped in to pick up money. As long as I gave him a set amount every day, I could keep the rest. Most days I had made enough to do this but sometimes it was not so busy so I had to balance it out with my own money. Over the week I'd make about 50 to 100 pounds.

Because I was there for longer I didn't have to close early so I stayed open for a few late night sessions. I started to make a bit more money. Enough to save some too. It went on like this for nearly a year, Sam hadn't returned this whole time and I had gone to the police again only to be turned away.

I had registered the laundrette as my address so I could get a new passport, but the police still wouldn't let me report him missing. I heard them laughing as I left, thinking I hadn't heard the racist comments. They didn't take it seriously because Sam was mixed and we weren't married. They said I'd been played, the man had probably found a new girl to live off.

That's when I decided to find out for myself. I got Alice into a nursery part time, and while I was free at lunch break I tried to find out what happened. This didn't last long as I soon got kicked out of the laundret, at least I was given a week's notice.

The owner found out that I was living at the laundrette because of the passport, I hadn't known that he would have to pay more tax and rent if someone lived there. He hadn't noticed for a year though so I saved quite a bit. I tried to reason with him but I gave up when I remembered the savings account would be ready soon.

I started looking for a house immediately, I couldn't wait for Sam anymore. I kept looking but the money wasn't enough to buy anything outright, the money I had saved was also not enough for a deposit. This was much higher because I hadn't any references for where I'd lived. The last place I could say I had lived was a foster home, I left with Sam when I turned sixteen.

When Sam left home, we tried to stay in my room at the foster home but we had been caught very quickly. We ended up leaving and staying with Sam's friend for a few weeks. After that we had our own flat which we rented privately. We had rented under Sam's friend's name so I couldn't use that as a reference.

I didn't want to but I had no choice. I had to camp out at the emergency housing centre. After a few days of coming and going I had to completely leave the laundrette. They took me seriously at the centre when I started laying my blankets on the chair, for Alice to sleep. I then got allocated a small bedsit as temporary housing.