Bab’s New Year’s Resolution
Chapter 7

List of Characters

Barbara. Chief Protagonist AKA Bab’s.
Lola (Seventeen) Barbara’s oldest adopted child. Transgendered girl rescued from an attempted murder.
Olivia. (Fifteen) Barbara’s second adopted daughter: Black lesbian girl fostered out of care then adopted. (With Olivia’s consent!)
Joyce Banks. Bristol Social worker.
Aaron Talbot Surgical registrar – married to -
Shirley Talbot Lecturer at Local university.
They are a married couple who own a narrow-boat on the canal. Friends of Lola
Mickey Talbot (Twelve) Aaron and Shirley’s oldest child.
Jessica Talbot (Eleven) Aaron & Shirley’s middle child.
Bianca Talbot (Nine) Aaron & Shirley’s Youngest child.
Billy Medical colleague of Aaron’s – he also owns a narrow boat in Bristol.
Sandra Her parents also own another Narrowboat in Gloucester.
Jackie Sandra’s friend (a bit headstrong and ‘adventurous’)
Julie Third member of the threesome, (more level-headed and sensible than Jackie).
Jason. (Black) London Gang member deals in drugs at the children’s homes
Tyrone (Black) Also a gang member, friend of Jason. Also a dealer.
Tyson (White) Also a gang member into drugs and trafficking young girls.
Angela (Angie), Olivia’s trafficked, drug-addicted friend (Rape-gang Victim)

The sergeant parked the unmarked car in the police station yard and accompanied the girls to the city centre shops.

So what’s it to be girls, shoes, dresses, undies?”

Olivia turned to Angela with a questioning expression.

“Your choice Angie, your treat.”

“Who’s paying?” Angela replied in a flat monotone voice.

Babs declared.

“The hospital said they could allow fifty pounds from their Social Services emergency fund and I’ll match that so it looks like a hundred to spend Angela.”

“Thanks.” Angela replied in the same monotone voice.

Olivia was about to scold Angie for not showing some gratitude but the police sergeant gently squeezed Olivia’s shoulder and whispered.

“Take it slowly Ollie. She’s had a nightmare life this past year. Time, we hope, will heal her.”

“She’s so dopy though." Olivia whinged. "Is she still addicted to heroin or cocaine?”

“You’ll have to ask the doctors when you get back. Her dopiness is probably due to the methadone she had before we left.”

Olivia sighed and wagged her head then grasped Angela’s hand and sighed.

“Come on babes let’s at least try some retail therapy. A miniskirt first I think.”

“No. Jeans.”

“Jeans! Why jeans. It’s mid-summer and hot, hot, hot!” Olivia objected.

“Jeans!” Angela repeated stubbornly.

Olivia turned despairingly to Babs.

“I don’t get this Nina. Even you’re wearing a light summer frock and bare legged.”

Bab’s had no answer as Olivia asked Lola.

“Would you wear jeans in this heat?”

“I would if I was afraid of everybody staring at me. Look around you.”

Olivia did a ‘girl-scan’ and concluded that Lola was correct, everybody that passed by gave her and Lola the ‘once-over’ – ‘but that what’s mini-skirts were all about’ she told herself.

Lola however was looking at it from Angela’s point of view.

“Out here on the street Babe’s you and I can say no. It’s broad daylight and everybody’s there if some idiot tries it on. For Angie there was no protection in that Asian gang place – that brothel.

If some shite decided he wanted to take her - rape her in other words. There was no way she could refuse. No matter what she said, or did - or wore, there was no escape. Now she’s terrified of the slightest glance from a stranger. Are you surprised she doesn’t want to invite another assault; and in her eyes, a miniskirt is an invitation. If she wants to buy Jeans, then jeans it is.”

Olivia sighed and nodded. She had been a bit selfish and stupid wanting Angie to buy a sexy outfit. Now she was getting some insight into her friend’s issues. It seemed that Lola had as much wisdom as Bab’s and Olivia wondered if it was the plastic bag thing when Lola was left to freeze to death.

“Alright then, Jeans it is.” She replied regretfully to Lola and they re-joined Babs, Angela and the police sergeant.”

“Where first then, Pri-mani?” Lola suggested. “They’ve got a pretty good selection of jeans.”

“Sounds like a plan darling,” Babs replied as she pointed out the very store on the next corner.

The jeans were conveniently on the ground floor and they were soon trying on different styles.

“I don’t want tight ones; you know, stretch jeans that show a camel toe!”

Both girls now understood Angela’s sublimal message about inviting unwanted abuse and they reluctantly acceded to a pair of looser fit, heavier denim jeans that would have looked more in place sitting on a tractor. Olivia and Lola kept their mouths firmly shut at first while Angela studied her image morosely. As she hummed and hawed over her reflection she finally pulled a dissatisfied frown.

“It’s not really me is it? I’ll ask Babs.”

The three emerged from the changing room to present for inspection by the older women and Angela asked for Babs’s opinion.

Olivia could not resist a little sarcasm as she interrupted.

“Oooh-ahrr, ooow-ahrr. Tis tiome to be bringin t’ arvest in!”

“Oy!” Sergeant Davis warned Olivia with a soft smile. “Horses for courses, If Angela wants loose jeans then loose they shall be. Now, Angela, tops I think, how about it?”

“I’m not sure about the jeans.” Angela replied with despondency clearly evident in her tone.

“Well if you’re not happy, we can try somewhere else. There’s hundreds of shops here.” Bab’s replied cheerily. “Shall we try another shop?”

“Let’s go back to the jeans section and look again.” Angela flashed the briefest of smiles towards Olivia, but It was so brief that most missed it or failed to note its import.

Babs however, ever alert to the moods and natures of her own two charges, noted the brief flicker slip fleetingly across Angela’s face.

As the three girls led the charge back to the jeans section of the shop, Babs gently tugged Sergeant Davis’s arm to hold her back out of earshot.

“Did you notice that? Angela’s showing some sort of response. I could have sworn I saw the slightest inflection of a smile just then.”

“Did you, I was too busy explaining to Ollie about being flippant.” The police sergeant remarked.

“It was that remark about harvest time that Angela responded to. I think their old friendship is beginning to sprout new shoots. She definitely smiled at Olivia’s remark.”

“Well we shall see. Let’s keep close to them and I’ll be watching more closely this time.”

By the time Bab’s and the lady police sergeant had caught up with the girls they were checking over the jeans again. Angela was holding up a stretchy pair with a flower motif on each back pocket.

“Better?” She was asking Olivia and Lola’s opinion.

“Possibles,” Lola confirmed. “I’ll hold these while you check some others.”

Olivia then selected a pair and posed them for Angela’s inspection.

“These as well I think.”

“Yeah. Why not?” Angela actually giggled.

Once again Olivia and Lola failed to realise the important message that Angela’s response inferred but both adults did. Angela was responding to social interaction; something she had not done since being rescued from the brothel. Sergeant Davis whispered to Babs while the girls were exchanging ideas and generally enjoying themselves.

“Bab’s. I need an excuse to speak to the inspector and the medical team at Birmingham. Call me on your phone and I can step away as though answering a call. Then I can report this stuff to the team. I want some advice from them.”

Babs caught the jist of the plan and promptly co-operated.

After the phone-calls were complete Sergeant Davis returned from the shop doorway and spoke to Babs.

“It’s good news. If she’s interacting as we say it is, then she definitely getting better. The side effects of the methadone should be dulling her mood and suppressing her pleasure centres. So, if she’s in a happy mood, that means she responding to the right stimuli. They say keep it up.”

“We haven’t got much longer. It’s Sunday and the shop closes at four.” Babs replied regretfully as she turned to the girls.

“You do realise this shop closes at four don’t you girls.”

Lola looked at her watch and cursed.

“Dammit! I forgot it was Sunday. We haven’t got a single thing yet. Come on Oliva let’s check the tops out.”

In one last desperate charge the girls grabbed some likely looking items and rushed to the changing rooms. It didn’t take long for Angela to emerge with a suitable top and a pair of stretch denim jeggings.

“I thought you said something loose.” Babs challenged gently.

“Bugger it, I’m going for broke. Besides I’ve four people to protect me and one of those is a copper.”

“Have we got time for shoes?” Olivia wondered.

“Only in this store and they’re on the third floor. Come on! Quickly!”

By the time Babs joined the girls and the sergeant, Angela had chosen a rainbow coloured pair of trainers.

“They glow in black – light Nina!” Olivier squealed as she placed the trainer in a special display cabinet to cause it to fluoresce.

“I’ve always wanted a pair of these!” Angela pleaded. “But they’re expensive.”

Babs quickly checked the receipts for the clothes and smiled.

“Everything including those shoes comes to a few quid over the hundred with the extra tops but I’ll stand you that. We can forgo the pizzas I was contemplating and go straight back to the hospital unit.”

Tears came to Angela’s eyes as she hugged Babs.

“Can you and Olivia stay for dinner before you go back tonight?”

“Uuhm. It depends on Sergeant Davis. She’s had a busy day and is entitled to time off.”

“I’ll ask my inspector but I want to speak to Olivia as well.”

“Me! What about?” Wondered a rather surprised Olivia.

“A private chat Olivia if you please. Don’t worry, you’re not in any trouble kiddo.”

When they got back to the hospital only the inspector and one member of the addiction team remained. Sergeant Davis asked Olivia to remain in the car with her for a few moment while Babs and Lola took Angela into the hospital addiction unit.

“So what’s all this about?” Olivia asked.

“We, the police that is; need all the help we can to destroy this rape gang completely and if possible find out any more connections between them and the gang that caused you and Angela problems in the children’s home. Have you got any more names for us?”

“You bet I have but are you lot going to do anything about it. When I reported Angela’s disappearance to the Met they treated me like some sort of slum-dog nigger bitch. If I give you names and stuff can you promise there won’t be a trail to my door or more importantly, Babs’s door?”

“Inspector Dobbs can promise you that but there’s another issue.”

“Go on”, Olivia intoned suspiciously.

“Well has Angela said anything to you while you were shopping?”

“Yes.”

“Go on.”

“I’m not sure I should.

“Why not?”

“Angie told me in confidence, apparently there was one girl, Angie didn’t say her name, who escaped once and went to the Police. The police also treated her like some sort of lying, slum-dog, nigger bitch and she ran out of the police station. Straight into the arms of those bloody wogs who were running the brothel.”

“You can’t use words like that!”

“Oh no of course not but they can snatch kids off the street, force them into prostitution and the police do nothing! Look what happened in that town in the north, you know the one, the steelworks place. Where the council told the police to lay off the rape gangs!!! Exactly the same thing happened there as happened to me and that girl Angie mentioned!”

If I wrote the word ‘Wog’ on Facebook or something, the police would be down on me like a ton of bricks but if I reported an Asian brothel in Birmingham I’d just be shooed away! Cos that’s exactly what happened to me – well it was a kidnap but my best friend Angie ended up being a junkie and a sex slave!!! But the police did fuck all and suggested that Angie had gone voluntarily with Tyson. Don’t talk to me about my words until you do something about their actions!!!”

Sergeant Davis suddenly noticed the single glistening tear escaping from Olivia’s and realised she might have gone too far too quickly.

“I’m sorry Olivia, I can’t apologise enough for what happened to you and your friend but can I still ask for your help? I want to catch all these bastards every bit as much as you do!”

Olivia’s shoulders heaved as she turned away to try and hide her tears. Sergeant Davis stretched across and wrapped her arms around the teenaged black girl just as the dam burst.

“I’m sorry Ollie! I’m so, so sorry!”

Olivia’s shoulders shuddered convulsively for several minutes as the sergeant struggled to hold the child tight. Eventually between wracking sobs, Olivia found her voice.

“She was - the only - friend - I had. “Will she ever – get better?”

Sergeant Davis gave her a tighter reassuring hug.

“Correction Ollie. She is your friend – and she will get better.”

“What did they get her on, when they took her – that is?”

“Opioids. Prescriptive pain killers. They are very addictive but she should be able to come completely clean of them. It’s not like crack cocaine or such like. Firstly they want to get a return on their investment so the longer the girl looks tidy and presentable, the more she earns for the gang.”

“Is that like Opium. Opium’s bad stuff, it really fucks with your whole body, mind and body!”

“No, opioids are commercially produced artificial derivatives that have similar chemistry to opium. They affect the body’s pain receptors and give the patient or in criminal circumstances, the victim an intensely euphoric high. More importantly, they can control the dose if the pills are legal, so they keep the girls on the edge all the time with little risk of their being overdosed because they control the dosage.”

“So the girls are just like zombies.”

“Well they’re fully conscious but totally dependent on the pills to stay sane. Withdrawal pains are utterly disabling and the cramps can even kill. They’re begging for the pills when they get the pains and cramps.

We’ve identified the pills they use and they are produced commercially in the United States. What we haven’t done yet is locate how or where they are getting into the UK. The pills are used legally in the US as prescriptive medicine for pain but somehow they are getting on -to the street – in huge quantities.”

“But I can’t help with that side at all. What do I know about suppliers or supply routes.”

“No, but if you keep Angie on side, she might remember names, or dates or even locations. She didn’t spend all the time locked in the brothel. Once the girls are addicted, they are like obedient puppies and can be taken anywhere. Angie has already responded to you more in a few hours than she has opened up to us in a couple of weeks. Once we get her clean of the opioids, -and she’s nearly there by the way – we can start to wean her off the Methadone and she should start to recover more of her memory.”

“But for that, I’d have to be with her all the time. I’ve only got four weeks summer vacation left and we return to school. Where would I stay?”

“These are questions we could address after we’ve got a handle on Angela’s addiction.”

“I don’ wanna’ stay in the clinic in this hospital. It reminds me too much of a bloody prison or the children’s home. All plastic covered sofas and PVC covered chairs, Urgh! No way!”

“It would have to be some sort of ‘safe-house’. I’d probably be seconded to guard her and there would be another police officer as well.”

“Bloody hell! That’s expensive what with police overtime and everything.”

“I don’t think your realise just how important a witness Angela is, do you?”

Olivia swallowed nervously before gulping.

“Is she in danger then?”

“She is now we’ve got the bulk of the gang behind bars. The word is that Angela’s catatonic and not talking but now you’ve arrived and she’s started talking, the gang might try to get to her even in the hospital.

“Shit! So she’s gonna’ need a safe house then!”

That’s just one option Olivia. All the logistics have to be worked out. All I’m asking for now is if you’re prepared to help Angela and help us at the same time?”

“Only if it will definitely help Angela.”

“Good girl. I knew you’d come up trumps. D’ you know Olivia, for a kid that’s had such a shitty start in life, your not such a bad kid after all. Oh, and by the way, you might have to give evidence but if you do, we might find a way to hide your identity. The problem is, your evidence of witnessing Angel’s kidnap is vital because it reinforces and backs up Angela’s narrative. Come on, let’s re-join the others.”

“I don’t want to be identified, at least not before the whole gang is behind bars. I want to be certain that Tyson get’s what’s coming to him.”

“Olivia, I can assure you that after the embarrassment that the Rotherham case caused for the police, the courts AND the government, if; or more probably, when Tyson gets found guilty, he’s looking at twenty five to thirty five years as are Jason and Tyrone.”