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Please remember this story is being written and posted 'live' every day. I am writing today's episode and posting it here without benefit of a read-through, let alone an edit. I don't usually work this way and this experiment is exciting and different for me, not my normal work-ethic at all. To that end, please forgive me any typos, grammar errors and anything that you may think should have been picked up in an edit - it WILL be picked up in the edit.

I've already spoken with a publisher about getting this story published - possibly after Christmas, we'll see how it goes.

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“You know what ‘brown’ is?” he asked.

Ash looked at Justin, a smart-mouth retort on the tip of her tongue. She didn’t voice the comment because she saw in Justin’s eyes something she was sadly lacking in her home life – something she only just recognised – compassion and sadness for her lot in life. Sadness on her behalf.

“Don’t worry, Justin. I only know that ‘brown’ is heroin because I listen to Nigel and his buddies whenever I can. I didn’t just meet them here, you know?” she said. “I’ve seen what that shit does to you and believe me, there’s no way I’m getting into that. It’s enough to give you nightmares.”

“You’re not wrong, kid.”

“I can laugh at them gurning and grinding their teeth down to the stumps. I know when they’re whizzing their tits off and I also know they can be psychotic one minute and sobbing their socks off the next. I’ve seen so many different highs and not one has persuaded me that it’s a good idea. None of it looks like fun to me, especially when they’re on the ‘come down’.”

Justin blinked and nodded. He listened to the nine-year-old with experiences and wisdom far beyond her years and he felt a lump in his throat as he realised that she was on the fringes of drugs and abuse and she was keeping afloat for the time-being.

“Nine years old, he said. “Nine fucking years old. What the fuck is every fucking adult in your life fucking doing about this shit?”

Ash was surprised at the outburst. It was her turn to blink in bemusement. “What?”

“You,” Justin said. “You’re nine fucking years old and you know about drugs, gurning, uppers, downers, paedophiles and how to avoid them; different highs and lows. For fuck’s sake! Don’t you have any relatives that you can go to?”

“Nope. Just the parents. I don’t remember anyone else… maybe we’re in the Witness Protection Scheme?” she said, believing she’d get a bit of a laugh from Justin.

“The fucking ‘Witless Protection Scheme’ is what you need, to protect you from those fuckwits that are supposed to be looking after you.”

Ash laughed at Justin’s comment, but only a little. His sincerity and concern gave her reason to think more about her family life.

“Yeah, I know not every normal family’s like mine,” she said.

“No normal family is like yours, Ash. Your dad is one step away from pimping you out. I’ve seen the signs. I want you to promise you’ll be careful. Or better still, let me call someone…”

“No… don’t call anyone. Just don’t, OK? I will be careful, but I don’t think…” she began with the excuses she always made.

Justin interrupted her excuses. “Don’t, Ash. I’ve seen it before. It starts off with introducing you to his friends, ‘They’re only joking around with you,’ he’ll say. Then someone will either just be staying for the night, on the sofa or in the spare room and you may or may not notice the visit in the middle of the night. Then you’ll be accused of overreacting if you say anything.” Justin looked at Ash’s reaction to his cautionary tale.

She didn’t have to say anything. He could tell he’d hit a nerve and he was bang-on the money.

“When?” he asked.

A few nights ago, at the weekend. Before I shaved my head. I didn’t think anything about it. Mum went out and a mate of my dad stayed over. He wasn’t at the pub that time when I was sick. Dad said he was staying over, had an argument with his girlfriend… he told me something…”

“What?”

“I think it was a joke…”

“What joke?”

“Well… he bought some Viagra from my dad and took it before he went home from the pub, so, you know… he’d be ready when he got home. Trouble is, his girlfriend was mad at him for staying out and he ended up sleeping on the sofa… well, he said he didn’t get any sleep… something kept him from dropping off…”

“And you laughed?”

“Well, yeah…”

“Did you understand the joke?”

Ash nodded but then she shook her head. “Not really, but dad laughed and so I thought it must be funny and I was just a bit too stupid to get it. I didn’t want to look stupid, so I laughed too.”

“Yeah, and he’ll have taken that as his cue because if you understand sexual humour, you know enough…” Justin said in a low, quiet tone. “What happened that night? Something did happen, didn’t it?”

Ash nodded. Her eyes were wide and scared. That was the first time Justin had ever seen her scared.

“I’m not gonna get my dad into trouble, am I?” she said and Justin thought she looked younger than nine-years-old.

For the first time since he’d met her, she looked young and scared, vulnerable and totally lost.

“Fucking hell kid,” Justin whispered. “You’re way too loyal for that fucker.”

“Yeah, maybe, but he’s my dad, isn’t he? I have to be loyal to him.”

“No kid, you bloody don’t. You have to be loyal to those that deserve your loyalty and the sooner you learn that lesson, the better off you’ll be. What happened?”

“The door opened and he came into the room. I pretended to be asleep, I thought he was going to the bathroom. He didn’t see me; I sleep on the floor…” Ash stopped talking. She saw the expression on Justin’s face and clammed up.

“Tell me,” Justin said. His voice cracked, barely making it past the lump in his throat.

“He didn’t see me…” Ash said. “He went to Stacey’s bed and she shouted at him. She screamed, she thought it was a monster. She peed the bed and he left her alone then. When he’d gone downstairs, I listened for a bit and he went out. He locked the door and I took her to the bathroom to get cleaned up.”

“Did your mum or dad come to see what was wrong?”

“No.”

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