The Brick Pathway Magpie Tales#51

She tugged her scarf tightly round her face against the icy wind.

‘Not far now ,’she thought as she turned into the narrow passageway. She looked down at the worn bricks and wondered about all the other hundreds of feet that had trudged this way through London. Perhaps some of Dickens characters had stepped this way in his stories; Scrooge or Bob Catchit or even the Artful Dodger.

‘Such silly thoughts,’ she thought. Hearing footsteps behind her made her stop and listen and shivers went up her spine. Was someone following her? She wished she hadn’t let her mind wander to Dickens stories as the ghost of times past seemed now to be in every dark corner. She glanced behind her. It was quiet, the sound of footsteps had stopped. She started to run and her scarf flew off behind her.

‘Hey,’ some one shouted.

But she didn’t stop as she raced toward the lamp shining at the end of the brick path. She quickly joined a group of people all jostling along the main pavements and walked at their pace, hoping she had left whoever it was behind her.

The stranger looked down at the scarf he held, that the young woman had dropped. It was rather nice and would suit his Mum nicely. He wouldn’t tell her where he had picked it up. She would be quite cross if he told her he had taken the short cut, the brick path passageway. According to his Mum wicked women hung around there waiting for a young chap just like himself. That woman who ran off in front of him, who dropped the scarf was probably looking for someone just like himself. It had been a scary time when she had looked behind her but he had ducked into the shadows out of sight.

‘ Yes....... Mum will like this scarf,’ he thought.
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