2.0 TASK 1 2.

1 SHORT STORY LETTER TO MAMMY

Letter to Mammy
Dear Mammy, Here I am in London! What do you think of that? Ill start by saying sorry that I didnt write sooner. I started a ou!le of letters but what I was saying seemed like su h "word s rat hed out# nonsense that I $ust threw them away. It took me a few days to get the hang of the way they do things o%er here. &nyway I arri%ed at Li%er!ool safe and sound and got the train down to London. It went at a hell of a s!eed and e%en though its hundreds of miles I was there by teatime. 'inbar met me at the station. Hes looking well but hes a lot (uieter now than when we used to know him. &t least it was me that did the most of the talking. He arried the big ase for me and took me on a bus to the house hes li%ing in. I ouldnt belie%e how big London is. We were on that bus for the best !art of an hour and e%en then we were nowhere near the end of London. Its as if they took a whole ounty and built houses all o%er it. )%en if you sit in the atti and look out of the roof* light you ant see a field or a hill as far as the hori+on. ,ust houses made of red bri k and $oined together in rows, and they all look e-a tly the same as one another. I was afraid to go out at all the first day in ase I got lost. 'inbars house is big but it wasnt the best of the ones we saw when we were on the bus. It has a few broken windows and theres a ou!le of !la es where the roof leaks. I said he should get on to the landlord, but he said there was no landlord, so thats good at least I su!!ose. He and )%a seem to be li%ing rent*free. I must tell you about )%a. .hes a foreigner, from somewhere in )uro!e. It seems there was a re%olution or something and her ountry ame to an end, and e%erybody

ran away. .he told me something %ery sad. .he said that her mother and father and her sister were all dead and the only reason that shes still ali%e is be ause she was able to run faster than them. I dont think she was $oking. Isnt it a hell of a world were li%ing in? )%a has two bedrooms. /heres the one she and 'inbar ha%e together and then theres another one she has $ust for herself. /he one she has for herself is the best room in the whole house * theres a huge big double bed and a drinks abinet and long mirrors on the wall. 'inbar got her the big bed and !ut u! all the mirrors and things be ause she isnt well, and she has to s!end a lot of time in bed. My room is downstairs at the ba k of the house. It used to be a kind of kit hen0diner but 'inbar and )%a dont do any ooking in the house any more. ,ust make tea in their bedroom with an ele tri kettle. 'inbar brings home fish and hi!s after work, or sometimes foreign food that burns your mouth, and )%a hardly eats anything at all. 1o wonder shes thin. 'inbar works at London &ir!ort. When he told me I thought he was a !ilot, flying the !lanes, but no, hes one of the luggage men. /hey !ut your suit ases on big trolleys and load them on and off the !lanes. He works %ery funny hours, but its a good $ob, and sometimes he omes home with things for )%a. Hes allowed to take home all the lost !ro!erty, it seems, if it isnt laimed. Hes got loads of ameras and little om!uters and mobile !hones, and sometimes he gets $ewellery and !erfume and bottles of e-!ensi%e boo+e and god knows what. He kee!s some of it and sells the rest to a friend of his. It was at the air!ort that he met )%a. 'inbars going to see if he an get me a $ob at the air!ort too. When 'inbars at work I get the han e to talk to )%a sometimes. .hes a beautiful girl, and %ery well*mannered. /alks with a funny a ent, but then they all do o%er here. 2ou would like her Mammy. 'inbar is a %ery lu ky man to ha%e a girlfriend like that. I ho!e maybe youll meet her and 'inbar some day. I was sorry for )%a at first be ause shes in bed so mu h of the time, but she has a lot of friends and gets loads of allers. /hey all look %ery res!e table and I know that a lot of them gi%e her !resents. If they all while Im here I $ust send them straight u! to her room like she told me to.

'inbar told me that )%a needs %ery e-!ensi%e in$e tions e%ery day, and thats one of the reasons that he has to do so mu h night work at the air!ort. I su!!ose some of the men who ome to see her must be do tors. Im sorry about )%a being si k be ause shes su h a lo%ely girl. I asked )%a if there was any way she ould get ured so that she didnt need the in$e tions any more and ould maybe get a $ob herself. .he said there might be a way but she was s ared to go to the s!e ial hos!ital where they do the ure. I think she was s ared in ase it would hurt and also be ause theres some !roblem with her !ass!ort or something and she mightnt be allowed to stay in the ountry. Isnt that strange? Imagine sending somebody ba k to a ountry where all her family were murdered be ause they ouldnt run fast enough? I dont think e%en the )nglish ould be that bad. I asked )%a if she would show me where the s!e ial hos!ital was and she took me o%er there the other day. I said3 42oure here now, why dont you go in and talk to them? Maybe they dont need to see your !ass!ort at all.5 6ut she wouldnt go in. .he went ba k to the house * I think she was e-!e ting one of her friends * and so I went in myself and I talked to the woman at the desk. .he was %ery ni e, e%en though she was )nglish, and she said that there was no (uestion of asking anybody for their !ass!ort, or e%en their address. If they needed treating, that was all that mattered. .he said I ought to talk to )%a and get her to ome along. .o I did talk to )%a, this morning after 'inbar had gone to work. I said the life she was li%ing was no life for a beautiful lady like her and she owed it to her mother and her father and her sister who were murdered to get herself ured and to li%e the kind of life that would ha%e made them !roud of her. .he ried and I ga%e her a hug. I felt %ery guilty be ause I en$oyed hugging her and shes really 'inbars girl. It took a bit of time but after a while )%a agreed to go to the s!e ial hos!ital and we walked o%er to it together. .he asked if I would wait for her, and %isit her sometimes if she had to stay for a while, and of ourse I !romised her I would. /hats where I am now a tually, writing this letter. Im in a kind of waiting room and )%a is being seen by the do tors and theyre going to e-amine her and see if they an make her better. I left a note for 'inbar in ase he omes home and wonders where the two of us are. Itll be great if this works out be ause then 'inbar wont ha%e to work so hard, and

maybe we an all ha%e a go at fi-ing the windows and the roof or maybe e%en mo%e to a better house. .o its true what they say about )ngland, Mammy, its the land of o!!ortunities. When )%as better and were all a bit more settled maybe you an ome o%er and %isit us. 2ou an stay in the room with the big bed, )%a wont need it any more when shes better. Id better go now. I an hear )%as %oi e with one of the do tors, I think theyre oming ba k. 7oodbye and 7od bless. De lan.