"Miss Hannigan! Miss Hannigan! We saw a mouse! A MOUSE!" Sarah squealed.
"Do I look like the pest control to you?" Agatha Hannigan demanded, it had only been five minutes and she was already beginning to regret her agreement to look after the girls on behalf of her brother.
"Hey, Lucy!" Kay called from the top of the stairs to a smaller girl below, "watch out for walking doors!"
Agatha turned around and walked straight into a door placed conveniently in front of her.
"Get to bed, the lot o' ya!" she ordered and limped over to her old desk, still hurting from colliding with the door.
Her hand pulled open the drawer, expecting to find a bottle of the cheapest vodka but instead, Lily had filed everything in order, deciding that it was the best way to run the annex.
"So this is what you're useful for, Miss Sticky Fingers," Agatha murmured to herself, so loudly that she didn't hear the front door open, then close.
A petite woman walked into the hall, but she couldn't have looked less like Lily. Her face was sweet and youthful with knowing eyes and she was slender underneath the oversized unflattering dress she wore. Her hands clutched at her bag, looking around for the owner or anyone who could assist her but despite her attempts to engage an audience, Agatha could not hear her. It was fortunate that the woman spotted the light in the small room to the back of the hall, so she took the opportunity to address herself to the occupant.
Agatha Hannigan swivelled around in her chair and dropped the glass she was holding so that it cluttered to the floor.
"Miss Sticky Fingers?" she exclaimed in surprise, but the woman looked confused.
"No, I'm Rebecca, Rebecca Aldonquinn."
"Say, you ain't from round here." Agatha remarked, "You ain't obviously heard 'bout the Depression?"
"I have. Are you the proprietress of this institution?"
"Nah, that'd be my brother, but you won't find him, lady, he's gone to New Jersey."
"Your brother is…?"
"What's it to you? You ain't lookin' for him, are ya?" Agatha became defensive.
"No, no, I'm looking for…oh, it doesn't matter; she would have been here a long time ago."
"Who?"
"Sara, my daughter."
"Sara? Nah, we ain't had a Sara here, got a Sarah, but she's ten years old."
"Definitely too young," Rebecca agreed, "I mean, I left the kids, I was so young…now my Uncle's looking for her, he wants her home, with my other kids. They aren't kids any more, but she's untraceable."
"Hey, take a load off," Agatha insisted, indicating a battered old armchair, "you're lookin' for your daughter?"
"I had her when I was seventeen. Gee, it was hard, then the guy who…you know…he came back and before I knew it, I'd got another one on the way. Sara was only three and she needed care too but I had no money, no job, I was living in a run-down apartment with a rent collector hollering at me every day. So I started going around the agencies, got into trouble with one job, it wasn't respectable but I needed the money. I came home every night to make meals for my children, then I'd go and work…it was dirty and demeaning, but I had to feed my children."
"So you got a job, then what?"
"I saved money and eventually managed to pay off the debts to my landlord. He then threw me out, claiming I had short changed him and I found a hotel to stay at. It had a bar and the manager let me work there in exchange for my board and room. Four years later, Sara was nearly ten and due to some reckless behaviour, I now had four mouths to feed. The twins were my priority, and Sara could see that."
"Listen honey, I don't mind listenin' but can ya speed it a little? I got a radio programme at 2."
"You're on the radio?!" Rebecca exclaimed in surprise.
"No, I just listen to it."
"Oh," Rebecca turned away, "I went to find a new job, a better job and when I returned, Sara had taken her brothers and sister and left."
"Okay, Missy, where do you think she might have taken them?"
"This was years ago. I found her brothers and sister, but Sara…is still missing."
"You think she might be here?"
"I don't know," Rebecca replied, "She might be?" her eyes caught a framed picture of Daniel and Lily on the desk and she gasped.
"What?!" Agatha demanded, beginning to lose patience with her guest.
"That…that picture…" she picked it up and looked at it, "who is this girl?" she pointed at Lily.
"That's Miss Sticky Fingers, I can't recall her name. The beau's my brother, Rooster."
"Rooster Hannigan? The one who kidnapped Oliver Warbucks' adoptive daughter?" Rebecca asked, not taking her eyes off the picture.
"Yeah, that's him," Agatha grumbled, "You wanna find him?"
Rebecca tapped Lily's face in the photo.
"This girl…she could be Sara. I need to see your brother, ask him some questions." She paused, "did you say he is in New Jersey?"
"That's right, some fancy school somewhere."
Rebecca put on her gloves.
"Thank you, Miss Hannigan, you have been a real help to me," she stood by the door, "If you see that girl around, tell her Rebecca Aldonquinn needs to talk to her."
"I will, don't worry."
Rebecca smiled before closing the door on her hostess and walked along the street. Agatha Hannigan was very confused; the woman obviously needed to find her daughter but why was it so important now? She wasn't dressed finely and the likelihood of an inheritance was laughable, yet there was something very sincere about Rebecca Aldonquinn that Agatha hadn't recognised and she was definitely a very determined woman.