Sara lay awake, staring at the night sky, trying to pick out the stars in amongst the bright lights of the East End streetlights. She actually missed the Bastille, the keeper and the prisoner in the next cell. But most of all, she missed her dear Papa. It was still sinking in after all those months. She muttered it under her breath now, like Holy Text. "My Papa is dead. My Papa is gone. My Papa is dead. My Papa is gone." But Sara was a strong little person and was determined not to cry. She ran her bony little fingers through her hair and tried to sleep again.
Sara woke up to the sound of men dropping a crate near to her. So she HAD slept. That, in itself, was a blessing and Sara was grateful. Today was looking good, as most of the, admittedly light, snow had melted and the sun above her was, if not warm, certainly pleasanter than the day before. She had 20 guineas now, which she knew from experience was more than enough to rent a room and buy food for at least a couple of months and more if it was a small room.
But luck was not on her side. As Sara wrapped her shawl around her she suddenly spotted a knave grab her bag. She reached for it and managed to get it back, but not until the little scamp had got away with all of her money except the two sixpence pieces hidden at the bottom. She fell backwards into a crate knocking over the young gentleman carrying it.
"Oh Lord!" she cried, "I'm most dreadfully sorry!" The gentleman chuckled, and held out a rough, callused hand to help her up. Once she was up she introduced herself.
"Sara..." he said, "That's a real pretty name. I'm Jed."
"Thanks.... Jed." she replied, feeling shy in spite of herself. Then he inquired after her money, and she inspected he inside of her bag.
"It's almost all gone, never to be seen again." She sighed heavily, and a few tears fell from her eyes.
"Hey, cheer up sweetheart. You really ain't more than a kid are you?" He chucked again and put a friendly hand on hers. "Money ain't everything, and crying over money's no better than crying over milk on the parlour floor." She blushed furiously, and admitted she was wrong. "All right now? Goodbye." And he left.
Sara sat there for a long time. She had been a complete fool. She had spun herself a little fairy tale, that this Jed would embody the Magic and would fly her somewhere far away, where she could forget her worries. But, Sara sighed, real life wasn't like that. Real life didn't favour the good people. She wiped away her tears and stood up with a new kind of determination running through her. "Nobody said it would be easy." She muttered to herself. And it was true; she was learning a new lesson every day. But she had learnt the hardest one on that day. She had learnt to face up to reality, after having been protected from it by Miss Minchin and her school. It was a new, stronger Sara who walked away from the dock that night.