Anne stepped off of the dock, and tied her shawl as tight around her as she could. It was dark. And cold. Anne had heard stories about how it was dangerous for young girls to be alone in the city. Especially at night. All she had was a letter with her father's address on it and a few bits from the church. Anne stepped out from the dark and under a streetlamp. There she could get a good look around. The street she was on was deserted and silent except for the rowdy noises coming from inside the buildings. One of the doors to the buildings opened and a man who appeared to be drunk stepped out.
He spotted Anne and in a very slurred speech said, "Aye, pretty miss, you seem to be lost. Here let me take you home with me. I'll take good care of you." The man took several steps towards Anne. In her innocent naivety she didn't know what was going on.
"Thank you sir, but I already have a place to go. Can you tell me how to get to this place here?" Anne held her hand out with the paper. The man grabbed the paper…and her wrist. He tried to pull her towards him. Anne could smell the strong scent of whiskey on the man. She knew that she was in trouble.
Using all of the strength that she could muster up she transferred all of her weight onto her foot and stepped on the man's foot. Then she pulled her wrist away, making sure to pull towards his thumb. The man cried in pain and let go of her. The second he let go she bolted. She ran down streets and alleyways afraid to stop for fear that he was following her. Once she was far enough away and out of breath she stopped. She leaned against the brick wall of the building behind her and caught her breath.
"Anne, you blockhead!" she scolded herself, "You aren't in Ireland anymore! People here are different. There is no one here you can trust except father. Father!" At the thought of her father Anne remembered with horror the letter that said her father's address on it. She had left it with the horrible man when she had fled. Anne put her head in her hands and wept. She was lost.
After about 20 minutes of feeling sorry for herself Anne decided that she had to do something. It was getting colder every minute. She tried to remember the way her father had described the city in his letters. The letters that she had read over and over again, trying to envision herself there with him. Now she was here. She just had to find him. She looked up at the Inn sign that hung over the door of the building she leaned against. The Rusty Lock. The name rang a bell in her memory. Father had taken breakfast here on his first day in the city!
That must mean that his boarding house is somewhere around here! Her sprits lifting Anne gathered her things and left the dark alley stepping in to the warm lights of the street. She began to walk straight and looked at every building until she came upon it. Mcafferty's Boarding. Never had she been so happy to see a Boarding House in all of her life. Little did she know that hr happiness would be shattered.