Bella felt she was really getting her life together after several years of struggling. She had moved to London when she was eighteen and shared a flat in Shoreditch with Sarah, a girl she knew from home. Sarah worked in an insurance company in Liverpool Street. After a few non-starters, Bella got a job at a local hairdressers as an apprentice.  She had no experience except a desire to learn a trade and better herself. It was a means to an end and her first foot on the ladder.  What she really wanted was to save enough money to go to one of the hairdressing academies. There she would gain more experience and realise her ambition of working as a hairdresser to the stars. That was well out of her reach, but she had to start somewhere.

After a year of washing heads, sweeping floors and making cups of tea and coffee, she started her training. The people she worked with were friendly and helpful. They didn’t ask too many questions about her past. They were Londoners mostly. Bella worked very hard at blending in. She watched and listened to all the clients, noticing how they dressed and spoke. When she went back to her flat, she scoured the evening papers and read books or magazines on hairdressing. After applying for several positions, to Bella’s surprise she was eventually rewarded with an interview at a top London salon.

 

Bella was a pretty girl with dark brown hair, blue eyes and strong cheekbones. She had a tiny mark on her eyebrow where she once had a piercing. She was quite striking and had a presence about her. Bella was not unaware of the glances she got from the opposite sex, but had never met anyone that she could be bothered with. One thing she was sure of, she wasn’t going to end up like her mother, wasting her life on someone who didn’t appreciate her.  She loved her mother and hoped one day to give her the life she deserved. Bella missed her mother, brother John and sister Sally, and all the cousins who lived around her back in Dublin.

 

The only consolation was that her father had been sent down for 10 years for causing the death of an elderly man by dangerous driving. He’d got off lightly as far as she was concerned. Her father was an alcoholic. As a child she had often heard the arguments at night as herself and her brother and sister covered their ears with blankets, terrified by the shouting and furniture being pushed around. One particular evening was still vivid in her memory. Bella’s mother had worked extra hours in the bakery to get her dressed for her First Holy Communion. It was the first time she had seen her father raise his hand to her mother.  It was because of her mother’s extravagance he said, and she came close to getting a swipe herself. She would always remember her Communion for the wrong reasons. As she got older, she only had to look at his eyes when he came through the door, to know if they were in for another night of the same. None of the family ever spoke about what happened over the years. Her father was always charming to people outside the home. When he was eventually banged up and her mother was safe, she knew it was time for her to get out and leave all the shame and fear behind.

 

Sarah was delighted when Bella told her she’d got the job at the exclusive salon in Oxford Street, and they said they would go out on the town when she got her first pay packet.  Sarah was always encouraging Bella to go out with herself and her friends, but she had no interest. There wasn’t a lot in the flat, it was pretty basic. They did a shop on a Thursday night at the late night supermarket, but by the following Monday there wasn’t much left in the fridge except milk and cheese, and they made do with cereal and toast for a few days. The carpet was old, as was the furniture, but they had put a few pictures up and bought a trendy mirror for over the fireplace.

 

Bella hadn’t a lot of clothes except her work uniform, a few pairs of jeans and tee shirts, one good coat, a few long woollen cardigans and a good pair of comfortable shoes for work. She decided she would start buying a few really good things when her money got better and gradually get rid of the old stuff she had made do with over the years. She would dump all the cheap jewellery she had accumulated. As she went through the box they were in, she came across a miraculous medal her mother had given her when she was leaving for London. She held it in her fist and raised it to her heart. That would always keep Bella close to her mother.

 

It was a cosy flat and she felt safe there, near to the tube station and shops. When Bella was there on her own, she’d potter around in her hedgehog slippers, dusting and polishing and give the place a good tidy. Sometimes her mind would slip back to her old home, the shabby wallpaper and threadbare carpets, and the smell of booze at the weekend when her father was on a bender. How she missed her mother. One day she’d make sure her mother had a better life.

 

Bella delayed a bit when she got off the tube. She was a half hour early. She noticed the smart shops around and how well dressed people who passed her in the street were. Men and women were rushing with a purpose. Although she was nervous, Bella got a rush of excitement as she neared the salon. It looked very impressive and already the day had begun inside. Her first day went by in a bit of a blur, meeting the manager, a tall handsome Italian-looking man.  She met the rest of the staff, and tried hard to remember their names. The entrance was spacious with a secluded seating area, a few tables and tall potted plants, strategically placed. To the left of the reception area, there was another room with lights and chrome fittings, with red leather chairs up against the wash basins. They had separate rooms for private consultations, manicures and a tanning area. It was a lot to take in on the first day. There was an air of. “Your wish is my command. You will leave here feeling like a million dollars”.  The stylists themselves were the best advertisement for the trendy London scene.

 

Bella worked hard, putting in long hours and soaking up the glamour and affluence of the clientele. She was inspired by her boss, his easy manner but ultimate business-like air of ‘the customer is always right’. He seemed to take a brotherly interest in Bella that she felt comfortable with. He always saw to it that she got as much experience as possible. She felt she had far to go under his wing, and would do all she could to prosper.

 

After she had been there a year, Marcus, her boss, took her out for a special treat, as it was also close to her twenty-first birthday. She bought herself a simple but stylish black dress and a pair of black patent high-heeled shoes. When she looked at her reflection in the mirror, with the string of pearls around her neck, she smiled. Marcus took her arm as they stepped onto a boat moored on the Thames, which was a restaurant. Bella thought ‘I could get used to this’. The menu was the size of a poster, and in French. Bella wasn’t about to show her ignorance and said, nonchalantly, ‘I’ll have what you’re having’.  Marcus smiled, made a few suggestions of what she might like, and ordered for them both.  It was a perfect setting for any love story she might have read, and life seemed to be coming together for her.

 

If only her mother could see her.