Sophie's dreams

'Going Places' by A. R. Barton is the story of Sophie, a schoolgirl who lives more in her dreams than in the real world.

As she walks home from school with her friend Jansie, Sophie talks about what she will do after she leaves school. She will own a boutique, she says; or she will be an actress, or a fashion designer. Jansie is practical and down to earth. She knows the truth: both girls are marked out for the biscuit factory, where most girls from their background end up. Sophie needs money to start a shop, and she has none.

Sophie's home tells the same story. The family is poor. Her father comes home from work, dirty and tired, and sits down to his tea. Her mother is bent over the sink, worn out. The house is small and crowded, and her little brother Derek is noisy.

Sophie loves and admires her quiet older brother, Geoff. He is an apprentice mechanic, and he rides off on his motorbike to places she has never been. He hardly speaks at home, and to her he stands for the free world outside, full of mystery.

She dreams of riding behind Geoff on his motorbike one day: he in new, shining black leathers, she in a yellow dress with a cape flying out behind, while the whole world rises to applaud them. Then she looks across, and the real Geoff is frowning at an oily engine part in his hands.