Saturday

Mad Sharon. She lived down the road from Our Friend, in a dire cardboard and plastic flat. I first came aware of her when walking past her home, i saw a movement out of the corner of my eye, she was picking up a parcel off her front door step. Her hair a mop of white braided locks her body totally naked. This prompted me to ask Our Friend who the hell lived down the street, she replied Mad Sharon.
She had kids, two i think but Mr Mp said one, they were eventuly taken into care. She would leave them locked in the house, and they were under ten years old, while she went out got drunk or blasted on dance drugs, to tumble home sometimes days latter. My friend sometimes rescued them, when she knew they had been left, a couple of times one of the kids came to her door and asked her to come to their house as "mummy was ill" or "mummy is asleep and we're hungry". It broke our hearts. Eventual someone, possibly Our friend told the authorities and they were taken from her, eventually she stopped even visiting them in the foster home and they were adopted i think. She raged about having her kids taken away, raged and cried, but she damaged them poor kids, casually and cruelly.

Id inadvertently met her ex boyfriend before, Kat one of them gangly slightly uncoordinated guys who dresses in dark colours and perpetually seems to be "going to get a pint of milk". He seemed a nice chap, chatty and friendly. I found out that he had though, punched Sharon at the top of the stairs one day and she had fallen all the way down. I was shocked by this news, disappointed in him. But then i didn't know Sharon then. I strongly suspect he had been pushed further than could be endured, i think he should have just left, but he didn't he lashed out. Apparently the argument was about her treatment of the kids.

When out friend was heavily pregnant with the Lad, Sharon visited, straight from hospital. She had prematurely discharged herself and was manic raving about he kids and the world being against her. The whole time dripping blood form the abortion she had had earlier that day. I saw the blood drips along the pavement the next day.
The news story says she and her boy friend stole a boat, a yacht. And were found shot to death off the coast of Cameroon, which is well known for its violent pirates. But i wouldn't surprise me to find they had killed each other.

Stealing a yacht isn't a bad move if you have the knowledge to sail. the yacht's just stay there for months often used for a week every year. A sailing boat can easily cross the oceans and is very hard to find. This is the second person we knew that has stolen a yacht and died. the other was Stringfellow, a nice chap who lived on a crumbling old sea plane tender at the other end of the boat yard when we lived on out tiny yacht. He was a typical "temporary millionaire" and wide boy. he had girl friends everywhere, thinning dyed blond hair and always a scheme to get rich. He was very sweet to the wife when i had to go home to see my dieing mum, entertaining her and chatting, must have been a lonely time then for her. Anyway he was a builder, not the sort that gets his hands dirty but a planner and scammer. But as always he spent all his money and one day he just went. We didn't know where, but apparently he went to the marina and took a yacht (he had once been a fisherman and sailed sometimes on mates drunken voyages) but he was found in Portugal on the boat dead, food poisoning they said, his last log entry was "bad mussels last night".....