Chapter 8

Going Places Summary

Sophie and Jansie, two school girls, were coming home from school. Sophie declared that she was going to have a boutique Jansie looked doubtful as something like that took money. Sophie said that she would find it. Jansie observed that it would take a long time to save that much. Sophie said she would be a manager till E then. Jansie pointed out that they would not make her manager straight off. However, Sophie persisted in her fantasising. She said that she would be like Mary Quant. She would have the most amazing shop in that city.

Jansie knew that they were both earmarked for the biscuit factory She became melancholy and wished Sophie wouldn't say those things. She told Sophie to be sensible. They didn't pay well for shop work. Moreover, her dad would never allow it.

Sophie changed track. She said that she would become an actress There was real money in that field. She could also have boutique as side business as actresses did not work full time. Alternatively, she would become a fashion designer-something a bit sophisticated.

"If ever l come into money I'll buy a boutique, she said, entering the house Little Derek, who was hanging on to the back of his father's chair, remarked, "She thinks money grows on trees, don she, Dad? Their mother sighed. Sophie watched her back stooped Over the sink. The small room was steamy from the stove and cluttered with the heavy-breathing man in his vest at the table and the dirty washing piled up in the corner Sophie felt a tightening in her throat. She went to look for her brother Geoff.

Geoff was three years out of school. e was an apprentice mechanic He travelled to his work each day to the far side of the city. He was kneeling on the floor in the next room and tinkering with a part of his motor cycle. Geoff was almost grown up now She Suspected areas of life about which she knew nothing about which he never spoke. He seemed to be away somewhere, in those places she had never seen. These places attained a special fascination simply because they were unknown to her and remained out of her reach. She wished she could be admitted more deeply into her brother's affections and that someday he might take her with him. She knew that Geoff thought her too young but she felt impatient.

Sophie told Geoff that she had met Danny Casey in the Arcade Geoff did not believe her and asked if she had told Dad Geoff asked her how Casey looked like She said that he had green gentle eyes but he was not very tall. Geof told his father that Sophie had met Danny Casey.

Sophie wriggled. Her father looked at her with disdain. He considered Casey too young for the first team. Sophie then said that Danny Casey told her that he was going to buy a shop. Her father dismissed it as another of her wild stories. He did not believe her yarn. He warned her that she was going to talk herself into a load of trouble someday

In Geoff's room Sophie looked at the large poster of United's first team squad. It had a row of coloured photographs beneath Three of them were of the young Irish prodigy. Casey. Sophie asked Geoff to promise he would not tell anyone about her meeting Casey and asking him for autograph for Derek. Since neither of them had any paper or a pen he asked her to come to meet him next week. She promised to do so. Geoff said that it was the mOst unlikel thing he had ever heard.

On Saturday, they went to watch United. Their team won two-nil and Casey drove in the second goal Sophie glowed with pride Geoff was ecstatic. Next week Jansie asked Sophie what she had been talking about meeting Danny Casey. She promised to keep it a secret. Sophie | said that her father would quarrel with her if he heard about it. Sophie realised that Geoff had not told her about the date.

After dark she walked by the canal. She sat down on a wooden bench beneath a solitary elm to wait. For sometime she imagined his coming Some more time passed. She began to think that Danny might not come. She felt sad. Others would doubt her Geoff would be disappointed.

She climbed the steps to the street. Outside the pub, she noticed her father's bicycle propped against the wall. She was glad he would not be there when she got home Coming through the arcade she pictured Danny Casey again outside Royce s She saw his gentle, gazelle like eyes. She kept waiting in the arcade alone for a long time remembering the soft melodious voice, the shimmer of green eyes.

Then Sophie remembered another vision. Last Saturday she had seen Casey moving past the defenders without making a sound and kicking the ball into the goal. She remembered the thunderous applause made by fifty thousand supporters.

We hope CBSE/MP Board Class 12th English "Flamingo" chapter 8 " Going Places " Will help you

Written by - Ritik Rathore