by Green Swiper
AFTER finishing my late shift at ten o’clock in the evening, I walked down to Rochdale town centre to catch my bus home. It was not due for another twenty five minutes, so I decided to get something to eat from one of the nearby takeaways on Drake Street.While viewing a menu in a shop window, I heard a woman’s voice that seemed to be calling to me.
“Hello!”
I ignored it.
The voice persisted and it grew louder. “Hello!” Moments later, she was standing beside me.
I turned to look at her. She was about thirty years old. She was wearing an overcoat and a woolly hat. She asked me to lend her a pound.
I told her to leave me alone and go away.
Then she said: “Would you like a blow-job?”
I said no.
She started to walk away.
I felt strangely guilty and impolite so I called to her. I said: “Thanks anyway. I’m flattered.”She returned and asked me what I meant.
I told her that she was a pretty woman. I then gave her a lecture on why she ought to take more care and that she ought get a proper job.
She said it wasn’t her job and she walked away.
I went inside the takeaway and I told the shopkeeper about my brief encounter. He said: “They’re not whores. They’re drug-addicts. They’ve been there for years.”
I left the shop with a bag of chips. I looked around. The police were nowhere.
Why are the authorities allowing this lewdness to go on? Can the Town Council do something about it or are they proud of their vice capital of the north?
These women need to be taken off the streets for their own safety. They need proper help and support to free them from addiction, organized crime and pimpery.
Yes. It can be done. They could be rescued and led to normal lives. Those of you who are reading this and chuckling ought to ponder that those women could be your daughters, your sisters or your mothers. Maybe, they are!
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3 comments:
I find your post funny but depressing at the same time. Did you see what someone recently wrote in a letter in the Rochdale Ob. about the decline of Drake Street architecturally. Your post shows that there is perhaps a cultural decline as well. I just wonder if I'd feel different if Drake Street was the Barrio Chino in Barcelona or St. Denis in Paris. Would that make the scene you paint more quaint or romantic?
I find the lack of comments depressing. Does everybody know about the junkies, piss-heads and whores who have become a bloody nuisance in Rochdale town centre every night? Has it become acceptable? Does anybody care?
The Northern Voices society can do better than this. Tell me. Who have abdicated their responsibility? Whom can we accuse of gross negligence? Whom can we accuse of dereliction of duty? Whose finger needs to be pulled out? Whose heads need to roll?
The Police Chiefs are always out driving their luxury Mercs and the Council Chiefs are always away on fact finding holidays. Their lavish lifestyles are funded by the taxpayers. Let’s name-and-shame those shirkers.
The same woman accosts most males walking across The Esplanade and heading towards Drake Street at some point or another. No wonder people avoid the Town Centre at night.
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