Raped as a child, daughter of a prostitute..the streets were her home
FOUR SQUARE 1411
1ST PRINTING JANUARY 1966
LONDON, UK
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN HARDBACK BY ABELARD-SCHUMANN 1960
She was fourteen, more child than woman, but this had not mattered to the bum, two years ago, who had grabbed her in the dark, filthy hall of the tenement, pushed her down the cold stone floor and raped her there amid the garbage and ashes. She had fought him, kicking and biting at the greedy, shaking hands that tore at her...fought him until he punched her so hard that she tasted warm blood oozing from where a front tooth had been. From him she got a panting testamonial in the ashy darkness, 'You'll be better'n your old lady in a coupla years, kid-better'n your old lady.'
Was it too late now to save her-from the 'Ebony Deb' gang of delinquent girls; from her family who wanted her to be sent to work; from the teachers who, with their narrow-minded discipline, were more concerned about keeping order in the hall-ways than about a miscarriage in the class-room; from the young men who sought her for their own designs?
