Vivien Brown Just Like A Rolling Stone

After a tough time, it seems things are looking up for sixteen-year-old Geraldine with a job offer and her favourite band coming to town…

In 1971, Geraldine Clark turned sixteen. It was the year that Clive Dunn’s Grandad pushed its way quite unexpectedly to number one in the charts, everyone was swooning over David Cassidy on TV, and The Rolling Stones came to Brighton – even though she never did get to see them.

Geraldine had always loved living in such a busy town so close to the sea. But on a chilly January day, with nothing exciting going on, her promise to her dad still playing on her mind, and the wind whipping up the waves and rattling at the pebbles on the beach, she wasn’t quite so sure.

Wrapping her woollen scarf tightly around her neck, she turned up one of the side roads, away from the seafront, before stopping to pull a scrap of paper out of her pocket. She checked the address she’d scribbled down.

Yes, this was the right place. The shop was not as big as she’d expected, but it looked bright and inviting. Its sign, displaying the name Bits And Bobs, was newly painted and its windows sparkling clean.

She took a deep breath and checked her reflection. This would be her first job interview, and she was determined not to let her nerves get the better of her.

Ever since her mum had died, there had seemed no real point to anything. She hadn’t been able to sleep, and she hadn’t been able to cry. She had felt lost, as if a great ball of grief had settled inside her and nothing could shift it.

She had started staying out late, got mixed up with the wrong crowd, and even dropped out of school for a while, but none of that had helped. And when she had seen the helplessness and hurt in her dad’s face, at a time when he was grieving too, she’d realised that she had to stop rebelling against the world, start looking forward and get herself back on track.

She had to make a success of her life, and make her dad proud of her again. It was what her mum would have wanted.