Corrinne's story

When I first started going to Tooting Bec Common about nine years ago there were many more women there and many women who were not drug addicts.

One of the women was French and she always had her bike with her. The first time I remember doing anything with Corrinne I told her that I would give her a tenner if she let me finger her. She wasn't happy with this small amount of money. Many of the women would say that they did not do anything for less than twenty, although some would relent. We found somewhere in the bushes and I got two fingers inside her.

I didn't see her for a long time, but she remembered me. I was walking along the main road in Streatham and she was coming out of a side street. I looked at her and would have said hello but she just glared at me.

The next time I saw her on the Common she was coming towards me pushing her bicycle but when she saw me she turned away and went away from me. I walked in the same direction as her and saw her talking to two old men sitting on a park bench. She seemed to know them. There was room on the bench and I sat there and listened in on their conversation. She was saying that she didn't like men who were only willing to offer ten pounds. I thought if she doesn't want their business, all she has to do was to say no.

One of the men told her that Katy was back on the Common. He said something about drugs and said he was glad Corrinne did not do them. Corrinne said that she did take crack but that she didn't let it get out of control.

It was years before I saw Corrinne again, but I saw her on the Common last year. She was quite happy to go with me into the bushes for ten pounds. She said that the police were a big problem now but we found somewhere secluded. I remembered her, but I did not expect her to remember me. She had vague memories of me, she remembered that she had been with me before, but she did not remember that she had disliked me.

A few weeks after I saw Corrinne, I read in my local newspaper about a drug addict called Corrinne who was caught shoplifting. The headline was “Judge orders shoplifter to get drugs help as a priority”. I thought that there can't be many drug addicts in south London called Corrinne. The age given in the paper was 34. This sounds about right. The surname given was 'Fummell'. It's not a French name, but she could have married an English man.

I have been spelling her name 'Corrinne' because that is how it was spelled in the newspaper article, but I think it is more likely that it would be 'Corrine' or 'Corinne'.