have spoken to Nicky today

People who have followed my blog for a while may remember someone I have written about quite a bit, a woman called Nicky. Nine-fingered Nicky. She was one of the two or three worst addicted women that I saw on Tooting Bec Common. I have just spoken to her. I was in the centre of Croydon and she was walking towards me. I could easily have not recognized her.

She said hello to me. I said "Hello, how are you?". She looked quite healthy, still looking older than her years, but much better than the last time I had seen her. She said that she was fine. I wanted to know if she had given up drugs, but it seemed impolite to ask. She said "I've stopped all that messing about".

I don't know if she blames herself for the situation she was in. I would have liked to have said to her that she had been in the grip of a powerful addiction, and it was admirable that she had been able to overcome it. I used to think that nobody could overcome crack addiction, especially when it has become so strong.

She asked me how I was, but she didn't want to talk for long. I can think of a number of reasons why she might not want to have a proper conversation with me. I would have liked to ask her if she knew what had happened to Katy and Chrissie, the two other most addicted women I had seen on Tooting Bec Common.

I have often thought she could write a book about her experiences. People would want to know about her life. She is quite an intelligent person. Chrissie told me she usually has a book with her, although I'm not quite sure if that was the other Nicky. I would have liked to interview her for this blog.

I used to ask Chrissie if she knew how Nicky is. Chrissie said to me that she told Nicky that I was always asking about her. Nicky might have been the first girl I encountered on Tooting Bec Common in 2000. For some reason I avoided her for years. Then she disappeared from the Common for a while and when I saw her again I asked her if she had a flat we could go to. I saw her twice in her flat, and had hoped she would come to my flat, but got no answer when I phoned and texted her.

Then I saw her once more on the Common. I was shocked by her appearance. I didn't want to do anything with her. Then many months later I saw her in a supermarket and a couple of weeks later in the street. She told me she was going to do some rehab.

The thing I always notice about her is that she is such an ordinary person. An ordinary nice chatty person. She probably just wants to get on with her life. She's put all that behind her. She's probably in a relationship with a man. She might have a baby; someone told me that she was pregnant and was giving up prostitution.

I was pleased to see she is happy now. She deserves to be happy. She was always a nice person. Despite being a crack addict I don't think she ever lied to people or stole from people. I felt a bit sad, though. I could tell that now there was nothing that she could ever want from me. I guess one thing I liked about street girls is that they wanted something from me, either money or something to eat or a cup of tea or a hug.