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British Short Story

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Submitted By AlinaKersyte
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A British short story.
There are two types of people in this world: those who are brave enough to take a chance and make a difference, and those who turn their backs because they are afraid to take a chance. Sometimes it depends where people come from and what skin colour they have. In this situation we meet a typical European, who is afraid of strangers from another country.
The short story is about a woman, she’s a Londoner and she’s on her way to the National Portrait Gallery. Suddenly she has a need for some change; she asked – “Has anyone got three twenty-pence pieces?” (P1, Line 9). Unfortunately for her, the people seemed to ignore her because they all were “Londoners”, or so she thought. There was only one person in the hall left – it was a young woman by the name of Laylor. “Do you have change?” (P1, Line 12) she asked. The woman seemed to turn round slowly. In some way they both start to communicate and the woman finds out that the girl is not from London, because of her accent. Unfortunately the girl a refugee is from Uzbekistan. She has the most spectacular eyebrows and her hair is black. Laylor is very young, maybe a student and she has a younger brother, but their parents aren’t with them. The parents were arrested in Uzbekistan (they were journalists). Friends of their parents acquired passports for them and put them on a plane to England. The women don’t know anything about people in Laylor’s situation and she speculates on why the girl doesn’t search for some help. Laylor tells to the woman that she’s afraid of that she will not see her mother again. The woman starts to think and her head is full of so many sensible thoughts, she starts to imagine how it will be, if Laylor get the help she really needs. In the end the woman decide to get away from

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