Sadie Frost - Crazy Days. Sadie Frost

to a little girl called Sunshine. She seemed to Mary to be a little blonde cherub, not at all like the impish, dark Sadie, but still the perfect finishing touch to their little family. But David was becoming increasingly erratic, no money was coming in and things were again at breaking point, especially with another mouth to feed. Besides, Vaughany was always getting arrested, particularly after his recent spate of red painting. It wasn’t just the bridge: it was the houses of certain people that he disliked. He’d taken to breaking in and painting their entire place red. Soon the couple got an eviction order for non-payment of rent on Gloucester Avenue and they had to move out in the middle of the night with everything they owned. They went to stay with a friend of Dave’s called Pete Blackman, who was in both a reggae and a steel-and-skin band. The Blackmans had two kids of their own and only a small flat. Things were not ideal.

      ‘Fuck all this living in a tiny room. Let’s just piss off out of here,’ said Dave one afternoon as they lay on the single bed in the Blackmans’ spare room. Beside him Mary struggled to get Sunshine into bed and pacify Sadie. She kissed them both and repeated the rhyme she told them every night like a mantra to keep them safe: ‘Night-night, Sadie. Night-night, Sunny. Night-night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite.’ But, as she tucked the blanket in tight around them, Mary sensed trouble in David’s words.

      ‘Piss off to where? We haven’t got any money,’ she replied.

      ‘Formentera. Ibiza,’ said Vaughany, putting Dylan on the record player before stretching out on the bed again. ‘Sun, sea, sand and sex. The scene is supposed to be fuckin’ great.’

      ‘But how? It costs money to get there.’

      All the while, Sadie was wide awake, staring at her parents and repeating the night-time mantra they were so fond of.

      ‘Night-night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite!’ she said with an impish smile. Mary tried to shush her but Sadie just carried on. ‘Night-night, sleep tight…’

      Dave stroked his daughter’s hair and stared ruefully at the wall.

      ‘Fuck it all, we don’t need anything. Fuck society. Why should we live according to rules imposed by them? We’ll sell everything we own and just go.’

      ‘Go in what, Dave? We’ve got nothing,’ said Mary, sensing that he was building up to one of his moneymaking plans that usually ended in disaster.

      ‘You don’t have to worry about that. You just start getting the kids packed and ready to go.’

      Vaughany never disappointed when it came to surprises and a few weeks later, having spent the proceeds of the sale of all their worldly possessions, he turned up outside the flat in a rusty old single-decker bus. ‘Let’s go and drop out, love,’ he said as he leaned out of the window. As usual, Mary had no choice but to swallow whatever words she’d prepared and just smile.