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The SKAGIE
A Story by Tony Mehrtens

They called her the Skagie. No one seemed to know why, although it was definitely a term of abuse. She travelled all over country although she always came back to Kent.

She was a bag lady in the true sense of the word. That is she always collected bags. To be precise Sainsbury's Bags for life. People didn't know if it was the orange colour or the feel or smell that made her collect them, but she did.

Her other obsession in life was fires in buildings. It didn't matter if it was a burning house or an office or a factory she was usually the first on the scene. She had an uncanny knack of discovering fires, so much so the police suspected her of starting some of them. She was even charged with arson on one occasion until further investigation revealed that it was faulty wiring that was responsible.

Copper Joe who was the only one she confided in said she told him, her fascination with fires started after she and her family had been caught in a house fire. She was the only survivor. Ever since then she had been drawn to fires.

She had been in various mental hospitals but none helped her much.

Her bag collecting had got her into trouble with the law. She used to buy the bags at first but being a beggar her money soon ran out and she started to steal them. She must have had a couple of hundred at one time until she was arrested for theft and given seven days in jail. When she came out the police wouldn't return the bags so she hit a PC for which was given another seven days. After that she bought the bags whenever she could. Asked why she would reply, "They will come in handy one day."

She had spent the summer in and around Manchester, but now she was heading back to Kent.

She had two big holdalls of bags, and small amount of food. She was sleeping rough near Epping Forest. Nearby was some scouts camped. Also nearby was an unofficial doss house where the local down and outs stayed? It was some distance from the nearest town and had no phone.

One cold October night the dossers were in their abode. They wouldn't let the Skagie in, because they said she smelt too bad, and they were right there. So she was sleeping under some plastic sheeting.

There were some thirty men in the doss house 10 down stairs and twenty upstairs. How the fire started nobody was sure, but it was probably from a cigarette being smoked in bed.

The Skagie woke to the sound of shouts and screams. The men downstairs in the house were trying to put out the fire but they only had one bucket. One had gone running off to try and find a phone.

Some of the scouts had mobile phones but it was a bad area and they couldn't get a signal. The Skagie was up at once she got her bags out, told one of the men to go and organise the scouts. The main noises apart from the cracking of the flames were the shouts of the trapped men. They could neither get down stairs because of the flames or out of the windows because they were too small.

The Skagie gave the men and the scouts a bag each and told them to follow her. She went to nearby stream and filled one of the bags with water. The men and the scouts formed a human chain and started to douse the flames. It was hard work but eventually they got the fire under control. The trapped men were released. There was relief and excitement the men were free. Nobody noticed at first that the Skagie wasn't there. They found her next morning with a smile on her face she had died happy. Her mission in life accomplished.

By Tony Mehrtens .