Going Places
by A. R. Barton
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The story explores the theme of adolescent hero-worship and fantasising. Sophie, a working-class English schoolgirl, is a daydreamer who imagines a glamorous future far above her modest means, owning a boutique, becoming an actress or a fashion designer. Her practical friend Jansie, destined like Sophie for the biscuit factory, keeps trying to bring her down to earth. Sophie idolises Danny Casey, a young Irish football star, and invents a story that she has met him and that he has promised to meet her again and give her an autograph. Her family, her tired father, her hardworking mother, her adored elder brother Geoff, half-doubt and half-dismiss her fantasies. On a Saturday she goes with Geoff to watch Casey play, and afterwards waits alone by the canal for the star who, of course, never comes. As she waits and then walks home, she knows in her heart the truth, yet clings to her romantic dream, a poignant portrait of a young girl escaping a drab reality through fantasy.
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The story examines the world of dreams and fantasy in which adolescents, especially those from poor backgrounds, take refuge from the dullness and limitations of their real lives.
Sophie's daydreams
Sophie, a schoolgirl from a poor family, is an incurable daydreamer. Walking home with her sensible friend Jansie, she talks of owning a boutique, or becoming an actress or a fashion designer. Jansie, knowing they are both 'earmarked for the biscuit factory', tries to make her be realistic, but Sophie prefers her glamorous fantasies.
The family and Geoff
At home Sophie's world is cramped and ordinary, a small house, a weary father, an overworked mother. She adores her elder brother Geoff, a mechanic, and longs to share his private, grown-up world that she cannot enter. She weaves her fantasies partly to impress him and to escape the dreariness around her.
The invented meeting with Danny Casey
Sophie hero-worships Danny Casey, a young Irish football prodigy. She invents and tells Geoff that she has actually met Casey, and that he has promised to meet her again and give her an autograph. Geoff is sceptical yet intrigued; her father is contemptuously dismissive, warning her against such nonsense, for he knows her habit of romancing.
The wait that ends in truth
After watching Casey play with Geoff on Saturday, Sophie goes alone in the evening to wait by the canal for her hero. As the minutes pass and Casey does not come, she feels the sadness of knowing the truth, that the meeting was only her own fantasy. Yet even as she walks home, she keeps her dream of Danny Casey alive, unwilling to surrender the beautiful illusion that lifts her above her dull reality.