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I have never even seen inside a cinema. I can hardly believe that Kate is taking me in there to see a film tomorrow afternoon.’ And she spun around with the excitement of it all and hugged herself with delight.
    Susie laughed. ‘Let’s go and have a dekko on the boards outside now and see what’s on.’
    â€˜What about the tram chugging up the hill at this very moment?’ asked Kate.
    â€˜What about it?’ Susie said. ‘There’ll be another one. Trams to town of a Saturday come every few minutes, you know that, and it won’t take us long to have a look outside the flicks.’
    Kate gave in, and when they passed the chip shop, which was opposite the cinema, Sally said to Kate, ‘I can’t believe either that you have hot food like this on your doorstep – and such delicious food as well. Is that the chip shop you used last night, Kate?’
    â€˜Yeah,’ said Kate. ‘There is one nearer down the Slade, but this one is better and gives bigger portions. And I was going to Susie’s anyway, so it seemed sensible.’
    Sally nodded, but then they crossed the road and the cinema took all her attention. Just to stand so close to that wonderful emporium while they studied the boards outside gave her butterflies in her stomach.
    â€˜ The Lady Vanishes is on at the moment then,’ Kate said to Sally. ‘That all right for you?’
    â€˜Are you kidding?’ Sally said with a squeal of excitement. ‘Going to the pictures is another thing I’ve never done in my life. I’d like to see anything.’
    â€˜It’s just that it’s a Hitchcock thriller and that means it might be a bit frightening for you, that’s all.’
    Sally shook her head. ‘No, I promise, I won’t be the least bit frightened.’
    Kate smiled at the look of excitement on her sister’s face and she linked her arm and said, ‘Come on then, Sally. Birmingham, here we come.’
    â€˜Yes,’ added Susie, taking hold of Sally’s other arm. ‘And if you think these shops are something special, girl, you ain’t seen nothing yet.’ And the three giggling girls hurried off to the tram stop. They had only to wait a few minutes before they spotted a tram at the bottom of the Streetly Road. As Sally watched it clatter up the hill, she said, ‘I saw trams when I came out of the train station last night, and I don’t mind admitting that I am really nervous of them.’
    â€˜I’m not surprised,’ Kate said with a laugh. ‘I was the same at first. Do you remember my telling you so in one of the letters I wrote when I first came to Birmingham. I was terrified the trams were going to jump off the rails when they took a corner at speed or something, especially as Susie had told me that there had been some accidents in the early days.’
    â€˜Yeah, there were,’ Susie said, as the tram drew to a clanking stop beside them. ‘They are safer now, though,’ she assured her as they boarded.
    â€˜We’ll take your mind off the journey,’ Kate promised. ‘Let’s go upstairs and it will be easier to point things out along the way.’
    As the tram rattled and swayed down Slade Road towards the city centre, Kate and Susie told Sally all about the canals of Birmingham that ran behind the houses. ‘A lot of them meet at a place called Salford Bridge,’ Susie said. ‘But you’ll see this for yourself when we cross over the bridge in a minute.’
    Once they were in sight of the canals, Sally admired the brightly painted boats she could see there, and was very surprised when Kate told her people lived in them. ‘When my Dad was young my Nan said he was always messing about on the canals. He learnt to swim in there when his brother pushed him in,’ Susie told them.
    â€˜Bit drastic.’
    â€˜Oh, I’ll say,’ Susie agreed. ‘He was glad after, though,