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Sadie Jackson is on her way home when she hears somebody calling her name. It\'s Kevin McCoy. They haven\'t met since more than 3 years although they only live a few streets away from each other. But in Northern Ireland that can be like thousands miles.
Sadie and Kevin have coffee together and talk abut what has happened in the last few years.
After the coffee they go up on Cave Hill. At the bus stop they meet Linda Mullet, who is shocked to see Sadie with a Catholic.
With that piece of news Linda immediately visits the Jackson\'s. Of course Mrs. Jackson has a very big shock.
At Kevin\'s home Brede, his sister, and Mrs. McCoy are worried about the kids because they always play war and fight against patrolling soldiers.
Away from all the troubles Sadie and Kevin are sitting on top of Cave Hill.
When Sadie comes home there is a storm. Her parents tell her not to meet Kevin again and even Tommy, who likes Kevin, thinks that going out with Kevin would be too dangerous.
The next day Kevin meets Brian Rafferty, who is a friend. Brian wants Kevin to become a member of the Provisionals but Kevin doesn\'t want to kill people since he had almost lost his sister.
On Saturday Kevin and Sadie go to Bangor. They enjoy the peaceful atmosphere there. They want to go home with the last bus but destiny wants that they miss it. They hitch hike and Kevin\'s uncle Albert gives the couple a lift. After some miles the car breaks down. So they have to walk all the way back to Belfast.
It\'s 3 o\'clock when they reach the town. Kevin brings Sadie home but a 100m before her house 3 men come to them. It \'s only Tommy, Mr. Mullet and Mr. Jackson.
They nearly have a fight but Sadie and Tommy stop them to attack Kevin.
The next day Sadie and Kevin meet at River Lagan. They decide to part before they come near their own areas not to have encounters like the last night.
On the way back Brian Rafferts and two other guys beat up Kevin shouting \"Traitor\".
Brede is worried about her brother, so she visits Sadie and tells her what has happened to her brother the night before. The only conclusion Brede sees is to stop seeing Kevin. Sadie understands but she doesn\'t want to let Kevin down.
Kevin is very weak but he manages to go to the meeting point he had arranged with Sadie. While he is waiting for her a guy with a dog walks past him. The guy stops as he sees the pale face of Kevin, lifts Kevin up and wants to bring him home.
They are already on the way as Sadie arrives. She recognises the man who helps Kevin, it\'s her geography teacher.
Mr. Blake takes the couple to his home, a very nice house in one of the suburbs. Mr. Blake even invites them to have dinner with him.
The next day Sadie doesn\'t know where she shall go to because she lost her job due to the fact that her boss got to know that she went out with a Catholic guy. So she visits Mr. Blake, Moira Henderson, who offers her a job as a domestic lady and the neighbour of Mr. Blake offers her to look after their children.
She starts working for Mr. Blake in the morning and in the afternoon as a nanny for Moira.
Kevin isn\'t allowed to work for 3 weeks because of his injuries so he visits Sadie at work and helps Mr. Blake a little bit in the garden.
One day Mr. Blake, Sadie and Kevin make a trip t the countryside but they have a car accident. Somebody loosened all the wheels but nobody is hurt seriously. That accident means the end of meeting for the young couple.
For weeks they don\'t meet but on the 12th of July they meet at Bangor by chance. Sadie and Kevin decide to meet every Wednesday at Mr. Blake\'s and every Saturday somewhere outside the town.
Moira\'s husband Mike comes to visit Sadie and to tell her that Mr. Blake has died. He was killed by a patrol bomb.
After that incident Kevin decides to leave Belfast and all the troubles. He is sick of bombs, the soldiers and the troubles.
He goes to England and Sadie comes with him.
Characters:
Sadie Jackson
Sadie is the second child of a Protestant family living in Belfast.
She is nearly 17. Her hair is long and fair. She has a strong will and loves the excitement in her life. She is full of energy and life.
Sadie knows almost everybody in Belfast.
What her mother doesn\'t like is that Sadie is headstrong and never lets things die, she always talks them to the end.
Although she doesn\'t work for a long time yet she had a lot of jobs like a job at an office, in a linen mill and at least at a hat department.
Her father Jim Jackson is a member of the Orange Lodge.
Her brother Tommy and she have a very good relationship.
Kevin McCoy
The eldest son of a Catholic family which has 9 children is nearly 18 and works for Mr. Kelly in the scrapyard.
His face isn\'t very broad but firm and has a suggestion of strength about it. It\'s deeply tanned.
Kevin is a very handsome guy.
He is very helpful and friendly and never thinks of himself first.
Since his sister Brede was almost killed in a fight against a Protestant gang he has no intention to fight against protestants.
Linda Mullet
Is an old school friend of Sadie. She lives in the same street just opposite. Linda is always gossiping and is very interested in other people.
Goes out with Tommy.
Relationship between Sadie and Kevin
They started as enemies, even fought with stones and fists, then they were friends but have drifted apart because of the difficulties of meeting.
When they meet again they become a couple. It is not easy for them because of their religions.
The problems in Northern Ireland showed by the book
The book shows which problems teenagers have if they live in Northern Ireland. If two people of the two different religions want to meet they have big troubles, Joan Lingard wrote: a few streets away is like being thousands of miles away. But the streets are not normal like our streets: there are burnt - out cars and busses and armoured vehicles, torn up paving stones, barbed wire coiled to form barricades. And along the streets walk solders on patrol with fingers on the triggers of their guns, men and women eyeing them watchfully, suspiciously, and bands of children playing at fighting and sometimes not just playing.
For most of the habitants of Ulster it is too difficult to talk about the subject. There is a generation which grew up in Northern Ireland and never had peace.
Every day happens something, the newspapers are full of headlines like: \"Shop gutted by bomb, two killed, one injured\".
Joan Lingard also tells you about the worried mothers. If the children are late they are very anxious because it could happen that they get mixed up with the IRA.
So it is not easy to understand the people who live there but if you read this book you have an idea what every day\'s life must look like!
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