Saturday's Child

 And so they did - three females, one born in the 19th century, two in the 20th, each a worker, each driven by that unseen hand which shapes destiny, every one of them born on a Saturday. 

It was 1950. Magsy O'Gara, her husband killed in the war, plodded through her daily routine as a hospital cleaner, dedicating all her spare time to Beth, her genius daughter. Pursued by men who admired her great beauty, she was determined to remain a widow. Nothing was to divert her from her gruelling schedule. Her goal was simple: Beth would become a doctor. 

Beth, however, wanted the normal life - a brother, a sister, a stepfather who might make her wonderful mother happy. This was, after all, the 20th century; gone were the days when a woman stayed at home to mind her family. So Beth was delighted when a personable man began to court Magsy. 

Across the road at number 1, Nellie Hulme, trapped in a world of silence, watched the other two Saturday girls. Deaf since infancy, Nellie had a secret so huge that it amused her. What would the folk round here have thought had they known her true position in life? And why, why did she "hear" in her dreams?