‘Yes, I see. And Lizzie’s always said the same thing. But be thankful, lad, be thankful. He won’t close up.’
‘I wish I could bet on that. She’ll be so full of talk that he’ll just stand and gape.’
‘Ssh, man! Ssh!’ Mike turned away with a jerk of his head towards David, and Corny, now looking down at his son’s strained face and trembling lips, said, ‘Rose Mary is coming back, David.’
‘Ro-se Ma-ry,’ the child’s lips stretched wide, and then he again said, on a high note, ‘Ro-se Ma-ry.’ The name was clear-cut now.
‘Yes, Rose Mary is coming back. You remember the American man, Mr Blenkinsop?’
David nodded his head, and Corny repeated, ‘You remember the American man, Mr Blenkinsop?’
‘Ya.’
‘Yes,’ said Corny.
‘Ye-as,’ said David.
‘Well, Rose Mary was hiding in the boot of his car, and he drove away and she couldn’t get out…What do you think of that?’
The light in David’s eyes deepened, his mouth stretched wider, and then he laughed.
‘I’m going to pick up Mam now. Do you want to come?’
‘Ye-as,’ said David.
‘Go on, then, get into the car.’ Now Corny, turning to Mike, said, ‘If she should phone in tell her I’ll wait outside the school. That’s the best place.’
‘Good enough,’ said Mike. ‘Get yourself off.’
Corny brought the car out of the garage and stopped it when he neared Mike, and, looking at David sitting on the seat beside him, he said, ‘Say goodbye to Granda.’
‘Bye, Gran…da.’
‘Goodbye, son.’
Corny, with his face close to Mike, looked him in the eyes and said, softly, ‘You know, it’s in me to wish that she wasn’t coming back tonight or tomorrow.’
‘Corny! Corny, don’t be like that!’ Mike’s voice was harsh.
‘She’s safe so I’m content. And I say again, give me another day, perhaps two, and I’d have no fears after that. But just you wait until tonight, it’ll be a dam again, you’ll see.’
‘Aw, go on now. Go on and stop thinking such nonsense.’ Mike stepped back and waved Corny away, and as he watched him driving into the road he thought, ‘That’s a nice attitude to take! There’ll be skull and hair flying if he talks like that to her.’ But after a moment of considering he turned in the direction of the office, asking himself what he would have felt like if Michael had, to all intents and purposes, been dumb? Pretty much like Corny was feeling now, because he knew, in a strange sort of way, that he and Corny were built on similar lines and that their reactions, in the main, were very much alike.
‘Look, have a drop of brandy.’ Corny was on his hunkers before Mary Ann, where she sat in a straight-backed chair in the kitchen.
‘No, I’m all right. I’m all right; it’s just the reaction; it’s just that I can’t stop shaking.’
‘I’ll get you a drop of brandy…You keep it in as a medicine, and this is a time when medicine is needed.’ Corny went to the cupboard and, reaching to the back of the top shelf, brought out a half-bottle of brandy, and, pouring a measure into a cup, he took it to her. Placing it in her hand, he said gently, ‘There now, sup it up.’
‘I don’t like brandy.’
‘It doesn’t matter what you like, get it down you. Come on.’ He guided the cup to her lips, and when she sipped at it she shuddered. Then, looking at him, she said, ‘What time did he say he’d be back?’
‘Something after six.’
‘And it’s just on five.’ She raised her eyes to the clock. Then, stretching out her hand, she put the cup on the table near where David was standing looking out of the window, waiting for a glimpse of the car that would bring Rose Mary back, but the movement of her hand caught his attention and he turned from the window and, looking from the cup to Mary Ann, he said distinctly, ‘Sup?’
There was a quick exchange of glances between Corny and Mary Ann, and, smiling now, she said, ‘No, David, it’s nasty.’ Then again she was looking at Corny, the smile gone, as she said, ‘I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it. I won’t be able to really take it in until I see her.’
Corny made no answer to this. He was looking towards David, where the boy was again gazing out of the window, and he said softly, ‘I always told you, didn’t I? Get them apart for a while…’
‘It wasn’t that, it wasn’t that.’ Mary Ann was on her feet. ‘It was the shock.’
‘Aye, you’re right. But if she had come back right away there would have been no chit-chat, not like now…As it is, I’m a bit afraid that as soon as she puts her face in the door he’ll close…’
At this moment they heard a knocking on the staircase door and Jimmy’s voice calling, ‘The phone’s going, boss. You’re wanted on the phone.’
As Corny made swiftly for the door Mary Ann was on his heels, and she was still close behind him when he entered the office, and when, with his hand on the phone, he turned and looked at her, he said quietly, ‘It’s all right, it’s all right, there’s nothing to worry about now.’
She shook her head as she watched him lift the phone to his ear. ‘Hello. Oh, it’s you, Mr Blenkinsop. Hello there, everything all right?’ Although he wasn’t looking at Mary Ann he felt her body stiffen, and when Mr Blenkinsop’s voice came to him, saying, ‘Oh yes, as right as rain,’ he cast a quick glance at her and smiled reassuringly, then listened to Mr Blenkinsop going on, ‘It’s just that I thought I’d better phone you as I’ve not been able to get away from my cousin’s yet. You see he has four sons and there was quite a drought of female company around here, and they’ve got her now up in the train-room. I’ve had two unsuccessful attempts at getting her away; not that she seems very eager to leave them. They’ve gone right overboard for her. Their verdict is she’s cute. This is quite unanimous, from Ian who is three, to Donald who is ten. So, as it is, it’s going to be nearer nine when I arrive…I hope you’re not mad.’
‘No, Mr Blenkinsop. That’s okay, as long as she’s all right.’
‘All right? I’ll say she’s all right. Can you hear that hullabaloo?’ He stopped speaking, and Corny hadn’t to strain his ears to hear the excited shrieks and the sound of running feet. Then Mr Blenkinsop’s voice came again, saying, ‘They’ve just come in like a herd of buffalo.’
Corny turned his eyes to Mary Ann again. There was an anxious look on her face, but he smiled at her and wrinkled his nose before turning his attention to the phone again as Mr Blenkinsop’s voice said, ‘Just a minute. There’s a conclave going on, they want to ask you something. Just a minute, will you?’
As Corny waited he put his hand over the mouthpiece and said under his breath, ‘She’s having the time of her life.’
‘He hasn’t left there yet?’
‘No, there’s four children, boys, and apparently they’ve got a train set. They’re kicking up a racket.’ As he looked at her strained face he said, ‘It’s all right, it’s all right, there’s nothing to worry about.
‘Hello. Yes…yes, I’m here.’
‘Look, I don’t know how to put this but they’re all around me here, the four of them…and their mother and the father an’ all. Well…well, it’s like this, they want me to say will you let Rose Mary stay the night?’
‘…Stay the night?’ Corny put his hand out quickly to stop Mary Ann grabbing the phone, and he shook his head vigorously at her and pressed the receiver closer to his ear to hear Mr Blenkinsop say, ‘You know, if you could agree to this it would save me a return journey tomorrow because Dave, my cousin here, and me, well we could get through our business tonight and I’d make an early start in the morning. But that’s up to you. I know that you and your lady are bound to want her back, but there it is.’ There was a pause which Corny did not fill, and then Mr Blenkinsop’s voice came again, saying, ‘Would you like to speak to her? Here she is.’
‘Hello, Dad.’
‘Hello, Rose Mary. Are you all right?’
>
‘Oh yes, Dad. It’s lovely here. They’ve got a big house and garden, an’ a train-room, and they’re all boys.’ Her next words were drowned in the high laughter of children.
‘Don’t you want to come back to David?’ As Corny listened to her answer he held out his free arm, stiffly holding Mary Ann at a distance from the phone.
‘Oh yes, Dad. Yes, I wish David was here. And you, and me mam. Is me mam all right?’
‘Yes, she’s fine. And would you like to stay there until the morrow?’
‘No! No!’ Mary Ann’s voice hissed at him as he heard Rose Mary say, ‘Yes, Dad, if it’s all right with you and me mam.’
‘Yes, it’s all right with us, dear. You have a good time and enjoy yourself, and then you can tell us all about it tomorrow. Well, goodbye now.’
‘Bye-bye, Dad. Bye-bye.’
As Mary Ann rushed out of the office he listened to Mr Blenkinsop saying, ‘We’ll take care of her. She’s made a great impression here. I think you’d better prepare yourself for the visit of four stalwart youths in the future.’
Corny gave a weak laugh, then said, ‘Well, until tomorrow morning, Mr Blenkinsop.’
‘Yes, until tomorrow morning. I’ll bring her back safe and sound, never fear. Goodbye now.’
‘Goodbye.’ Corny put down the phone and tried to tell himself that he was disappointed that she wasn’t coming back tonight. And then Mary Ann appeared in the doorway again.
‘You shouldn’t have done it.’
‘What could I have done?’
‘You could have told him that I was nearly out of my mind and I wanted her back.’
‘Well, she’s coming back. It’s only a few more hours, and the man asked me as a favour.’
‘Oh yes, you’d have to grant him a favour, knowing how I felt, knowing that I was waiting every minute. You know…’ She strained her face up to him. ‘You’re glad, aren’t you, you’re glad that she’s not coming back tonight because it’ll keep them apart a little longer. You’re glad.’
‘Now don’t go on like that. Don’t be silly.’
‘I’m not being silly. I know what’s in your mind; you’ve been preening yourself, ever since I got in, about him talking, that it would never have happened if they hadn’t been separated. You were frightened of her coming back in case he wouldn’t keep up the effort.’
‘All right, all right.’ He was shouting now. ‘Yes I was, and I still am. And yes, I’m glad that she’s not coming back until tomorrow morning. It’ll give him a chance, for he damn well hadn’t a chance before. She not only talked for him, she thought for him, and lived for him; she lived his life, he hadn’t any of his own…I’ll tell you this. He’s been a new being this afternoon. And I’ll tell you something else, I wish they had invited her for a week.’
There was a long, long silence, during which they stared at each other. Then Mary Ann, her voice low and bitter, said, ‘I hate you. Oh, how I hate you!’ Then she turned slowly from him, leaving him leaning against the little desk, his head back, his eyes closed, his teeth grating the skin on his lip.
I hate you! Mary Ann had said that to him. Oh, how I hate you!
‘Da-ad.’ Corny opened his eyes and looked down to where David was standing in the open doorway, his face troubled, and he said, ‘Yes, son. What is it?’
‘Ma-am.’ There followed, a pause before David, his mouth wide open now, emitted the word, ‘Cry.’
Corny considered his son. The child had seen his mother cry, yet he hadn’t gone to her, he had come to him. He reached out and took his hand. Then, hoisting him up onto the desk, he looked straight at him as he said, ‘Mam’s crying because Rose Mary is not coming back until tomorrow.’
David’s eyes remained unblinking.
‘You’re not going to cry because Rose Mary isn’t coming back until tomorrow, are you?’
The eyes still unblinking, the expression didn’t change, and then David slowly shook his head.
‘Say, No, Dad.’
‘No, Da-ad.’
‘That’s a good boy. I’m going to mend a car. Are you coming to help me?’
Again David moved his head, nodding now, and again Corny prompted him. ‘Say, Yes, Dad.’
‘Yes, Da-ad.’
‘Come on then.’ He lifted him down, and they walked out of the office side by side and into the garage, and as he went Corny thought, ‘I’ll give her a little while to cool off and then I’ll go up.’
Chapter Nine
If Corny hadn’t heard the car slow up and thought it was someone wanting petrol he would never have gone onto the drive at that moment and seen her going.
The occupants of the car decided not to stop after all, and it was speeding away to the right of the garage. But, going down the road to the left, Corny stared at the back of Mary Ann. Mary Ann carrying a case. He stood petrified for a moment, one hand raised in mid-air in an appealing gesture. God Almighty! She wouldn’t. No she wouldn’t do that without saying a word. She was near the bend of the road when he sprang forward and yelled, ‘Mary Ann!’ When there was no pause in her step he stopped at the end of the line of white bricks edging the roadway, and now, his voice high and angry, he yelled, ‘Do you hear? Mary Ann!’
Taking great loping strides, he raced towards her, and again he shouted, ‘Mary Ann! Wait a minute, Mary Ann!’ It wasn’t until he saw her hasten her step that he stopped again, and after a moment of grim silence he yelled, ‘If you go, you go. Only remember this. You come back on your own, I’ll not fetch you. I’m telling you.’ Her step didn’t falter, and the next minute she was lost to his sight round the bend.
The anger seeped out of him. He felt as if his life was seeping out of him, draining down from his veins into the ground. How long he stood still he didn’t know, and he wasn’t conscious of turning about and walking back to the garage. He didn’t come to himself until he saw David standing with his back to the petrol pump. She hadn’t even come to see the child. She was bats about the boy, she was bats about them both. Why hadn’t she taken him with her? Perhaps because she knew that he wouldn’t have let him go. And she was right there. He wouldn’t have let the boy go with her.
‘Ma-am…’
Corny looked down at the small, trembling lips, and he forced himself to speak calmly, saying, ‘Mam’s gone to Gran’s.’
‘Gra-an’s?’
‘Your Granny Shaughnessy has got a bad head, she’s not very well. Can you go upstairs and set the tray for your supper, do you think? Your Bunny tray with the mug and the plate. Then wash yourself.’
The boy was looking up at him, his eyes wide and deep, with that knowing look in their depths. Then he said, ‘Yes, Da-ad,’ and went slowly towards the house. And Corny turned about and went into the office and dropped into his chair. He felt weak again and, something more, he felt frightened; this kind of thing happened to other fellows, to other couples, but it couldn’t happen to them. He had loved her since he was a boy, and she had loved him from when she was ten. She had loved and championed him since he could remember. She had stood by him through all the hard times. And there had been hard times; there had been weeks when they both had to pull their belts in in order that their children got their full share of food, and during these times both had resisted gobbling up food when they went to the farm on a Sunday and sat down to the laden table. No-one must know how things really stood. They would get by. It was she who had always said that. ‘We’ll get by,’ she’d said. ‘We’ll have a break, you’ll see. It’ll come…’ And it had come; it had come today, like a bolt from the blue. And with it the break in his family had come too.
But it just couldn’t happen to him and Mary Ann. They had made a pact at the beginning, never to go to sleep on a row, and they never had. Well, there was always a first time, and by the looks of things that first time was now, because she had no intention of coming back today; she had taken a case with her. He dropped his head onto his hands. And all because he hadn’t said the word that would bring Rose Ma
ry back tonight. What were a few more hours of separation if it was going to loosen her son’s tongue? Couldn’t she see it? No; because she didn’t want to see it. She didn’t want them separated for a minute from each other, or from her. She had once said they were as close as the Blessed Trinity, and on that occasion he had asked where he came in in the divine scheme of things, and she had laughingly replied, ‘We’ll make you Joseph.’ But he was no Joseph, he was no foster-father. David was his son, and he had carried a deep secret ache, a yearning to hear his voice. And now he was hearing it, but he was going to pay dearly apparently for that pleasure.
He heard a car come onto the drive and it brought him to his feet, and when he reached the office door, there, scrambling out from a dilapidated Austin, was Jimmy and his pals. Corny had never seen this lot before. He had seen other pals of Jimmy’s, but they hadn’t been so freakish as the boys now confronting him. These looked like a combination of The Rolling Stones and The Pretty Things, and Jimmy looked the odd man out, because he appeared the only male thing among them. At any other time Corny would have hooted inside, he would have chipped this lot and stood being chipped in return, but not tonight. His face was straight as he looked at Jimmy and asked, ‘Well?’
‘I just popped in, Boss—we was passing like—just to see if Rose Mary was back.’
‘No, she’s not back. She’s staying with Mr Blenkinsop’s friends until the morning. He’s bringing her back then.’
‘Oh.’ Jimmy now turned and nodded towards his four long-haired companions, who were all surveying Corny with a blank, scrutinising stare.
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