‘You what?’
‘I was thinking aloud about Hamlet.’
‘That’s a village with no church.’ She pulled herself together. ‘Yes, yes, I do read. Look, will you try and stay on the same road as the rest of the traffic? Or on the same page as other children in the class. I sometimes wonder whether you listen at all. Are you going to behave?’
‘Yes, ma’am. Though I wouldn’t mind being in detention with you.’
Ma’am glared at him. ‘Anyway, as I was saying before you went all Shakespeare, this pigeon personnel person is interested in your birds, particularly Blue Lady and her squabs. Give them all to him. It’s for the birds’ own good, before somebody round here puts out poisoned seed. If you want to live the long and healthy life, never come between a Lancashire woman and her dolly blued sheets. Take no money. If you take no money, you aren’t betraying your dad’s old pal, and the pigeons will be in excellent hands.’
He stared hungrily at her. He wanted to disturb a few sheets with her under them and him next to her. And she should be a Member of flaming Parliament, in her spare time, too. Alice was Churchill minus cigar, male bits and about twenty stone of fat. She was gorgeous, mouthy and stubborn as a mule. ‘All right, then. Talk to your man on Scotty Road and tell him to bring the other fellow with him.’
She blinked. ‘You gave in easily. Thank you.’
‘It’s only because I love you.’
‘Don’t talk soft.’
A few seconds ticked away. ‘Dan asked me to look after you if he dies.’
Her jaw dropped.
‘Shut your mouth, love – there’s a pigeon coming.’
‘Did he really?’
Harry nodded. ‘And I promised him I would.’
Alice rose to her feet. ‘I wonder if I’ll get a say in the matter?’
‘When don’t you have your say? Words pour out of your gob like water from a fireman’s hose. You don’t even stop to breathe.’
She grinned. ‘Then how can you love a mithering woman?’
‘Easy. Dead easy. Peter calls it chunnering – his Olga’s a chunnerer. If she doesn’t shut up, he stops her with a big kiss. That gets her all flustered, and she forgets what she was going on about.’
‘So that’s the plan? If I talk too much I get assaulted and restrained?’
He nodded.
‘It would never work on me, cos I’m dead hard.’
He wondered how she might react if he made a feeble joke about male anatomy, but she wasn’t in the best of moods, so he didn’t bother. ‘What’s happened?’ he asked. ‘You look a bit harassed, and it’s not my fault, because you arrived in that state.’
She shrugged. ‘I’ve been to see Muth. You know that, because you took me.’
Harry blessed himself. ‘Yes, but did you carry garlic and a crucifix?’
Alice rolled her eyes ceilingward.
‘Did you?’
‘Like most people, you’ve got that wrong. For vampires, you need garlic flowers, not garlic. And I always wear a crucifix. I have to let her back in my life and in our house. Not my idea of fun, as you probably realize already, but it has to be done.’
It was her otherness, he realized immediately. ‘Did the spirits tell you to go and see her?’
She nodded. ‘I’m under orders from the other side.’ Harry was one of the few who didn’t take the salt and pepper out of her when it came to second sight. He’d made the odd remark when they’d first met, but had come to understand that Alice must never play poker, especially with Peter, because she didn’t have the face for it; she was simply too honest. ‘There’s some sort of plot on,’ she explained. ‘Thanks for not making fun of me, Harry.’
‘I can tell you’re not a liar. You’ve a very open expression, like your Nellie. Hey, she’s changing for the better, isn’t she?’
Alice smiled. ‘She has babies. Nellie’s at her happiest among nappies and National Dried. She minds her two grandsons while everybody else runs the businesses. I don’t know how many miles a day she does with that pram, but she’s losing weight. Muth drove Nellie not to drink, but to food. She used it like a drug. I’d better go.’
‘Stuff to do?’
She nodded. ‘Nellie and Martin are coming for a meeting, and I’ll feed them while they’re here. They’re probably not bringing anyone else, because Nellie’s scared of Muth, and she doesn’t want the old bat anywhere near the rest of her immediate family – you know, daughters and sons-in-law and babies. But I’m under instructions, so I’m doing as I’m told.’ She paused. ‘He’s here now.’
Something cold travelled the length of Harry’s spine. ‘Who is?’
‘Callum. I think he’s my dad’s older brother, and he’s mischievous. Not destructive like a poltergeist, just daft.’
Both visible occupants of the room sat mesmerized while Harry’s clock struck thirteen. It was quarter past four.
‘I see what you mean,’ Harry managed eventually.
‘He can also make you forget what you just heard, but I don’t think he will, because he’ll want you as a witness next April.’
‘Oh?’
‘On my thirty-fourth birthday – Muth’s seventy-fourth. He’ll show us what he wants us to know, and after that I’ll be free.’
‘Free?’
‘From the otherness and from him.’
The clock struck quarter past, but out of tune.
‘Bugger off,’ Alice snapped. ‘Go and play somewhere else, Uncle Callum.’ She winked at Harry. ‘He’s gone.’ She gazed round the room. Skirting boards, windowsill and picture rails were sparkling clean.
‘How do you know he’s gone?’
‘He strokes my face or moves the air round me, thinks he’s a clever magician.’ She sat on the sofa deep in thought for a few seconds. ‘It’s something that happened in or near our house. Remember they used to have yards here, not back gardens, and I have a row of flags still there near the wall I share with you?’
‘So?’
‘There’s one particular flag in the corner near the old lavvy shed. I don’t like it. It’s different from all the others.’
He nodded, waiting for more, but she was pondering again. ‘How’s it different?’ he asked. ‘Shape, size or colour?’
Alice snapped out of her reverie. ‘I never noticed it till last week when I was sweeping and swilling. It looks just like all the rest, but it feels different, makes me uneasy. I got Peter to put a big heavy flower pot on it and he filled it with bedding plants and greenery.’
‘You think there’s something buried?’
‘No idea, Harry. But I’ve a feeling it will all come out on my birthday next April. I want you, Dan, Martin and Peter there. I think it would be too much for our Nellie.’
‘What about Marie and Nigel? Will they be coming to your strange birthday party?’
‘They can come if they want.’ She walked towards the door and away from the man who would probably be her second husband. Poor Dan. Did he know, did he sense that he wasn’t going to live for much longer? In the doorway, she paused and turned. ‘Wait for me,’ she whispered.
‘Oh, I will. Till hell freezes over.’ He grinned. ‘Do you love me?’
Seconds strolled away. ‘Yes, but I feel awkward about it.’
‘You wouldn’t be normal if you didn’t feel awkward.’ Harry’s tone was gentle. ‘Go on, now. Go and look after your old man.’
She left, missing Harry before she’d closed the outer door. Only once or twice he’d held her in his arms; only once had they started to make something approaching physical love, yet she wanted him. But she was married to a man who loved and needed her, and was carrying his child.
‘He’ll wait for you.’
‘Get lost, Uncle Callum.’
Nellie was in a mood.
Nobody had ever seen her in a mood, so this was something of a novelty for the Quigleys – even for Martin, her husband. ‘I’m not having anything to do with it,’ she said the moment she stepped
into her youngest sister’s kitchen.
‘You didn’t say that when I spoke to you earlier on.’ Alice’s tone was accusatory.
‘I never got the chance, did I? You beggared off as soon as you’d told me. You’re not the one who had her living with you, are you? I lost my husband and my daughters because I’m that scared of her. No bloody way. She goes nowhere near our girls, their husbands and their babies. We lost the first few months of them little lads’ lives, too.’
Alice felt mesmerized. Nellie, the most placid of the seven, had built a wall, a defence system, and Muth was the enemy. ‘You don’t need to have her visiting you, Nell. You could call here for a cuppa after Sunday dinner, and—’
‘And nothing. She’d take that as an open invitation to the shops, our flat, the house where our Claire and Janet live – you know she would.’
Alice folded her arms. ‘You were the one who was worried about her.’
‘I got over that. No. We won’t come here on any Sunday, and you can tell her why, because you’re the one trying to drag us into hell.’
Dan strengthened his hold on the arms of the carver in which he sat waiting for his dinner. ‘Leave it, Alice,’ he warned.
Martin held his wife’s arm. ‘Slow down, love.’
Nellie turned and looked at him. ‘You weren’t there,’ she hissed. ‘You weren’t the one who came back from town to find a letter in the girls’ room. Sorry, Mam, but we can’t live here any more till she goes.’
‘I know. I’m sorry.’
Nellie shook her head. With her mouth down-turned and eyes wet, she moved to face her small audience. ‘You don’t know what I know. Well, what I think I know.’
Callum brushed past Alice. ‘I’m wiping that memory now,’ he said.
‘What do you know, Nell?’ Martin asked. ‘Come on, love, let it out, then you can stop thinking about it.’
Alice stiffened as she waited for the answer.
‘I . . .’ Nellie’s voice faded. ‘Something bad. Something so bad I buried it years ago in the back of my mind. And you can try to prise it out with a crowbar, but you won’t find it.’
Alice bowed her head. Things were getting really bad if the otherness was affecting her beloved big sister. ‘Callum, will you bugger off?’ she screamed, unable to stop herself.
The two men looked at each other. ‘What’s that about?’ Martin mouthed silently.
Dan shrugged. His wife’s otherness could be embarrassing at times.
‘Shall we eat?’ Martin asked.
‘You can do what you damned well like,’ was Nellie’s answer. ‘I’m going home.’ She marched out of the room, down the hall, and through the front door, which she slammed in her wake.
‘Go after her, Martin,’ Dan suggested.
But Martin joined his brother-in-law at the table. His wife’s fear and fury had moved him, and he would support her. But there was something he had to do before he went after her. ‘No, I’ll say my piece first.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Elsie bloody Hard-Face ruined my Nell’s life. I take responsibility for some of that, because I buggered off to Manchester thinking Nellie would get rid of her. She didn’t. I kept in touch with the Turners for a while, so I knew Elsie was still there. Then the girls went, and your bloody mother took over the shop and made a show of my wife, called her stupid in front of customers, moved herself into our daughters’ bedroom. Meanwhile I lived in a bedsit, and I saved and saved so I could pay off the mortgage on the shop. We owe next to nothing, and I still had enough left to open a business for my girls and their families.
‘I was working in Woolworth’s when I got word that Janet and Claire were married. Later on, I was told that they had a baby each. So I gave notice and came home. I threw the bitch out, and the applause from Smithdown Road could be heard down the Pier Head.’
He shook his head gravely. ‘And you expect me and Nellie to come for a cuppa after Sunday dinner?’ He glared at Alice. ‘I hope you know what you’re doing, girl, but leave us out of it. My wife’s happy. Let’s keep it that way, because it’s what she deserves. All I want is for my wife, my daughters and their families to be safe and contented.’
Alice opened her mouth to speak, but Martin rose and walked to the door. ‘You are welcome to visit us any time. If you bring the old bag with you, your names will join hers on my list of poisons.’ He left abruptly.
Dan stared at his wife. ‘Bloody hell with custard – what have you started now, eh?’
She shook her head.
‘And you’re missing your second period, so you’re definitely carrying our child. Once Elsie digs her claws into you, there’ll be no peace, and you could lose that baby.’
‘I won’t.’
‘How do you know? Is the ghost only you can see a bloody fortune-teller?’
‘In a way, he is. I stopped him frightening Muth, because she has to be here on my birthday.’
‘Why?’
‘It’s part of his plan.’ She paused. ‘He made a mistake, scaring her. I thought ghosts wouldn’t make mistakes.’
‘I’m still human,’ Callum whispered in her ear.
‘No, you’re not,’ Alice yelled. ‘Show yourself to Dan and prove I’m not crackers.’
The kitchen window suddenly turned to stained glass.
‘Can you see that?’ she asked her husband.
‘Yes,’ he whispered.
‘That’s my uncle,’ she said. ‘My dad’s older brother. Don’t be afraid.’
‘I’m not.’
‘Good. Because we’re staying in this house until after my birthday no matter what happens.’
The colours faded before reappearing at the table. Dan began to shake, and Alice screamed, ‘Leave him alone.’
Callum disappeared.
‘I’m all right,’ Dan said softly. ‘Go and get our food. Seeing what you see has given me an appetite.’
‘Right.’ She walked to the other end of the kitchen and picked up two plates of salad. Turning to walk back, she stopped before taking a step. The salad landed on the floor among shards of broken crockery. ‘Dan?’ She rushed to his side. ‘Be careful, please.’
‘Hello, love.’ He was upright, steady and without crutches. ‘He did a miracle,’ Dan whispered.
She couldn’t answer. Tears poured down her face like a miniature waterfall in a hurry. Her Dan could walk again.
Callum spoke, and they both heard him. ‘The miracle’s nothing to do with me; it’s from a power above and beyond. Walk, Dan. Enjoy yourself.’
Twelve
‘Daniel Quigley, will you get in this bed immediately if not sooner?’ Alice snapped. ‘You won’t forget in your sleep. The walking isn’t going to disappear while you’re unconscious.’ She threw up her arms in a gesture of despair. ‘Keep still; you’re making me dizzy.’ He was like a soldier on parade – straight of spine, heavy of foot, head held high.
He paused in his travels. ‘How do you know?’
‘How do I know what?’
‘That I’ll still be able to walk in the morning.’
She sighed heavily. ‘Because it’s a miracle. When Jesus turned that water into wine for the wedding, it didn’t go back to being water.’
‘How do you know?’ Dan repeated. ‘Were you there?’
Alice rolled her eyes to the ceiling. ‘No, I was at home cleaning my front step, you clown, and my name wasn’t on the guest list. Oh, God help me.’ Dan hadn’t sat for more than a few minutes all night, pacing up and down the bedroom, the hall, the kitchen, his own recovery room and the bathroom. ‘Stop it,’ she ordered yet again. ‘And use your walking sticks, at least, for Olga and Peter’s party. I’m not having you taking the shine off their celebration. Either that, or tell everybody before we go.’ She spoke to the dog. ‘Frank, don’t walk with him – you’re egging him on.’
Dan left the room and returned yet again with a very tired boxer in his wake. The dog, already talented when it came to looking sad or confused, stared blankly at his master. This
was all a terrible shock for a canine. The master couldn’t walk, but now he could. And he wouldn’t stop. Frank had had enough. He yawned, turned his back on both owners and went to find his basket in Dan’s recovery room. He scrabbled about, rearranged his cushions, then dropped like a stone into an exhausted heap. His guardians had not made much sense today, so rest would be a welcome change and an escape from guarding two very strange people. Within seconds, he was snoring.
‘Even my muscles work,’ Dan said, noticing a twinkle in the corner of the room. ‘He’s here, Alice. He’s over there near that chest of drawers with your dad’s photo on top. Does he never sleep?’
She sighed. ‘He’s dead, you loony. Just shut up and get into bed.’
‘I had muscle wastage, didn’t I?’
‘I know. Callum – tell him, will you? He’s getting on my bloody nerves here.’ She nodded before addressing her husband. ‘He says get in your hospital bed or he’ll fix you so you can’t walk tomorrow. This baby and I need to get a proper night’s sleep, so get lost. And he didn’t do the miracle; God did it.’
Dan glared at her. ‘I didn’t hear Callum saying anything.’
‘No. It’s usually just me he talks to.’
‘How do I know you’re telling the truth? How do I know you’re not acting the giddy kipper?’
‘You don’t. But I’m hoping you’ll do the sensible thing and get some rest, because I’m going to have the baby confirmed this week.’
He grinned knowingly. ‘It’s not even been baptized.’
Alice narrowed her eyes, telling herself inwardly that she’d been right all along, and men were definitely stupid. They had no common sense, a lack of imagination, and they were loud.
He interrupted her moment of private thought. ‘I know – you mean the pregnancy confirmed by the doctor.’ Holding up a hand, he backed away towards the door. ‘I’m going, I’m going. I’ll sleep in my own room.’ He left. Alice listened while he placed himself in the bed next door. ‘And stay there,’ she yelled, ‘unless you need the bathroom.’
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