MB04 - Down Our Street

by Joan Jonker

  It was on the tip of Lily’s tongue to say she’d also heard his parents were nice people and he came from a good home. But she bit the words back because she knew he’d say whoever told her that was a liar. And she’d have no way of knowing whether it was the truth or not. In fact, she had no way of knowing if anything he’d said tonight was the truth. She was all mixed up in her head, and she felt let down, sad and heartbroken. Perhaps when she was able to think clearly she might feel differently. Might even believe it was the girl, Joan, who was the mischief-maker and he wasn’t the one telling lies. But she didn’t want to talk about it any more tonight because nothing would be gained by it, they’d only be going around in circles. ‘Look, I really don’t feel well and would like to walk the rest of the way home on me own. An early night in bed would do me the world of good, and it wouldn’t do you any harm.’

  ‘Ye’re not going to believe the words of a liar, are yer?’ Len shook his head in anger and frustration. ‘I thought yer were supposed to be in love with me? Yer were last night, before someone filled yer head with a load of rubbish.’

  ‘Len, I don’t think yer understand what a shock it was for me to be told a girl had had a baby to yer. I nearly fainted with the shock! So stop thinking about yerself for once and put yerself in my position. I need time to sort meself out, time to clear me head. And I’m not going to go over it all again tonight, I’m too sick at heart and weary. I just want to go home and crawl into bed.’

  But Len wouldn’t leave it there. ‘I’m going round to see that Joan’s mam and dad and have it out with them. She’s not going to get away with this.’

  ‘Stop it, Len! I don’t want to hear any more! I’m going home now and I suggest you do the same.’

  ‘Will I see yer tomorrow night, then? Same time, same place?’

  ‘No, let’s skip tomorrow night. I’ll meet yer on Saturday as usual.’

  ‘Give us me goodnight kiss, then.’

  Lily backed away from him. ‘I’m not in the mood, Len, so leave it until Saturday.’ With that she turned from him, and her feet seemed to take on a life of their own as they covered the ground quickly in their eagerness to put a distance between them. And although Len watched until she was out of sight, he couldn’t see the tears rolling unchecked down her cheeks.

  Lily knew her eyes and cheeks would be red, a tell-tale sign of crying. So she stood for a while and let the light breeze fan her face. There’d be questions asked at home anyway, because she usually didn’t get home until eleven. And although she wasn’t sure of the time now, she reckoned it couldn’t be later than half nine to a quarter to ten. She’d plead a headache and go straight up to bed.

  Nellie and George were listening to the wireless when they heard the front door being opened and closed. ‘Who the heck can that be?’ Nellie moved quickly for her size and opened the door leading to the hall. ‘You’re early, girl, is something the matter?’

  ‘No, I’ve got a headache, that’s all.’ Lily forced a smile. ‘I thought if I went to bed it might go away.’ She intended going straight upstairs but her mother had different ideas.

  ‘Come and sit down, love, and I’ll mix yer a Beecham’s powder. They’re good for getting rid of headaches as well as colds.’

  ‘It’s not like you to have a headache,’ George said, turning to the shelf at the side of him to lower the wireless. ‘And yer can’t be sickening for a cold, not in this nice weather.’

  ‘No, it’s not that, Dad,’ Lily said, putting on a brave face. ‘It’ll probably go away when I lay me head on the pillow.’

  Nellie came bustling in, a steaming cup in her hand. She stood over Lily and fussed like a mother hen, telling her to drink the mixture while it was still hot and she’d soon feel better. And George looked on thinking how quickly his wife could drop her mantle of the joker who was always happy and hadn’t a care in the world. When it came to her children she’d take on the world to protect them. If she could she would take Lily’s headache and suffer the pain herself. And she’d always been like that with her children. Nursing them with love and tenderness through the chicken-pox, measles, and mumps. And she’d shown infinite patience, sitting up all night with them until the fever had gone and their temperature was back to normal.

  ‘Where did yer get to tonight, then?’ Nellie asked. ‘The pictures?’

  Lily was glad she had the cup in her hand, it was something to focus on instead of looking into her mother’s eyes. ‘No, I could feel the headache coming on, so we just went for a drink. And after one port and lemon, all I wanted was me bed.’ The drink was piping hot but Lily kept sipping, willing the cup to empty. All she wanted was to escape to the privacy of her bedroom. ‘I’ll take this upstairs with me, Mam, and finish it when I’m in bed.’

  Nellie went to take the cup from her. ‘I’ll carry it up for yer, sweetheart.’

  ‘There’s no need, Mam, I’ll take it up meself. It’s only a flippin’ headache I’ve got.’

  ‘If that’s what yer want. But if yer need anything, give us a shout.’ Nellie followed her into the hall and watched her climb the stairs. ‘If yer don’t feel well in the middle of the night, just give us a knock.’

  Lily turned on the landing to look down at her mother. ‘I’m hoping to sleep all night, Mam, but if it makes yer feel better, I promise to give a knock if I need yer. Goodnight and God bless.’

  Nellie walked back into the living room and closed the door behind her. ‘Just a headache, me foot! I think her and the queer feller have had a row. She’s been crying over something.’

  ‘Nellie!’ George warned. ‘Don’t be making something out of nothing. What if they have had a row? God knows, we had plenty when we were courting. I remember yer walking off the dance floor at the Rialto one time, just because I’d said something yer didn’t like! Yer left me swinging in the middle of the dance floor, and I felt a right nit! Then there was the time yer walked out of the Stella in the middle of the big picture because I’d tried to kiss yer!’

  ‘Me heart bleeds for yer, George.’ Nellie’s face was one big grin. ‘Yer’ve had twenty-five years of hell being married to me, haven’t yer? Yer deserve a medal, and I’d be the first one to say it.’ She dropped her head to try and rid herself of the grin, but her thoughts were so funny it only grew wider. ‘D’yer know what I’m going to do for yer, so the whole world will know what a lousy wife yer had? I’m going to put an epitaph on the headstone of yer grave, and it’ll say, “Here lies the body of George McDonough. A decent man until he married a shrew who drove him to drink and his grave”. How about that, George? Don’t yer think that’s very thoughtful of me?’

  ‘Nellie, I’m overwhelmed by yer thoughtfulness.’ George placed his two open palms on his tummy as it shook with laughter. ‘But ye’re overlooking one thing. What happens if you are the first one to go?’

  ‘Oh, yer’ve gone and spoilt it now! I had it all figured out! I was going to leave word with the kids that when I die, I wanted to be buried in the same grave so I could go on tormenting yer. And my epitaph would read, “Here lies the body of Helen Theresa McDonough, the shrew what drove George to drink and his grave”.’

  ‘This is a very pleasant conversation,’ George said. ‘Anyone listening would think we can’t wait to get rid of each other.’

  ‘Yeah, we shouldn’t be talking about death, it’s tempting fate. And anyway, I’ve made me plans for the future. I’m going nowhere without me mate, Molly. Yer see, I’ve got a feeling I’d have a hard job getting into heaven without someone to give me a good reference. And as she’s such a goody-goody, she’s a dead cert for a place on the front row. And that’s with wings and a harp. So, when she goes, I go.’

  ‘Thanks very much! And what about me?’

  ‘It’s all in hand, light of my life! I’ll take yer along with me and Molly, and once she gets me in, I’ll put a word in for you. I’ll tell them I made yer life on earth a hell, and yer deserved a medal but didn’t get one. And in me very poshest voice, and borr
owing some of Molly’s big words, I’ll ask them to give your case their careful consideration.’

  ‘It’s you that’ll have to be careful about that, Nellie,’ George said, pursing his lips and shaking his head slowly from side to side. ‘Yer see, yer’d be leaving yerself wide open. You tell them that it was you who ruined me life, they’ll say ye’re not fit for heaven. And they’ll boot yer down to the place below, where they’ve always got a fire going.’

  ‘Ah, well, yer’ve stumped me now, I hadn’t thought of that. So it’s back to the drawing board, Nellie McDonough, if yer ever want to get to heaven.’

  ‘There is another way yer can get there, love, but yer’ve probably never even given it a thought, either.’

  ‘Oh, aye? And what’s that?’

  ‘Yer could take a leaf out of Molly’s book and start behaving yerself.’

  ‘And yer say I’ve never given that a thought! Well, that’s where ye’re wrong, George McDonough because I thought of that twenty years ago.’ Nellie rolled her eyes to the ceiling. ‘I tried it for about four weeks, but life was that bloody boring, I decided to be me own sweet self and take me chances.’

  Lying in her bed overhead, Lily could hear the roars of laughter. And it added to her confusion. She’d hovered from believing Len, to thinking he was a liar. She wanted to believe him with all her heart. But her head didn’t agree with her heart. And hearing her parents laughing together, and enjoying each other’s company as they’d done for as long as she could remember, a voice in her head asked if she really believed it possible that she and Len could ever enjoy the same closeness and love as her mother and father?

  Lily sighed and pulled the sheets over her ears. I’ll never get to sleep if I keep going over it again and again. Take your mind off it, she told herself, and think of something nice. And the one nice event she was really looking forward to was seeing her brother marry the girl he’d loved for so long and who was like a sister to her. Then she thought of the design she’d seen of the bridesmaids’ dresses and imagined them made up in that blue material. And she saw herself wearing one, with a band of flowers in her hair and a posy in her hands. The girl she could see in her mind’s eye looked happy and was smiling. And when Lily finally dropped off to sleep, that was the vision she took with her to dreamland.

  Molly opened the door to Corker the next morning. ‘My God, ye’re early, aren’t yer? Yer might at least give a girl time to make herself, er, presentable. I was going to say pretty but thought better of it. It would take more than half-an-hour to make me pretty.’

  ‘Molly, me darlin’, ye’re a fine-looking woman. Always have been, always will be.’ Corker glanced sideways before lowering his voice. ‘Nellie’s not here yet, is she?’

  ‘No, but she’s due any minute. Come in and I’ll put yer in the picture.’

  ‘I won’t sit down, Molly, I’d rather not be here when she comes. Yer know what Nellie’s like for asking questions and I can’t think of an excuse for being here, not off the top of me head, anyway. And this is the only time I knew I’d get yer on yer own. It’s Saturday tomorrow and the kids will be home, then I’m away first thing on Sunday morning.’

  ‘I’ll make it quick, then, Corker, and yer can slip out the back.’ Molly pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. ‘I saw Lily last night and told her. Only about the baby and Len’s parents, I thought that was enough to throw at the girl in one go. She looked as though she was in shock for a while, and I got worried. But she seemed all right when she left me, and she’s not turning against me, which was me biggest fear. She was going to meet him and said she’d ask him to his face. God love the girl, she said it was only fair to hear his side of the story. And that’s all I know, Corker, I’m afraid. Whether she gives him his marching orders, or stays with him, only time will tell. But whatever happens, I think you and I did the right thing. Nothing will convince me otherwise.’

  Molly cocked an ear when she heard a door bang nearby. ‘This will be Nellie, Corker, so yer’d better make yerself scarce.’ She opened the kitchen door for him. ‘If I hear anything before yer go away, I’ll try and let yer know. If not I’ll tell Ellen and she can write to yer.’

  Corker was down the yard and by the entry door when he said, ‘Ellen knows nothing about it. I thought the fewer people who knew, the better. I’ll give yer an address to write to when I see yer tomorrow. We’re away for six or seven weeks, so the letter would catch up with me at one of the ports.’

  Molly jerked her head backwards. ‘Me mate’s knocking the door down, I’d better let her in. Ta-ra, sunshine.’ She closed the door and hurried through to let her friend in. ‘Good God, Nellie, can’t I go to the lavvy in peace?’

  ‘How the hell was I supposed to know yer were on the lavvy! I’m not a ruddy mindreader!’ Nellie stepped into the hall, squeezed past her friend and waddled into the living room. She was grinning from ear to ear when she faced Molly. ‘Eh, girl, d’yer know those fellers we’ve seen on the pictures what go around with a stick and say they can tell where there’s water by this stick shaking?’

  ‘That’s only in countries where they don’t get much rain, sunshine. Yer won’t find any of them here. They’re called water-diviners.’

  ‘Well, if I’d been one of them, and I had one of them sticks what tell yer where there’s water, I’d have known yer were on the lavvy, wouldn’t I? The stick would have led me to yer.’

  ‘Thank heaven for small mercies! I’m sure I’d have been delighted if you’d opened the door when I was sitting in state. It would have made my day!’

  ‘Yer haven’t got nothing I haven’t got, girl!’

  ‘No, but I’d like to keep mine to meself, if yer don’t mind.’ Molly opened a drawer in the sideboard and searched through an untidy mess of papers, hairbrushes, pencils and other odds and sods that had just been pushed in any old how. ‘I can’t find me ruddy comb.’

  ‘I can’t help yer there, girl, ’cos I don’t carry one around with me. Just run yer fingers through it, no one will know the difference.’

  ‘I will! I’m not going out looking like something the cat dragged in. I’ll have to use a brush, but I much prefer a comb.’ Molly had quite a few white hairs in her head now, but with being blonde they weren’t noticeable unless you looked closely. Which she did now as she stood in front of the mirror with the brush in her hand. ‘I don’t suppose I can complain because me mam’s hair was snow-white by the time she was my age.’

  ‘Oh, stop yer worrying. What’s a few white hairs between friends?’

  ‘That’s just it – I got these white hairs because of a friend! You’re the one who put these in me head. Ye’re more worry to me than me whole family put together.’

  ‘Ah, ay, now, girl, yer can’t blame me for it! Me, what’s yer best friend and goes out of me way to make yer happy. I could just as easy say it’s your fault I’m so fat.’

  Molly grinned at her friend through the mirror. ‘I don’t know whose fault it is that ye’re fat, sunshine, but they made a good job of it ’cos ye’re nice and cuddly.’

  ‘That’s kind of yer to say so, girl. And I think yer suit the white hairs, they make yer look very distan … distun … what’s the ruddy word I’m looking for?’

  ‘Distinguished, sunshine!’

  ‘I knew what it was, but I just couldn’t get it out.’ Nellie turned her head so their eyes weren’t meeting. ‘It’s funny how yer know all these big words but still let yerself down on fiddling little things.’

  ‘What d’yer mean, fiddling little things?’

  ‘Well, yer know before, when yer said yer weren’t going out like something the cat had dragged in? That was wrong, yer see, wasn’t it? For it to make any sense, yer would have had to go out first, before the cat could drag yer in. And for the life of me I can’t see yer being daft enough to let a flippin’ cat do that to yer!’

  Molly spun around, the brush handle in one hand, the bristles in the other. ‘Only you could think up something like that, Nellie Mc
Donough! It was a real tongue-twister, that was.’ She grinned and threw the brush on the table so she could put her arms around the little fat woman she adored. ‘Shall I tell yer what yer are, sunshine? Ye’re a little treasure.’

  ‘Blimey, it’s taken all these years for the penny to drop! I’ve told yer over and over again that I’m a treasure, but yer wouldn’t believe me. It’s taken a ruddy cat to make yer see what’s been staring yer in the face for years.’

  ‘All right, sunshine, don’t let yerself be carried away. One compliment a day is all ye’re going to get.’ Molly picked up the brush, plucked the hairs from it and threw them in the grate. ‘I’ve only got to put me stockings on, then I’m ready. Yer don’t mind if I put them on in front of yer, do yer? After all, as yer said, I haven’t got nothing you haven’t got.’ She lifted her arm as though fending off a blow, before adding, ‘Only you’ve got more of it.’

  ‘I’ll let yer off with that for now. But I’ll get me own back by making a show of yer in the butcher’s.’ Nellie watched her friend pulling a stocking on and wished she could reach her feet like that. It was a performance for her to put stockings on, her tummy got in the way. ‘George said I was making something out of nothing, but I’ll tell yer anyway ’cos I’m hoping to God I’m right. I think our Lily had a row with the queer feller last night. She was home by half nine and I’ll swear she’d been crying.’

  Molly kept her head down as she reached for the other stocking. Her heart was beating like mad and her mouth had gone dry. ‘Yer might be imagining it, sunshine, because that’s what yer’d like to happen. Didn’t she say anything?’

  ‘Yeah, she said she had a headache and couldn’t get to bed quick enough. But I’ve never known our Lily have a headache before.’