The Thursday Friend

by Catherine Cookson

  She noted that Janie didn’t say, ‘Oh, don’t go, Hannah,’ but smiled at her, a strange smile.

  After the door had closed on Hannah, Janie let out a long breath, and when she spoke again it wasn’t in her high-falutin’ convent-bred voice, but in a low and serious tone. ‘We may not have many minutes alone; one or other of the kids are bound to come up, but I want to ask you something.’

  Before she could proceed further David put out his hand and, taking hers, said, ‘The answer is yes: I’m serious about your sister, very serious. How it has come about in four days, I don’t know; indeed, it came about in less than four minutes, I think, from the moment I first saw her, in fact. Oh, yes; I’m very serious about her.’

  ‘So . . . so you won’t hurt her in any way, I mean . . . just make use of her and then walk out?’

  ‘Oh, please! You haven’t had much time to form an opinion of me, but I’d hoped you wouldn’t suggest that.’

  ‘I’m sorry. But I love Hannah, and she needs looking after. She’s still a girl. She’s been married to that individual for four years and he’s not playing fair by her, has never done so, it seems to me, yet she’s so loyal to him it makes me sick. Just because he’s kind and, she says, so thoughtful. As I see it, and from the very first, he’s kind only to secure his own ends, and what those ends are beats me, especially given their present way of life. Has she told you anything about him, I mean personally?’

  ‘No. No, but don’t worry, your husband has.’

  ‘Oh, dear me!’ She screwed up her eyes for a moment. ‘Trust the ambassador of diplomacy; yet’ – she laughed softly – ‘whatever he knows, it never goes any further than me, which is a good thing. But if only she’d met someone like you at the beginning. Anyway, she has now and . . . and you won’t let her slip through your fingers, will you? You know, she just might, she’s got an outsize conscience: she mustn’t do anything that’ll hurt Humphrey. Oh! Humphrey. I know what I’d do with that City gent if I had my way.’

  He laughed, then said, ‘Well, I wish you had your way; it would make things a lot easier. I keep telling myself to make haste slowly, but you see the result, I’m sitting here now, after tracking her down, just because she couldn’t meet me where we had arranged. And, oh dear! the thought of not seeing her till Thursday . . . ’

  ‘Oh yes, Thursday. He mustn’t miss his bridge. If it was a woman I could understand, but no, it isn’t; it’s bridge, all right.’

  ‘Then he goes away at the weekend to stay with his supposed aunt and uncle—’

  ‘Oh, they’re real enough,’ she put in quickly. ‘I wish they weren’t. No; they’re alive and kicking, both of them, and as narrow as the slit in a jeweller’s eye.’

  ‘A what?’ He was nipping on his lower lip.

  ‘Oh, that!’ she laughed; ‘as narrow as a slit in a jeweller’s eye – that’s one of Eddie’s. Apparently it was a favourite of his mother’s because,’ she smiled, ‘I might as well tell you, because he’ll come out with it one day, likely when we’re in company. You see, his mother had to go to the pawn shop pretty often, as did everybody else in his vicinity, I think, and the last resort for a woman was her ring. They’d watch the old pawnbroker put his eye to his magnifying glass and sometimes, when he turned to say, “No go, the stone’s paste and there’s not enough gold in the ring to cover a holey tooth,” they’d raise the shop on him until he came up with some kind of an offer, perhaps as little as two shillings. They must have been terrible days for those women, yet they survived, and I’ve never met an unhappy one yet.’

  ‘No; you’re right about them seeming happy. Those I’ve met have been through all kinds of trouble yet they come up smiling and keep at it.’

  ‘Yes, that’s what’s put my Eddie where he is today. He has a fine greengrocer’s shop, you know, and he’s opening another.’

  ‘Good for him. I’m glad to hear it, and I can understand your being proud of him.’

  Her face was straight as she said, ‘You’re just saying that, I know, but the truth is, I am proud of him.’

  ‘No, I didn’t say it lightly; I meant it. I can tell by your every word when you speak about him that you’re proud of him, and rightly so.’

  When she endeavoured to raise herself on her elbows, he said, ‘What actually is it? Your spine?’

  ‘No,’ she said; ‘it’s the sciatic nerve. All I get from the doctor is being told to rest, or asked if I’d like some massage or told to try cool compresses: a bag of frozen peas from the freezer is suggested as likely to bring relief.’ She laughed as she slumped back on to the pillow, saying, ‘All that bag of peas did for me was to give me frostbite; I couldn’t bear it.’

  ‘You won’t believe me,’ David said quickly, ‘if I tell you I can give you a certain amount of ease, enough at least to enable you to sit up.’

  ‘Yes? You’ve had medical training?’

  ‘No; but my grandfather was troubled with sciatica in his hip and our old doctor showed my grandmother how to ease him by putting pressure on certain of the nodules. Would you like me to try?’

  ‘Well . . . it’s . . . oh, all right, why not?’

  He stood up quickly. ‘Your husband will have to give the go-ahead, and Hannah will have to help to turn you.’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘Oh, yes; yes, I’m serious, all right, and it’s such a simple thing.’

  ‘Well, then, if you say you can ease the pain, then carry on. Go to the stairhead and give them a shout.’

  He opened the door and, standing at the top of the stairs, he called, ‘Is there anybody there?’

  Both Hannah and Eddie appeared quickly from the kitchen, Eddie enquiring, ‘What is it? What’s up?’

  ‘Would you and Hannah come upstairs for a minute?’ he called to them.

  At the foot of the stairs Hannah and Eddie exchanged glances; then he pushed her before him and they were soon in the bedroom and Janie was saying, ‘He says’ – she nodded towards David – ‘he can ease this pain of mine; he knows a trick or two.’

  ‘No, they’re not tricks, just simple pressure. Would you like me to try it on her?’

  He was looking at Eddie, whose reply was, ‘I don’t know so much. What’re you going to do?’

  ‘Just apply pressure to various points. You find out where the real sore spots are. You place your thumb on one and you press and I can tell you it hurts like billy-o: you’ve got to hold that for thirty seconds. By the time fifteen seconds have passed the pain should be easing, and when you come to thirty it should be gone. Now, if it hasn’t gone, you’re either on the wrong spot or it’s too deep for this kind of treatment; but in nine cases out of ten it seems to work. I’ve seen my grandmother work what I thought were miracles on my grandfather. How about it?’

  Janie looked at Eddie, then they both looked at Hannah and Hannah turned her full gaze on David and said, ‘If I was in as much pain as she is I’d try anything.’

  ‘Oh, let’s get on with it without holding a board meeting. It’s my body and I don’t suppose it’s the first bare buttock he’s seen, so hoist me over on to my side, will you?’

  Janie was addressing Eddie, then, turning her gaze on Hannah, she said, ‘And you keep my nightie in place.’

  Within seconds Eddie had turned her over on to her side. She was now facing away from them and when he exposed her buttock and Hannah drew up the bedclothes around her legs he half turned to her and, his head bobbing, he said, ‘You bring some things on us on a Sunday afternoon, don’t you?’

  ‘Don’t blame me.’

  ‘Who else?’

  ‘Will you two stop jabbering and let the witch doctor get on with the job?’

  David was laughing heartily. ‘I’d better kneel,’ he said; ‘I can put more pressure on that way than I could bending over her.’

/>   Both Hannah and Eddie stood towards the foot of the bed now and watched David’s thumb move round Janie’s hip as if he were searching for something; then with a quick movement his thumb dug into the flesh and they all knew he had hit on a tender spot when Janie gave a gasp and a cry. ‘Oh! God, that hurts,’ she cried, to which David answered by counting seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, before saying, ‘Is it easing?’ There was a slight gasp before Janie said, ‘Funnily, yes, it is.’

  ‘Nineteen, twenty: is that better?’

  ‘Yes; yes, it’s nearly gone.’

  When he had reached thirty seconds he took his thumb away from the point and asked, ‘You’re sure?’

  ‘Yes. It was a bit hellish at first, but, my goodness! I wouldn’t have believed it.’

  ‘Well, then, are you up to my trying another?’

  ‘Oh, yes; you go on. Shoot as many as you can of them if there are more there.’

  ‘Yes; I’m sorry to say there are more there, and most of them’ll probably be as painful. Well, here goes: get ready!’

  Within the next ten minutes, of the six bad pain spots he had relieved her of four. Now looking up at Eddie, whose face was showing his surprise, he said, ‘Come down here and you try it.’

  When Eddie was kneeling by his side, looking very self-conscious as he gazed at his wife’s buttock, as if he’d never seen it before, David said, ‘Let me find a sore spot.’ And when Janie gave another yelp, he said, ‘Yes, here’s one. Now just place the pad of your thumb tight on it; now press for all you’re worth and count up to thirty seconds.’

  When fifteen seconds had passed, Janie’s voice came at them, saying, ‘It’s going, but not quick enough, you’re not pressing hard enough.’

  ‘Well, I’ll be . . . !’ Eddie swallowed, then added, ‘Well, how’s that?’

  ‘That’s better. Yes, it’s going now.’

  When Hannah burst out laughing the two men looked at her, and she said, ‘Janie, you should see his face. By the look on it you’d think he was opening his third fruit shop.’

  This caused general laughter, and when Janie slowly turned round, she said, ‘I wouldn’t have believed it.’ Then, looking up at David, she said simply, ‘Thank you. Oh, thank you!’

  ‘You’re welcome. I recommend a dose of the medicine every day for the next week. By the way, I send my bills out once a quarter. You understand?’

  ‘Oh, yes, sir. Yes.’ Janie paused and glanced towards Hannah before looking at David again and adding, ‘I wonder, sir, if you’d mind being paid in kind. A meal a dose, say? Sundays only.’

  They were all laughing as the door burst open and before their surprised gazes there stood Maggie, who had apparently been crying.

  And this fact brought her mother up on her elbows again with a jerk and a groan. ‘What’s the matter? Now what is it? Come here.’

  As the girl made towards the bed David and Hannah moved back, but her father reached out and pulled her close to him, saying, ‘What’s up, love? Somebody been at you?’

  Maggie shook her head. ‘No, Dad. No.’

  ‘You went to the party?’

  ‘Yes, Mam. Yes.’ Maggie nodded towards her mother and went on, ‘And the table looked nice. She had only invited three of us, Belle Smith, Barbara Brown and me.’

  ‘And was it a big house?’

  ‘Well, Mam, not as big as she’d made out; and her granny lives upstairs; and they have a lodger too. He isn’t very young, but he seems a nice man, and he was going to show us tricks after we’d had our tea. It looked as if everything was going to be very nice, and the granny was funny, she made us laugh. She made me promise I’d lend her my skirt, and I said I would and she’d be able to wear it ’cos she was little and thin; then the front doorbell rang and her mother went to answer it.’

  She now cast her glance from one to the other and her voice gave a little break as she said, ‘Then everything seemed to happen so quickly. He came in. It was Nanette’s father. He’d brought her a present; and . . . and he was drunk.’ She looked up at Eddie now, then added, ‘Oh, Dad! he was so drunk; and he went for the lodger, who tried to put him out ’cos . . . ’cos he mustn’t live there with them, and they fought and the table went over and smashed the cake. And the cake had looked lovely. And Nanette kept yelling, “No! Dad. No! Dad. Come away,” and Belle and Barbara ran out screaming.’

  ‘And what did you do?’

  She looked at her mother. ‘I left too, Mam, I was frightened, but I stood outside the open door. I saw the granny take something . . . I don’t know what it was, but she hit the drunken man on the back of the head and he fell on the floor; and then Nanette’s mother came to the door. She was crying something awful and she said she was sorry, and I said it was all right and that we’d see Nanette tomorrow at school and tell her not to worry.’

  When her father’s arm tightened about her, Maggie gave a big heave, then turned and buried her head in his waist, sobbing loudly now.

  ‘Poor woman’ – Janie shook her head on the pillow – ‘and the poor child! It’ll be all over the school tomorrow.’

  Her face streaming, Maggie seemed to almost spring out of her father’s arms now as she turned towards her mother, crying, ‘No! it won’t, ’cos I told ’em what’d happen: I’d knock their bloody heads together if they said one word; and what’s more I told them they wouldn’t come to our housewarming party when we get our big house—’ She glanced quickly up into her father’s spreading countenance, the expression on which was impossible to describe, and she stuttered on, ‘You . . . you said we were gonna move soon or something like that. Anyway,’ I told her . . . them, and . . . and what’s more’ – her voice trailed away as she held her father’s eye – ‘I said it was going to be a . . . a big place, but it was a secret . . . well, as yet.’

  There was a movement in the room: Hannah was making for the door and David was behind her, and they didn’t speak until they reached the sitting room, and there, holding her by the shoulders, he said, ‘Now don’t you start or else you’ll have me at it, because that was the finest piece of melodrama I’ve seen in my life, and it was real. Oh, yes, it was real, all right. There’s character for you: “I’ll knock their bloody heads together!”’

  Hannah blinked at him through her wet eyes; then in a low voice he said, ‘In a short while we’ll be leaving. You won’t let me get off the train and see you home, I know that without asking, and there’ll not be another opportunity, at least today, to say what I want to say. I love you; I need you; I want you.’ When he jerked her into his embrace she gasped and was about to protest, saying, ‘Oh, David,’ when his mouth fell on hers. The kiss was long and hard, and at what stage of it her arms went around his neck she wasn’t aware, but he held her all the closer. It was from this moment their life together began.

  Chapter Six

  Humphrey was later than usual arriving home. It had turned half-past ten when she heard his key in the door.

  Hannah was seated in the sitting room in front of the electric fire. She was in her dressing gown and had been looking through the Sunday paper. A book and a magazine lay on a table to her side. She had purposely placed them there. She trained her eyes on the newspaper while she waited for him to go through his routine: she could see him setting down his weekend case at the foot of the stairs, before opening the cloakroom door and placing his overcoat on a hanger.

  Next he would wash his hands, stroke back his hair, square his shoulders and then, and only then, make his way into the sitting room. The washing of hands, stroking of hair, squaring of shoulders was the same as the bathroom routine that had at first amused, then irritated her, for to her it was as though he were preparing himself for some distasteful task.

  As he entered the room she looked at him over the edge of the paper and immediately detected that he wasn’t wear
ing his usual pleased and patient expression. His first remark was, ‘You’ve got the fire on. It’s warm outside.’

  And to this she replied, ‘I’ve only been in a short while and the room felt chilly. Have you any objection to my putting the fire on?’

  She watched his eyes widen; then, his voice stiff, he said, ‘Of course not. Of course not, except that you must be the only one in the street who’s feeling chilly tonight.’

  ‘I find the fire comforting.’

  He stared at her a moment longer, but made no remark on her statement.

  She was folding up the newspaper as she said, ‘Did you have a nice weekend?’

  When he turned to her it was to say, ‘Would you consider it a nice weekend having to placate two grumpy old people? It is very noticeable in the elderly. They get more self-opinionated: they make laws for others to keep; they get bees in their bonnets about certain subjects . . . ’

  He was standing at the far end of the fireplace, one arm resting against the mantelpiece, and quietly she asked, ‘Subjects such as what?’

  He turned to her as if startled and said, ‘What did you say?’

  She pulled herself forward in the chair, laid the folded paper on the side table, then said, ‘You were saying that your aunt and uncle were getting very opinionated and had bees in their bonnets about certain subjects.’

  ‘Oh, yes.’ It was as if he were surprised and had been caught thinking aloud.

  He now sat in a chair and crossed his long legs and lay back, then rubbed his hand over his eyes for a moment before he said, ‘Oh they pick something out of the paper, such as divorce, and actresses having so many husbands, and the immorality of it all.’

  Dear, dear! he was upset. She looked at him intently. Divorce? Oh no, no; he’d always known what they thought about divorce. He’d once said they considered it to be a sin next to murder. But something certainly had upset him.