‘So would I, staked me life on it; but he’s after a car. That gang of his want a new van to hold them and their instruments, and naturally he’s expected to pig in. If he was on his own he likely could, but with his mother to see to money’s tight. I’ve given him two ten bob rises this year, I can’t give him any more at the present. I’ve promised him I’ll put him on a better basis at the end of the year. I’ll know where I stand then. The factory should be up and if I get my way I’ll be under contract to Blenkinsop, Mr Rodney, not Dan, and then to hell with them all. But in the meantime I’m not putting Jimmy’s money up and then not being able to pull it down again if things don’t go the way they should.’
‘Aye, I see your point, but I wouldn’t have believed it about Jimmy if you hadn’t told me yourself. You’ve got proof?’
‘Well, there’s ten shilling notes been slipping away once or twice a week. I haven’t kept tag on the silver, the Lord knows how much of that’s gone…Aw come on.’ He moved towards the door. ‘I’d better see to the old faggot’s machine.’
As they went onto the drive again the children came tearing round the end of the garage, with Bill on their heels, and Rose Mary cried, ‘Granda! Granda! Look at him jumping. Up Bill! Up Bill!’ She held her hand brow high and Bill leapt at it, but when he dropped to the ground again he fell on his side and rolled onto his back, and Mike laughed and Corny was forced to smile. ‘It’s his legs,’ he said…‘they just won’t hold that chest of his. That’s why we got him. He was the runt. But runt or not, he’s a thoroughbred, he’s a good dog, Mike.’
Mike, looking at Bill, nodded, saying, ‘Yes, he looks a fine fellow. I wouldn’t like him to get a hold of my leg when he’s a few months older. Just look at those jaws.’
As the children dashed away again with Bill tearing after them, Corny said, ‘She hates the sight of him.’
‘Well, you can’t say he’s a pretty dog; women like something nice to look at.’
‘Nice to look at!’ Corny jerked his chin. ‘That dog’s got character.’ He now turned and grinned widely at Mike and there was a chuckle in his voice as he said, ‘I’ll say he has. Oh lad, if you could have seen the kitchen on that first night you would have thought a shipload of rats had been at it.’ He gave a deep gurgle. ‘She nearly went daft. Mind, I could have killed him meself, but after, when I thought about it, I had to laugh. He reminded me of Joe. Do you remember the dog I had as a lad? I used to bring him to me granny’s.’
‘Oh, Joe. Oh yes, I remember you and Joe. Didn’t you nearly break Fanny’s neck with him once?’
‘Yes, I had him on a piece of rope and there was a kid from upstairs came in. She had a cat in her arms and Joe dived and hurled me across the room, and he took me granny’s legs from under her, and she grabbed at the tablecloth as she went down. She had just put out four plates of stew. Oh, I never forget that night.’ He was laughing loudly. ‘I can see her, to this day, sitting on the floor covered in it, and Joe, flat out under the table, looking at her. Eeh! My, we had to run. And I daren’t show me face in the door for days after…But it might have killed her, the fall she took.’
They were both laughing now.
‘It would take more than that to kill Fanny,’ said Mike. ‘By the way, how is she?’
‘Oh, grand. I saw her last week. She’s got a new lease of life. Going to bingo now.’
‘No!’
‘Aye; she had won thirty-six bob and she was standing treats as it was thirty-six thousand. You know her.’
‘Oh aye, I know Fanny. I wish there were more like her…’
It was about half an hour later when Lizzie put her head out of the window and called, ‘Tea’s ready!’ and Mike called back, ‘Coming!’ Then looking at Corny, who was still tinkering with the engine, he said, ‘I would leave that and let her get on with it, we’d better not keep them waiting, we don’t want any more black looks.’ Then turning round, he called, ‘Rose Mary! David! Come on; tea up.’
‘Granda! Dad!’ Rose Mary came running up to the car. ‘Have you seen Bill?’
Corny brought his head up so quickly from the engine that it bumped the top of the bonnet, and, rubbing it, he screwed up his face as he said. ‘Have we seen Bill? You’re asking me when you’ve had him all afternoon?’
‘Well, he was with us a minute ago and now he’s gone.’ She looked over the road and called, ‘Is he there, David?’ and David came running and shouting, ‘No, I can’t see him.’
‘Where had you him last?’ asked Mike, and Rose Mary answered, ‘Down in the field, Granda. We came round the back way and onto the drive, and we thought he’d be here.’
‘Oh Lord!’ Corny covered his face with one hand, then, oblivious of the grease on it, he pushed it upwards through his hair and said, ‘Take ten-to-one he’s upstairs.’
‘No.’ Mike moved quickly now towards the door of the house, saying, ‘I’m going to enjoy this.’
‘You’ll be the only one then,’ said Corny, pulling off his overalls and throwing them into the front of the garage.
When he reached the stairs he expected to find Mary Ann at the top with the dog by the scruff of the neck, but there was no-one to be seen, not even Mike or the children.
On entering the kitchen he stood within the door taking in the scene. Bill was seated inside the fender, his rump to the stove that housed a back boiler and was comfortably warm. His mouth was wide open, his tongue lolling out of one side, and with his small round black eyes he was appraising the company, one after the other.
Lizzie stood staring down at him. Mary Ann, too, stood staring at him, but from the distance of the scullery doorway, her mouth grim, one hand on her hip, her pose alone spelling battle. The children stood close to Mike by the side of the table, their attention riveted on Bill.
And Mrs McMullen. Well, Mrs McMullen sat in the big chair to the side of the fireplace and she glared at Bill, and her look seemed to bring his eyes to focus finally on her, and as they stared at each other she passed sentence. ‘Dogs like him want puttin’ down when they’re young,’ she said: ‘they’re a dangerous breed, they can’t be trusted with children. Once they get their teeth in they hang on. Killed a bairn they did. It was in the papers not so long ago. Just give him another couple of months, and you won’t be able to do anything with him, you’ll find yourself in court with a summons and a hospital bill to pay for somebody’s leg, that is if he hasn’t finished them off.’
‘He could be trained,’ said Lizzie.
‘What, to finish them off?’ Mike laughed.
Lizzie ignored this and, looking at her mother, said, ‘Give him a chance, he’s only a puppy.’
‘Puppy! He’s as big as a house end now, what’ll he be like when he’s fully grown? This poky room won’t hold him. It doesn’t hold much now, but wait till he’s reached his size…’
‘Then we’ll move into a bigger house to accommodate him.’ They now all looked at Corny as he moved past Mary Ann and went into the scullery to wash his hands.
‘Oh, you’re all going to break eggs with a big stick. You’re a long time moving into your bigger houses.’
As the kettle boiled Mary Ann went to the gas stove and from there she heard Corny mutter over the sink, ‘Break eggs with a big stick, the old buzzard!’
If only everything had been all right, Mary Ann knew that at this minute she would have been standing close to his side and he would have made her giggle. She also knew that she would even have taken Bill’s part, simply because her granny didn’t like him.
As she made the tea Corny stood drying his hands watching her, and when she went to pass him to get the tea stand from the cupboard he suddenly caught her by the arm, and they stared at each other for a moment; then quickly his mouth dropped on hers, hard, possessively. When he looked at her again her eyes were gushing tears and he put his arms about her, whispering. ‘Don’t. Don’t. Don’t let her see you crying, for God’s sake; that’ll give her too much satisfaction. Go on. Go on.’ He pushed her to
wards the sink. ‘See to your face, I’ll take the tea in.’
As he passed her with the tray he put out his free hand and touched her hair, and this did not help to ease her crying.
‘You didn’t tell me what was wrong with her, the car?’
Gran greeted him as he entered the room again, and he said, ‘It was a hole in the exhaust; I’ve done what I can.’
‘How much will it be?’
‘I’ll send me bill in,’ he said.
‘Well, don’t forget,’ she answered.
It would just serve her damn well right if he did send a bill in. And wouldn’t she get a shock? He could imagine her coming storming up here, raising the roof on him.
The talk was falsely animated during the meal. It was Corny who kept the conversation going, and in this he was aided by Mike.
Mary Ann, from her place at the bottom of the table, poured out the tea, and from her seat, if she cast her eyes to the right, she could see Bill. He had settled down by the stove with his head lying on his front paws. He looked utterly relaxed. She found herself wishing she could like him; she wished she could put up with him for everybody’s sake, especially now that her granny couldn’t stand him. There must be something good about the beast if her granny didn’t like him.
There was always a climax when Mrs McMullen visited her relations. It came earlier than usual during this visit, just as tea was finished.
It should happen that Bill had found the stove slightly too warm for his thin coat and had moved from the inside of the fender to the outside, and this brought him to the foot of ‘Gran’s chair’. When she left the table and went to sit down there was Bill. He was not impeding her; she could have sat down and not even touched him, but that wasn’t Gran’s way. Taking her foot, she gave him a sharp dig in the ribs. The result was surprising but, as she herself had stated earlier, predictable.
Bill had been happy today, as he had never been since he had left his mother. He was in a warm place which was permeated with nice smells. He had discovered he was very fond of biscuits, not the broken biscuits that you got with your dinner, but biscuits with chocolate on them. He knew he was going to develop a real taste for biscuits with chocolate on them. Chocolate had a particular smell and there was a strong smell of chocolate in this room. He knew that if he waited long enough and quietly enough he would be rewarded. That was, until the thing hit him in the ribs. His reaction to the pain was for his jaws to spring open, then snap closed, and to give vent to a cry that was part yelp, part yap and part growl, and all the time he felt the pain he jumped madly around the room dodging under one object after another.
‘There! There! What did I tell you? He’s dangerous. He went for me.’
‘He did no such thing!’ Lizzie was yelling at her mother. ‘You asked for it.’
‘I asked for what?’
‘You should have left him alone.’
‘Don’t chase him, let up,’ cried Corny.
‘Look, stop it!’ Mary Ann was shouting at the twins now. ‘You’ll have the things off the table.’
‘Here he is! Here he is!’ Mike reached down behind the couch and grabbed at Bill’s collar, and, pulling him up, he thrust him wriggling and squirming into David’s arms and David, now looking fearfully up at his mother, said, ‘He didn’t do it. He didn’t start it, Mam, it was Gran. She kicked him. I saw her; she kicked him.’
‘I did nothing of the sort, boy. Well! Would you believe it?’
‘Yes, you did, Gran, I saw you.’ Rose Mary was now standing by David’s side confronting the old woman, and Mrs McMullen, looking from one to the other of her great-grandchildren, didn’t know which she disliked most, or whether her dislike for them was greater than that for their mother. But that couldn’t possibly be. Nevertheless, she knew that there was a time when it was advisable to retreat, and so with great dignity she sat down in her chair again and, her chin moving upwards, she made a statement, which was sinisterly prophetic in this case.
‘Every dog has his day,’ she said.
David stared at her; then grinning he said flippantly, ‘Aye, and a bitch has two afternoons.’
Such a reply coming from her great-grandson not only brought Mrs McMullen’s eyebrows almost up to her hairline but also created an amazed silence in the room, and an assortment of astounded expressions.
Still holding on to the wriggling dog, David now looked apprehensively from one face to the other. He’d get wrong, he knew he would. He felt a little afraid, until all of a sudden there came a sound like an explosion. It was his granda and his dad bursting out laughing together. His granda had his hand on his dad’s shoulder and he was roaring. And his grandma too, she was laughing with her head down and her face covered. But his mam wasn’t laughing. The next minute she had hold of his collar and was pushing him and Bill outside while Rose Mary came after them shouting, ‘No Mam. No Mam.’
On the landing, Mary Arm looked down at her son and hissed under her breath, ‘David! Where on earth did you hear that?’
‘It…it wasn’t swearin’, Mam.’
Mary Ann swallowed deeply. ‘It was a kind of swearing.’
At this David shook his head and glanced at Rose Mary, and Rose Mary said, ‘Not really, Mam, not proper swearin’.’
‘Who told you it?’
David blinked and hitched Bill further up into his arms and had to avoid his licking tongue before he said, ‘Nobody, Mam; I just heard it.’
‘Where?’
David glanced at Rose Mary again, then looked down but didn’t answer, and Mary Ann wanted to take him by the shoulders and shake him. But that meant shaking that animal too and then anything might happen. ‘Where?’ she repeated.
It was Rose Mary who answered for him. ‘Jimmy. Jimmy says that, Mam.’
Mary Ann straightened herself up. Jimmy? Well, wait until she saw him tomorrow. ‘Take that animal downstairs and lock him up,’ she said.
Neither of them moved. They were looking up at her, blinking all the while.
‘You heard what I said.’
‘She kicked him, Mam. He wouldn’t have done anything if she hadn’t have kicked him.’ As David spoke the door opened and Corny and Mike came onto the landing. They were still laughing. Mary Ann did not look at them but at the children and repeated, ‘Take him downstairs.’
They both glanced at their father and grandfather, then went slowly down the stairs, and Mary Ann turned and looked at these two whom she loved so deeply that the feeling often brought nothing but pain, and she saw them now as a couple of boys. They were leaning against each other and she hissed at them under her breath, ‘Stop it! D’you hear? Stop it!’
Mike now put his hand out towards her, spluttering, ‘And a bitch has two afternoons.’
As she saw their laughter mounting she pushed them towards the bedroom, and once inside she cried, ‘If you must act like bairns do it in here.’
‘She…she wants her hat and coat,’ Mike gasped; ‘she’s going…we’re going. We’re going out on a wave. We always go out on a wave when she’s about.’
She picked up her granny’s coat and went out and into the kitchen, there to be met by the standing figure of Mrs McMullen.
Mary Ann didn’t hand her granny her hat and coat; instead, she handed them to her mother, and it was Lizzie who went to help the old lady into her things, only to be repulsed with the words, ‘Thank you! I can see to meself.’
And that was all Mrs McMullen said until they reached the bottom of the stairs, and there, turning and looking straight into Mary Ann’s face, she remarked, ‘They’re a credit to you. They’re a pair you could take anywhere. You must be proud of them.’
The pressure of her mother’s fingers on her arm stilled her retort, and Lizzie, bending down, kissed her and whispered, ‘I’ll ring you later.’
When her da kissed her his eyes were still wet and gleaming, but he said nothing more, he just patted her cheek and went towards the car.
She did not wait to see them off but ret
urned upstairs, and a few minutes later Corny entered the room. He came straight towards her, the twinkle deep in his eye, but he did not repeat the joke; instead, he picked her up in his arms as he had been wont to do and sat down with her in the big chair, and when he pressed her face into his neck her body began to shake, but not with laughter; she was picking up where she had left off in the scullery earlier on.
Chapter Five: Getting Acquainted
‘Now Rose Mary, if I’ve told you once I’ve told you a hundred times, he can’t come upstairs; he’s all right where he is.’
‘But listen to him, Mam, he’s yelling the place down. He’s lonely. He likes people, he does; he only cries when he’s by hisself…’
Mary Ann had turned her head away, but now she brought her gaze down to her daughter again as she said patiently, ‘He’s a puppy, Rose Mary, he’s got to learn. He won’t learn if you give in to him.’
Rose Mary’s lips trembled as she muttered, ‘I worry all day ’bout him, shut up in there in the dark. I’m frightened of the dark, you know I am, Mam, and he—’
‘Rose Mary!’ It came on a high note, but when she saw her daughter’s face crumpling into tears she knew that this would continue all the way to school, and all during Miss Plum’s questioning, and she was forced to compromise. ‘Look,’ she said; ‘you can go and let him out. He can run round behind the garage, but see that the lane gate is closed, for mind’—she bent down towards her daughter—‘if he gets out on the road among all those lorries he could be killed.’
‘Yes, I know, Mam. All right, Mam, I’ll fasten the gate tight.’ Swiftly now Rose Mary’s arms came up and hugged her mother around the neck. ‘Thanks, Mam…Ta. I’ll tell our David.’
David was standing in grim silence at the bottom of the stairs waiting for her, and she dashed at him, whispering hoarsely, ‘Mam says we can let him out and he can run in the back.’
Mary Ann and Bill Page 7
