by Joan Jonker
Irene came to the door, followed by twelve-year-old Greg. Her face lit up when she saw Lucy. ‘Oh, sunshine, ye’re a sight for sore eyes. My, but yer do look bonny. Come in and let George see yer.’
Lucy had never been fussed over so much, and she loved every minute of it. ‘Wasn’t me dad good, letting me choose me own? There were a lot of dresses, but this was me very favourite.’
‘Yer’ve got good taste, queen,’ George said, thinking you’d go a long way to find anyone with a face and nature as beautiful as this child. And wasn’t it sad that most of the time she was dressed like a backstreet waif. He turned to his sons. ‘Don’t yer think she looks pretty, boys?’
Blushing to the roots of their hair, the lads looked down at their feet. They both liked Lucy, thought she was a smashing girl. But at their tender age they’d never been called on to pay compliments before. Jack was the first to find his tongue. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘she looks great.’
The only thing Greg could think of that might be considered a compliment, was, ‘Yeah, she looks the pig’s ear – the gear.’
George dropped his head back and roared with laughter. ‘The pig’s ear, eh? Now that is flattery indeed.’
‘Well, what d’yer expect from a twelve year old?’ As always, Irene was quick to defend her son. ‘And when I was young, to look the pig’s ear meant yer looked fantastic. And that is just what Lucy looks – fantastic.’ She put her arm across the thin shoulders and squeezed. ‘Tell yer dad from me that he’s done yer proud.’
Lucy’s smile was a joy to behold. ‘Thank you. I’m made up, I really am. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy in me life.’
Irene exchanged glances with her husband before giving Lucy another squeeze. ‘Yer mam and dad go to the pub tonight, don’t they?’
‘Yeah, every Saturday.’ Forever mindful of what she said, Lucy added, ‘They see me in bed first, though, and they leave the light on in the living room. And they don’t stay out late.’
‘Why don’t yer ask them if yer can come in here tonight, and have a game of cards or Ludo with us? Jack and Greg are allowed to stay up late on Saturday and I’m sure yer parents won’t mind. George usually walks home with them from the pub, don’t yer, light of my life?’
George averted his gaze. He couldn’t stand Ruby Mellor, thought she was as tough as an old boot. He got on fine with Bob, they were good mates, but he couldn’t stomach his wife. So he always walked behind them with a bloke from up the street. But now wasn’t the time to air his feelings. ‘Yeah, we all get thrown out at closing time.’
‘Would yer like me to come with yer to see what they say?’ Irene asked, seeing the look of doubt on Lucy’s face. ‘I’m sure it will be all right. After all, yer can’t come to any harm with us, can yer? The worst that can happen is yer lose a game and have to fork out a couple of matches.’ Her chubby face beamed. ‘Mind you, sometimes we go mad and play for old buttons.’
Remembering her mother’s set face, and the atmosphere in the room when she’d left the house, Lucy shook her head. ‘No, I’ll go and ask them. Yer see, me mam likes to know I’m settled in bed before she goes out.’
George put his hands on the wooden arms of his fireside chair and pushed himself up. He was a tall, well-made man with a mop of fine, sandy-coloured hair and a ruddy complexion. And like his wife, he had an ever-ready smile. ‘I’ll go with her. I want to see Bob, anyway.’
Irene looked surprised. ‘Yer’ll be seeing him tonight in the pub.’
‘I want to ask if he’s got a paintbrush I can borrow to whitewash the kitchen, and I don’t want the whole street knowing.’
So when Bob opened the door it was to see his daughter holding the hand of their neighbour. He smiled a welcome. ‘Come in, George, ye’ve timed it nicely. There’s a fresh pot of tea just brewed.’
George pushed Lucy ahead of him. ‘I’ll come in, Bob, but I won’t stay for a cuppa ’cos Irene’s got the meal nearly ready.’
Ruby’s welcome was a brief nod, and George’s was barely noticeable. ‘I came on the cadge, Bob, to ask if yer’ve got a paintbrush to lend. It’s to whitewash our kitchen and the brushes I’ve got are too small. I need a wide one.’
‘Yeah, I’ve got one, and ye’re welcome to borrow it. Shall I get it for yer now?’
‘No, there’s no hurry, I’m not starting it until Monday night. Now I know I can borrow yours, it’ll save me coughing up for a new one.’ George put a hand on Lucy’s shoulder. ‘Now another request. Irene wants to know if yer’ll let this fashionable little lady come to ours tonight to have a few games with her and the boys? Yer can pick her up on yer way home from the pub.’
‘We’re not going out tonight, George, we’ve decided to have a night in.’ Bob saw his wife’s body stiffen with anger, but ignored it and kept the smile on his face. ‘But that’s no reason why Lucy can’t go and have a few games with the boys. It’ll do her good, having youngsters to play with for a change.’
‘I’d rather she didn’t go,’ Ruby said, feeling if she didn’t put her foot down now, Bob would take over completely and she’d never have a say in anything. ‘I like Lucy to be in bed by eight, that’s late enough for a girl of her age.’
‘There’s no school tomorrow, so she can have a lie-in.’ Bob’s eyes were like steel as they bored into hers. ‘It must be lonely for her, being an only child and no one to play games with. It’s about time she began to enjoy her childhood, before it’s too late.’ He dropped to his haunches in front of his daughter. ‘Yer’d like to go, wouldn’t yer, pet?’
Her smiling eyes told him the answer before she spoke. ‘I would, Dad, if it’s all right with you and me mam.’
‘Of course it’s all right, why wouldn’t it be? I mean, next door is hardly the other side of the world, is it?’
Lucy giggled. ‘It’s fifteen walking steps from our front door to theirs, but if I do long jumps, I can do it in ten.’
George ruffled her hair. ‘What about cartwheels, queen? How many of them would it take yer to get from here to there?’
‘Ooh, I can’t do cartwheels.’ Lucy had never even tried. How could yer do cartwheels when yer had a pin in your knickers? ‘Anyway, our teacher, Miss Robinson, said it’s not ladylike to show all yer underwear off.’
‘She has a point, has your Miss Robinson.’ George gave her a beaming smile before reaching for the door knob. ‘I’d better get going otherwise I’ll have me meal thrown at me. Nothing gets Irene’s goat more than making a hot dinner and then having to warm it up again. Send Lucy along about seven, we’ll have all eaten by then.’
As soon as he’d gone, Ruby turned on her husband. ‘I may as well talk to the bleedin’ wall, yer don’t take a blind bit of notice what I say. That cow next door only wants Lucy there so she can poke and prod into our business. Before the night’s over, she’ll know how many flamin’ blankets we’ve got on the bed! But you’re too thick to see that.’
‘When yer talk sense, I might start taking notice of yer. But yer come out with some of the most ridiculous things imaginable, and I’d have to be a fool to agree with yer. It just shows what a warped mind yer’ve got when yer think Irene Pollard has nothing better to interest her than how many blankets we’ve got on our bed.’ He sensed Lucy moving restlessly from one foot to the other and cursed himself for letting Ruby rub him up the wrong way in front of the girl. There’d be time enough later, when they were alone, for harsh words. ‘D’yer want to change into yer old dress, pet, or are yer keeping that one on?’
‘I’ll get changed, Dad, ’cos I want to keep this one for best.’
‘Go on, then, while yer mam gets the tea ready.’
Ruby didn’t even wait until her daughter had put her foot on the first stair before saying what was on her mind. And she didn’t keep her voice lowered. ‘Who the bleedin’ hell d’yer think yer are? This is my house too, yer know, I have as much right to have my say as you have. If yer think I’m going to stand here to be bossed around, and walked all ove
r, then yer’ve got another bleedin’ think coming.’
Bob kept a tight rein on his temper. ‘That’s another thing I won’t have in this house, bad language. In future yer’ll keep yer filthy tongue until ye’re with yer friends. You do not use it in front of Lucy or me. Is that understood?’
‘You can just sod off, Mr High and Mighty Mellor. D’yer hear me? Sod off.’
Next door, the Pollards were sitting down to their meal. Irene jerked her head towards the wall. ‘Can yer hear them going at it, high ding dong?’
‘I can hear Ruby going at it, but I think Bob’s taking it all in his stride. He’s not messing around this time, he means business. He’s put his foot down with a firm hand, all right, it’s sticking out a mile. And yer can tell the way they look at each other, there’s no love lost there, I’m afraid.’ George began to chuckle. ‘He might get her to toe the line in some things, but he doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of getting her to clean her mouth out. Swearing is second nature to her now, she thinks it’s as normal as pulling the chain after yer’ve been to the lavvy.’ He tapped a finger on his chin and looked thoughtful. ‘I’ve got that the wrong way round, haven’t I? Yer pull the chain to clean the lavvy, but when Ruby opens that mouth of hers, nothing clean comes out of it.’
‘All right, sunshine, that’s enough,’ Irene tutted. ‘We’re having a meal and all you can talk about is the lavvy. It’s enough to put anyone off their food.’
‘It won’t put me off me food,’ Jack said, spearing a chip and dipping it into the mound of tomato sauce at the side of his plate. ‘Nothing puts me off me grub.’
Greg’s eyes were serious as he looked across the table. ‘Mam, why is Mrs Mellor so cruel to Lucy? She’s not a naughty girl, is she?’
‘Of course she’s not naughty! Lucy is one of the best-mannered kids I know. And I wouldn’t say her mother was cruel to her, ’cos we don’t really know that, do we?’ Irene pointed her fork at him. ‘And yer don’t discuss things like that with yer mates, d’yer hear?’
‘I hear yer. But I’m not half glad Mrs Mellor isn’t my mam. I wouldn’t like to get shouted at all the time, even when I’ve done nothing wrong.’
‘If she was my mam I’d run away from home.’ Jack sounded quite definite. ‘I wouldn’t stay with her, she’s horrible.’
‘Oh, aye?’ Irene raised her brows. ‘And where would yer run to, sunshine?’
Jack’s eyes glinted with laughter. ‘I’d run to the house next door, where there was a proper mam.’
George saw the funny side and his guffaw was loud. ‘It’s a pity they don’t have humour as a subject in your school, son. At least yer’d be top of the class in something.’
There was love and pride in Irene’s eyes as she gazed at her two sons. ‘But we’re not going to mention Mrs Mellor’s name tonight, in front of Lucy, are we?’
Two heads shook vigorously. ‘Nah,’ Jack said, ‘we’re not that daft, Mam.’
Chapter Three
‘I thought yer said yer’d never played this game before?’ Jack placed his fan of cards face down on the table as he looked across at Lucy. ‘How come, if yer’ve never played before, ye’re the only one with three cards down?’
‘I don’t know, do I?’ Lucy was dead excited. They’d explained the rules of the game to her before they started, and she couldn’t believe her luck when she was sorting the cards she’d been dealt to find she had three fours. She couldn’t wait for her turn so she could put them down and beam all over her face. ‘I must be lucky.’
‘Beginner’s luck, sunshine,’ Irene said, ‘that’s what it is.’
Jack turned sharply when he felt his brother move and found Greg bent down, peeking at his cards. ‘Ay, you, stop cheating.’
Greg sat up straight, grinning from ear to ear. He wasn’t in the least ashamed of being found out. ‘He’s got a cob on because he’s got two fours himself and he’d have to be dead lucky to pick another one up.’ He chuckled. ‘I hope me mam won’t be throwing one down now she knows what he’s after.’
Irene shook her head and clucked. ‘That’s cheating, Greg, and it’s not fair. Besides, we’re supposed to be teaching Lucy how to play cards, not cheat.’
‘Shall we all throw our cards in, Mrs Pollard, and deal another hand?’ Lucy asked. ‘That would make it fair, wouldn’t it?’
‘Not on yer life!’ Jack said. He did have two fours, but he also had two other pairs. It wasn’t a bad hand by any means. ‘Take no notice of me brother, he still thinks he’s a baby. He’s more to be pitied than laughed at.’
‘Let’s get on with the game,’ Irene said, ‘otherwise we’ll be here until midnight. You leave those three cards down, Lucy, and throw one away.’
Lucy stared at the cards in her hand. Oh, decisions, decisions. She had two kings, two jacks and a six. The six looked out of place, so she threw that on the upturned cards in the centre of the table.
Irene picked a card from the pack, looked at it and snorted before throwing it down. ‘That’s not a ha’porth of good to me, I’ve got a lousy hand.’
Jack shrieked with delight as he snatched up the king his mother had thrown down. ‘Ta very much, Mam.’ He matched the card with the two in his hand and laid the three down. ‘How about that, then? And,’ he said with an air of a superior being, ‘I can put my two fours on to Lucy’s.’
Irene clamped her lips and shook her head. ‘Not a very wise move, sunshine. Yer should have kept one back.’
Jack, thinking he’d been very clever, looked puzzled. ‘Why?’
‘Because yer’ve got to throw a card in now, which leaves yer with two in yer hands. And yer could sit there all night waiting for somewhere to put them.’
‘Well, yer never know.’ The lad felt like kicking himself for not hanging on to one of the fours, but he put on a brave face. ‘Anything can happen in a game of cards. Come on, Greg, it’s your turn.’
His brother picked up a card, checked it against those in his hand before throwing it down in disgust. ‘I might as well pack in now, I’ve got nowt.’
Lucy’s green eyes were like saucers as she picked up the card Greg had thrown down. ‘Will yer tell me if I’m doing right, Mrs Pollard?’ She put three jacks down in front of her and showed the other two cards to Irene. ‘I can put these kings on Jack’s now, can’t I?’
Irene’s tummy was rumbling with laughter. ‘No, sunshine, yer have to throw one away first. Then yer can put the other one on Jack’s run, and yer’ve won the game.’
As Lucy flipped the card across the table she caught sight of Jack’s open mouth, and the look of disbelief on his face. She didn’t want to laugh because that would be rude. It wasn’t her home, she was only an invited guest. But after another quick glance across the table she had as much chance of keeping the laughter back as she had of stopping the rain which they could hear pelting down outside.
Lucy’s laugh started as a tinkle, then gathered momentum until it filled every corner of the room. ‘I’ve won three buttons! Me first game of cards and I won! And because ye’re looking at me as though I cheated, Jack Pollard, I want nothing less than a pearl button off you.’
‘I’ll get it back off yer before the night’s over,’ Jack threatened. ‘Like me mam said, it’s just beginner’s luck.’
‘That’s what you think, clever clogs.’ Lucy had been shy at first, but now she was really relaxed and happy. There was no tension in her body, no worry in her mind that any minute now she’d get a clip around the ear and not know what she’d done to deserve it. ‘I bet I win more games than you.’
‘Yer won’t if he starts cheating,’ Greg said. ‘He’s very good at cheating, is our Jack. Aren’t I right, Mam?’
‘It takes one to know one, sunshine, and I’d say that when it comes to cheating, you’d win hands down.’
Lucy had been listening with interest. ‘Mrs Pollard, d’yer think yer’d better teach me how to cheat so I’m in with a chance?’
The brothers thought this
was hilarious and once again the room rang with laughter. She was good fun, was Lucy Mellor, and they hoped their mam would ask her to come again.
Bob Mellor lowered the newspaper and looked across at his wife. ‘Can yer hear them next door? They’re having the time of their lives, and I’ve never heard our Lucy laugh like that for years. It’s about time she had someone her own age to play with.’
Ruby’s scowl deepened. ‘I still think Irene is a miserable cow. She should doll herself up and go to the pub with her husband on a Saturday night, instead of sitting in playing stupid games. Some wife she is, letting him go out on his own all the time.’
‘She won’t go out and leave the boys on their own. Besides, Irene is not a drinker and doesn’t enjoy sitting in a pub all night. George doesn’t mind, he understands. It isn’t as if they never go out together, they often go to the pictures.’
Ruby’s lip curled. ‘Aye, with the kids in tow.’
‘Which is the way they want it. Those boys are their life, and that’s the way it should be. They are a very happy family, and George and Irene have a good marriage.’ Bob raised the paper but couldn’t concentrate, the words kept running into each other. So he went back to his thoughts. He envied George and Irene and their two children. They were what he would call a perfect family. They laughed together, played together and their love for each other was there for all to see. It wasn’t only the wall that separated the two families, it was everything. And his daughter would be experiencing the difference tonight.
Bob rustled the paper as he crossed his legs to make himself more comfortable. He tried to think back to a time when things started to go wrong with his marriage. After much soul-searching he realised things hadn’t gone wrong, they were never right! Oh, Ruby had kept the house clean and fed them well. She made sure his clothes were washed and ironed ready for work and his socks were always neatly darned. She’d looked after Lucy properly, too, when she was little, buying her pretty clothes and taking her for walks to the park so she could play on the swings. Bob had been very content in his marriage in those early years, thinking they had everything for a long and happy life. It was only now, looking back, he realised there’d always been something missing: the most important ingredient in any marriage – and that was love and affection. It hadn’t worried him at first that Ruby never hugged or kissed him, he thought she was shy. And when she spurned his advances in bed he blamed himself for being over-passionate and selfish.
