The Throwaway Children

by Diney Costeloe

  ‘There must be some way of getting hold of her,’ Fred said. ‘If she don’t come home quick, she might be too late.’

  Carrie shook her head. ‘Poor Mrs Sharples,’ she said. ‘Who’d have thought it.’

  ‘And then there’s the kiddies,’ Fred said suddenly, as the thought struck him. ‘They was living with her, wasn’t they? Where’re they going to go now, with their gran in hospital and their ma away?’

  ‘Well, I suppose they could come here for a bit,’ Carrie said. ‘It’ll only be till Saturday, won’t it?’

  ‘Could they? That’s good of you. You sure?’

  ‘Yes, it’ll be a bit of a squeeze, but we’ll manage. I’ll go round the school and let them know what’s happened. I’ll tell Miss Hassinger I’ll have them until Mavis gets home. John won’t mind for a few days and Maggie’ll think it great fun having them to stay.’

  Carrie was as good as her word and went straight round to the school to explain the situation to Miss Hassinger.

  ‘There’s nowhere else for them to go,’ she said when she’d told the headmistress about the accident. ‘I’ll have them at mine until Mavis gets home again.’

  ‘That’s really very good of you, Mrs Maunder,’ Miss Hassinger said. ‘Do you know how Mrs Sharples is?’

  ‘No, but it doesn’t sound very good. I think Mrs Baillie from the grocer’s is going to the hospital to find out. I’ll let you know when I know anything.’

  ‘I’ll just get the girls here to tell them what’s happened,’ said Miss Hassinger, ‘and then we’ll explain that they’re going to stay with you till their mother gets home.’ She reached for the bell on her desk and sent for Rita and Rosie.

  A few moments later there was a knock on the door and the girls came in, Rita holding Rosie by the hand, looking nervously at the headmistress.

  ‘Ah, come in girls,’ she said smiling at them. ‘It’s all right, you haven’t done anything wrong. You know Mrs Maunder, don’t you?’

  Rita nodded, and Rosie said, ‘She’s Maggie’s mum.’

  ‘Well, she’s going to collect you from school today. You’re going home with Maggie.’

  ‘Where’s Gran?’ demanded Rita. ‘Why ain’t we going there?’

  ‘I’m afraid there’s been an accident,’ Carrie said gently. ‘Your gran is in the hospital, so I thought you could come and stay with us for a few days, just till Mum gets back.’

  Rita stared at Carrie for a moment and then said, ‘Is she dead?’

  ‘No, but she was hurt, so they took her in an ambulance to the hospital. The doctors are looking after her, but she’ll have to stay there for a while, till she’s better.’

  Rita nodded, but Rosie’s bottom lip began to tremble. ‘I want Mummy,’ she whimpered. ‘Where’s Mummy?’

  ‘She’s on her honeymoon,’ replied Carrie. ‘She’ll be home on Saturday.’

  ‘So will Uncle Jimmy,’ whispered Rita.

  Miss Hassinger looked at her sharply, but decided not to hear the remark. However, when the girls had been taken back to their classrooms by Miss Granger, and their teachers told what had happened, Miss Hassinger sat deep in thought. Just when the two children had a little stability at last, she thought. It couldn’t have happened at a worse time.

  7

  ‘I know where Gran keeps a key,’ Rita said to Carrie when she met them at the school gate that afternoon. ‘We’ll need our things.’

  ‘So you will,’ Carrie agreed with relief. She’d been wondering how she was going to clothe the Stevens girls till Mavis got home. ‘Let’s go to your gran’s then and fetch them.’

  Once again Rita and Rosie’s meagre belongings were put into the old suitcase, Knitty was retrieved from the bed, and they all walked back to Ship Street.

  ‘I’ve made you a bed on the floor in Maggie’s room,’ Carrie told them. ‘You’ll have to snuggle up together on that eiderdown, all right?’

  Maggie was thrilled that they were coming to stay. ‘Can we play out?’ she asked once the girls had put their things into her room.

  ‘Just till I get tea ready,’ Carrie said, and shooed them out into the street.

  ‘I couldn’t do anything else,’ she said to her husband later that evening, when the three girls were finally asleep. ‘They’d nowhere else to go. It’s only till Mavis gets home on Saturday.’

  ‘You did right, girl,’ John assured her. ‘She’d do the same for you.’

  ‘Course she would,’ agreed Carrie, but in truth she wasn’t so sure. She’d known Mavis from schooldays, but Mavis had changed since Jimmy had come on the scene.

  Mavis and Jimmy arrived back in Ship Street late Saturday afternoon, to find a postcard pushed through the letter box. On it Carrie had simply written, Your Mum in hospital. Come round our house when you get back. Carrie.

  She stared at the card for a moment and then, putting her hat back on, said to Jimmy, ‘I’ve got to go round Carrie’s.’

  ‘What you got to go round there for?’ demanded Jimmy. ‘What about my tea?’

  ‘Carrie says Mum’s in hospital. I got to find out what’s wrong with her, and what’s happened to the girls.’

  ‘Well,’ said Jimmy, ‘if you ain’t getting me tea, I’ll go down the Lion. I’ll get a pie down there.’

  Although Mavis knew this meant he wouldn’t be home until late and probably with a skinful inside him, she didn’t want to argue. There had been very few arguments while they’d been in Southend, and she didn’t want them to start again as soon as they got home.

  ‘All right, love,’ she said. ‘Good idea. I’ll go and find out what’s been happening. I might have to visit Mum in the hospital, but I can probably leave that until the morning.’ Before he could object any further, she let herself out of the house and waddled down the street to number 5. She had become so large that it was almost impossible to hurry anywhere now. She couldn’t wait for the baby to be born and for her body to be her own again.

  It was Maggie who opened the door to her and seeing Mavis on the step, called back over her shoulder, ‘Reet, your mum’s here.’

  Rita flew to the door and flung herself into her mother’s arms. ‘Oh, Mum,’ she cried, ‘Gran was hit by a car and she’s in hospital and she’s very bad.’

  Mavis hugged Rita to her, and then Rosie, hearing Mavis arrive, erupted from the kitchen and she, too, flung herself at her mother, simply saying, ‘Mummy, Mummy, Mummy,’ over and over again. Mavis moved into the house, pushing the front door closed behind her.

  ‘Now then,’ she said as she finally disentangled herself from her daughters, ‘where’s Auntie Carrie?’

  ‘She’s gone to see Gran,’ Rita said. ‘Uncle John is here.’

  At that moment John appeared from the kitchen. ‘Hallo, Mavis,’ he said. ‘You back?’

  ‘John, tell me quick. What on earth’s happened to Mum?’

  ‘Quite a lot’s happened since you went away,’ John replied. ‘Come in and take the weight off. I’ll put the kettle on and tell you all about it.’

  Mavis followed him into the kitchen, the two girls still swinging on her arms. She sat impatiently at the table while John made tea, and when he’d finally poured them each a cup she could contain herself no longer.

  ‘John, for God’s sake, tell me what’s happened. What happened to Mum?’

  ‘Your mother was knocked down by a car,’ he said. ‘The ambulance came and took her to the General, and she’s been there ever since.’

  ‘But how bad, John?’

  ‘Pretty bad,’ he admitted. ‘She was thrown up over the bonnet, I heard from Fred Baillie, and then knocked into the gutter. He called the ambulance. She bashed her head and her leg was broke in two places. Outside Fred’s shop. He come round to tell Carrie, and she agreed to have the kids till you come home again.’

  ‘But how is Mum now, John? Do you know?’

  ‘Well, Carrie went in that same day, but they wouldn’t let her visit. She weren’t allowed ’cos Lily was unconscious for a bi
t. She’s come round now, though, and can have a visitor. Carrie’s there now.’

  ‘I must go and see her,’ Mavis said, heaving herself off the chair.

  ‘Well, you can try,’ John said, ‘but they’re only letting one person in at a time. The nurse Carrie talked to said she was still in a bad way.’ He looked at his watch and added, ‘Doubt if there’s any point in going now, anyway, visiting’s over. They’re very strict. The nurse said that the matron’s a right tartar. Carrie’ll be home in a minute. I should sit down and wait for her.’

  ‘But I must see her!’ cried Mavis. ‘Oh, why didn’t you try and find me? You should have sent for me.’

  ‘How could we?’ asked John reasonably. ‘All we knew was that you was in Southend. It’s a big place. Now, best thing is for you to sit down and wait here till Carrie gets back and she can tell you all the latest.’ He drained the last of his tea and got to his feet. ‘Well, now you’re here, Mavis, I’ll just pop out for a pint. Maggie, be a good girl till your mum gets home, OK?’

  Mavis sat down again to wait for Carrie and Rosie clambered up onto her knee. She wriggled, trying to get more comfortable. ‘I can’t sit on your knee,’ she grumbled, ‘your baby’s sitting on your knee.’

  Mavis set her down on the floor again as she said, ‘Never mind, pet, it won’t be long before it’s born, then there’ll be room.’

  ‘When is it coming? Can we come home then?’ asked Rosie hopefully. Rita, still standing close to her mother, stiffened a little as she waited for the answer.

  ‘Why don’t you girls go outside in the sunshine?’ Mavis suggested. ‘Your mum’ll be home soon, Maggie.’ When the girls had gone, Mavis squeezed another cup of tea from the pot and considered the situation. Rosie had asked if they were coming home again. It was a fair question, but Mavis didn’t know the answer. It wasn’t that she didn’t want them there, not really, Jimmy certainly didn’t, but where else could they go? The baby was due in the next couple of weeks, and would come when it chose. Who would look after the girls then? How long was Mum going to be in hospital?

  ‘Oh Mum,’ Mavis cried, ‘why did this have to happen now? Why didn’t you look where you was going?’

  At that moment the door opened and Carrie came in. ‘Mavis,’ she said with a smile, ‘you’re back.’

  ‘Yes, we got back an hour ago. How’s Mum? Is she all right?’

  ‘Well,’ said Carrie. ‘I saw her for the first time, today. She’s as all right as you can be with your leg in plaster, and a cracked head.’

  ‘At least they let you see her? John said you hadn’t been allowed before.’

  ‘Only for a little while. I just sat by the bed. She’s not up to much, her leg’s up in a sort of sling thing. She don’t look well, very white. All she could ask was, was the girls all right? I said I’d got them for now, and you’d be home today. Then she fell asleep, so I come away.’

  ‘But what do the doctors say?’ asked Mavis.

  ‘They didn’t talk to me, I’m not family, but one of the nurses said that Mrs Sharples was lucky to be alive. She said it’ll take time and they don’t know how well she’ll walk again. She’ll probably need a stick to get about.’

  ‘Will she be able to manage on her own?’ wondered Mavis.

  ‘Don’t know,’ Carrie said, ‘but it’ll be some time yet, anyway.’

  ‘It was very good of you and John to take them in like this.’

  ‘Well, it was only for a few days, wasn’t it? You’d have done the same for me.’ Carrie got up and put the kettle on the gas. ‘Why don’t we have another cuppa, and then you can pack up the girls’ things and get them settled at home.’ She spoke firmly. She had done her bit and now it was time for Mavis to take responsibility for her own kids.

  Seeing the bleak look on Mavis’s face, Carrie softened a little. ‘Don’t suppose you’ve got any food in the house, have you? Look, leave them with me another half hour and go down Baillies and get some stuff in. Here.’ She opened a drawer and pulled out two ration books. ‘I picked these up when we went round to your mum’s to get their things. I used a few coupons, had to, but you’ll get enough to see you over the weekend.’

  When Jimmy finally came home he was several sheets to the wind, and though Mavis immediately put some supper on the table, he simply put his head down beside the plate and went to sleep. When he snorted awake half an hour later, Mavis helped him up the stairs as she had so often before, and he fell into his bed still unaware that his stepdaughters had come home.

  The girls were safely asleep in their old bedroom, sharing their old bed, and though Rita hated being back at Ship Street, it was comforting to snuggle down with Rosie in the familiar bedroom. When they woke next morning, the girls crept downstairs, afraid of waking Uncle Jimmy, and shut the kitchen door tightly before looking for some breakfast. There was no milk, but Rita found a packet of cornflakes in the cupboard and they each ate a bowl of these, softened with water.

  When Mavis woke she slid out of the bed, leaving Jimmy snoring heavily on his side, and peeped into the girls’ bedroom. The bed was empty, so she went down to the kitchen where she found Rita had made the tea and was now making toast under the grill.

  They were eating their toast when they heard the bang of a door upstairs and then the thud of feet coming down. Both girls turned frightened eyes on their mother. The look on her face did nothing to reassure them, and they sat, as if frozen, until Jimmy opened the door and stumbled in.

  He stopped in the doorway, glaring. ‘What are they doing here?’ he demanded.

  When Mavis did not immediately answer he roared the question again. ‘What are they doing in this house?’

  Rosie shrunk against her mother, but Rita simply sat stock still, staring at him. He slouched into the room and, leaning over her, his breath foul in her face, growled, ‘What you staring at, eh?’

  ‘Nothing, Uncle Jimmy,’ she whispered, and white-faced she looked away.

  Jimmy turned his attention to his wife. ‘So, I asked you a question, didn’t I?’

  ‘I brought them home last night,’ Mavis began, and then broke off, speaking abruptly to her daughters. ‘Go and play out,’ she said. ‘Go round Maggie’s and play there.’

  Rita and Rosie were only too glad to escape, and edged past him, through the door, and ran out into the street as fast as they could.

  Jimmy slumped down on a chair and Mavis hastily poured him a cup of tea, before spreading margarine on her own piece of toast and sliding it onto his plate.

  Jimmy slurped a mouthful of tea and then said, ‘Well?’

  ‘I had to bring them home, Jimmy. I had to. Mum’s in the hospital and won’t be out for weeks. Carrie’s been minding them while we’ve been away. They have to come home now Mum can’t have them.’

  ‘No!’ Jimmy bellowed. ‘No, we agreed before, they don’t live here. If they can’t stay with your mother, then they’ll have to go into a home… like we said before.’

  ‘But Jimmy,’ she wailed, ‘it’s not forever, it’s only till Mum’s out of hospital. Then they can live with her, like before.’

  ‘Oh yeah? And when’s that likely to be? This year, next year, sometime, never! That’s when.’

  ‘It won’t be long.’ Mavis was determined that Jimmy should not discover the full extent of her mother’s injuries. ‘The nurse told Carrie that she was doing well. It’ll only be for a little while.’

  Jimmy got up from his seat and very deliberately pulled Mavis out of hers. Gripping her tightly by the shoulders so that his fingers dug into her flesh, he shook her hard and long, shouting as he did so, ‘Don’t you understand the word “no”, you silly cow? I… will… not… have… those… girls… in… my… house!’ And with each of these last words he slammed her back against the gas stove. For good measure he gave her a final punch to her stomach, then, letting her go, flopped down onto his chair again.

  Mavis sagged against the table, her knees weak, tears streaming down her face, and even as she clutche
d the back of her chair to steady herself, she felt water draining down her legs.

  ‘Oh my God,’ she whispered, staggering again before collapsing onto the chair. ‘Oh my God, me waters have broke!’

  ‘What?’ demanded Jimmy testily. ‘What’s the matter now, you miserable cow?’

  ‘Me waters have broke. The baby’s coming!’

  ‘Coming? Coming now?’ Jimmy was disbelieving. ‘Course it ain’t! It ain’t due for another two weeks.’

  ‘It’s coming now,’ repeated Mavis, panic in her voice. ‘We have to get the midwife. Fetch Carrie. Jimmy, for God’s sake, fetch Carrie. She’ll know what to do.’

  Jimmy gave her one final hard look and then, realizing that she wasn’t making it up to frighten him, ran down the street to find Carrie. Rita and Rosie were playing hopscotch with Maggie outside the house; all three drew back fearfully as he came rushing up.

  ‘Maggie, where’s your mum?’ he demanded, and when she pointed to the front door which stood ajar, he burst in without knocking, shouting, ‘Carrie! Carrie! You’ve got to come! Mavis is having the baby.’

  Rita and Rosie stared wide-eyed as he ran back out of the house, swiftly followed by Carrie. She paused by the staring children.

  ‘Don’t worry, kids,’ she said, ‘it’s time for your brother or sister to be born, that’s all. You stay with Maggie, I’ll be back in a while.’

  She found Mavis doubled up in the kitchen, pale and sweating, her breath coming out in ragged spurts. Immediately Carrie was at her side, her arm round her, murmuring words of comfort, but Mavis didn’t seem to hear her. Carrie looked back at Jimmy who was standing helplessly by the door.

  ‘How long’s she been like this?’ she asked.

  Jimmy shrugged. ‘Not long, just before I come round to you. She said her waters had broke and then told me to get you. Said we need the midwife.’

  ‘We certainly do,’ agreed Carrie. She reached up for the card that was tucked in beside the clock on the mantelpiece and handed it to him. ‘Here’s the number. You go down the phone box and ring her. Tell her we need her now.’