A Nest of Singing Birds

by A Nest of Singing Birds (retail) (epub)

  ‘Did she mind?’ asked Sarah.

  ‘She never complained,’ Anne said. ‘I’d have been moaning like hell if I had to give up my room and have a bed pushed in ours, but she doesn’t. We pull her leg because she’s so devout but she lives it too in things like this.’

  ‘I thought she was lovely,’ Sarah said. ‘Really good somehow, but not miserable with it.’

  ‘She is,’ Anne said. ‘I wonder…’ She stopped. Even to Sarah she was unable to talk about her doubts and instead said, ‘Maureen often sees Michael at church.’

  ‘Yes, he’s in your parish,’ Sarah said and changed the subject. She went to the cinema with Michael about every two weeks but said little about it to Anne or Mabel.

  Grandma Houlihan had questioned Julia about the party at the Andersons’, and about who was there, and Julia had to tell her that Minnie had sent a message that she was not well enough to come.

  ‘I’m sure she’d have been to see me if she was all right, now that I’m here,’ Grandma declared. ‘I wouldn’t blame her not coming while I was with our Carrie and that skitting family of hers. My poor girl! I’d go to see her myself if I was able.’

  ‘I’ll go on Wednesday afternoon when Anne’s here to stay with you,’ Julia promised, but Grandma was annoyed.

  ‘What’s to stop you going today?’ she demanded. ‘There’s no need to wait for Wednesday. I don’t need a keeper, just because I can’t get about like I used to. God knows I spent many a day on my own while Carrie gadded about.’

  Julia knew that it was useless to defend Carrie so only said quietly, ‘All right I’ll go today, Ma, if you think you’ll be all right on your own.’

  She set off right after lunch and as soon as Dympna opened the door to her Julia realised why there was a wedding planned. Her niece was obviously pregnant and as Julia went into the kitchen Minnie said belligerently, ‘Come to spy out the land, have you?’

  ‘I’ve come chiefly because Ma’s worried about you,’ Julia said quietly. ‘But Carrie and I have been too. We all have our troubles and we should be helping each other with them.’

  ‘Well, you can see what’s been happening here,’ Minnie said less aggressively. ‘Still, Dympna’s not the first and she won’t be the last in this situation.’

  ‘That’s true,’ Julia agreed. She turned to her niece who was slumped in a chair, picking her nose. ‘Are you keeping well?’ she asked, trying to hide her distaste.

  ‘Orl righ’,’ Dympna muttered, and Minnie said triumphantly, ‘She’s getting married anyhow. A week on Thursday. I’m going to ask Fred Anderson to give her away. Our Brendan will be best man.’

  ‘I’m sure Fred will be pleased to do it,’ Julia said. There were numerous questions she would have liked to ask but she felt too intimidated to venture them.

  The young man’s name had not been mentioned, but with Dympna glowering at her from the armchair and Minnie’s aggressive glare from the other side of the kitchen, Julia felt that even such a simple question would seem to show unwelcome curiosity.

  Minnie appeared to think that the subject was closed. ‘So Ma’s had as much as she could take of that Anderson madhouse?’ she said. ‘I don’t know how she’s stuck it for so long.’

  ‘She was happy and well looked after at Carrie’s,’ Julia said indignantly. ‘She only came to us because Carrie was bedfast with sciatica.’

  ‘Aye, but she’s up now and Ma hasn’t gone back, has she?’ Minnie sneered.

  ‘Only because I think Carrie and Fred have done enough,’ Julia said. ‘Me and Pat think it’s time we took a turn.’

  Minnie sniffed. ‘That wasn’t what I heard.’

  ‘Then you heard wrong,’ Julia said. Her usually quiet voice was loud and her gentle manner transformed by anger. ‘I’ll go,’ she said. ‘I can tell Ma that she needn’t worry about you. You’re just the same as you always were.’

  She was still angry when she reached home, but fortunately Carrie had called to see her mother, and when Grandma dozed off Julia was able to tell her about Minnie.

  Carrie could give many more details about Dympna’s wedding because Minnie had already asked Fred to give the girl away and Fred had not hesitated to ask questions.

  ‘The lad’s name is Harold Duffy,’ Carrie said. ‘He didn’t want to marry her but Minnie told Fred that Brendan came home to see him and now the wedding’s on. She asked Fred to give her away instead of Brendan so that he could be best man. He’s riding shotgun, I think.’

  They both laughed but then Julia said seriously, ‘It’s not much of a start to a marriage, is it?’

  ‘The lad’s family are not going to the wedding, and most of our family will be working at the time, but I think that’s how Minnie wants it,’ Carrie said.

  ‘I didn’t see Brendan. Is he living at home?’ Julia asked.

  ‘No, Minnie says she doesn’t know where he’s staying. He just calls to see them.’

  Grandma woke and they had no further conversation, but the family were intrigued by the news later.

  ‘How did the quare feller get to know about Dympna?’ Pat asked. ‘I thought no one knew where he was.’

  ‘Carrie said all along that Minnie knew, and it must be right about gangsters looking for him. She said to Fred: “Brendan’s a good son to me. He risked his skin to come and look after us.”’

  Only Carrie and Julia, and Fred who took time off from his work, were able to go to the wedding ceremony, but the Fitzgeralds clubbed together and sent Dympna a dinner and tea service as a wedding present, and Julia gave her a tablecloth and napkins.

  The Andersons gave her sheets and pillowcases and Carrie an eiderdown.

  Pat and Fred each gave the young couple ten pounds and Dympna gave them grudging thanks. The bridegroom was a thickset young man with dark hair growing low on his forehead and a face pitted with acne scars. Carrie whispered, ‘As God made them he matched them,’ but Julia was quietly weeping.

  She could see no prospect of happiness either for Dympna and Harold or for Minnie with whom they planned to live, and thought of Francis, long dead through a freak accident, who might have altered the course of their lives.

  Brendan stood close to Harold while the vows were made. They were not having a Nuptial Mass and as soon as the brief ceremony was over Brendan disappeared.

  It had been necessary to tell Grandma Houlihan about the wedding and the reason for it. ‘I blame Minnie,’ she declared. ‘She hasn’t reared those children properly.’

  ‘Poor Minnie,’ Julia said, still with thoughts of Francis in her mind. ‘She’s had her own share with those two and can’t be responsible for them now they’re grown up.’

  ‘The time to train a child is from soon after it’s bom,’ Grandma said. ‘Mind you, these talking pictures have been the ruination of young people.’

  ‘I didn’t see one until 1928, Grandma,’ Anne protested. ‘Tony took me and Eileen to see The Singing Fool at the Hippodrome. Tony was seventeen and Eileen about twelve. I was eight so we were all too old to be influenced by it.’

  ‘The other things then, the silent films,’ Grandma said stubbornly.

  Julia was signing to Anne not to argue and Grandma went on, ‘Poor Miss Hayes. Those talkies took the bread out of her mouth. She lost her job and now she has to teach girls like Eileen to keep herself and her mother.’

  ‘I didn’t know Miss Hayes played for the silent pictures,’ Anne said.

  ‘She did so, and the man who taught Joe the violin – he was years in the cinema orchestra, God help him,’ said Grandma.

  ‘I’m sorry, Gran, I’ll have to go,’ Anne said then added mischievously, ‘I’m going to the talkies with Sarah.’

  She and Sarah were going to the cinema with Phil and Charlie, the young men they had met at the party. ‘I don’t feel I’m two-timing Michael,’ Sarah told her, ‘because I don’t think he cares. I suppose you could call ours a platonic relationship, like those two film stars in the Picturegoer.’

  ‘Ex
cept for the way you look at each other,’ Anne said. ‘I’m still sure he’s in love with you, Sarah.’

  ‘I wish I was,’ she sighed. ‘And I wish he wasn’t so handsome, then maybe I wouldn’t feel like this about him.’

  ‘Our Maureen says he looks like “the noblest Roman of them all”. As though he should have a laurel wreath around his head.’

  They both laughed and Anne said, giggling, ‘At least you don’t have Edie’s problems.’

  Sarah’s friend Edie Meadows, who lived a few doors away from her, had told her that the boys she went out with were ‘only after one thing’.

  She had also told Sarah that as soon as they began to get ‘hard-faced’ she told them there was nothing doing, and if they still persisted gave them a clout.

  ‘Mind you, a clout from me wouldn’t have the same effect,’ Sarah told Anne. ‘One fellow told Edie she should be in Pudsey Street at the Boxing Stadium.’

  * * *

  One day in June Sarah came in looking very downcast and worried, but it was only when Mabel decided to go home because she had a boil on her neck that Sarah could tell Anne the reason.

  ‘I don’t want Mabel or anyone to know,’ she said. ‘I feel so ashamed. John’s been in the Bridewell all night and he’ll be in court tomorrow.’

  ‘Why? What’s he done?’ Anne gasped.

  ‘He went to an open air meeting and the policeman said he got up on the platform and starting shouting treason.’

  ‘Treason! You can be hanged for that, can’t you?’ Anne said in horror.

  ‘Not this sort,’ Sarah said. ‘Mum and Dad had gone to the dance at the Grafton, the first time since Grandad died. When the bobby arrived he told me to fetch them.’

  ‘Were you on your own?’ Anne asked.

  Sarah nodded. ‘Peggy Burns who lives opposite saw the bobby and told Grandma and she came over. Luckily she knew the policeman and he was much nicer with her than he’d been with me. He said John might get off with a fine but most likely he’ll go to gaol because he was a ringleader. Oh, Anne, I feel so ashamed.’

  Sarah began to cry and Anne said, ‘How could he be a ringleader if he was only at the meeting?’

  ‘I don’t know, but it’d serve him right if he did go to gaol. He never thinks of anyone but himself,’ Sarah said.

  Some customers came in and Sarah fled into the storeroom. Anne served them, her mind in a whirl. Sarah had said that John was moody, but she had also said that he’d loved his grandfather dearly and had been influenced by him. Surely Lawrie Ward, so deeply respected, could not have been involved in treason?

  A little later Sarah returned, red-eyed but composed, and in the intervals between serving said to Anne, ‘I didn’t mean that. I’d be heartbroken if our John had to go to gaol, but he’s so reckless, Anne.’

  ‘But if he takes after your grandad, what did the bobby mean about treason?’ Anne asked in a bewildered tone.

  ‘I suppose he’s got Grandad’s ideas but not his ways,’ Sarah said. ‘Grandad always told John to fight injustice and try to get fair shares for everyone, but John thinks Grandad’s way was too slow.’

  ‘But things are getting better gradually,’ Anne said.

  ‘Yes, but John’s so impatient. He told me once that Grandad’s generation and even Dad’s were too cowed down. He said we shouldn’t ask for equal shares but demand them as our right.’

  ‘He’s clever, isn’t he?’ Anne said admiringly.

  ‘Yes, but I wish he’d keep away from that club in Byrom Street,’ Sarah said. ‘I think they talk a lot of hot air and egg each other on.’ She sighed. ‘I don’t care what he believes in and talks about if he’d only keep it to himself and stop arguing with Dad and upsetting Mum. And now this!’

  ‘Never mind. It might all blow over,’ Anne consoled her.

  When Sarah returned from her lunch she told Anne that John was still in court. ‘I’m sorry I’m going out with Edie tonight,’ she told Anne. ‘I’d rather see you and talk about this, but I promised her ages ago I’d go to the pictures with her. Of course, if it’s bad news I won’t be going out with anyone.’

  ‘Don’t cross your bridges before you come to them,’ Anne said, mimicking Mabel’s voice to cheer her up. She was sorry too that she was not seeing Sarah, as she was burning to know what had happened to John.

  Later she picked up her father’s newspaper as soon as he laid it down, and searched through it, but could see nothing about the meeting or the court appearances.

  The following day Sarah told her that John had been fined five pounds.

  Sarah said, ‘I got a shock when I got in and John wasn’t there, but Mum said he’d gone into work for the afternoon. She said he’d probably gone to the hospital on his way home because two of his fingers were broken and his face was badly bruised, especially his eye.’

  ‘Gosh, it must have been a rough meeting,’ Anne exclaimed. ‘But thank God he didn’t have to go to gaol. Your mum would be upset then, wouldn’t she?’

  ‘She’s upset now, all because of him and his big ideas,’ Sarah said bitterly. ‘I went to the pictures with Edie and when I got in there was a terrible row going on. Our John was squaring up to Dad and poor Mum was trying to separate them. She was really upset. I never thought I’d see such a thing in our house.’

  ‘I suppose everyone was just on edge because of the worry.’

  ‘Mick said he’d tried to stop it, but I made John go to bed. Mum broke her heart crying and Dad was as white as a sheet. I could have killed our John. All for blasted politics.’

  ‘It’s a pity he doesn’t start courting, to keep his mind off them,’ Anne said. ‘But he doesn’t seem interested in girls, does he?’

  Sarah glanced at her and Anne felt her face grow red, but Sarah only said, ‘It might be a good idea but I’d pity the girl.’

  * * *

  Grandma Houlihan was still with the Fitzgeralds. When Carrie recovered from the sciatica she suggested that Grandma should return to live with her and Fred but Julia and Pat insisted that Grandma should stay with them.

  Carrie called round to see her mother and talk to Julia, and when Grandma was having her usual rest the sisters talked in the back kitchen. ‘Ma can come back to us, Julia,’ Carrie said. ‘I don’t think you’re really well yet and I’m fine.’

  ‘I’m grand now too,’ Julia said. ‘And Ma’s settled well. The children get on well with her too.’ She laughed. ‘They watch their tongues so they don’t offend her.’

  ‘But I don’t want your family put out,’ Carrie said. ‘Ours are used to her little ways.’

  ‘Yes, because she was with you so long,’ Julia said. ‘But she’s my mother too, Carrie, and we’re glad to take our turn. As long as Ma’s willing to stay she’s welcome. You’ll be busy with Theresa’s wedding soon, anyway.’

  ‘I hope they’re doing the right thing,’ Carrie said. ‘It was supposed to be a two-year engagement, and to tell you the truth I thought that would give Theresa time to be really sure. It’s just that they want one of those new houses and Jim has got savings. Fred’s delighted and talking of buying furniture for them, but I’d rather they waited a while.’

  ‘You’ve no need to worry about Theresa changing her mind,’ Julia declared. ‘She’s been out with so many lads she’s bound to know her own mind about Jim. There’d be more to worry about if he was the only lad she’d ever known.’

  ‘I’m glad you think so,’ Carrie said. ‘Fred said something that worried me about hoping she’d be content with one lad when she was used to playing the field.’

  ‘He didn’t mean it. It was only one of his little jokes and he wouldn’t expect you to worry about it. No, you’ve only to see Theresa and Jim together to know they’re well-suited.’

  ‘But Jim’s so quiet and she’s so lively,’ said Carrie.

  ‘That’s why they suit so well. It’s not like you to worry like this, Carrie. I don’t think you’re properly over the illness yet.’

  ‘Maybe not.
But I can always talk over worries with you, Julie, that I couldn’t discuss with anyone else. Sorry to be such a misery. Have you seen Bridie lately?’

  ‘Yes, I was there the other day and she’s huge,’ said Julia.

  ‘Like a barn door,’ Carrie agreed. ‘And she reckons she’s still got six weeks to go. I told her that I was like that with the twins.’

  ‘But the twins are on Fred’s side of the family,’ Julia said. ‘He told me he had twin brothers although they died young, and his cousin had twin boys.’

  ‘Yes, Bridie’s will be a big baby, I suppose, unless she’s carrying a lot of water,’ Carrie said.

  The following week a note came to say that Bridie had given birth to twins, a boy and a girl, and mother and babies were well. Julia dashed to her house immediately with a basket filled with treats for Bridie and baby clothes.

  When she returned home she told the girls that both babies were healthy and well formed. ‘And they’re a good size, about four and a half pounds each the midwife said. Bridie’s so happy we nearly had to tie her to the bed to stop her floating off.’

  ‘I thought they weren’t due for another month,’ Anne said incautiously, but her mother was too excited to notice. ‘And Jack,’ she said, ‘you wouldn’t think he’d been a father twice before.’

  ‘But he hasn’t had twins before or a little girl,’ Maureen said. ‘Who are they like?’

  ‘It’s hard to tell, but the little girl is fair and the boy dark. Good lungs on them anyway. Danny and Teddy are thrilled to bits.’

  Maureen, Anne and Eileen went to see Bridie and the babies on Sunday and found Bridie’s two little stepsons sitting on her bed.

  ‘Teddy and Dan are helping me to choose names,’ she explained when the babies had been admired.

  ‘I like Veronica,’ Danny declared. But Teddy said, ‘I don’t. I like Hazel.’

  ‘Hazelnut,’ Danny scoffed.

  ‘What do you like, Bridie?’ Maureen asked. ‘You and Jack.’

  ‘We thought of Patrick for the boy and Patricia for the girl, then they could be Pat and Tricia, but I’m having second thoughts. I’d like the boys to choose. They both like Michael for the boy and so does Jack so that’s settled.’