A Nest of Singing Birds

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

  She put thoughts of John firmly out of her mind and there was plenty to distract her. Christmas was fast approaching and the shop was busier than ever. Mrs Dyson’s sister came to the shop occasionally but not to help. She had strong opinions about everything and never hesitated to air them.

  ‘You’re sitting on a gold mine here if you only shaped yourselves,’ she told Mrs Dyson. ‘Those bakehouse girls go home far too early.’

  ‘But they start at seven,’ Mrs Dyson said.

  ‘Start them at half past six or let them work an extra hour later and you’d have that much more to sell,’ Miss Meers said. ‘You could stay open an hour later and all the stuff would go.’

  She marched off into the bakehouse and Mrs Dyson said to Mabel, ‘Don’t take no notice of her. We won’t make any alterations. Albert and me are satisfied and it’s got nothing to do with her.’

  ‘You wouldn’t think you were sisters,’ Mabel said forthrightly.

  ‘She’s never been no different,’ Mrs Dyson said. ‘She loves a fight. I’d better go. Albert wouldn’t be past landing her one if she annoys him.’

  She dashed into the bakehouse from where raised voices could be heard and a few minutes later Miss Meers emerged into the shop. ‘You just can’t help some people,’ she said. ‘I told you, Nelly, you’d live to rue the day you married that fellow.’

  ‘Well, I haven’t,’ Mrs Dyson shouted after her as she swept out, then they all looked at each other and began to laugh.

  Mr Dyson came to the door of the shop. ‘Has she gone?’ he demanded, looking at their smiling faces in amazement.

  ‘Yes, and I gave her a flea in her ear,’ Mrs Dyson said proudly.

  ‘Bloody battleaxe! Don’t you let her in my bakehouse no more,’ he said, turning back, but they knew she would return.

  There were special Christmas dances as well as the usual caelidhes, and Anne and Sarah were never without partners. They were frequently asked for dates too and Anne accepted, consoled by the thought that though John might not want her plenty of other people did.

  She had managed to bury thoughts of him and was astounded to be reminded of him on a visit to Grandma Houlihan. She and Eileen had spent a pleasant hour in Bridie’s happy home then gone to see Aunt Carrie and their grandma.

  Bridie had warned them that Minnie had come into circulation again, and had been to see her and told her that her little girl looked sickly.

  ‘She doesn’t. She’s lovely and a picture of health,’ Anne said indignantly.

  ‘But she is small, isn’t she?’ Bridie said with a worried frown.

  ‘She’s dainty,’ Eileen said. ‘You didn’t want a big boiling piece like Dympna, did you?’

  Bridie laughed. ‘No, no. I think Monica’s just right, but you know Minnie. She puts these ideas in your head.’

  ‘Don’t let her,’ Eileen said. ‘Faggot! I liked it better when she had the huff.’

  When they reached Carrie’s, Grandma was sitting beside the fire with Minnie beside her. ‘Oh, you’re honoured today, Ma,’ said Minnie. ‘Two of them.’ She turned to the girls. ‘Ma tells me you haven’t been to see her this long while.’

  ‘We’ve been here since you were last here, Aunt Minnie,’ Anne said.

  Minnie’s eyes narrowed. ‘I told you, Ma,’ she said triumphantly.

  ‘What did you tell her?’ Anne demanded.

  ‘Minnie was after telling me you were mixing with the wrong people, child, and sorry I am to hear it,’ Grandma Houlihan said. ‘And that you were grown very disrespectful.’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Anne said angrily to Minnie. ‘You don’t even know who I mix with.’

  ‘Oh, yes, I do. We saw you, me and Dympna, talking to that fellow that’s been in Spain fighting on the side of the Anti-Christ. We saw you outside Ariel Gray’s, quite hardfaced talking to him, and you hadn’t just met him either. We saw you come out of the shop under the dwellings.’

  ‘So you were spying for a while?’ said Eileen, but Anne said, ‘I don’t care who saw us and how long they were there. I can meet my friend’s brother and talk to him any time I like.’

  ‘You should be ashamed, a fellow like that,’ Minnie said.

  ‘He’s a better man than your son’ll ever be,’ Anne declared. ‘And as for your talk of the Anti-Christ… Franco had Muslim Moors on his side as well as foreigners dropping bombs from aeroplanes on innocent people.’

  ‘You know all about it, don’t you?’ Minnie sneered, and Grandma wailed, ‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph, protect us! You’ve grown a terrible bold girl, Anne. Your poor mother, and with the Hand of God on her too.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Anne and Eileen demanded together, everything else forgotten. Just then Carrie stormed in.

  ‘Out,’ she said to Minnie. ‘Out! And take your dirty tongue with you. Don’t show your face in my house again.’

  Minnie stood up with a satisfied smile. ‘I won’t see you again, Ma, until you’re in your coffin,’ she said. ‘Seeing that I won’t be allowed to see you here and you can’t get out. It’s a pity Julia couldn’t wait to dump you back here.’

  Grandma Houlihan burst into loud wails and Carrie grabbed Minnie’s shoulder and hustled her to the door.

  ‘Grandma, what did you mean about Mum?’ Eileen said, leaning over her grandmother and staring into her face, but Grandma covered her face with her hands and wept even more loudly.

  They heard the slam of the front door and Carrie came back. Immediately the girls begged her to tell them what their grandmother had meant by ‘the Hand of God’ on their mother.

  ‘It meant nothing, girls,’ she said. ‘That bitch has been haunting us for the last few days, dripping her poison into Ma’s ear, and she believes everything Minnie tells her. I heard her going on about Sarah’s brother and I’d have warned you if I’d known you were coming.’

  ‘I’m glad she was here when we came,’ Anne said. ‘So I could face her with it. But why did Grandma say that, Aunt Carrie?’

  ‘Because Minnie put it in her head. If Ma hadn’t said it she’d have found a way to say it herself but it means nothing. You’ve heard her: “Such and such a one looks pale. I think the Hand of God is on her and she’s not long for this world.” Don’t let it worry you, girls. That’s what she wants.’

  ‘It’s true,’ Eileen said. ‘It’s the sort of thing she says. We’ve just come from Bridie’s and she’s been trying to upset her too. Why didn’t she stay out of friends? It was much better.’

  ‘She missed causing trouble,’ Carrie said shrewdly. ‘And I had to let her come to see Ma, but she’s gone too far this time, she didn’t pick up on what you said about Brendan though, I notice, Anne.’

  ‘It’s true. John Redmond is a better man than Brendan, but who isn’t?’

  Both girls looked anxiously at their mother when they returned home, but she had been cooking and was flushed with the heat of the fire, and bright-eyed with happiness because a letter had arrived from Joe, so they were reassured.

  * * *

  Julia’s birthday fell on 28 November and Anne went to town alone to buy her mother’s present on the previous Wednesday. As she walked home up Brunswick Road she realised that Kathleen O’Neill was walking ahead of her and quickened her pace to catch up with her.

  ‘Kathleen!’ she said. ‘Aren’t you working?’ She was dismayed to see how pale and ill Kathleen looked, with dark shadows beneath her eyes and even her hair dull and lifeless.

  ‘Hello, Anne,’ she said, her voice as lifeless as her hair. ‘Mr Skelly gave me the afternoon off. He told me to get some fresh air and some roses in my cheeks.’

  ‘Where have you been?’ Anne asked.

  ‘Just walking round,’ said Kathleen. ‘I don’t want to go home until I’m due out of the office.’

  ‘It’s too cold to be walking round,’ Anne said. ‘You’re more likely to get a red nose than roses in your cheeks.’ Kathleen laughed and Anne said impulsively, ‘Come home with me
for a cup of tea.’

  As Kathleen seemed about to refuse Anne added, ‘There’s nobody in. Mum’s gone to see my grandma and she won’t be back for ages.’ She linked her arm through Kathleen’s and they walked along, Kathleen silent but Anne chattering about the present she had bought her mother and the prospect of Christmas shopping.

  The fire had been banked down but Anne quickly had it burning brightly, and Kathleen sitting close to it with a cup of tea and a piece of fruit cake beside her.

  Anne talked about her job and her family until they had finished their tea, then said jokingly to Kathleen, ‘Now you’ve got roses in your cheeks. Mr Skelly would be pleased. It was a fire you needed, not fresh air.’

  Kathleen smiled but said nothing and Anne said more seriously, ‘Why were you pale, Kath? Haven’t you been well?’

  ‘I’ve been worried,’ she said. She sat looking into the fire for a moment then suddenly covered her face with her hands. ‘Oh, Anne, I don’t know what to do,’ she wept. Anne slipped to her knees beside her and put her arm around Kathleen’s shoulders.

  ‘What’s up, Kath?’ she said gently. ‘What are you worried about?’

  ‘Mammy says I mustn’t be friends with Ella. She says I have to choose between them,’ Kathleen said with a sob.

  ‘But I thought Ella was a very nice girl.’

  ‘She is. She is. But Mammy says we mustn’t make friends with ordinary people. She says we’re different. A Royal line,’ Kathleen said. She took out a dainty little handkerchief and wiped her eyes.

  ‘Oh, that,’ said Anne. ‘Does Ella know?’

  ‘No, I haven’t told her. I don’t know what to do, Anne. When I’m in the office it all seems so simple and I want to be friends with her and go to the pictures and all that… It’s just – when I go home it all seems different.’

  ‘Have you been going round with Ella?’ Anne asked.

  ‘Yes. It started when Cormac was ill, and she walked home with me every night. I went to the pictures with her twice. The first time Ella just took it for granted. She came for me and Mammy didn’t have a chance to say anything.’

  ‘But there was no harm in just going to the pictures.’

  ‘That’s what Ella said, and I did have a lovely time, but when I got home Mammy was upset. I said I wouldn’t go again but then in the office they were talking about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and the new waltz, so I went to see them in Swing Time with Ella.’

  ‘And what happened?’ Anne prompted her.

  ‘Nothing that time because Cormac’s chest was terrible that night, but last night I told Mammy Ella had asked me to go to the Forum when Shall We Dance comes on there at Christmas. Mammy said I loved Ella more than her and Cormac and I had to choose but I was breaking her heart, and Cormac shouted at me as well.’

  ‘But that’s daft,’ Anne said, but Kathleen quickly added, ‘You don’t understand. Mammy just lives for us and says we shouldn’t want anyone but each other. It seems right when I’m at home, but when I’m in the office it seems all wrong. I’m like two people, Anne. I don’t know my own mind and sometimes I think I’m going crazy.’

  It was growing dark, but Anne remained with her arms round Kathleen. She felt that it was easier for Kathleen to confide in her in the dim room lit only by firelight.

  ‘Doesn’t Cormac ever want to go out?’ she asked.

  ‘No, but he has a terrible temper. He gets in awful rages. Once he said he hated Mammy and she was upset.’

  ‘But, Kathleen, it’s only normal for children to grow up and grow away from their mothers,’ said Anne. ‘Our Tony’s engaged and Eileen’s courting and my cousin Theresa’s married.’

  ‘Yes, but we’re different,’ Kathleen said stubbornly. She hesitated then said, ‘Mammy said Cormac and I couldn’t marry anyone but each other. It was what happened in ancient times in Ireland in Royal families, if there was no one else with Royal blood.’

  ‘That can’t be right!’ Anne exclaimed.

  ‘It is,’ Kathleen insisted. ‘Mammy has all these books about the High Kings of Ireland and their courts. If a brother and sister married their child was doubly royal when it came to the throne. It might have happened in England too in ancient times, or in Wales.’

  Anne stood up and lit the gas, feeling that the conversation was getting out of hand. No wonder Kathleen’s confused, she thought. Her mother must be absolutely barmy.

  Aloud she said, ‘Your mother doesn’t mind your going to work, Kath?’

  ‘She doesn’t like it, but we need my wages. Mammy lost one of her cleaning jobs.’

  ‘Couldn’t Cormac go to work? He might enjoy it,’ Anne said.

  But Kathleen said vehemently, ‘Oh, no. He’s not strong enough.’ She looked at the clock on the mantelpiece. ‘I’d better go. I want to meet Mammy at the usual time.’

  ‘You’d better rinse your face,’ Anne said, and took her up to the bathroom. While she waited on the landing she thought about Kathleen’s situation and considered what she could do.

  ‘Is it just Ella?’ she said when Kathleen came out. ‘I mean, has your mother just taken a dislike to her? Would she let you come out with me?’

  ‘No-o,’ Kathleen said evasively, ‘it’s just – just with us being different, you see. Mammy only wants what’s best for me and Cormac.’

  Like marrying each other, Anne thought. Ye gods!

  She offered to walk down with Kathleen who refused to let her. Anne hugged her impulsively as they parted at the door. ‘Try to make your mum see that you need a bit of fun, Kath. Tell her it doesn’t mean you care any less for your home.’

  ‘I will,’ she promised. ‘But, Anne, don’t tell anyone what we’ve talked about, will you?’

  ‘No, I won’t,’ promised Anne. ‘But I’ll worry about you. Try to get out with Ella.’

  She turned back into the house when Kathleen left, thinking how fortunate she was to be bom into the Fitzgerald family. Her mother was surprised when she arrived an hour later to find a pile of ironing done, the table laid and her slippers warming in the hearth.

  ‘God bless you, child, you’ve worked hard and on your half day off too,’ she said as Anne brought her a cup of tea.

  ‘Just to show I appreciate you,’ said Anne, flinging her arms round her mother who was much smaller than she was.

  Julia looked up at her, smiling. ‘Appreciate, is it? Sure I’m the one that’s lucky to come home to a peaceful house and everything done for me. Your poor Aunt Carrie’s having her own share with Grandma.’

  ‘Why, what’s she doing?’ Anne said.

  ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with her at all. She does nothing but argue. My poor ma. I think she’s going strange in the head.’

  She’s not the only one, Anne thought, wishing she could tell her mother about Mrs O’Neill, but she had given her promise to Kathleen to say nothing.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Although Anne had made up her mind to forget her dreams about John Redmond, she still listened eagerly when Sarah talked about his efforts to find a job, now that his foot was completely healed.

  ‘Who were the friends he was with when I was at your house?’ Anne asked carefully, avoiding looking at her. ‘Were they from that club?’

  ‘No. Just a crowd who talk hot air like himself,’ Sarah said scornfully.

  ‘You think he’s daft, don’t you?’ Anne said, laughing.

  ‘In some ways,’ Sarah conceded. ‘But I’ve got to admit he works for what he believes in. Collecting for Spanish Food Relief in all weathers, and for the Goodfellow Fund.’

  Anne felt a glow of pride at Sarah’s words. But only because he’s a friend, she told herself hastily.

  Sarah seemed equally pleased to hear good news about Joe. Three replies had been received to the applications he had sent, and had been opened by his father as Joe had asked. One said it was pointless to put him on a waiting list, but letters from a grain merchant’s and from Littlewood’s Pools promised to file his application and i
nterview him when he returned home.

  ‘I feel almost guilty that so many good things are happening to us, when such a lot of people are having a bad time,’ Sarah said. ‘We’re very lucky, aren’t we, Anne?’

  Anne often thought of Sarah’s words during the following months. They were lucky, she felt. Everything seemed to be going right in both families. Her father’s order book was better filled than it had been for years, her mother’s health seemed good, Eileen was happy in her work as a pools clerk, and Tony and Helen were happily planning their wedding.

  All the family were enjoying life, and even Maureen seemed to have forgotten whatever it was that troubled her and to be quietly happy again.

  Best of all, Joe was sure of being able to stay home after his trip. Even if nothing came of the interviews, he could work for his father.

  When Pat had told them of his new orders he said to his wife, ‘You’ll have your lad home again, Julia, however it goes with these letters he’s had. Now I can fix him up without him thinking he’s taking the bread from someone else’s mouth.’

  ‘Thanks be to God,’ was all that Julia said, but Anne knew how much the news meant to her and to all the family.

  The news was all good in the Redmond family too. Mr Redmond had been looking after the woodyard where he worked while his employer was on a cruise to restore his health, and Sarah told Anne that her father had been given fifty pounds as a mark of appreciation when his employer returned.

  Sarah’s brother Mick was the star pupil at his college and great things were predicted for him, and John was now fully recovered and walking without a limp.

  ‘He still can’t find a job,’ Sarah said to Anne. ‘But at least he’s home and safe.’

  ‘“God’s in His heaven, All’s right with the world,”’ Anne said gaily, and Mabel was shocked.

  ‘That’s blasphemy, Anne!’

  ‘No, it isn’t, Mabel, it’s poetry,’ she said.

  ‘I never heard it,’ Mabel said doubtfully.

  ‘But you get all your quotations from the Bible, don’t you, Mabel?’ Sarah said mischievously. Mabel often quoted lines of poetry to make her point, and whether they came from Tennyson, Keats, Wordsworth or Rupert Brooke, she always prefaced them with ‘As it says in the Bible’.