An Orphan's Dream

by Cathy Sharp

  ‘No, no new admittances today,’ Sister Rose said. ‘We’ve found out what is wrong with Laura, as you’ll see in the notes. Dr Clark attended her.’

  ‘Yes, he’s a good doctor,’ Jenny said in an impersonal voice. ‘Thank you, Sister Rose.’

  ‘Goodnight, Nurse Jenny.’

  Sister Rose sounded a little odd and Jenny thought she was on the verge of crying. Was it because she was so upset over the disappearance of the boy she’d helped to foster or because she’d realised that Peter’s invitations to Jenny had meant nothing?

  Rose blinked back her tears as she walked home that night. When she’d first seen the large box of Fry’s chocolates, she’d thought they must have been a gift to Nurse Jenny from Peter Clark. She knew that he’d bought her chocolates and small gifts before that and assumed they were deep in a relationship, but Jenny’s casual attitude to their break-up had convinced her that wasn’t so.

  Before Peter and Jenny had started going out together Rose had almost believed Peter Clark was interested in her and it had hurt her so badly when she’d heard that he was courting Jenny and she knew that when she and Nurse Jenny had worked together, she’d sometimes been unnecessarily brusque with her. It had not been professional of her and she’d struggled to contain it.

  Jenny’s generosity with the chocolates had brought her to the verge of tears – and the way she’d told her that her friendship with Peter Clark was nothing! – Rose had hardly got out of the infirmary before the tears started to trickle down her cheeks.

  She was so anxious about Danny – and Beattie as well, because she was beside herself with worry, convinced it was her fault that Danny’s father had managed to drag him off.

  ‘I should’ve watched him all the time,’ she’d said tearfully over and over again. ‘I don’t deserve to be his foster mum – it’s all my fault he’s gone.’

  ‘No, it isn’t,’ Rose reassured her. ‘Even if you’d stopped Danny’s father that time – and I don’t see how you could – he would have found another way some other time.’

  It was the truth, but Rose couldn’t convince Beattie and she’d cried for hours, her eyes red and puffy every morning since Danny’s disappearance. Rose had cried too but she’d had to pull herself together, because her job was important. However, any small act of kindness or just a look could make her feel emotional and she knew she wouldn’t feel truly better until they got Danny back.

  She had to believe that they would one day, because otherwise she did not think she could carry on with her life …

  CHAPTER 26

  Danny’s stomach ached because he was hungry. His father had bought pie and chips when they’d been paid, eaten what he wanted and then shoved the remains in Danny’s hands. Left with three chips and a piece of unwanted dry crust, he’d swallowed them down to try to ease the hunger pangs but he still felt the cramps deep in his guts and the cold that came with it.

  ‘Can I have something to eat?’ he asked his father.

  Jim Bryant’s eyes gleamed with malice. ‘Are yer ready ter do what I asked?’ he demanded. ‘I told yer, yer get a proper meal if yer go through that window.’

  Danny stared at him in hatred, his anger burning fiercely inside. He hadn’t believed his own father could be this evil but he was starving him into obedience. Not only did he have to work cleaning out the filthy bone lorries in the mornings, he was expected to help his father commit burglaries at night and he couldn’t run for it because Jim Bryant had told him he’d hurt Beattie and Sister Rose if he did, even if he didn’t go back to them.

  Doris Bryant had been as honest as the day is long and Danny had a horror of breaking the law. He could hear his mother’s voice telling him that it would shame her if he ever did anything like that – and it was certain that Sister Rose and Beattie wouldn’t want to know him if he became a thief.

  ‘It ain’t right,’ Danny said defiantly. ‘I did my share of the shovelling. I should get a packet of chips for that – and thievin’ is wrong. Mum wouldn’t have liked me to do that.’ He gave a cry of pain as his father hit him on the side of the head, knocking him sideways. ‘You’re a bully and a monster but you can’t make me steal for you!’

  ‘Then yer’ll starve,’ his father grunted and thrust him into the dark place that he called home. ‘I ain’t goin’ ter shovel muck fer the rest of me life. There’s rich folk what have got more than their fair share from life and I intend to get some of it. You help me and you eat, don’t and you starve.’

  Danny stifled the bitter words that threatened to spill out of him. If he dared to say more his father would beat him senseless and he already hurt all over. He was going to have to make a run for it and go straight to the police so that they could protect Rose and Beattie or he would die of hunger. At work there was little opportunity and at night he was locked in with his father.

  He could hear the noises his father made as he drank from his store of whisky. There was always money enough for that but never for food for Danny. He heard his father go to the bucket in the corner and then the sound of him emptying his guts. If Danny pretended to be sick when they were working – or to have the runs … A plan began to form in his mind, because there was a toilet on site at their workplace. It was in his father’s sightline and near enough for him to catch Danny if he tried to run, but there was a crack in the wood at the back of the old shed that housed the toilet. He wasn’t sure if he could force it open and escape that way, but he knew he had to try while he still had the strength.

  Before they left for work that morning, Danny made a show of having a stomach ache and then ran to the bucket in the corner, retching as he made himself sick.

  ‘Don’t think yer gettin’ out of work,’ his father muttered and glared at him as he emerged wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

  Danny didn’t answer and his father’s expression was hard as he said, ‘Ternight, yer’ll help me rob that place I told yer about – if yer refuse I’ll knock yer ter kingdom come!’

  Danny hung his head and didn’t answer. Let his father think he was subdued and ready to obey. Jim Bryant grunted and pushed him out of the door. Danny kept his eyes downcast as they walked to the docks. It was a warm day and the smell from the boneyard was horrendous. It wouldn’t be hard to feign sickness here, because the stink turned his guts.

  The gaffer gave them the usual job, glancing at Danny for a moment but saying nothing. Briefly, Danny thought of appealing to him for help but knew he wouldn’t be interested. Jim Bryant was one of the few who would do this filthy job and it wasn’t in the gaffer’s interest to upset him.

  Danny got on with his work but when he saw the pile of maggots heaving in the corner of the lorry that had been used to transport bones and old meat carcasses, his stomach turned and he scrambled down and ran for the shed that served them as a toilet.

  ‘Hey!’ his father called, then, realising where he was going, ‘Don’t be long, yer lazy little sod.’

  Danny wrenched open the door and went in, bolting it after him. For a few moments he was safe. He went towards the board at the back that had shrunk, letting in a glimmer of light and tested it. There was a little give and if he’d had his spade, he might have been able to widen it to a gap big enough to force the plank out and escape, but it wouldn’t budge with just him pushing. He would have to think of something else.

  Danny relieved himself and then, just as he was unbolting the door, he heard shouting from outside. Opening the door slightly, he saw that there was an altercation going on. Three men were involved in a fight over money and Danny’s father was one of them.

  It was his chance! Danny knew he had to run and now. If he didn’t go this minute his father would remember him and come looking for him when the fight was over. He slipped round the back of the toilet shed and started to run away from the docks and the sound of the shouting. He could still hear the yelling and his father’s voice above the others.

  ‘Bloody pigs! I’ll see you in hell fer this!’

 
Danny ran for his life. He ran and ran until his chest was heaving and he couldn’t breathe, and then he leaned against a wall to recover. Would his father come looking for him – and where should he go?

  Danny wanted to get back to Beattie and Sister Rose but his father would come there and drag him off again. He knew that his father had seen him before that day at the church fete because he’d laughed about it and said he’d been waiting for the chance to grab him. So, if he went home to Beattie, his father would come after him again – and he might do as he’d threatened and harm Beattie and Sister Rose.

  Danny found a park bench and sat down in the sun. A woman in a smart dress was sitting eating sandwiches and she glanced at him several times but didn’t speak. When she got up and walked off, she left a packet with a whole sandwich in it on the bench. Danny fell on it and began to eat it. She turned and smiled and gave him a little finger wave and then walked off. She’d left it for him deliberately.

  Danny was warmed by the small kindness. It reminded him that despite all the brutality he’d met with in his life there were other people who were kind and good. He decided that he would make his way to the Rosie and ask for help there. He would tell Sister Rose what had happened and explain why he couldn’t live with her and Beattie for the moment – perhaps then the police would stop his father from catching him again.

  He was a long way from his objective and it would take him a while to walk there. His clothes were filthy too and he knew he stank because he hadn’t washed in days. Danny could only hope that they wouldn’t turn him away in disgust.

  It was only as he began his long walk that he thought of something – the men his father had been fighting had been wearing police uniforms. A smile touched Danny’s face. Perhaps his problem was half-solved already. If the police had his father in custody, he would be safe with Beattie and Sister Rose again. He increased his pace, wanting now to find his friends as quickly as he could.

  ‘Where is your son, Mr Bryant?’ Constable Jones asked after they’d booked him at the station. He was handcuffed and silent, though still spitting defiance at them. ‘Don’t try to lie to us, sir, we know you snatched him at the church fete. We received information to that effect and now we want to know where he is.’

  ‘How do I know where the little bleeder is?’ Jim Bryant spat at Constable Jones, who wiped it away with his glove and continued to face him unflinchingly. ‘He went to the toilet and scarpered when you lot nabbed me. There’s no law says he can’t work wiv me ter pay fer his keep.’

  ‘He’s not old enough to work,’ Constable Jones replied calmly. ‘And Danny was placed with a foster parent by the courts after you were found wanting as a father. He had injuries he claims were inflicted by you when he was found and you have a history of violence as well as a record for other offences. Therefore, the court has placed a restrictive order on you and you may not go within five miles of where he lives, goes to school or, in the future, works. If you touch him or in any way coerce him, you will be breaking the law and liable for a term of imprisonment.’

  Jim Bryant spat at Steve Jones again.

  ‘Filthy behaviour will not help your cause, Mr Bryant,’ Constable Jones said. ‘Had you listened to us and not offered violence you would have been given a warning. Now you will spend a night in the cells and we’ll have you up for assaulting a police officer in the morning. If I have my way, you’ll be locked in a cell for years.’

  ‘Pigs!’ Jim Bryant sneered at him over his shoulder as he was led away. ‘They’ll give me a few months at most and then I’ll be out – and I’ll do fer yer, mate, and that little runt – you see if I don’t!’

  Steve looked at his sergeant as the man was taken below to the cells. ‘That is one nasty piece of work, sir. I need to find as much evidence against him as I can or he’s right – they’ll give him a month or two at most and he’ll be out again.’

  ‘Find the boy,’ Sergeant Morris advised. ‘He might be able to give you more information. Do you believe he made a bolt for it?’

  ‘Bryant’s boss seemed to think so. Not that he was particularly helpful. Bryant is one of the few who will do the really dirty work and it wasn’t him that tipped us off about Bryant.’

  ‘A concerned member of the public, perhaps?’

  ‘Someone who worked on the docks saw the way he treated the lad and reported it,’ Constable Jones said. ‘He named Bryant, so we were on it immediately – it’s just a pity the lad ran for it.’

  ‘Maybe he’ll go to his foster home,’ the sergeant said hopefully.

  ‘I pray he will, but he may be too frightened to think straight.’

  ‘Well, you’d best get back to the beat,’ Sergeant Morris told him. ‘Good work, Jones – and you, Smith, that was a neat job.’

  The two constables looked at each other and smiled. Both had a few bruises where the furious Jim Bryant had punched and kicked them but he must have some of his own and there was satisfaction in having put the man behind bars for the time being.

  ‘We were lucky to get that tip-off,’ Constable Smith said and they left the station together. ‘Where did you say it came from?’

  ‘An old lady named Jessie,’ Steve said. ‘I’ve given her a few cups of tea and some shillings now and then and we have a chat – if it’s cold I find her a bed at one of the hostels. Jessie doesn’t forget a kindness.’ He looked thoughtful. ‘She told me one of the doctors at the clinic asked her about the boy too, but she came to me, because she thought it was my job. She’s a wise old bird.’

  ‘One of the doctors?’ Constable Smith lifted his eyebrows. ‘How would he know we were looking for the boy?’

  ‘I suppose it must have been through Sister Rose. She and her landlady are fostering the boy.’

  ‘Ah, I see,’ Constable Smith said, nodding. ‘Small world, isn’t it?’

  ‘Sometimes,’ Steve said. ‘Right, you go down Bell Lane and round by the church and I’ll go the other way and we’ll meet up at the Rosie, all right?’

  ‘Yeah – be seeing you!’

  The two separated to walk their beat. Most of the time it was quiet and only needed one of them to be seen keeping an eye on things. It was surprising how much it disturbed the criminals to see a bobby on the beat. They turned tail and walked away most times and, if not, a loud summons from a police whistle would bring one constable running to the aid of another. However, a lot of their day was spent directing folk, helping elderly residents across busy roads, directing traffic if there was an accident, or helping a child separated from its frantic mother. Only a small portion of their time was taken up with actually catching criminals and it was rather nice when they achieved an arrest.

  Steve’s mother-in-law was standing at her front door as he went past. She smiled and offered him a cup of tea but he shook his head.

  ‘Better not, Gwen, I’ve got to get on; we’ve a lot to do today.’

  ‘I’m waiting for Theo,’ she told him. ‘We’re going shopping and I’ll be doing some for Sarah, too and then I’ll be visiting with her for a couple of hours.’

  ‘She’ll be pleased,’ Steve replied and smiled. ‘The lad is growing fast, isn’t he?’

  ‘Just as he ought,’ Gwen agreed. ‘Ah, here comes Theo – have a good day, Steve, and stay safe.’

  ‘I’ll try to,’ Steve waved his hand and set off down the street. At the bottom of the lane old Mrs Ransom was looking worried. He stopped and asked her what was wrong.

  ‘It’s my Tiddles,’ she said. ‘He’s got stuck up the apple tree again, Constable Jones. I don’t suppose you could get him down for me?’

  Steve smiled, glanced at his watch and smothered his sigh. The cat was young, adventurous and could probably get down itself, but Mrs Ransom was old and easily upset. ‘I’ll see what I can do,’ he promised. ‘Let’s have a look, shall we?’

  CHAPTER 27

  Rose was looking at her medicine chart when Nurse Margaret hurried up to her and caught hold of her arm. Startled, she was about to
reprimand the young nurse when she saw the look of excitement in her eyes.

  ‘What is it, Nurse?’

  ‘Look, Sister Rose – it’s Danny!’

  Her heart gave a huge jump and she turned to look towards the door, tears of relief starting to her eyes as she saw him standing there, hovering uncertainly, his face dirty and his hair all messed up. She could see that his clothes were filthy and as she reached him, he put up his hands to ward her off.

  ‘I’m dirty and I stink,’ he said. ‘I think the police have got me dad and so I ran off. I wouldn’t have come if they hadn’t ’cos he swore he’d hurt you and Beattie.’

  ‘Oh, Danny, I’m so glad you came to me!’ Rose said and threw her arms around him, despite the stink of his clothes and the fact that she would have to change her uniform. ‘We’ve both been so upset!’

  ‘I’m sorry, Sister Rose, but it weren’t my fault.’

  ‘I know it wasn’t,’ she said and smiled at him through her tears. ‘I’m going to take you home, Danny …’ She turned to Nurse Margaret. ‘Nurse – please go and tell Matron that Danny is here and I need to get him home and ask can she cover my duty for me, please?’

  ‘Yes, Sister Rose.’ The nurse went off looking delighted and Sister Rose looked at Danny.

  ‘Are you all right, Danny?’ she asked. ‘You look thin – and are they bruises on your face or dirt?’

  ‘Both I should think,’ Danny said and grinned at her. She could see that a tooth was missing on the right side. ‘Me dad hit me a few times but he didn’t kill me ’cos he wanted me to work and steal for him. I worked on the stinkin’ bone lorries down the factory, but I wouldn’t steal so he starved me.’

  ‘Beattie will get you something to eat as soon as we get back home,’ Rose promised. She glanced around the ward. Fortunately, there were no urgent tasks waiting, most of the work had already been done that morning and they were waiting for Kathy to bring up the meals from the kitchen.

  Nurse Margaret returned then with Nurse Anne in tow. ‘Matron said she would keep an eye herself,’ Nurse Margaret told her. ‘She says to take as long as you need.’