Shelagh had shaken her head. ‘If I tell your mam what you’ve just said, Malachi, she wouldn’t believe me. That’s called blackmail and you’ll end up like Jimmy O’Prey, you will, in and out of the nick.’
Malachi had scowled. ‘And she won’t believe you, Shelagh, that’s why I said it,’ he said, the smile on his face not quite reaching his eyes.
Little Paddy and Nellie had overheard him and Nellie looked so upset at his cheekiness that little Paddy had felt the need to intervene.
‘You don’t deserve any at all, Malachi,’ little Paddy had said, but the other boy had scowled and then delivered a quick kick to little Paddy’s shin.
‘You’re barred from the game,’ Malachi had snarled at little Paddy, who then knew there was no point in him heading back to the bombed-out wasteland that day.
‘Paddy, what are you doing here at this time?’ said Shelagh as little Paddy closed the door behind him. ‘Has your mam sent you to scrub my big pan for me?’ Shelagh smiled down at him, but the smile quickly left her face when she saw the worry etched across his, the tightness of the pale skin across his cheekbones, his eyes wide and concerned.
‘Shelagh, have you seen me mam? She went out ages ago; she said she was going to yours to bring the pram back and she hasn’t come home.’
Shelagh took the cigarettes out of her apron pocket and lit one. ‘Paddy, I haven’t.’ She blew her smoke high into the air. ‘But surely you must have misheard her? There’s a bingo on down at St Cuthbert’s tonight. I bet she’s gone there, eh? Was her hair done, love?’
Little Paddy shook his head; he felt very confused and very scared.
‘When your mam borrowed my pram earlier, she didn’t say what she wanted it for and I didn’t ask; I just said, as long as it’s not for coal, Peg, because our baby’s got to sleep in that pram tonight, and I could do with it back soon. Do you know what she wanted it for?’
Little Paddy didn’t want to betray his mother or lie to Shelagh and so he shook his head again.
‘Tell you what, let’s see if your mam’s put the pram back.’ Shelagh opened the back door, little Paddy following her, and they went into the wash house. Blocking the path to the copper boiler, as it usually was, was Shelagh’s pram. ‘There you go, she’s brought it back and taken off to the bingo, so stop your worrying, Paddy. Honest to God, sometimes you look as though you’re carrying the weight of the world around on your shoulders. Go back home, go on; she’ll be running back up your path with her winnings soon, you mark my words.’
Little Paddy felt relieved; his mam hadn’t lied – the pram was returned.
‘Don’t suppose you want to scrub my pan for me, do you? I can’t with these hands, they’ll be bleeding all night if I do.’
He looked towards the gate and thought of his brothers. ‘You look after your brothers, Paddy,’ his mam had said. But the pan would take him just five minutes. He pulled up his sleeves. ‘Come on then, Shelagh, I’m as strong as Popeye, I am,’ and they both laughed, his worries gone, as they walked back into Shelagh’s kitchen.
*
Alice tiptoed into the kitchen, having settled Joseph for the night and picked up the tea towel to dry the big scouse pan Kathleen had just scrubbed. Kathleen was cleaning down the range, Jerry was at the table, about to finish his supper and head over to the Anchor and Nellie was reading in the armchair next to the fire. Kathleen couldn’t have been happier to hear the news from Jerry that the Morry had berthed.
‘When will you know what she’s carrying?’ Kathleen had asked her son.
‘I’ll find out tonight, Mam. My guess is that Captain Conor will do what he always does, put his crew in the Seaman’s Stop with Malcolm, pop in to see his mam, Ena, throw his kitbag in her hallway and head down to the Anchor looking for Tommy and me to give us the news. So I’m away to see a man about a dog as soon as I’ve finished this, and give him the news that Tommy has gone and ’tis me and Seamus now,’ said Jerry as he blew on a steaming hot spoonful of food. ‘Seamus is already in the Anchor, and big Paddy and Eugene. High on the news, they were, and desperate for a pint of the Guinness to celebrate.’
Kathleen tutted. ‘How does Paddy afford the Guinness? He barely works. I don’t know how Peggy is managing. It would be better if he didn’t work at all, at least then she would get some help from the welfare. As it is, they exist on starvation money, neither one thing nor the other.’
Jerry lifted the spoon filled with potatoes and scrag-end of lamb to his mouth. ‘I’ve had him in three days this week, Mam. I’ve told him, if there’s a haul from the Morry, there’s nothing for him if he doesn’t pull his weight and work a full week. I’m not having part timers if I take over as gaffer.’
Kathleen was not impressed. ‘Three days this week, Jerry, one day last week – a family can’t survive on that. You keep on at him. Poor Peggy, she has one heavy cross to bear.’
Jerry’s spoon scraped against the plate as he made short work of his supper, eager to leave and get down to the Anchor. ‘Paddy loves his rum, and he knows the Morry is always good for it. Alice, don’t wait up for me.’
Alice looked none too pleased at this announcement and Jerry knew it as he skipped round the table and hugged his wife, who was not a fan of outward displays of affection.
‘Get off,’ she said as she shrugged his arm away.
‘No, I won’t,’ said Jerry, hugging her tighter against his chest, making Nellie giggle. Jerry knew just how to wrap Alice around his little finger. ‘Oh, Alice, go on, it’s not drinking I’m doing, it’s work. You are the best wife in the whole world and if it was anyone but you, I wouldn’t bother. And besides, if I don’t go, who else is going to make sure we get the haul up the steps, eh?’
‘Oh, go on, Jerry, get out of here and out of our way; we know what you’re like! Just don’t come back without good news about the Morry and the carnival,’ said Alice as she pushed him away. ‘Your mam and I have only gone and got ourselves landed with the bunting, as well as decorating the float and the cake stall, so your mam’s reading the riot act in this kitchen tomorrow and getting everyone moving.’
Kathleen wiped her brow with the tea towel. ‘Honestly, I’ve such a funny feeling today, like something is out of sorts. I’ve felt it in my waters since mass and I saw it in Shelagh’s tea leaves when I read them earlier. I didn’t say anything to Shelagh, mind, only that she would be pushing another baby around soon, her and Seamus. God, they have enough already, will they just stop the shenanigans? I said to her, just cross your legs and tell him to sort himself out. Peggy did the same, mind; it didn’t bring her much luck, God love her, but at least it stopped her having another baby.’
‘Mam, you never did!’ The anguished cry of her daughter-in-law filled the room. ‘I never heard you say that.’
Alice, the product of a brutally strict upbringing would never discuss anything remotely private, with anyone. The only Protestant to live on the four streets, she was grateful not to be a Catholic, for confession would have presented Alice with a difficult challenge. Her first response to any priest asking her if she had sinned would have been to ask him what business was it of his?
Kathleen, with her back to Alice, raised her eyebrows, pursed her lips and pointedly rolled her eyes to Jerry, nodding her head in the direction of Alice, a gesture Jerry chose to ignore as he glanced over to the fireside chair to see if Nellie had heard. As always, Nellie was sitting forward in the chair, elbows resting on the wooden arms, her fingers in her ears, absorbed in her book. An only child for a long while before Joseph arrived, with a lively imagination, Nellie lived her life vicariously through the characters in her books.
Jerry sat back down as Kathleen placed a bowl of bread-and-butter pudding covered in hot, thick, yellow custard down on the table and Kathleen bent her head into his line of vision, silently mouthing something at him in an exaggerated manner, her lips pursing and stretching. He looked down at his plate. These conversations always went the same way: Jerry told Kathleen he co
uldn’t hear what she was saying and to speak up, quickly followed by Alice chirping in with, ‘She can’t, Jerry, she’s talking about me. If she speaks up, I’ll know what it is she’s saying, won’t I, Jerry? And I’m not supposed to, am I, Kathleen?’
And that would be it – by trying to avoid the very situation he did not want to be involved in, he’d find himself slap bang in the middle of an almighty row between the two women of the house.
Kathleen gave up trying to get Jerry on side and answered Alice instead.
‘What in God’s name is wrong with you? Do you think the stork has a particular fancy for the four streets, given how many babies are dropped here? Do you think it favours Shelagh and Seamus because it gets a cup of tea and a couple of lemon puffs for its trouble? There’s no shame in what I said. Seamus and Shelagh make their babies the same way as everyone else and she’s getting too old to be carrying on so they need to cut it out. It’s only for Shelagh’s own good. I don’t care what they get up to, but they have more than enough mouths to feed. Jerry, you agree with me, don’t you?’
Jerry played it safe. ‘Mam, don’t involve me. What do I know?’
Kathleen huffed and gave her son a look that had turned his blood cold when he was just a boy. She continued, unperturbed, ‘Anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted, Alice…’
Now it was Alice’s turn to roll her eyes towards Jerry, who, sensing an escalation in the banter between the two women, glanced at the clock to see how long it was until he would be able to escape. There was a slap of card on paper as Nellie slammed her book shut and, looking up, grinned at her da. They were very much on each other’s side, himself and the child he shared with his first wife, Bernadette, who had died shortly after giving birth to Nellie.
Kathleen carried on undeterred, ‘I definitely saw it in there, in Shelagh’s leaves, a very dark cloud, right in the middle of the bottom of the teacup. And if I see it, I say it. That’s why the women from around here come to me and not Mrs King on Upper Parliament Street. I give them the facts, facts that are true,’ she finished with a flourish as she removed her handkerchief from her apron pocket and began to wipe furiously at her steamed-up glasses.
‘Isn’t that the whole point of a fact, that it’s true?’ said Alice with more than a hint of sarcasm.
But Kathleen was on one of her rants and no longer in the mood for interruptions. ‘Be quiet, Alice. I don’t see that cloud very often, so I don’t.’ She pushed her spectacles back up her nose and peered down at Jerry as she walked closer to him, her brow furrowed. Round and matronly, Irish eyes often twinkling, tonight, Kathleen looked concerned.
‘Oh, Mam, don’t be doing that to me,’ said Jerry, digging into his pudding. ‘Could you take a look into the leaves and tell me about the ship that’s berthed down on the docks that everyone seems to be so secretive about? No one batted an eyelid tonight at Captain Conor’s ship docking – the police were marking the one already in but it hasn’t yet unloaded and nor do we know when it will be. It’s very odd.’
Kathleen leant towards her son. ‘I saw that ship and the police at the bottom. I said to you, didn’t I, Alice, we’ve not seen that one here before.’
They all stopped as they heard the click of the backyard gate. Seconds later little Paddy stood framed in the doorway.
‘Paddy, what are you doing here?’ asked Jerry. ‘Your da is in the pub with Seamus and Eugene.’ His immediate thought was that big Paddy had failed to tell Peggy where he was going and little Paddy was looking for him.
‘Kathleen, have you seen our mam?’ Little Paddy asked Kathleen. ‘Only she went out ages ago to take Shelagh’s pram back and she hasn’t come home yet. Shelagh says she will have gone to the bingo, but I don’t think she has.’
Kathleen looked at little Paddy as though he had grown two heads. ‘What are you talking about, gone to the bingo on her own? Never. I would have known about it if she had. Had she done her hair?’
Little Paddy shook his head.
‘Where are the kids?’ asked Kathleen. ‘Are they at home?’
Little Paddy lowered his head. ‘They are, but they have no shoes so they can’t go anywhere.’
Kathleen thought little Paddy looked extraordinarily pale, and in a kind voice asked him, ‘Paddy, have you had your tea? Have you had anything today?’
His voice perked up. ‘We had a biscuit from Shelagh and Mam brought us chips and saveloys before she went out.’
‘What, for all of you?’ Then to Jerry Kathleen said, ‘She borrowed one and six from me to buy in for the kids’ tea and that lot would have cost at least five shillings for all of them. Paddy, why have the kids got no shoes? Sure, they are running around in the finest shoes they ever owned that Maura bought for you all?’
The boy said nothing. He could not say the words, ‘She took them to the pawnshop.’ He was old enough to know the meaning, to feel the shame his mother felt and hated himself for feeling relieved that he was still wearing his.
‘Where’s Scamp?’ asked Peggy. ‘Is he with her? Sometimes he follows her when she goes out.’
He shook his head. Scamp had been lying by the side of his bed when he left, refusing to move, and little Paddy knew why. He and Max had become great friends and Scamp was probably impatient for Paddy to get him out of his box.
Jerry said to his mother, ‘Try the bingo, Mam.’ The tone of his voice was enough. Jerry didn’t want any more to be said in front of little Paddy or Nellie, and the look he gave Alice said as much. ‘Tell the kids Nana Kathleen is on her way, little Paddy.’
The boy retreated from the kitchen but as he reached the door, he turned and ran back in. ‘Kathleen, can I have those carrot tops and the cabbage scraps please?’ He pointed to the vegetable scrapings on the newspaper.
Kathleen gave him a half-smile. ‘Have you still got that pet rat in your pocket no one knows about?’ Little Paddy’s eyes widened in alarm. ‘Don’t worry, lad, I won’t tell anyone.’
‘How did you know?’
‘It was the way he nibbled your ear and looked very comfortable indeed on your shoulder the other day – it was almost as if he lived there. Go on, away, take these with you.’ Kathleen rolled the paper up and gave little Paddy the parcel. ‘I’ll be twenty minutes because I’ll call into St Cuthbert’s on my way. Tell the kids Nana Kathleen is bringing them some sweets from Simpson’s and I want washed knees, hands and faces and everyone clean and ready for bed by the time I get there. If any one of them plays up, I’ll give their sweets to whoever was the best-behaved – and tell them I mean that.’
The back door slammed shut and Kathleen watched little Paddy run down the path. Peggy must have pawned the shoes – and there was not a woman she knew who wouldn’t sell herself before she would be forced to do that. Things were far worse than she’d thought.
Jerry ran his hand through his hair. ‘Those poor kids. Where do you think Peggy is, Mam? And the kids’ shoes…? Holy smoke!’
Kathleen had taken a jar down off the press and was counting money out of it onto the kitchen table. It was the jar full of sixpences, the price she charged for reading people’s tea leaves, and she made almost as much as Jerry did from it. Added to that, she received regular money from Liam and Maeve and the farm in Ireland, which was still Kathleen’s in name. With only Nellie and Joseph to feed, the Deanes were one of the better-off families on the four streets.
‘I’m guessing Peggy has gone down to the bingo. And something is seriously wrong – where the hell did she get the money from for chips and saveloys? I told you, didn’t I, that something wasn’t right because I saw it in the leaves.’
Jerry was back at the door. ‘Mammy, go and see Sister Evangelista – she will know what to do about Peggy, don’t you take it all on your shoulders.’
Kathleen shook her head. ‘I daren’t do that, Jerry. For all Peggy’s failings, she loves her kids and she’s terrified the welfare will take them off her. I can’t be the one responsible for that happening. If the nuns are i
nvolved, it has to be Peggy’s doing, not mine.’ She took her coat down from the back of the door and slipped the coins into her pocket. ‘You go to the Anchor and see if you can get that haul up the steps – we need something to put everyone in the mood for the carnival. Alice, can Nellie come with me?’
Nellie was instantly on her feet and at her grandmother’s side.
‘Of course she can; I’ll be here with Joseph. But Kathleen, as soon as you know where she is, let me know. I think you’re rubbing off on me – I have a funny feeling too. I’ll see you back here later. Go on, go.’
Jerry smiled at his mam and, as he did almost every day, he thought how lucky he was to have a mam like Kathleen. His household was as solid as a rock, built on his mother’s common sense and good management. There was a time in his life, with his new baby in his arms and his wife dead, that he had wanted to die himself. And then, Kathleen arrived and there was no doubt she saved him. Jerry was well aware how easily life’s events could drag you down and almost drown you. Things had even worked out with Alice, after the rockiest of starts.
‘Everyone should have a mam like you,’ he said to his mother, ‘I don’t know where Nellie and I would be if you hadn’t come to live with us.’
Kathleen fastened her headscarf under her chin. ‘One thing I have learnt in this life, Jerry, is that more often than not, when you reach rock bottom, even if no one knows you are there, someone steps out to give you a hand back up. I don’t know how or why, some say it’s the angels at work and I’m inclined to believe them myself, for I have no idea what it was that made me get on the boat and come to Liverpool, but I had a feeling, so I did, and I have that feeling again right now, only I can’t fathom what it is or what I’m supposed to be doing at all.’
Jerry hugged his mam and kissed the top of her head. ‘Mam, whatever it is, you will be wherever you are supposed to be – you always are.’
Kathleen pushed her son off. ‘Go you, and come back here and tell me good news about Captain Conor. Alice, we’ll be back in half an hour.’
Coming Home to the Four Streets Page 21