Coming Home to the Four Streets

by Nadine Dorries

  Eric smiled and, bending, kissed her gently on the lips. He had never known a kiss like it. Her lips were soft and yielding and tasted warm and sweet. He just stopped himself from emitting a moan of appreciation. His hands slipped inside her new coat and wrapped around her and Maggie swayed in his arms as their lips met again. Eric pulled away.

  ‘We had better step indoors,’ he said as he glanced down the entry and, as he lifted the latch, guided her into her own yard.

  At the sound of the gate closing, little Paddy opened his eyes which, revolted by what he had seen, had tightly closed the moment Eric bent to kiss Maggie.

  ‘Oh my giddy aunt,’ said Harry, in shock, ‘was that the milky kissing Mrs Trott?’

  ‘It was,’ said little Paddy. ‘Do you think we had better tell someone?’

  ‘I think we better had,’ said Harry. ‘It’s really changed around here and we haven’t even been gone that long.’

  *

  ‘Tommy Doherty, is it really you?’ the assembled crowd shouted almost at once. ‘Are ye back for good? Will you be coming down the steps?’

  One question after another hit Tommy like a volley of shots as, laughing, Jerry grabbed him and steered him through the crowd. ‘You couldn’t have picked a better night to come home for a visit,’ said Jerry, as he slapped Tommy on the back.

  ‘It’s no visit, Jer,’ said Tommy as he grinned up to the man who had been his closest friend since they were both new arrivals in Liverpool. ‘We’re home for good.’ Whilst Tommy bantered with the men and answered the questions, Jerry, being one of the tallest men on the four streets, scanned the pub in search of Captain Conor and located him standing close to the fire. He winked, indicating towards the back room and grabbed Tommy by the arm.

  ‘Come on, mate, Captain Conor is here, work to do, ’tis a proper welcome home we have for you.’

  *

  Maura walked in through Peggy’s back door and little Paddy’s face lit up. The worry of his mother missing and the excitement of his friend returning was all too much for him but he knew instinctively that whatever it was that was ailing his mother and making her cry so often, and wherever she was, could be cured by the joy of having her best friend back next door and that she would make it all better.

  ‘Mam, Mam, guess what we saw!’ said Harry.

  ‘The nasty woman won’t be moving into your house now will she, Auntie Maura?’ little Paddy asked her as she pulled the back door behind her.

  ‘No, they will not, Paddy.’ But she knew Tommy would need to get down to the docks the following morning and get taken on to secure their tenancy. ‘Oh, dear, Paddy,’ she said, ‘I think I’ve got back just in time, don’t you?’

  Harry stood next to her and pulled on her sleeve. ‘Mam, guess who we saw?’

  Maura, distracted, looked about Peggy’s kitchen and her heart sank. Peggy’s pride and joy, her mother’s clock, had gone from the mantelshelf and the side of the fire, where Maura knew Peggy lined up the shoes each night, as Maura had taught her, was bare. Little Paddy knew what she was looking at and felt a sense of shame.

  ‘She took the blankets as well,’ he said.

  Maura looked shocked. ‘The blankets? What have the boys got covering them upstairs?’

  ‘Da’s coat,’ said Paddy. ‘And I left their clothes on.’

  Maura looked around the bleak and empty kitchen. Her own next door, which hadn’t been lived in for months, was warmer and more homely. She looked down at little Paddy and her heart bled.

  *

  ‘It has to be unloaded tonight,’ said Conor. ‘The Morry’s in a bad way and the owner has said he’s going to come to the dock tomorrow to see her. I’m supposed to have ditched half of the load into the Indian Ocean, and we staggered home, didn’t we, Blinks? This one thought we were going to sink.’

  Blinks looked shamefaced. ‘Ah, I never doubted you, skipper; I knew we would reach Liverpool.’

  Jerry whistled. ‘We’ll have to work through the night if it has to be unloaded by tomorrow,’ he said.

  ‘We can get that organised,’ said Tommy, ‘we’ve done it before.’

  ‘Can you get it organised in half an hour?’ said Conor as he lifted his pint of Guinness to his lips.

  ‘Why half an hour?’

  Conor wiped the foam of his beard with the sleeve of his jumper. ‘The harbour master told me – he has no idea why or how – there’s only one policeman on tonight but he’s the one to watch, a guy called Frank the Skank.’

  Jerry whistled. ‘He’s the one to watch, all right.’ He turned to Tommy. ‘He’s supposed to be moving into your house.’

  Tommy shook his head. ‘Not unless the dock board have changed the rules. We have paid the rent every week we have been away, they can’t move us.’

  ‘So, if he’s down there, why are we moving it tonight?’ asked Jerry.

  ‘Ah, well, there’s a method in me madness; a crate of rum is making its way back to the harbour master’s house right now – and in return, he has set up a problem ship due to come in on the bore down on the Clarence and asked Heartfelt to send your man to intercept stolen goods. Blinks took a second crate down to the Clarence and the gaffer down there is going to keep Frank the Skank busy until the early hours, when he is going to be informed the ship has moored up out at the bar.’

  ‘What ship is it?’ asked Tommy and Conor grinned.

  ‘Tommy, it’s a ghost ship, it doesn’t exist. I set it up to give you time to get everything off and up the steps.’

  Tommy looked over at Jerry, who said, ‘Right, we need to get to work. Tommy, you and Seamus can get the word round that it’s all hands on deck, but this deck up at the top. I’ll ask Seamus to start knocking on with you and get the fellas out. If we can get a strong line going from the dock up the steps to the top, and then have some of the older lads on Nelson Street ready to act as runners to get it into your wash house, then in the morning the women can start to dish it out around the streets.’

  At that moment there was a timid knock on the door and they all turned to see big Paddy pop his head around the door.

  ‘Jerry, your mam is here; she says our Peggy is missing.’

  ‘Tell her I’m coming,’ said Jerry, ‘and you go home to your kids, Paddy.’

  Paddy did not look pleased. ‘Behave, Jerry, I can’t go now; Reg has just bought me a pint,’ and without waiting for a reply, he closed the door.

  ‘The useless lump of shite,’ said Tommy. ‘He’s gone backwards since I left.’

  ‘They all have; Mam says Peggy’s in a right mess,’ said Jerry. ‘I’ll go and see what Mam wants and Tommy, you go and tell Seamus to start knocking on – Eugene can help him. We’ll need at least fifteen strong men to form the chain up the steps and as many lads at the top. We’d better act fast.’

  Jerry placed his pint on the table and, as he turned, Conor looked embarrassed as he said, ‘Jerry, I don’t think Peggy is missing, I saw her not an hour since.’ Even with his tanned and weather-beaten skin, Jerry could see Conor was blushing. ‘She was, er, down on the docks, with the whores. I was going to ask her was she all right, like, but then I thought that if she saw me it might shame her and so I left it.’

  A look of utter disbelief crossed the faces of Tommy and Jerry. ‘No, Conor, you’ve got that wrong,’ said Tommy. ‘Peggy? Never.’

  ‘Well, she’s not the usual sort, I’ll give you that, but the thing about sailors is, they go that long without and, well, it’s any port in a storm so to speak…’

  *

  Maura began to check like Kathleen had before her, looking for a clue as to where Peggy could be. She found the money and the pawnbroker’s ticket in the bread bin and, taking it out, checked the date. It had been that very afternoon and she had been all the way down the Dock Road. Despite her tiredness, itching to roll up her sleeves and clean the kitchen, Maura slowly climbed the stairs towards the bedrooms.

  She turned into Peggy’s room and flicked on the light switch, but no li
ght bulbs were working. Something felt wrong, it smelt wrong. Her eyes adjusted to the light coming through the window from the street lamp outside. She knew the room well, had once stood at that window with a newly born little Paddy in her arms as she rocked him and watched as big Paddy and Tommy made their way down Nelson Street to the Anchor, to wet the baby’s head. Her eyes adjusted and she looked down to the floor and could make out a grey bundle where Peggy’s bloodstained clothes lay. As she bent to pick them up, a metallic smell filled the air and she reeled backwards.

  ‘Oh Peggy! What in God’s name is this?’

  All manner of things that could have gone wrong ran through her head. After all, the worst that possibly could happen to anyone had happened in Maura’s life. She heard a noise coming from the children’s room and, dropping the clothes and in a state of shock, crossed the landing and opened the door. There was no borrowed light in the back room and she stood in the doorway, her ears and eyes straining. Then she heard it again, a mewing, a weak cry. Her heart stopped.

  ‘Paddy,’ she shouted down the stairs, ‘where is your rat?’

  Paddy’s face appeared at the bottom framed in the stairwell in the only light in the house, from the kitchen. ‘He’s here, Auntie Maura,’ he said as he held him up.

  Maura heard the noise again. ‘Paddy, do you have more than one rat?’

  ‘No, Auntie Maura.’

  ‘Where’s Scamp?’

  For the first time little Paddy was stumped for an answer. ‘He was here, in the kitchen. He’s probably out looking for rats to kill. The only one he likes is Max.’

  The noise came again and Maura stepped into the room as the boys began to mount the stairs. It was coming from under the boys’ bed and they were all sleeping soundly on the top of the mattress, despite only having a coat to cover them. The sound came again; it was weak and thready, a wail, a cry for attention. Maura dropped to her knees and there, sticking out from the corner of the bed, was a drawer from the press in Peggy’s room. Maura knew that drawer and what it had been used for seven times before. She reached under the bed and pulled it out. She could just about make out the form of a baby.

  ‘Oh, Holy Mary Mother of God,’ said Maura as she scooped the child up into her arms, ‘by all the angels in heaven… Peggy, what have you done?’

  *

  Stella tottered down the gangplank of the Morry and almost fell over a number of times on her high heels as she made her way over to her friend, Betty, who appeared to be holding prisoner a woman who was looking very sorry for herself.

  ‘What do you want here then, love?’ she said as she drew closer.

  Betty folded her arms. ‘Our business, that’s what she’s after. Tell her, Stella, she can’t just come down here and take our jobs, can she?’

  Stella looked Peggy up and down and what she saw was a woman in extreme distress. She looked over at Betty. ‘If you had been born with a brain, Betty, you would be dangerous, you know that, don’t you?’

  Betty looked very put out as she struggled to work out what it was that Stella actually meant and Stella spoke to Peggy again. ‘Didn’t I see you before, love? With a pramload of stuff, heading towards the pawnshop? I saw you again coming out, didn’t I, the pram empty? You on hard times, are you?’

  Peggy nodded her head. Even in front of women who sold their honour for a living, she felt ashamed.

  ‘Oh bloody hell, we even have a dog down here now!’ exclaimed Betty as Scamp appeared, slowly edging his way towards Peggy, softly growling.

  ‘Is that your dog?’ asked Stella.

  Peggy nodded. For the second time in her life, she felt as though she were about to faint. Her nipples tingled sharply, her daughter was calling her… The water was so close, if only she could escape…

  ‘Can I just go? I don’t want your business,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to cause any bother.’

  ‘No, you cannot,’ said Betty.

  ‘Shut up, Betty!’ said Stella. ‘There’s no one on the Morry anyway, now. No business to be had. So you go on, love, you do whatever you were doing, walking your dog, or whatever it is you are down here for. We’ve all been there, but there’s no business to be had tonight. We’ve all known hard times, love – why do you think we do what we do?’

  ‘Ooer, Stella, speak for yourself! I’ve never looked as bad as that. And have you lost your marbles or what? Just letting her go like that? Jeez, it’s tough enough as it is. I’ve only had one turn and Fred won’t like it when I tell him.’

  Stella turned her full gaze on Betty. ‘Fred won’t know, Betty, because if he does, you will be the only person who could have told him – and you will regret that very much, do you understand? I’m still the queen bee around here and you had better remember that.’

  Betty’s face flushed and she looked very put out. Scamp sidled up to Peggy, his eyes never leaving the two women, his lips pulled back, his teeth exposed, a low, constant growl coming from his throat.

  Stella said in a lower voice, ‘There but for the grace of God, Betty.’

  Peggy took a step, but it was difficult; she was losing blood. She took another as Scamp brushed up against her leg and he whined and looked up at her, his ears down, his eyes asking her a million questions. A dozen more steps and she would be at the water’s edge. She heard the clippety-clop of two pairs of stilettos walk towards the next dock, and Stella’s voice carried to her on the air, cutting off Betty’s grumblings mid flow.

  ‘Leave her alone, Betty. She doesn’t have a pair of shoes to her name, God love her. That could be us one day.’

  Betty laughed. ‘No way! I’d rather die.’

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  The only sound was the creaking of the cranes down on the dock and the odd jangling of chains on the Morry. Seamus gave each man very clear instructions.

  ‘One man every five steps,’ he whispered as his obedient dockers descended the steps. They needed no light, for it was a journey they made most days of their lives. The air was tense – the customs men could have walked out of the bond warehouse at any time and caught them red-handed.

  Outside the pub, Jerry licked his lips, nervously, his mouth dry. ‘Conor should be on board by now,’ said Tommy.

  ‘Aye, it’s business as usual, Tommy. I can hardly believe my eyes you’re back. I feel like this is my lucky night. Where’s Maura? She’s the big organiser on the top, we’ve never done it without her before.’

  ‘She might have gone down the steps with Kathleen and Alice to look for Peggy, though I can’t believe Conor was right. I mean, who could confuse Peggy with a whore?’

  Jerry shook his head. ‘I don’t know, it’s an odd one. I’m sorry for Maura that your return home has been spoilt by a haul, Tommy. Would have been nice if it could have been before you got here. Your wash house won’t be Maura’s own for a day or two.’

  Tommy grinned. ‘Are you fecking kidding me or what? I’ve missed all this; it couldn’t be a better welcome home.’

  After what felt like an eternity, Seamus let out the awaited whistle from the bottom of the steps to let Jerry know that everyone was in place and they were about to start unloading. The decision not to tell Paddy that Conor had seen Peggy down on the dockside had been taken by Tommy.

  ‘Nah, let the women go and check it out. They will be down and back up in twenty minutes.’

  ‘They’d better carry a few crates of rum each with them on the way back up,’ said Jerry and they both began to laugh at the thought.

  ‘I don’t know what you’re laughing at Jerry,’ said Tommy.

  ‘I’m laughing at what your mam and Alice would do to you if they heard you.’

  *

  Deirdre was washing the cups in Kathleen’s sink, Shelagh was drying and they were less than happy.

  ‘I’d just like to know what’s going on,’ said Deirdre. ‘We all go off looking for her, Kathleen pops into the pub to speak to Paddy and we all get sent back.’

  Shelagh began to stack the cups and saucers.
‘Well, I suppose if that means they know where she is, so it doesn’t matter, does it, really?’

  Mary was in the parlour, looking through the front window with Annie O’Prey and Biddy, who had heard Deirdre and shouted back, ‘We’ve got a job to do, Deirdre, you won’t be missing out.’

  ‘Look, Mary, there’s our Callum going down the steps. He’s strong, he is, can carry as much as two men together, he can.’

  Mary saw Callum, lithe and quick, speak to Seamus, take his instructions and then disappear down the steps. She made no comment, but her heart stirred. Not in the way it had for Jimmy, but somewhere deeper and slower and she knew he was the one whose safe return she would be waiting for.

  Deirdre came and stood next to them. ‘Has your da gone down, Mary?’

  ‘He has, he’s near the top though.’

  ‘He’ll be helping to run it round the back then, to Maura’s wash house.’

  ‘We will have a busy day on tomorrow, so we will, doling that lot out,’ said Biddy as the back door crashed open. ‘Sshh,’ said Biddy, without knowing who it was she was talking to. ‘There’s a haul on and everyone has to be quiet.’

  Maura appeared not to have heard her; she was carrying a bundle in her arms and the bundle was wailing. ‘Shelagh, are you still feeding?’

  Shelagh stood stock-still. ‘I am. But whose baby is that, Maura? I was the last to have a baby on the streets.’

  ‘No you weren’t, Shelagh, Peggy was. I just found this baby girl under the bed and I think poor Peggy has lost her mind.’

  The women crowded around. ‘God love her,’ Shelagh said, ‘is this all there is on her?’ She turned to Mary and Nellie. ‘Girls, would you go to my house and bring me some nappies off the airer? There’s a jam jar with pins in it on the mantelpiece and a jar of zinc and castor oil there too. There’s a couple of winceyette nighties and vests on the airer. Oh, God love her! Sshh, sshh; there, don’t you be crying, baby, we’ve got you now. And if you knock on at Mrs Keating, ask her does she have any spare matinee coats and booties. Sure, she will give you a few, for she never stops knitting.’