There was general relief in the family that Gerry had been admitted to hospital to receive expert care. Joe had suspected the drug taking since the golden wedding party and was surprised that John had been blind to it. ‘He just couldn’t believe it could happen to Gerry, I suppose,’ said Sarah.
Gerry’s youth and his previous good health meant that he recovered very quickly but his manager’s attempt to hold him to his contract failed. John had many useful contacts from his work with trade unions and the CND and threats of investigation made the agent speedily release Gerry from his contract. He was known as a good drummer and soon joined another group which played mostly local gigs with an occasional tour.
Great changes were taking place in Liverpool with much demolition. ‘This lot are doing more damage than what Hitler done,’ an old woman grumbled but it was the demolition in the Everton area that worried Anne.
‘I know Julie seems fine now but I’m sure all the dust can’t be good for her,’ she said to John and he agreed.
They discovered that Sarah and Joe had also thought of moving, because the neighbourhood seemed to be changing.
‘Might be the time to go while we can still get a good price for the houses,’ John said. Once the idea was mentioned, events moved very quickly.
They often spent days at the north end of the city at Crosby or Freshfield shore near the mouth of the Mersey. ‘Should be a healthy place to live, all those sea breezes,’ Joe said. ‘And there are plenty of houses similar to these. Big, solid old houses and there’s a good train and bus service.’
Both families owned their houses, thanks to Pat Fitzgerald, father of Anne and Joe, and within a short time they had found suitable property in Crosby in two adjoining roads.
Laura and Rosaleen both approved of the move when they found that there was easy access to city clubs and to Litherland Town Hall and Orrell Park Ballroom. Laura’s office building was within a few minutes’ walk of the train station and Rosa could easily reach the College of Art.
Julie had gained nine O levels and was staying on to do A levels. Joe, who taught at a city centre school, had offered to drive her in each day.
All seemed set fair and the sale of Sarah and Joe’s house went through without a hitch, but just before the contracts were exchanged the buyer of Anne and John’s house was forced to withdraw because of a break in the chain of house selling. Another buyer was quickly found but in that short time the house in Crosby had been sold. They found another house in the same road being sold by a widow but their surveyor found a small amount of dry rot in the window frames.
The vendor dropped her price and the dry rot was easily dealt with but the mortgage was refused until the work was complete. John’s temper grew steadily shorter. ‘We only need a small mortgage, for God’s sake,’ he raged. ‘When you think what we’ve put down it’s bloody ridiculous.’
Anne’s nerves were stretched too and the difficulty with the mortgage seemed the last straw. She burst into tears. ‘I’m sorry we ever started this,’ she wept. ‘I don’t want to leave this house. Dad was so pleased to buy it for us and we’ve been happy here.’
‘For God’s sake, Anne, talk sense,’ John exploded. ‘You were the one who wanted to move, for Julie’s sake. You caused all the upheaval for all the family, our Sarah as well, and now you want to change your mind. We’re going and that’s flat.’
Laura had rushed from the other room at the sound of his voice and she flung her arms protectively round her mother.
‘Don’t you talk to Mum like that,’ she yelled. ‘She can stay here if she wants to. I don’t want to go anyway.’
‘So that’s it,’ John shouted. ‘I might have known. All that about your dad but it’s to suit this one.’
Anne was looking at Laura in surprise. ‘I thought you wanted to go, love,’ she said and John’s temper reached boiling point at being ignored. He grabbed Laura’s arm and shook her.
‘You can clear off. Do as you like,’ he snarled, ‘but we’re going. I’m not being ruled by your moods.’
There was a rap on the kitchen door and a voice called, ‘Anybody home?’ The next moment Joe walked in and stopped amazed at the tableau before him, John panting with rage, his face red and congested, and Laura’s arms protectively about her weeping mother.
Joe’s smile vanished. ‘What’s going on?’ he demanded, crouching down beside Anne.
She turned from Laura to press her face into his shoulder. ‘Oh, Joe,’ was all she said.
‘I’ll tell you what’s going on,’ John said loudly. He swallowed deeply. ‘After all that’s gone on, your sister has decided now that she doesn’t want to move just because this madam doesn’t want to go.’
Anne raised her head. ‘No, John, no,’ she protested.
Laura glared at her father. ‘That’s a lie,’ she said fiercely. ‘Mum doesn’t want to go and you’re trying to force her.’
John took a threatening step towards her as Anne again tried to speak but Joe said authoritatively, ‘Calm down, calm down, everybody. There seems to be a misunderstanding here.’
Anne sat up straight and wiped her eyes. ‘It’s me, Joe,’ she said. ‘It just came over me – you know, Dad and all the happy memories. We left our troubles behind when we came here. I suddenly didn’t want to leave.’ Her tears flowed again.
‘I know, love,’ Joe said gently. ‘We’re sorry to leave our house too. The kids grew up there but it’s time to move on. You know that, don’t you, pet?’
Anne managed a watery smile. ‘I know, Joe. It was just all the hassle and I started thinking. I’m just daft.’
John and Laura were still glaring at each other but Joe ignored the tension and said conversationally, ‘I thought you were keen to go, Laura. Rosa is.’
Laura looked away from her father. ‘I was,’ she muttered. ‘But if Mum doesn’t…’
Anne hugged her and smiled at John. ‘I’m sorry. It was just a brainstorm,’ she said lightly. ‘I’ll make a cup of tea.’
Joe had brought some papers connected with the sale of the houses and the two men studied them but later Joe contrived to be alone with Laura. They walked round the garden in the gathering dusk.
‘I was surprised to hear you speaking to your dad like that, Lol,’ Joe said. ‘You should show him more respect, you know.’
‘You’ve got to earn respect,’ Laura muttered. ‘He’s a bully.’
‘No he’s not and you know it. He’s got a short temper but he’s had a lot to try him lately,’ said Joe. ‘Anyway, it sounded as though you were doing some bullying yourself when I walked in.’ He smiled and Laura’s sullen look faded.
‘I was just mad at the way he spoke to Mum,’ she said.
‘That’s between your mum and dad. They understand each other. But you should respect your dad because he’s your father and because he’s a good father to you. Do you respect my judgement?’
‘Of course, Uncle Joe,’ Laura said, slipping her hand through his arm.
‘Well, I respect your dad more than anyone I know. He’s got courage and integrity and a compassionate heart. He’s never been afraid to stand up for what he believes in even when it meant being on his own and he’s been proved right like his grandfather often was. They were a bit ahead of their time, that’s all,’ said Joe.
‘I know all that,’ Laura said impatiently. ‘It’s the way he is at home. The way he treats Mum and us.’
They were standing by a tobacco plant which glimmered in the dusk, breathing in its perfume, and Joe said, ‘Did you plant this?’
‘Yes, all this border,’ Laura said proudly. ‘All the back garden, really, and Mum does the front one.’
‘Your dad had a beautiful garden when they lived in Huyton when they were first married,’ Joe told her. ‘It was a council estate and nobody had much money but your dad started a gardening club so they could exchange plants and cuttings. It was generous of him to hand over to you when you showed an interest.’
Laura laughed and
squeezed his arm. ‘All right, Uncle Joe. I get the message.’
Joe smiled too. ‘I thought you would. You’re an intelligent girl but just on a short fuse like your dad.’
Laura was about to protest but thought better of it and they strolled back into the house.
‘What on earth were you doing out there in the dark?’ Anne asked. ‘Just sniffing the tobacco plants and talking about gardening,’ Joe said. ‘Time I was off, Anne. Hope everything goes smoothly from now on, John.’
‘I hope so. We’ve had our quota of setbacks,’ Anne said cheerfully. ‘Tell Sarah that Julie and I will be down early tomorrow.’
‘I’ll walk down with you,’ Laura said suddenly. ‘Is Rosa in?’
‘You must be joking,’ Joe said. ‘But Aunt Sarah’d like to see you. We don’t see much of you busy young ladies lately.’
They walked down companionably and Joe said suddenly, ‘Don’t worry so much about your mum, Lol. She’s always been a happy person and she’s still the same. I suppose we all spoiled her a bit because she was the baby but it did her no harm.’
‘But she has too many worries,’ Laura said. ‘And what you said about Dad. All these causes. It means Mum’s on her own while he goes on demonstrations and all that.’
‘She doesn’t usually let worries get her down. This business with the mortgage was just the last straw for both of them.’
‘I know she doesn’t often cry,’ Laura admitted.
‘When we were kids we had a toy, might even have been from when our mum was a child. Micky Dripping, we called it. It had a clown’s face and a round body, must’ve had lead in the base or something because if it was knocked down it just came upright again. We used to call Anne Mick Dripping because she always bounced back.’ He laughed heartily.
Sarah showed Laura large cardboard packing cases which had been filled and labelled dining room, kitchen, front bedroom, etc., in black felt-tip pen. ‘We’ll have unpacked these when you move so you can use them,’ she said. ‘Isn’t Uncle Joe organised? Marking them all like that. Typical schoolteacher.’
It was a phrase that Rosa often used about her father though less fondly than Sarah, Laura thought, and as though reading her mind Sarah said with a sigh, ‘I wish Rosa was still with your crowd, Laura. I don’t like this College of Art crowd. They’re too way-out.’
‘They’re just posers, most of them,’ Laura said. ‘No harm in them,’ but she thought uneasily of Ricky and his ‘herbal’ cigarettes.
She had much to think about when she strolled home later. She loved and respected her uncle and although some of his views were unpalatable to her she was too honest not to admit that he was right.
When she reached home her mother was in the scullery and her father was sitting at the table in the kitchen studying papers. She went to stand beside him.
‘I’m sorry I spoke like that, Dad,’ she said gruffly.
John looked up in surprise and after a moment’s hesitation he said, ‘I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean that about you going. We’re all a bit fraught, I think, with this move.’
‘Mum didn’t say that because of me,’ Laura murmured.
John nodded. ‘I realise that.’ He seemed about to say more but he restrained himself.
As Laura went to the scullery to her mother, she wondered whether her uncle had also talked to her father but knew that she would never find out if he had.
Julie was wildly excited about the move. Now that her O levels were over, she was free to help Sarah with the packing and the preparing of the new house. Sarah and Joe’s house in Crosby was vacated two weeks before they were due to leave their present house so they could lay carpets, hang curtains and do some decorating before they moved in. Julie went every day with Sarah and enthused about the house to Laura. ‘It’s beautiful. Really bright and sunny. All big windows and bags of space. I love the little park and it’s so near and so is the shore. I’m sure we’ll be happy there, Lol.’
‘Let’s hope you’re as enthusiastic about our house when we finally get in,’ Laura said dryly.
‘Of course I will be,’ Julie said. ‘It’s almost exactly the same only I can go all over Auntie Sarah’s house and see how good it is.’
Only weeks after Sarah and Joe moved, the Redmonds were able to follow them. The widow who was selling the house to them was going to share a flat with her sister and so was unable to take all her furniture. She offered curtains and carpets and the furniture to John for a sum which he felt was too small.
‘That’s not enough,’ he told her. ‘You’re doing yourself. Talk to your brother about it.’
‘I make my own decisions,’ the tiny lady told him. ‘I’ll be quite satisfied with that price.’
John was uneasy. ‘I feel I’d be taking advantage of her and she’s a widow,’ he told Joe.
‘Offer to pay her removal costs then or offer a higher figure,’ Joe suggested but the widow was adamant.
‘I appreciate your concern but my sister agrees with me that I’m asking a fair price,’ she said firmly and John had to content himself with sending a bouquet of flowers to greet her in her new home with her sister.
They were all happy in the house from the first day and they were still only a few minutes’ walk away from Sarah and Joe who were equally happy. An impromptu party took place on the first Saturday night after they moved in when some of Laura’s friends came to see the house and so did Julie’s friends.
David was home and he came down with some of his and Gerry’s friends although Gerry was in Newcastle. Anne supplied huge plates of sandwiches and the boys cider and wine. Laura’s crowd had intended to go on to a local club but they were enjoying themselves so much that they stayed.
At twelve o’clock there was no sign of the party breaking up and David came to where Anne and John were sitting in a small morning room. ‘Why don’t you go to bed?’ he suggested. ‘I’ll keep an eye on things.’
‘But David, we can’t do that,’ Anne exclaimed. ‘Julie should be in bed and what about her friends? Their parents will be worried to death.’
‘It’s all right. They’ve all rung home to ask if they can stay and their parents have agreed,’ he said calmly.
Anne looked helplessly at John but he only said, ‘Make sure they keep the music down then, David. We don’t want to offend the neighbours so soon.’
‘But how will they get home?’ Anne asked.
David said easily, ‘Don’t worry about that, Auntie Anne,’ and they found themselves being ushered upstairs.
Anne thought she would lie awake worrying but she and John were both asleep within minutes. The house was silent when they woke at eight o’clock but a peep into Laura’s room revealed three girls asleep on the bed. There were others asleep in Julie and Gerry’s rooms and downstairs boys lay on sofas and chairs or in sleeping bags on the floor.
‘Where did all this bedding and the sleeping bags come from?’ Anne whispered to John as they picked their way among the sleeping bodies.
‘Probably from our Sarah’s,’ John whispered. ‘Some of it’s ours but David must have slipped home.’ As though on cue, David came in the back door carrying two large loaves and a large parcel of bacon. ‘Hi,’ he said. ‘I’ll make you a cup of tea then cook this stuff.’
‘We’ll all have a cup of tea and then I’ll cook it,’ Anne said. ‘They’re all still asleep anyway.’
‘They’ll soon wake up when they smell the bacon,’ David prophesied and he was right. John had taken out a huge teapot and marshalled rows of mugs and teacups and David made toast while Anne cooked bacon.
The girls drifted downstairs and joined the boys in drinking tea and eating the seemingly endless flow of bacon sandwiches and they were all still sitting about when Anne and John went off to ten o’clock Mass.
When they arrived home their guests had gone and the house was transformed. Dishes had been washed and put away, the cooker cleaned, the rooms vacuumed and tidied and cushions plumped up.
The onl
y sign of the party was one broken glass neatly arranged on the draining board and a box of chocolates and a packet of small cigars on the coffee table.
Julie and Laura were waiting to make tea and toast for them and Anne looked at Julie’s pink cheeks and starry eyes and joked, ‘You can’t have had much sleep but it doesn’t seem to have done you any harm, Ju.’
‘Oh, Mum, it was the best night I’ve ever had in my whole life,’ Julie said ecstatically.
‘That’s because you tapped off,’ Laura teased her.
Anne and John said in unison, ‘Don’t be silly.’
Julie made no protest.
Although it was hard for her parents to believe, that night Julie had met the man with whom she would spend the rest of her life. Peter Cunliffe was a friend of David’s, six years older than Julie, but there had been an instant rapport between them.
For Anne and John the idea of their young daughter being considered old enough for courtship was only one of the bewildering events of that night.
‘I just can’t believe that we went meekly off to bed and left them partying all night,’ Anne said to Sarah.
‘I tell you what,’ John added, ‘your David’s a case. The way he organised us! He should go far.’
‘He should indeed,’ said Joe. ‘Do you know how he got the bread and bacon? Went on his motorbike to a cafe on the dock road and talked them into letting him buy bread and bacon from them. He might seem quiet but he’s got the cheek of a robber’s horse.’
Anne laughed. ‘I think we’ve started something anyway. I think that’s the first of many parties. I’ll have to make sure I’ve always got plenty of bread and bacon in.’
Chapter Twelve
Rosa was annoyed that she had missed the party when Laura told her about it. ‘An all-night do and I missed it,’ she said. ‘You might have told me about it, Laura.’
‘It was just an impromptu thing,’ Laura protested. ‘I went down for you but you’d already gone out. The crowd and Julie’s friends would have gone home early only your Dave and his crowd came and got things going. It really was fab though, Ros.’
Honour Thy Father Page 16