A Mother's Spirit

by Anne Bennett

  The ashen-faced people began to shriek and scream, and then the massed crying of wretched people settled to a loud hum of profound distress that filled the room and rebounded off the walls. There was pandemonium on the Exchange floor, and Brian saw some men grab frantically at their collars before collapsing beneath people’s feet. Brian didn’t blame them; it was only the people pressed all around him that were keeping him upright, for he knew he too was ruined. His major investments were in radio and steel, and when the value of them dropped so low they were worthless he knew his life was effectively over.

  Stumbling through the door and into the street, he began to lurch from one side of the sidewalk to the other as if he was in the throes of drink when really he was trying to come to terms with the anguish and wretchedness that he was going to inflict on those he loved best in all the world. He walked for miles and for hours, trying to ignore the sharp pains shooting across his chest, but when eventually the cold and darkness caused him to head for home he knew what he was going to do.

  There had been a little concern when there had been no sign of Brian when the house was astir that morning. When he hadn’t made an appearance or contacted anyone, either at the factory or the house, Joe had come home early, intending to take the car out and look for him.

  He was in the bedroom, changing from his suit when he heard the loud hammering on the front door.

  ‘Thank goodness, that must be Daddy now,’ said Gloria, who had followed Joe upstairs. And then, just a few minutes later, they heard Norah’s cry of distress.

  The knocking on the door had been so loud and insistent it had brought Norah from the drawing room, and so she was in the hall as Planchard crossed it and opened the door to see his master holding the evening paper in his hand, leaning heavily against the doorjamb. He looked as if he had had a skinful, although there was no smell of drink upon him at all.

  ‘Are you all right, sir?’ Planchard said, going forward to support him.

  Norah gave a little gasp of shock, seeing Brian brought into the light, leaning heavily against the butler. His face was grey, even his lips had no colour, and his rheumy eyes were red and bloodshot with huge fleshy bags beneath them.

  ‘Oh, Brian, my darling,’ she cried. ‘What in God’s name has happened to you?’

  She went forward, her arms outstretched, but before she reached him he said sharply, ‘Leave me be.’ Norah stopped, unsure what to do as Brian said to Planchard, ‘You leave me be, too.’ He pulled himself away from his butler’s arm, stood for a moment as if to regain his balance, and staggered off towards the study. Planchard and Norah looked at each other, worry etched on both their faces as Joe and Gloria came running down the stairs.

  ‘What is it, Mother?’ Gloria cried. ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘It’s your father, dear,’ Norah said. ‘There is something the matter with him. He is ill. I have never seen him like that.’

  Joe looked across at Planchard, who said, ‘The mistress is right, sir. There is certainly something very amiss.’

  ‘Where is he now?’

  ‘He went towards the study,’ Norah said.

  Joe was his making his way there when he heard the shot and it galvanised him into action. Norah gave a shriek and Planchard, who had been returning to the kitchen, was side by side with Joe as they reached the study door with Norah and Gloria behind them.

  It was locked and bolted, as Joe had expected, and he rattled it and shouted, but there was silence.

  ‘We will have to break it down, sir,’ Planchard said, and Joe nodded.

  The panel split the second time they hit it, and then Joe was able to get his hand in and open the door from the inside. They were too late, Joe saw that at a glance, and he felt his heart contract as he saw Brian at the desk, his head fallen forward in a pool of blood. There was a neat bullet hole in his skull and the gun that fired it had fallen from his hand on to the blood-splattered paper that read

  I’m sorry.

  Love you all.

  Brian

  It was so absolutely horrendous it was almost unbelievable. Joe steeled himself to put his fingers to the pulse on Brian’s neck, knowing it was useless, and then Gloria burst away from Planchard, who was trying to prevent her and her mother going too close. But they had seen enough. Gloria let out an almost primeval howl and sank to her knees, and Norah fell unconscious to the floor.

  Joe felt numb with shock, but his first duty was to his wife and then his mother-in-law. He lifted Gloria into his arms and held her shivering form as he said to Planchard, ‘Can you manage to get your mistress upstairs?’

  ‘I’ll see to her, sir,’ Planchard said. ‘And shall I phone the police after I have phoned the doctor?’

  ‘Police?’ Joe repeated. ‘I hadn’t thought of the police but I suppose they need to be informed, so if you would … And anyone else you think we might need to call. I can’t seem to be able to think straight at the moment.’

  Planchard looked at Joe’s drawn, ashen face. ‘Don’t worry, sir. Leave that side of things to me.’

  The servants, many in tears, were clustered in horrified confusion in the hall, unsure what to do. When Mary stepped forward to help Joe with Gloria he waved her away. ‘I will manage her,’ he said. ‘But your mistress might need your attention.’

  Gloria leaned against Joe as he carried her up the stairs. Laying her gently on the bed, he said, ‘Planchard is calling the doctor, darling. I’m sure he will be able to give you something to ease you.’

  ‘What good will the doctor do me, Joe?’ Gloria asked sadly. ‘He cannot bring Daddy back.’

  Joe sat down on the bed and tenderly stroked Gloria’s hair away from her forehead. ‘I really do understand how distraught and devastated you are feeling at the moment.’

  ‘I will never see him again,’ Gloria said, covering her face with her hands. ‘I’m not sure I can bear it.’

  Joe put his arms tight around her and murmured into her hair, ‘You will, my dearest, darling girl. It will take time, but I will be by your side always, helping you in any way I can.’

  ‘Oh, Joe!’ Gloria cried, and the tears came then, not the quiet, controlled weeping she had already done, but like an outpouring of her very soul. The sound of Gloria’s sobs rasping in her throat cut Joe to the quick, and he held her shuddering body in his arms.

  He remembered the doctor expressing surprise and concern that his mother hadn’t cried when his father had dropped dead of a heart attack. Whether tears would have helped a woman like his mother he wasn’t sure, but in Gloria he saw them as a good sign, and so he didn’t urge her to stop crying, but just held her trembling body close, rocking her slightly and feeling her tears dampen his jacket.

  Eventually, when she was calmer, he laid her head down on the pillow. Her face, he noticed, was as white as lint and her eyes looked larger than ever and puffed up from the tears.

  ‘Why did he do it, Joe?’ she asked. When Joe shook his head helplessly she added, ‘It’s something to do with those blessed shares, isn’t it?’

  ‘Quite possibly,’ Joe said. ‘But we might know more later. Planchard is informing the police, but you needn’t concern yourself with any of that. To sleep would be the best thing for you.’

  Gloria said nothing. She knew that the only way sleep would help her was if she were to wake up afterwards and find the whole thing had been some horrible nightmare.

  ‘I must find out what is happening,’ Joe said. ‘I will send Tilly to sit with you.’

  Downstairs he found Planchard waiting for him with the evening paper in his hand. ‘The master was holding this when he came in,’ he said, handing it to Joe. ‘Look at the Stop Press, sir.’

  There in the hall, Joe learned what had caused his fatherin-law to take his own life. He read of the Wall Street Crash, which had begun on a day the paper called Black Tuesday. Many people faced ruination because of it, and some men, seeing this, found their hearts couldn’t take it and they had died there on the Exchange floor.


  ‘If it is as bad as that, maybe in the end Brian’s heart might have given out too,’ Joe said. ‘That would have been tragedy enough, but doing it this way – that’s so … well almost unbelievable. He is the very last man that I could imagine doing such a thing.’

  * * *

  The doctor, who had known the Brannigan family for years, was terribly shocked and upset by the news that Brian had felt driven to kill himself after the news he had heard about his shares. He went into the study first, looked down on the body of the fine man he had known Brian to be, and felt the pity of it all wash over him.

  Brian had no need of his services now and he followed Joe up the stairs to see how the man’s wife and daughter were coping.

  ‘I am worried about the mental state of both your wife and your mother-in-law,’ he told Joe, after examining them both. ‘I have given them each a strong sedative for now. At least they will sleep tonight and I will be back in the morning.’

  ‘The police are on their way,’ Joe said.

  ‘Well, I would say neither woman could help them in what is so obviously a terrible and tragic accident,’ the doctor said. ‘It could be very detrimental for them to be disturbed tonight.’

  ‘I’ll see they are not,’ Joe said firmly. ‘And I will make that clear to the police.’

  In the end, he didn’t have to because the police saw straight away that Brian’s death was a suicide and they praised Joe for having the foresight to leave everything as it was until they arrived. Once the police left, Planchard phoned the undertakers to take the body away.

  ‘Would you like me to phone Bert too, sir?’ he asked. ‘I don’t think news like this can wait until the morning.’

  ‘No, you’re right,’ Joe said, ‘and he was worried enough when I told him that Brian had gone out this morning without a word to anyone. He was all for me leaving a little earlier so that I could look for him before true darkness really descended.’

  Over the next few days, there was so much to do that Joe didn’t know whether he was coming or going. Everyone now knew what had happened, and not just in the Brannigan household either, for it was widely reported in the newspapers. An estimated thirty billion dollars had been lost in the Crash, and Joe felt as helpless as though he were on the edge of a precipice and about to fall into the dark void beyond.

  Everything Joe had to do seemed to take so long and there were only so many hours in the day. He had thought arranging the funeral would at least be straightforward. However, when he went up to the presbytery to make arrangements with the priest, he told Joe that Brian should not be buried in consecrated ground because he had taken his own life.

  Joe glared at him for a moment before saying, ‘And exactly who would that punish?’

  ‘It’s the law of the Christian Church, Joe.’

  ‘You can’t put the word Christian to a law like that, which serves only to shame and stigmatise the people left behind,’ Joe snapped. ‘They are already coping with the fact that their loved one is dead, and by his own hand. Have you the least idea what that feels like?’

  ‘But, Joe—’

  ‘There isn’t a but here, Father,’ Joe said. ‘Brian has donated enough money to this church over the years and, added to that, his plot where his father is buried, and where Norah will lie eventually, is bought and paid for.’

  ‘Money and even ownership of a plot doesn’t come into this, Joe. It’s a question of doing what is right.’

  ‘You will be doing something badly wrong if you refuse to bury Brian’s body in the churchyard,’ Joe said. ‘The doctor said the balance of Norah’s mind is precarious.’

  The priest shook his head. ‘Obviously I feel immensely sorry for Norah, for all of you.’

  ‘Oh, good,’ Joe said sarcastically. ‘That will make all the difference. Look, Father, when Brian came home from the Exchange he was in a bad way. Planchard said that he thought Brian wasn’t totally sane at that point, which was just a couple of minutes before he turned the gun on himself. If he wasn’t in his right mind surely he can’t be blamed for his actions?’

  ‘Not if he wasn’t sane.’

  ‘Well, you know the manner of man he was,’ Joe said. ‘Could you see him ever even thinking about killing himself?’

  ‘No, Joe, I couldn’t.’

  ‘Well then, Father?’

  ‘All right, Joe, you argue well,’ the priest said at last. ‘Brian can have his Christian burial.’

  Joe had been expecting the call from the solicitor, though he thought they might get the funeral over first, but it was the day before it that he was called to the office urgently. He was deeply shocked by what the solicitor had to tell him for he hadn’t dreamed that things could be so bad. He knew he had to deliver two new hammer blows to his beloved wife and his mother-in-law, and he didn’t know how in God’s name they were going to cope with them.

  He decided to say nothing until the funeral was over, but that meant carrying the news alone, and he found it to be a heavy burden. He felt totally isolated, and bad that he hadn’t even had proper time to mourn the man that he owed so much to and thought so much of, for both Gloria and her mother looked to him for support. He couldn’t ever remember feeling so sad or so lost, not even when his own father died.

  SIX

  The church was packed out for the funeral, for Brian had been a popular man, but Joe was worried about his mother-in-law, who looked gaunt and frail. He knew, though, however gruelling she found the occasion, she would carry it through to the bitter end for she was that type of person. And so would Gloria, for she had her mother’s backbone. He had such admiration for both of them as he helped them into the funeral car that led the cavalcade of motor vehicles back to the house for refreshments.

  He knew the two women might collapse when the mourners left. When the last one went home and Norah announced she was going to bed, Joe wasn’t surprised.

  ‘Aren’t you ready for bed yourself, my dear?’ he asked Gloria.

  ‘Not yet,’ Gloria said. ‘I will go up in a little while,’ but she barely waited until her mother had left the room before she asked, ‘What is it, Joe?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You are holding something to yourself that I fear probably affects us all. Your eyes are quite haunted by something and you have been like this since you came back from the solicitor’s yesterday.’

  Joe shook his head. ‘You don’t want to hear this today.’

  ‘D’you know, Joe, I have the feeling that I won’t want to hear it any day,’ Gloria said, ‘but the burden isn’t one that you should carry on your own.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Joe said. ‘It’s bad.’

  ‘Then tell me and let me share it,’ Gloria urged.

  Then Joe told her, and watched her eyes widen, her mouth tighten and heard her gasp with shock. Her voice was little above a whisper as she gasped, ‘You mean we have lost everything? The factory? Even the house? Everything?’

  ‘It certainly looks that way,’ Joe said. ‘I don’t know yet how much your father actually owed.’

  ‘He knew this,’ Gloria said. ‘When Daddy took his own life, he knew this.’

  ‘Your father wasn’t himself then.’

  ‘He couldn’t face it,’ Gloria said. ‘That was all. He took the easy way out and, whatever you say, Joe, he knew what he was doing all right when he put the house and the business at risk. He has left us destitute.’ She looked at him in desperation. ‘Joe, what are we going to do?’

  Joe put his arms around her and said, ‘Survive, my beautiful, darling girl. We won’t be the only people that this has happened to. I will find us a place to live and take a job. While I have a pair of hands on me, I will not let us starve, never fear.’

  Joe was to find that, as Brian’s partner, he was responsible for all his debts, which were considerable. In that first week after his funeral, he seemed to discover one shocking fact after the other.

  As the shares had begun to fall Brian had borrowed
more and more money, probably hoping to make a killing when they rose again, and he’d used both the factory and then the house as collateral. Quite apart from this, he owed money to many traders in the town. Then the club contacted Joe about the quite excessive gambling debts from Brian’s card games. When he thought he had learned everything, he discovered to his horror that the last two batches of stock had not even been paid for. He had been unaware of this because although he did the accounts, it was left to Brian to pay the bills, and he had neglected to do this. All these creditors would have a claim on the estate.

  There was money in the bank to pay the workers for just one more week. Joe went to talk over the future with Bert.

  ‘There is no point going on making the components anyway,’ Bert said. ‘The industries that we were supplying have gone to the wall themselves. The factory and all in it are worthless. Pay the men off, sir, tell them to go home, and hope to God most of them find jobs elsewhere before too long.’

  ‘What about you?’

  ‘Well, I was coming up for retirement anyway,’ Bert said. ‘I have had good wages for years and invested much of it. In the old days I did make money from shares and although I lost money recently, I had cashed in most of my shares in September when they eventually rose again after the dip at the beginning of the month, so I am all right. Don’t you worry about me.’

  Most of the workforce knew what was coming too, Joe realised when he spoke to them, and though they were worried, they didn’t blame him. They knew whose fault it was.

  That didn’t help Joe much. He locked and barred the factory doors for the last time, shook Bert warmly by the hand and returned home an unhappy man.

  ‘Don’t feel too sorry for them,’ Gloria said when he told her how bad he felt about making his workforce redundant. ‘We’ll be in the same boat soon, and you might be competing with them for the few jobs there are about, for places are closing down every day.’