Across the Barricades

by Joan Lingard

  ‘There’s a real change come over your Kevin,’ said Mrs Kelly to Mrs McCoy when she called to see her. ‘He used to be a right cheery boy, always ready for a bit of a crack.’

  Mrs McCoy lifted another shirt from the wash basket and carried on ironing. She was hot, even though the back door stood wide open to let in the air, or what air there was in the small spaces between the houses. She thought of the green fields of County Tyrone and thought she must try to take the baby there for a week or two after he was born so that his lungs could fill with fresh country air.

  ‘Kevin got a right bearing up, you know.’

  ‘There’s some that say he was asking for it,’

  Mrs McCoy lifted her head and looked Mrs Kelly straight in the eye. ‘And what are you meaning by that?’

  Mrs Kelly shrugged, looked away. ‘Well… you know.’

  ‘Because he went out a couple of times with a Protestant girl? It might have been silly of him but it’s not a crime,’ said Mrs McCoy. ‘Not even our church says it’s a crime.’

  ‘Oh, I wasn’t saying it’s a crime,’ said Mrs Kelly hastily. ‘It’s just that with all the trouble round here and all that…’

  Mrs McCoy folded the shirt neatly, laid it aside, reached for another. She straightened her back, putting her hand to her hip.

  ‘Are you all right?’ asked Mrs Kelly.

  ‘Yes. Just a bit tired.’

  ‘Come on, let me do some of that for you.’

  Mrs McCoy protested, she did not like to sit idle anyway, but Mrs Kelly insisted. She was a good-hearted woman, thought Mrs McCoy, as she sat back in the armchair to take a rest. She would always come if you needed her. She had only three children and Kate was the youngest so she had more time to spare than most of the other women.

  Mrs Kelly slapped the iron up and down the ironing board. The clothes might not be as smoothly pressed this time but no matter. Mrs McCoy suddenly realized how tired she was. And she had a pain in her back.

  ‘He’s not going out with her now then, I take it?’ asked Mrs Kelly.

  ‘Not as far as I know. But I don’t ask him where he’s going every time he goes out He’s too old for that.’

  ‘Oh, of course. But I was just wondering. He doesn’t see much of Kate now. They used to be that close at one time.’

  ‘I wouldn’t think of asking him about Kate, Mrs Kelly. And I’m sure you’d agree that you and I shouldn’t talk about them either.’ Mrs McCoy stood up and rubbed her back. ‘Do you know, I think I’m going to have to ask you to phone for the ambulance and take me to the hospital?’

  The other woman dropped the iron.

  ‘Don’t get flustered now,’ said Mrs McCoy. ‘This is my ninth after all so I know what I’m doing but I’d just like to have it in the hospital. I have my bed booked after all.’ To have the baby at home would mean missing those few lovely days of peace and rest with the order of the hospital around her and the friendly attention of the bustling, cheerful nurses.

  ‘Where the devil’s Kevin?’ said Mrs Kelly.

  ‘He went out early on. He might not be back for hours.’

  ‘Sure he could have run to the phone while I stayed with you.’

  ‘But he isn’t here,’ said his mother. ‘After all, he wasn’t to know I’d be needing him.’

  Kevin was walking in the park with Sadie and Moi-ra’s two older children. He had taken to coming over to the neighbourhood most days. He would arrive about mid-morning at Mr Blake’s in time to have a cup of coffee with them and then he would wash Mr Blake’s car or potter round the garden. He was so unused to gardens that the very feel of soil and grass felt strange to his fingers. When he lay on the ground up on Cave Hill he did not actually put his fingers into the earth.

  In the afternoons he went with Sadie to collect the children. He felt safe with Sadie in the district: they could walk without looking over their shoulders. No one knew them. In his own street he felt that eyes followed him as he walked. At every corner he braced himself, half expecting to be jumped on. When he came to meet Sadie in the evenings he left his own neighbourhood by devious routes, feeling partly annoyed that he should have to be bothered by such tricks, partly enjoying the exercise of outwitting possible shadowers. There was a bit of him that enjoyed excitement, even danger. Sadie understood it, shared it. It added spice to their meetings, made them laugh together.

  When he was coming home at tea-time that day he met Kate. She hailed him as he was coming off the bus. He stood and waited for her reluctantly.

  ‘Your mother’s had her baby,’ said Kate. ‘A wee girl. They were looking all over for you this afternoon and they couldn’t find you anywhere. They had to get Brede from the nursery to look after the wee ones.’

  ‘I must be getting home then,’

  ‘Hey, wait for us,’ said Kate. ‘It’s a bit late to be running now. What do you do with yourself all day?’

  ‘Nothing much.’

  ‘You must do something.’

  He shrugged. He slowed his step to let Kate walk beside him. She would run if he did not. She could hang on like a dog with its teeth on a bone.

  ‘You don’t seem to have much time for your old friends now.’

  ‘Some of them are no longer my friends.’ Kevin touched his bandage. ‘I don’t like getting kicked in the head.’

  ‘It wouldn’t be friends that did that.’

  ‘Kate, I know who did it.’

  ‘You’re thinking of Brian Rafferty, aren’t you? He says you’ve been going round slandering him. He’s not pleased.’

  ‘I don’t care if he’s pleased. You keep out of it, Kate.’

  They reached the scrapyard. She put her hand on his arm. ‘Just a minute, Kevin. I want a word with you.’

  ‘All right.’ He sighed inside himself.

  ‘Is it all over with us?’ Her blue eyes were round and tearful, framed by the false eyelashes that he had often called road sweepers.

  ‘But Kate…’ He bit his lip. ‘Well, it’s not as if we were going steady or anything.’

  ‘I thought we were going steady,’ she cried.

  ‘But I didn’t,’ he said bluntly.

  ‘You’re cruel and horrible, Kevin McCoy, and I hate you!’

  ‘Now look, Kate–’

  She was gone, running towards her house, crying no doubt, ready to fall into the arms of her mother. It was as well that she had gone for he had not known what else to say to her. What could he say? He hated it when girls cried. He was uncomfortable, did not know what to do. He had never seen Sadie cry. Brede wept sometimes, very quietly, deep down in her bed.

  He continued up the road to his house. Brede was there cooking the meal, keeping the children in order. She had been given a week’s leave from the nursery to look after the family.

  ‘Where have you been?’ she asked, pushing a lock of hair back from her hot forehead with the back of her hand.

  ‘Don’t you start!’ he answered irritably.

  ‘Why, who else has been at you?’

  ‘I met Kate Kelly on the way up.’

  Brede sighed. ‘Have you been upsetting her?’

  ‘Can I help it?’ he demanded.

  ‘No. But it might not do you any good.’

  ‘If you’re suggesting I keep in with her because of my job you should know better than that! Kelly employs me because I work hard, not because his daughter’s after me.’ He sat down at the table and straightened his leg. It still ached if he walked too much.

  Brede hesitated. ‘She can cause trouble, Kate, if she wants to.’

  ‘Let her. I’ll not be blackmailed.’

  ‘I’ve seen her around with Brian Rafferty quite a bit.’

  ‘Maybe they’d suit one another.’

  ‘You sound sour tonight.’

  ‘I’d just like to be left alone for a while.’

  Brede turned down the gas under the pot on the stove and began setting the table. ‘Were you out seeing Sadie?’ Kevin did not answer. ‘Be careful, Kevi
n, won’t you? It’s all right, you know you can trust me.’

  ‘Yes, I know that. You’re about the only one I can. Apart from Sadie.’ And Mr Blake and Moira Henderson. They were to be trusted too.

  Brede raised her eyes to his. ‘So you are seeing her? Well, I suppose I knew it. You’re keen on her, Kevin, aren’t you?’

  ‘Would I see her if I weren’t?’

  Their father came in. He was in a jovial mood. He had been in the pub ‘wetting the baby’s head’. It was a tradition to celebrate the birth of a new child by buying your friends a few drinks. By tomorrow he would be grumbling about having another mouth to feed but this evening he was feeling happy and patting his children on the head and telling them what a fine bunch of kids they were.

  After tea he went off to the hospital with Brede to see his new child. Kevin stayed at home with the rest of the family. He had not arranged to meet Sadie that evening. Her aunt and uncle were coming on a visit and she said her mother was getting so annoyed with her that she thought she had better stay at home for once.

  ‘Dead boring it’ll be.’ Sadie had said, and Kevin grinned at the picture of Sadie sitting in the front parlour trying to make polite conversation with her aunt.

  ‘So you’re working for a man, Sadie?’ said her Aunt May.’Well, well!’

  ‘He’s old,’ said Mrs Jackson sharply. ‘And he used to teach Sadie at the school. Have another sandwich, May.’

  ‘Don’t mind if I do. Though I should be watching my figure. Bert says I’m getting as fat as a pig.’

  Her husband had gone to the pub with Mr Jackson. Sadie sat with her mother and aunt shifting around on the scratchy plush armchair. She hated the furniture in the front room.

  ‘Can you not sit still for a minute, Sadie?’ said her mother.

  ‘She never could sit still, could she, Aggie, from the minute she was born?’ Aunt May bit deep into a sandwich. ‘Are you liking your job then, Sadie?’

  ‘It’s great.’

  ‘It’s only temporary, of course, May,’ said Mrs Jackson. ‘She’s just doing it while she looks out for something better.’

  ‘But I like what I’m doing,’ said Sadie, sitting up straight.

  ‘But you could be making bigger wages doing something else. You don’t think you can go on bringing that amount of money in every week, do you? I don’t think you’ve any idea what it costs to feed you, my girl.’ Mrs Jackson folded her arms. ‘Oh, no, you can’t keep on with those two bits of jobs. And there’s no use starting to tell me you’ll leave home or any of that nonsense for you know fine well you couldn’t live in digs on that kind of money.’

  Sadie got up. ‘I’m going out,’ she said.

  She shut the sitting door behind her and stood in the narrow hall with rage searing inside her. There was a time when she would have been tempted to kick the door and shout. Now she took a few deep breaths and said some words inside herself.

  ‘You have your hands full there, Aggie,’ she heard Aunt May saying.

  The job thing is only the least of it,’ said her mother. ‘Wait till you hear the rest!’

  Sadie did not wait; she left the house. She walked up the street. Mrs Mullet was at the door, in usual posture, arms folded, one hip leaning against the door jambs, her feet enveloped in fur slippers. Sadie did not look over at her.

  She went along the main road to the café where she had taken Brede. She had seen little of her friends in the last few weeks. The café was quiet. Two boys sat in one corner; Linda sat with Steve in another. Sadie went to the counter for a cup of coffee.

  ‘Haven’t seen you for ages,’ said the man as he set the cup on the counter. Thought you’d deserted me.’

  ‘I’ve been busy.’

  Sadie carried her coffee to a table. Linda and Steve got up and came across to her.

  ‘Mind if we join you?’ asked Linda.

  Sadie shrugged.

  They sat down.

  ‘Not out with your Mick boyfriend the night?’ said Linda, taking a strand of hair and twirling it round one finger.

  Sadie eyed her warily. She was glad that Tommy had at last seen the light and given her up but she knew that Linda blamed her for it, and not Tommy.

  ‘You needn’t pretend you don’t know who we’re talking about,’ said Linda.

  ‘I’ve nothing to talk to you about, Linda Mullet.’ Sadie pushed back her chair.

  ‘Not so fast,’ said Steve, putting out his arm to block her path. ‘There’s some of us round here don’t like the company you keep.’

  ‘You can lump it then.’ snapped Sadie.

  ‘I don’t think that’s a very nice attitude to take,’ said Steve, with an unpleasant smile.

  ‘And I don’t like anyone telling me what to do. Excuse me.’

  Steve did not move his arm. He continued to stare at her, daring her to push him. The proprietor lifted the lid of his counter and crossed to their table.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ He looked at Steve. ‘Don’t you try to be rough with anyone in my café, boy!’ He was a big, powerfully-built man; at one time he had been an amateur all-in-wrestler.

  Steve shrugged one shoulder but withdrew his hand. He stood up, knocking over his chair. ‘Come on, Linda, let’s blow. This joint’s just a dump.’

  ‘Come back and pick up the chair.’ The man’s voice was quiet.

  Steve ambled on towards the door. Linda stood hesitantly, terrified either to go or to stay.

  ‘Come back!’ The proprietor caught Steve by the shoulder. Steve stopped, facing out to the street. ‘Now pick up that chair. You knocked it over. I like some manners round here.’

  Steve picked up the chair. His face was scarlet. As he turned to leave the café he gave Sadie a backward, murderous look. Linda followed him.

  ‘Lout!’ said the proprietor. ‘You all right, Sadie?’

  ‘Fine, fine,’ she assured him. She could easily have got away from Steve herself. Now he had something else chalked up against her.

  The proprietor accompanied her out on to the pavement to make sure that Steve and Linda were not about.

  The evening stretched emptily ahead. She wished she had arranged to meet Kevin. She wondered what he would be doing. The thought of the house with Aunt May twittering away made her shudder. She wandered around the streets. She always walked when she was restless. She came eventually to the edge of their quarter and stood looking at the barbed-wire barricades. Beyond them was Kevin. She longed to see him. But he was unreachable.

  ‘I’m glad Ma’s well,’ said Kevin.

  ‘Oh, she’s doing rightly,’ said his father.

  ‘And so is the baby,’ said Brede with a smile. ‘Just a wee wisp of a thing. You forget how little they are when they’re newly born.’

  They sat round the kitchen table drinking tea and eating soda bread that Brede had baked earlier. The younger children were all in bed and the house was quiet.

  Mr McCoy yawned and stretched. ‘I’m thinking we could be doing with an early night. After all the excitement.’

  The front door opened and they heard Uncle Albert’s voice.’Are you in?’

  ‘Come in Albert,’ shouted back Mr McCoy.

  Uncle Albert poked his head round the kitchen door. ‘The army’s having a search,’ he announced.

  They all got up at once.

  ‘In this street?’ asked Mr McCoy.

  ‘The very one,’ said Uncle Albert.

  They went to the front door. Most of their neighbours were gathered at their doors already.

  ‘I’m blowed if they’re going to poke inside my house,’ said Mr McCoy. He pulled his door shut behind him and stood feet astride on the pavement.

  ‘You can hardly stop them,’ said Brede quietly. ‘And we’ve nothing to hide.’

  They saw two armoured cars and several figures in khaki at the end of the street.

  ‘I heard tell they’d had a tip off,’ said Uncle Albert. He shook his head. ‘There’s informers everywhere.’

&nbs
p; ‘So they must be expecting to find something,’ said Brede.

  ‘They’ll not find anything,’ said Mr McCoy. ‘They just take it into their heads to have a search if they’ve nothing else to do of an evening.’

  Kevin said nothing. He left them and sauntered slowly down the street. The first three houses had been searched. The soldiers had come out empty-handed. Some women were shouting at them, a few teenage girls ran alongside calling out obscene names. The soldiers strode on as if they were deaf.

  Another house: another blank. There was one more house before they would reach Rafferty’s. Kevin scanned the crowds in the street. No sign of Brian or his father, though Mrs Rafferty stood at her door, fire in her eyes, ready to lash out with her tongue at the searchers when they arrived.

  The soldiers came out of the adjoining house. Kevin saw Brian then; he was turning the corner to come in to the street. Kevin looked back over at the Rafferty’s house. Their turn had come.

  15

  Mrs Rafferty, after her initial tirade, stood to one side and allowed the soldiers to enter.

  ‘If you want to waste your time that’s up to you,’ she shouted after them. ‘Eejits!’

  Brian came and stood beside Kevin, with his thumbs tucked into his belt. His jaw moved slackly from side to side, over a wad of chewing gum. He made no move to cross the street to join his mother. Kevin glanced sideways at him.

  ‘Aren’t you worried?’

  ‘What have I to be worried about?’

  ‘You should know.’

  Brian laughed softly.

  The searchers were spending longer in the Raffertys’ house than in any other that they had been in. It looked to Kevin as if they had been tipped off.

  Can’t trust anyone these days,’ said Brian shaking his head. ‘Boys, what a life! An informer would look you in the eye as easy as stab you in the back.’