Miss Purdy's Class

by Annie Murray

  She sat up in bed hugging her knees, a burning blush spreading all over her.

  ‘What on earth is the matter with me?’ Imagine if anyone else could see inside her head!

  As he withdrew, she had seen a tough, dark-eyed face, black curls. Not Edwin at all! She had been making love with Daniel Fernandez.

  The dream was so vivid it was hard to shake off. Glimpses of it kept coming back to her through the day, disturbingly real. It happened in the middle of a spelling test. The children were bent over their books, Ron Parks with his tongue stuck out in concentration as usual. Gwen looked at Lucy Fernandez, her neat, intelligent demeanour. Her spellings were almost always all right.

  ‘The next word is “ashamed”,’ she instructed them. ‘That can be a tricky one.’

  Lucy’s dark hair made her think immediately of her brother and again a hot flush went through her. For heaven’s sake! her thoughts protested. This is awful! There must be something wrong with her, having these depraved thoughts about a man she had only met once in her life.

  Dinner time was dismal now, without Millie. She had left because she felt so unwell, and she also knew that it would not be long before her pregnancy began to show and she didn’t want to have to face the disgrace. But with no Millie to grumble to and share her lunch with, the staffroom felt a lonely place. Mr Gaffney was always kind and would stop for a little chat, and some of the others were reasonably friendly. But today it was Lily Drysdale who came and sat beside her, a worried expression on her face.

  ‘Hello, dear . . .’ Lily paused, frowning, stirring her tea. What was she wearing? Gwen thought, trying not to smile. She looked quite unlike everyone else, who seemed to wear the drabbest possible clothes to school. Lily had on a neat frock which gently swathed her rounded body, but it had unusually wide sleeves, and it was a rich blood red with purple binding round the neck and sleeves and a purple belt at the waist. Gwen was about to mention that she liked the colour but Lily plunged straight in.

  ‘I’m very worried – about one of your boys.’

  ‘My form?’

  Lily nodded, swallowing a mouthful of tea. One of the particular things about Lily Drysdale was that, although she was in charge of Form Two, she seemed to know every child in the school and take an interest in them. She also seemed to find out things about them that Gwen had no idea of.

  ‘Joseph Phillips,’ Lily said. ‘Has he come to school today? I haven’t seen him.’

  ‘Yes – he was here when I took the morning register. It’s the afternoons when he often seems to disappear. The School Board man has been round but . . .’

  Lily was shaking her head. As she held her cup Gwen saw that her fingernails were all blue underneath today. ‘There’s something wrong there. Have you seen the state of the child? And his sister – Lena. She’s in my form, of course. The girl doesn’t look as if her hair’s been touched for weeks. She’s filthy and I don’t like the sound of that cough. She’s in a bad state. And the boy – they look half starved.’

  ‘Oh dear,’ Gwen said helplessly. She felt put to shame by Lily’s vigilance. Now she mentioned it, Lena Phillips did look ill, poor little waif. And Joey’s attendance had been patchy. There had been several days before the half-term break when he had not come in at all. He always looked thin and pale. ‘I feel a bit unsure how to judge what’s normal,’ she said.

  ‘A child who looks as if they’re wasting away is something to be looked into in my book.’ Lily spoke robustly and Gwen felt even more foolish.

  ‘See if Joseph comes in this afternoon. If not, tell me. I think I’ll pay the Phillipses a visit.’

  Joey was absent when Gwen took the second register.

  She felt uneasy as she took the afternoon classes, and when they broke for a cup of tea at three o’clock she told Lily Drysdale that Joey had disappeared again.

  ‘Lena’s still here,’ Lily said. ‘I’ll take her home at the end of the day and see if I can find out what the situation is. They live on one of the yards at the far end of the street.’ She looked very directly at Gwen. ‘My dear, you may not appreciate quite what a struggle life is for some people in this area. Perhaps you should come with me.’

  Gwen thought of Daniel Fernandez’s challenging eyes. Perhaps it’s time you did . . . he had said. You don’t know anything about life, the words implied. And it was true. What did she know about the way people really lived around here? She felt put on her mettle.

  ‘I’d be glad to,’ she told Lily.

  An hour later Form Four put away their drawings of Roman soldiers and hurried out of the classroom. Only two children remained: Lucy Fernandez always waited until last so as not to get pushed over in the rush, and with her was Alice Wilson. Lily had told Gwen she would meet her by the gate. Gwen was nervous. She put her coat on, glad of the two girls’ presence to distract her. They all walked out at Lucy’s slow dot-and-carry-one pace.

  ‘Are you feeling all right today, Lucy?’

  ‘Yes, Miss.’ Lucy glanced up at her with a shy smile.

  Outside it was bitterly cold, the sky an iron grey. Gwen saw that there was no sign of Lily at the gate and she stopped the children just outside the door. ‘Alice? You did give my note to your mother, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes, Miss Purdy,’ she whispered.

  As well as informing Mrs Wilson that Alice had nits, Gwen’s note told her that her daughter was evidently very short-sighted and needed to have her eyes tested.

  ‘And what did she say?’ Gwen asked gently.

  Alice’s face seemed to close over. ‘She did my hair. I don’t think I’ve got nits any more.’

  ‘Well, that’s very good.’ Gwen smiled. ‘And what about your eyes?’

  Alice’s gaze dropped to the ground again.

  Gwen was puzzled. Alice was a clean, well-dressed child. She looked as if she came from the sort of home where she was being well looked after.

  ‘Alice?’ she prompted.

  ‘I don’t know, Miss.’

  ‘Well, you ask your mother to go to the doctor and get your eyes tested. Once you’ve got some specs you’ll be able to see the blackboard – you’ll be amazed how different life will be!’

  Though Alice tried to hide it, her eyes filled with tears.

  ‘Has no one suggested you see about your eyes before?’

  ‘No, Miss.’

  Lucy Fernandez stood beside Alice, watching with sympathetic eyes. Gwen felt perturbed and wondered if Lucy knew what was behind the sense of melancholy that seemed to come from Alice. It’s not my job to get involved, I’m only their teacher! she told herself. But somehow she couldn’t help feeling for them.

  They had walked across the playground to the gate and were saying a shy goodbye.

  ‘Miss Purdy! Good afternoon.’

  The voice was unmistakable: Daniel Fernandez.

  He came to the school gate, limping on his crutch, his leg still in plaster. Once again his expression was amiable but with the smile she could sense challenge, something close to mockery. Was it because she was fair-haired and blue-eyed, Gwen thought irritably to herself. Everyone seemed to assume she had no sense and couldn’t think seriously about anything!

  ‘Oh! Good afternoon.’ Gwen hoped her voice sounded calmer than she was feeling. Her heart was beating ridiculously hard. This was awful! How could someone she had had such a dream about just appear like this, as if she had summoned him?

  ‘I see your leg isn’t better yet.’

  ‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that.’ His tone was calm, relaxed. ‘I’m not quite so lame. It’ll be back to normal soon.’ Lucy stood looking adoringly up at him, very proud that her big brother had come to walk her home. ‘All set, Lucy fach?’

  She nodded and smiled, and once again Gwen saw how pretty she looked when she was happy. But Gwen’s eyes were drawn quickly back to Daniel Fernandez. In the daylight he looked younger. He was bareheaded, dark curls falling over his forehead, and dressed in working clothes, old black trousers and waistcoat, the sl
eeves of his shirt rolled to the elbow to show his swarthy arms. How could he go out in this cold dressed like that?

  ‘Are you getting on all right here then? Hammering some learning into them, are you?’

  ‘Yes, I’m doing my best, thank you.’

  Again, to her own ears she sounded prim. And she was amazed that she sounded so calm when she felt such confusion. She tried to detect the mocking tone that he had used to her before. There was a twinkle in his eye and she struggled to work out if he was teasing her or whether he was simply being friendly. It was hard to tell and this was discomforting.

  ‘How are your family?’ she asked.

  ‘Well enough,’ Daniel said. ‘Yes, they’re all right. Best get you home, Lucy, eh?’

  As he spoke, Lily Drysdale appeared, moving across the playground with Lena Phillips at her side, and Gwen saw Daniel glance at them. It would have been hard not to notice Lily. Over the dress and flat brown shoes she had put on a worn-looking pigeon-grey cape with a ring of white fur round the hem. She was scurrying along with a basket over one arm.

  ‘Are you ready, Miss Purdy?’ she called.

  Gwen said she was, then saw Daniel’s look of enquiry.

  ‘Miss Drysdale is worried about one of the children,’ she told him. ‘We’re going to see the family – to find out if everything is all right.’

  ‘Very good of you,’ Daniel said. Both his tone and look were steady, but she felt very aware of being appraised, that he was still trying to form an opinion about her. Her skin prickled. Why should she care what he thought? Yet she did – she desperately wanted him to think well of her.

  Lena Phillips’s hair was a matted mess. She was coughing and looked feverish. Gwen saw Daniel watching the girl. Something flickered in his eyes, an emotion she could not read. Then he looked back at Gwen.

  ‘Well, we’ll be going. Come on, Lucy. Bye, now.’

  ‘Goodbye,’ Gwen said.

  For a moment she watched the three of them go off along Canal Street, Alice Wilson walking alongside the brother and sister, both of whom were limping.

  Ten

  ‘Not far,’ Lily Drysdale said, turning off to the left. ‘Just along here.’

  Gwen pulled up her coat collar against the wind, which suddenly felt very cold. She realized that she had not even been aware of it while she was talking to Daniel Fernandez.

  The little girl, Lena, looked very intimidated at having to walk along her street between two teachers.

  ‘It’s all right, dear,’ Miss Drysdale told her. ‘We’re just coming to see your mother. You’re not in trouble. Is your mother poorly?’

  Lena nodded, wide-eyed. She coughed. Gwen thought the child looked most unwell. She noticed that Lily Drysdale did not bring up the subject of Joey Phillips’s absence.

  Outside the grimy frontage of the Golden Crown, Lily tutted. Her shoelace had come undone. ‘Hold this a moment will you, please?’

  She handed Gwen the basket. There was a cloth over it so Gwen could not see what was inside, but it was surprisingly heavy. Lily had been carrying it apparently as effortlessly as if it contained feathers.

  ‘Let me take it,’ she offered, when Lily straightened up. ‘It’s quite a weight.’

  ‘Just a few groceries,’ Lily said. ‘But thank you. Now, Lena – court five did you say?’

  Ahead of them they could see the dark, high prison wall, and the bridge over the canal at the bend in the road. But Lena was leading them into an entry at one end of a row of houses. Gwen had passed the rundown back-to-back houses every day on her way to the tram stop and barely given them a glance. Now she found herself in a dark alley, which looked as if it never saw sunlight. The walls were black and slimy looking. Following Lena and Lily Drysdale, she saw that the alley opened up into a long yard, with houses along the right-hand side. Never had she seen a more dismal place. The yard was dark, filthy underfoot and the only things to be seen were a lamp, unlit as yet, in the middle and two lines of washing strung across from wall to wall. Some boys were in the gloom at the far end, kicking something between them which looked like a soggy ball of newspaper. Seeing strangers, they stopped and stared.

  Lena led the two teachers along to her house and went inside. Lily Drysdale paused on the threshold, listening, then she knocked. Even a gentle knock made the door look as if it might collapse inwards off its hinges. Gwen was full of misgivings. Fancy having to live in this horrifying place! This house was the worst one of the lot. At least the others had curtains, but the windows of this one were bare and it was in a terrible state of repair, with one window broken and the other filthy, its walls caked in soot. And how small the rooms must be. She looked along the yard and realized that someone in the next-door house was watching. A round moon-face was looking out at them.

  ‘Hello – is there anyone there?’ Lily called. There was no reply.

  Lena came back to the door and beckoned them in. Her eyes were wide and troubled.

  It was dark inside. Daylight could get in only through the top part of the window and there was no other light. Otherwise, the first thing Gwen noticed was the smell. She did not know enough about life to recognize the stench of human sickness and of imminent death, but the room made her feel instinctively full of dread. As her eyes grew used to the gloom, she took in the spartan poverty, the empty grate, the broken floorboards. For a moment Gwen thought the bed, to their left, was unoccupied, that the pathetic shape lying there was simply a twist of bedding. It took seconds for her to realize that it was the figure of a woman.

  ‘Oh, my dear!’ Lily immediately moved closer and leant over the silent form. As Gwen followed and took in what was before her, her heart began to pound with shock and pity. The woman on the bed – and she was identifiable as a woman only because of her long hair – was a living skeleton. Her features were pinched and hollow and, even in this light, could be seen to have a sickly yellow tinge. But where the thin blanket covered her body, her stomach was a disturbing mound. Gwen put her hand to her heart. She was beginning to feel sick and faint. Surely the woman could not still be alive!

  But the next shock was the sound of her quick, shallow breathing. Lily Drysdale searched under the cover for the woman’s hand. Gwen had never seen such emaciation. Lily felt for a pulse and there were seconds as they all stood, waiting. The woman did not move or open her eyes. Lily shook her head.

  ‘Lord above,’ she whispered, ‘the poor young thing. She’s not long for this world.’

  Only then did it occur to Gwen that the woman wasn’t old. ‘Shouldn’t she be in hospital?’ she said, trying to compose herself, not to show how deeply she was affected by the sight.

  ‘Too late for that,’ Lily said. Carefully she laid Mrs Phillips’s hand back at her side and turned to the little girl, who sat shivering behind them.

  ‘Lena – where’s your brother?’

  ‘He’ll’ve gone to get coal,’ she said. Her cheeks were flushed with fever. ‘From down the wharf. Before he goes out to get us some dinner.’

  Gwen and Lily Drysdale exchanged glances.

  ‘Where does he go for your dinner?’ Lily asked.

  Lena looked vague. ‘I dunno. He goes out to get firewood and that. Tells me to stay here with our mom. And then he comes back with summat to eat. Most nights he does.’

  ‘Is that what Joey does in the afternoons?’ Gwen asked. Her heart was wrung with pity. The solemn nod Lena gave brought tears to Gwen’s eyes.

  ‘Mom can’t get us our dinner no more,’ the young girl said.

  There was a tap on the door then and a voice said, ‘Dora? Can I come in?’

  A very fat woman appeared, dressed all in black, with loose tresses of greasy brown hair. Gwen was sure hers had been the face peering at them through the window from next door. Just walking a few steps here seemed to have exhausted her and she was wheezing and struggling for breath.

  ‘I know she can’t answer me, like,’ she panted, ‘but I don’t like to come in without asking. Are you
from the Welfare?’

  ‘No.’ Lily spoke with a gentle courtesy which impressed Gwen. ‘Miss Purdy and I are from the school. We’ve been concerned about Joseph and Lena.’

  ‘Well, it’s terrible. I’m Mrs Simmons and I live next door. I do what I can but no one else on the yard’ll raise a finger and I can only do so much. She’s sinking fast.’

  ‘Has she seen a doctor?’ Gwen asked.

  ‘Oh ar – the doctor. Oh yes. But it’s the consumption . . . Galloping, it is. Ain’t got nothing they can do for her . . . and she daint want no one taking her away. She weren’t even this bad yesterday. Still got the two here, of course . . . I mean the orphanage had the others.’ Mrs Simmons sank down on another of the decrepit chairs. Gwen watched, expecting it to give way under the weight. The woman was forced to pause between each phrase of her speech. ‘I said to her . . . don’t do it, Dora, not to your own flesh and blood . . . but what can you do? . . . I’ve seven of my own, so I bring her a bowl of summat . . . when I can, but my old man’s been laid off, and now . . . by the look of her she’s past it, bless her . . . And a babby coming . . . Six month gone ’er is.’

  ‘What about Mr Phillips?’ Lily asked.

  ‘Oh, he upped and left – Christmastime . . . Never seen a hair of him since. Couldn’t cope with her no more, he said . . . Had a basinful with her . . . She weren’t much of a wife to him, it’s true. Not much of a man though, neither, Wally weren’t, in my opinion.’