Two Women

by Martina Cole

  Joey closed his eyes and tried to keep a lid on his temper.

  ‘Listen here, you, I want Susan to have a bit of a chance in life, that’s all. I want her to get an education. If I had the money I’d advise her to go on to college or wherever it is people go on to from secondary modern. Her face will never be her fortune but her brain might be. She could be anything, anything at all. A lawyer . . . whatever.’

  ‘Fucking hell, Joey! You feeling all the ticket, love? If I didn’t know better I’d think you’d had a head transplant instead of concussion and two broken legs.’

  Joey shook his head sadly.

  ‘I’ve had time to think, June, and I’m a changed man, I tell you. Be honest, wouldn’t you like to see one of them put the McNamara name up in the right place for a change? It’s a new world now and women can do all sorts of things. It’s accepted that they’ll work until they settle down and have a few chavvies. Some even work afterwards, though personally I think that’s stronging it a bit. But you get the gist of what I’m saying, don’t you?’

  June looked nonplussed.

  ‘I do and I don’t. Our Susan has a brain on her, I admit that. But only in comparison with the people we know. I mean, outside our world she’s probably a bit thick, and I mean that in a nice way.

  ‘I love that girl, I always have. But I don’t want her setting her heart on something she’ll never be able to have. A couple of kids in a few years and she’ll be happy as a sandboy. She ain’t really cut out for all that education stuff, not deep down. And if she went on to higher education she’d meet people other than her own kind and then she’d start looking down on us. I tell you, I’ve seen it on telly. Kids who’ve gone on to better things, they leave the rest of their family behind, mate. They have to.’

  ‘You’re wrong, June . . .’

  June was miffed and didn’t really know why. Suddenly his being so interested in Susan was bothering her and she felt bad about that.

  ‘Bring her in to see me tonight,’ Joey told her.

  She laughed gently.

  ‘You’re a funny fucker, Joey. One minute you’re one thing and then the next minute you completely change.’

  ‘That’s what makes me so interesting.’

  June looked into his face. It was battered and bruised but she could still see what had attracted her to him all those years ago. She pondered why she was going back to him. She had a few quid and could run away if she wanted to. But he was her life in a lot of respects. He accepted her for what she was and who else was ever going to do that? Jimmy had been a nice diversion and now it was over.

  With Joey, what you saw was what you got and you’d be a fool if you thought you were getting anything else. Though there were plenty of women of her ilk who would not kick him out of bed. In their world a reputation as a hard man was a well-respected thing. Now he was believed to be Jimmy’s killer it would enhance his standing locally.

  She wondered if he knew about it all yet. She knew Davey had been in to visit him.

  ‘What did Davey have to say?’

  Joey laughed.

  ‘I’m thought to be behind Jimmy’s killing. That should give me reputation a boost! For the breaking jobs and that I’ll get paid extra because of the added fear factor. I tell you, June, that Davey has got it in his bonce, girl. That’s what hanging about with the Bannermans has done for him. He’s learning all the time and now I’m going to go up with him. What a touch, eh?’

  She nodded, wondering whether Joey was really as thick as he made out. Surely he didn’t really believe that taking the rep for someone else’s actions would do him any favours?

  ‘What about Old Bill, what they got to say about that?’

  Joey shrugged.

  ‘They say what Davey and Bannerman want them to say, of course. It’s still an ongoing enquiry.’

  ‘What if there’s comeback from Jimmy’s family or something?’

  Joey shrugged once more though he seemed less assured this time and June realised that the thought had not even entered his mind.

  ‘I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, but I reckon it’s all sorted. Davey ain’t stupid, and Bannerman is definitely on the ball. I’ll take me chances as I always do, girl. But the added bunce can only be for the good.’

  June laughed then.

  ‘What, for university fees for our Susan? I can just see her face when I tell her what you said, it’ll kill her.’

  June was rolling with laughter and Joey smiled as he watched her. He had no intention of letting Susan go anywhere.

  Susan was a bundle of nerves. Her father was due home from hospital and she knew she was expected to be pleased to see him.

  Her mother had cleaned the flat from floor to ceiling and cooked his favourite meal, a large roast beef dinner with Yorkshire puddings that stood up in the oven like diddymen. Susan was to make the trifle and Debbie was to make the Welcome Home cake for him. Ivy was once more allowed in the house, and was at least on her best behaviour which gave Susan some respite.

  But she knew that once Joey was home everything would return to normal in a matter of weeks. She only wished her mother could see that far ahead.

  In fact June was getting on her nerves lately. She was acting as if she and Joey had never been parted and whenever Susan brought up the subject of Jimmy there was a row, with her mother telling her to let sleeping dogs lie. It was as if he had never existed and this bothered Susan more than anything. June had also told her that her father was not at all happy about her having a serious boyfriend. He felt she was too young and on her visits to him in hospital she had been banned from seeing Barry at all.

  But Susan was seeing him, and would continue to see him whatever her mother said or her father did.

  Maud from next door tripped into the flat with a bunch of flowers and some grapes. ‘For the invalid, June. I hope he’s better soon.’

  She stifled a grin. Maud would do anything to be in this flat today. She wanted to know exactly what the score was between June and Joey. The estate had been rife with talk for the last two weeks about Joey killing Jimmy and claiming back his wife. He had been arrested and then battered in the Bill shop, everyone knew that. They assumed he had taken the beating and not cracked, therefore he was doubly a man in everyone’s eyes. Jimmy was a nice bloke but at the end of the day he had taken a wife away from her husband and children. Everyone chose to forget June’s past record for the time being and they were all firmly on Joey’s side.

  He was a bit of a hero.

  June was loving it. Debbie was revelling in it. His mother was over the moon. Susan wished they would all drop dead.

  Maud felt as if all her Christmases had arrived at once when Joey walked into the flat with Davey Davidson who had picked him up from hospital, but June soon hustled her out.

  Davey was in a good mood and June was dressed to kill in low top, short skirt and leather boots. She bent down to pick up a small stool for Joey to put his feet on. He graciously agreed to have a cup of tea.

  Joey was laughing inside. He knew what June was really like and in all honesty he had missed her. He was glad to have her back, and pleased that he was seen as the maniac who had taken out a Glasgow bully-boy to reclaim his wife.

  Already he was getting offers of work from local debt collectors, legal and illegal. His next big step would be to go up West, around the clubs. He would be raking in a grand a week at this rate and was determined to make sure he got his due.

  He smiled at the two girls and Debbie threw herself into his arms. She was enjoying it all as much as Joey was, and knowing her like he did he was pleased for her. She knew how to play the game did his Debs. It was the other miserable bitch he had to take down a peg, and he was determined to do just that.

  Opening his arms, he said jovially, ‘Come on then, Sue. No kiss for your old man?’

  Susan went obediently towards him and kissed his cheek. June had arrived with the tray of tea and watched the little scene with interest. Susan was pulle
d into a bear hug and dragged on to her father’s lap. Davey laughed as she squealed loudly.

  Then, pulling her round on his lap, Joey grabbed at her breasts. Holding them tightly in his grip, he shouted, ‘See them, Davey boy? You don’t get many of them to the pound.’

  Even Davey was shocked though he didn’t say anything. He knew his wife would have ripped his heart out if he’d attempted that with one of his kids. Not that he ever would have, he assured himself, he wasn’t that way inclined.

  June slapped Joey none too gently on the side of his head and pulled Susan away from him. She ran from the room, face burning with shame.

  ‘You’re a bastard, Joey. You know how touchy she is about her knockers. Now in future leave her alone.’

  There was a warning in those words and everyone was aware of it, even Joey. The small room went quiet and Ivy decided this was the time for her to speak up.

  ‘Funny little mare she is that one, not like Debbie at all. But blood will out, I suppose.’

  Joey looked at his mother and snapped, ‘Button your fucking mutton, Mother, we have got guests.’

  Ivy’s face was a picture of indignation.

  ‘I was only saying, son . . .’

  Joey turned in his seat and looked the old woman straight in the eye.

  ‘Well, don’t. I ain’t interested in your opinion and neither is anyone else, all right?’

  June poured the tea then went to her daughter’s bedroom. Susan was lying on the bed, curled up into a ball. June sat beside her and stroked her hair.

  ‘He didn’t mean it, love, you know what he’s like. It’s only his way of being affectionate.’

  Susan looked into her mother’s face.

  ‘I hate him, Mum. Hate him and everything he stands for.’

  Her words were low, but the feeling in them was obvious.

  June smiled sadly.

  ‘It’s your age, Susan, you hate the world at that age . . .’

  Susan interrupted her.

  ‘I don’t hate the world, Mum, I hate him and only him.’

  June didn’t know why but she really did not want to get into a conversation with her daughter about Joey. Somehow she knew that if she did it was going to cause trouble for them all.

  ‘Don’t talk about him like that, Susan. He is your father.’

  She snorted with contempt.

  ‘Is he? That’s not what I’ve heard all me life. I think you’d better have a chat with his mother. According to her I should be renamed Heinz - fifty-seven varieties and all that. I’m a mongrel according to her - and him when he’s had a drink. Even you have queried my parentage over the years. Trying to remember who you fucked who looked like me, are you? Put a face to a name, eh?’

  The slap on her cheek was like a gunshot in the quiet of the room.

  ‘You little whore! You always have to cause hag, don’t you, Susan? Always got to have the last word. It’s all that reading, it’s turned your bleeding head. Well, listen to me and listen good - I ain’t in the mood for you and your fucking hysterics today. One more word out of you and I’ll rip your head off, do I make myself clear?’

  ‘Crystal clear. I think we both realise that much, don’t you, Mum? If you don’t talk about things then they never happened, did they?’

  ‘What you on about now?’

  Susan shook her head sadly, the red handprint burning on her cheek.

  ‘Think about it, Mum, just think about it.’

  June looked down into her daughter’s face. She regretted hitting her already, but it was preferable to the alternative. She didn’t even want to contemplate that.

  Joey looked at the dinner on the table and sighed happily; smiling at the two girls he scooped up a whole roast potato and shoved it in his mouth. It was too hot and he made a great pantomime of trying to cool it down. Everyone laughed except Susan but no one mentioned the fact.

  Ivy was in her element. Her golden boy was home and he was well. That pleased her more than anything. Joey was all she had in the world, and she was terrified of losing him.

  She looked at June’s gaping mouth as she laughed at something he said and grudgingly decided that her daughter-in-law wasn’t that bad really. If Joey had married a different kind of woman Ivy was sensible enough to know she would have been shown the door years before. Unlike most East End women, June had a casual and relaxed attitude to everything to do with the home and her kids, whereas most of the women Ivy knew ruled their husbands and families with a rod of iron.

  Oh, the men might be hard cases and the women might look downtrodden, but the truth was often very different. These women used their position as mother and wife to keep their men in line.

  June never bothered. With her and Joey it was a strange mish-mash of a partnership. June did what most men did; she slept around, blew all their money and spent her time in and around the pubs. Joey did the same but on a smaller scale.

  Ivy grinned, happy in the knowledge that once the honeymoon period was over she could stick her beak into everything once more and they could all get back to normal.

  She looked at Susan and her grin faded.

  That little mare wouldn’t know what had hit her once Ivy stuck her claws into her. Raise her hand to her granny, would she, and expect to get away with it? Well, God was good, as her own mother used to say. He waited until it was time then He made sure people paid for their sins.

  Ivy would see that little cow paid and paid dearly for her tantrum.

  ‘What you thinking about, Mum? You got a face like a wet weekend in Brighton.’

  Ivy looked into her son’s shrewd eyes and smiled.

  ‘I was thinking how lovely it is to have you home again, son. I missed you.’ Then two fat tears spilled over her cheekbones and she was bawling her head off.

  Joey raised his eyes to the ceiling incredulously. Ivy was genuinely distressed and even Susan felt for her. The old woman was visibly shaken by her son’s ordeal and it had laid a damper on the party atmosphere. Susan instinctively reached across the table and grasped her grandmother’s hand.

  ‘Come on, give us one of your songs.’

  She was soft-hearted enough to try and make Ivy feel better. Ivy, though, had other ideas.

  ‘Don’t you come the old mucker with me, you rotten little mare. What I’ve had to put up with from you would make your father’s blood boil if he knew.’

  June closed her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she cried, ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, can we just for once eat a meal without a flaming row starting? If you cause any hag, Ivy, you’re out the door and I mean it.’ She pointed at Susan with her fork. ‘And as for you, lady, take the miserable look off your boat before I knock it off, all right?’

  Joey looked at Debbie who rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

  ‘I get the right hump living here. All it ever is is fighting and arguing, morning, noon and night. Don’t you get the ache with it, Mum?’

  June grimaced.

  ‘Yes, I do, Debbie, as it happens. So I tell you now: if it all kicks off again I’ll walk out that door and I ain’t never coming back, I take fucking oath on that one. You remember that, Ivy, and you, Susan. I have had all I can take in the last few weeks and I can’t hack it any more. I want a bit of peace for once in me bleeding life, a meal in peace, to sit in me own home in peace. To talk to my bloody husband in peace without you two at each other’s throats. Do you get my bleeding drift, eh? Think you can manage that, do you?’

  Ivy hung her head. She knew she was on distinctly dodgy ground at the moment. Susan swallowed down the lump in her throat and concentrated on the food in front of her.

  No one spoke a word for five minutes; the air in the room was heavy with malice. Ivy kept looking at Susan as if she wanted to say something but daren’t. Susan looked at her plate. Anywhere but at her mother, father or sister. Ivy she didn’t even think about.

  Joey watched them all as he ate.

  His mother was a case, really. Any other man would have chinned her before t
his but he knew that he was her whole life and at times was grateful for that. At the end of the day your mum was your mum.

  ‘What time are your painkillers due, Joey?’

  He shrugged, glad the silence had been broken.

  ‘I don’t know. Anyway I’ve got some stronger ones off Davey’s mate Georgie Dixon. He says they’re the dog’s gonads as far as killing pain goes, and they give you a high. Gotta be better than the crap they doled out at the hospital. They wouldn’t kill the pain of a gnat bite!’

  June grinned.

  ‘When you’re ready, mate, get a couple down your Gregory then I’ll tuck you up in bed, eh?’

  Debbie rolled her eyes to the ceiling once more. Her parents’ constant sexual gymnastics made her feel sick. You could hear them at it at all times of the day, and it made her feel queasy. But she loved telling her friends about it, it made them laugh.

  ‘You make sure you’ve taken them, though, son. A painkiller is a wonderful thing. Best invention after alcohol, if you ask me. That was the poor man’s painkiller years ago, you know. A bottle of Scotch and they’d cut your bleeding leg right off with a hacksaw then put tar on the stump to stop the bleeding. And I mean bleeding. The blood would spurt out into the air . . .’

  Debbie almost shouted then, ‘All right, Nan, we get the picture.’

  Joey laughed and swallowed down his wine.

  ‘Trust you, Muvver, when we’re eating really rare beef to bring up something like that. Mind you, remember what’s his name? The torturer for the Daleys. He used to remove people’s toes with a pair of secateurs.’

  He pointed at his wife with his knife.

  ‘Rose fanatic he was, had a lovely garden. Anyway he’s in Broadmoor now and tends the gardens there, I heard. Well, he told me once that he cut their toes off to stop people having any balance, see. If you lose your big toe then you fall over all the time, something like that. But he said he did the toes mainly because the thought of it was so terrifying that when he turned up on their doorstep they would literally give him anything to get shot of him. It’s psychological. The thought of something is much worse than it actually happening. Or something like that. Anyway he was a nice bloke really.’