by Joan Jonker
There was no humour in Jenny’s voice when she spoke. ‘I don’t doubt I could find a boyfriend, Mam, ’cos there’s a couple of lads at work who are always asking me out. And I’d very much like to go out with them. But what would happen if they insisted on walking me home? Would me dad behave himself and welcome them with open arms? No, we both know he wouldn’t even pass them the time of day. Chances are, he’d be too drunk to even stand up.’
At that moment, Annie felt so bitter against her husband, she was wishing he would meet with an accident that would cost him his life. She’d even be grateful to any woman who would take him off her hands. It would be good riddance to bad rubbish. ‘I hope the neighbours didn’t hear him bawling tonight.’
‘No, they wouldn’t have heard him, Mam.’
‘Thanks goodness for that! I was beginning to think I’d made two friends today and lost them tonight.’
Jenny shook her head while gathering her thoughts together. ‘No, the neighbours wouldn’t have heard anything. But Danny Fenwick saw me. He came out of his door at the same time as me. I’d been having a cry, ’cos I was mad at me father for taking his temper out on me, and also ’cos I’d let me mates down.’
Annie pulled her to a halt. ‘Yer were crying, sweetheart? That’s not like you. Yer father didn’t hit yer, did he?’
‘No, mam, me dad didn’t hit me. But he did manage to spoil everything I was looking forward to. And I suppose I was feeling sorry for meself. Anyway, Danny could see I’d been crying, and I had to tell him it was because I was fed up with being bawled at. He was very nice, was Danny, and wanted to stay with me until you came. But I wouldn’t let him, ’cos he was on his way to a dance. In the end he hopped on a tram, and by this time he’ll be waltzing a girl around the dance floor.’
‘Perhaps yer can go with him one night. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. He’s a nice lad, and yer’d have someone to bring yer home.’
‘Mam, with his looks, he’s probably got girls falling at his feet. And he most likely takes a different one home each night. He’s lucky. Good home and family, and out dancing every night. Yer can’t beat it. I don’t begrudge him having a good time, I envy him.’
Chapter Twenty
‘What happened to you last night?’ Dorothy asked as Danny twirled her expertly out of the way of another dancing couple. ‘It’s not like you to miss a night.’
‘Some friends arrived unexpectedly, and me mam said it would be very rude of me to go out. Yer see, it isn’t very often we see these old friends of hers, and I had to agree it would be very bad manners to say I preferred a slow foxtrot to their company.’
‘Well, don’t let it happen again, Danny, ’cos Betsy and Janet missed yer as well. We spent the night watching the door every time it was pushed open.’
‘Me heart would bleed for the three of yer if I thought yer were telling the truth. But I bet yer never missed a dance.’ Danny’s eyes were smiling down at Dorothy, but it was from habit. In his mind he was seeing the red-rimmed eyes of the girl from number twenty-two. He should have brushed aside her objections and stayed with her. The more he thought about it, the more odd it seemed. If her father was shouting at her, and was about to hit her, then yes, she was right to walk out. But was it bad enough to make her cry?
The music came to an end, and after leading his partner back to her friends, Danny joined the group of boys standing near the door. He never stayed with the girls he danced with, for that would give them the wrong impression. He liked them, they were smashing girls and good dancers. But at just nineteen, he had no intention of settling down for a good few years yet. Twenty-three was a good age to get married, he thought, and at the moment that seemed ages away. And that was only if he’d met a girl he wanted to spend his life with.
Danny’s thoughts were interrupted when a bloke standing next to him said, ‘I had a good night last night ’cos you weren’t here, mate. I had every dance with yer three girlfriends. Usually no one gets a look in with Dorothy or Betsy when ye’re here.’
Danny grinned. ‘Yer danced every dance with me three girlfriends, did yer, Spike? That must have been uncomfortable for them. And I bet yer got a few dirty looks for taking up the whole of the dance floor.’
Spike had gained his nickname because his hair refused to stay flat, and stood up like spikes on a railing. He now looked very puzzled. ‘What are yer talking about? I’m as good a dancer as you, mate, any day.’
‘Oh, I don’t doubt that. In fact yer must be better, ’cos I don’t think I could manage to dance with three partners at the same time.’
Spike looked blank for a second, then squared his shoulders. ‘Are you being funny? Who said I danced with three girls at the same time?’
‘You did, mate! And I think Tommy will back me up on this, ’cos I know he was listening.’ Danny turned his head to wink at a bloke standing beside him. ‘Didn’t Spike say he had every dance with me three girlfriends?’
Tommy nodded. ‘That’s what he said. I heard him with me own ears.’
Spike was getting mad now. ‘Well, yer’d have had a job to hear me with someone else’s ruddy ears, wouldn’t yer? And I’m blowed if I know what the pair of yer are getting at. Unless yer don’t understand plain English? Shall I say it slowly, then perhaps it’ll sink in?’
‘Instead of telling us, why don’t yer show us? Then we’d all be happy.’
Once again Spike squared his shoulders. They were making fun of him, but he’d show them. He’d have the last laugh. ‘Okay, smart lad, which one shall I ask first?’
‘The three of them.’ Danny was chuckling inside. ‘It was you what said yer danced with the three of them, so go on, I can’t wait! I’ve never seen a bloke dancing with three girls at the same time. Yer must be good, Spike, so go on.’
‘Yer think ye’re funny, don’t yer?’ He curled his fist and held it up. ‘For two pins I’d let yer have this.’
‘That’s very kind of yer, Spike, but I’ve got two of me own. I appreciate the offer, though, and I may take yer up on it some time.’ The three-piece band struck up with a slow foxtrot and Danny said, ‘I’m asking Janet, if it’s all right with you.’
Spike rubbed his hands. He still didn’t understand what all that had been about, but whatever it was, it looked as though he’d won. ‘I’ll ask Dorothy. And I’d better hurry up, ’cos I can see another bloke making his way towards her.’
Danny looked at Tommy. ‘He still doesn’t get it, does he? I bet he has a sleepless night, tossing and turning, trying to figure out what it was he said wrong. Or whether we’ve just been pulling his leg.’
Tommy raised his hand to a blonde girl who was watching him with expectation in her eyes. ‘His mam will put him right. Anyway, I’ve got more to do right now than worry me head over Spike. He’s a nice enough lad, but I wish someone would tell him about Brylcreem. His ruddy hair gets on me nerves.’
Janet was tapping her foot impatiently when Danny approached. ‘About time, Danny Fenwick. Are yer playing hard to get or something?’
‘Yeah, something like that,’ Danny said, leading her on to the dance floor. ‘Just ’cos I miss one night, I get the rounds of the kitchen off you and Dorothy. It’s worse than being flipping well married.’
‘Oh, no, it’s not worse than being married, Danny, take it from me.’ Janet’s dancing was smooth and seamless. ‘If yer heard the way my mam and dad argue, yer’d wonder why they ever bothered. They must have been in love once upon a time, but the novelty seems to have worn off quickly for them.’
‘No marriage is perfect,’ Danny said. ‘Although I’ve got to say the marriage of my mam and dad must have been made in heaven. They get on brilliantly together, and there’s no such thing as sulking. My mam says she doesn’t have time to sulk, she’s too busy looking after her three children and her husband. But she’s only kidding, ’cos she has a better social life than I do. It’s only having mates in for a cuppa, but they don’t half know how to enjoy themselves.’
; ‘I was only joking before, yer know,’ Janet told him. ‘My mam and dad get on really well. They act like a courting couple sometimes.’
‘Then you and me are lucky, ’cos it’s not all milk and honey behind every closed front door. I used to think every family was as happy as ours, but that’s not the case. Some kids have a dog’s life.’
‘Ye’re getting very serious all of a sudden, Danny.’ Janet leaned back in his arms to look into his face. ‘What brought this on? Where is the sparkle, and the jokes? Taking last night off didn’t do you any good. Did yer miss us that much?’
‘I’d like to say I did, but to be frank with yer, there was so much going on I didn’t even think about the dance.’
‘Oh, ay, and what was that, then? I’m cut to the quick because yer didn’t miss me, and to make up for it I think yer should tell me what yer got up to.’
‘I’m sorry to disappoint yer, but there was no excitement.’ Danny went on to tell her the same tale he had told Dorothy. ‘So yer see, it was more dull than exciting. Not that me mam’s friends are dull, like, but they spent the night going on about the old days, and it was a little bit before my time.’ As he was talking, Danny was thinking he was getting to be like his mam for making stories up. As she’d once said to him, ‘I don’t tell lies, sunshine, I just make things up to make people laugh and be happy.’ Then Danny changed the subject. ‘I believe Spike had yer up a few times last night. He seemed dead chuffed about it.’
‘Yeah, he’s not a bad lad, Spike. Not the brainiest person in the world, but he means well. Wouldn’t hurt a fly.’
Danny was about to tell her about the curled fist, when the music stopped and the interval was announced. He walked Janet back to her friends, then joined the bunch of lads by the door. He was laughing and joking with them as usual, but inside he was feeling restless. And against his will, he kept thinking about Jenny. Did she meet her mother, and what happened when they got home? If Tom Phillips had taken off once because his wife wasn’t home to serve him his meal, then there was every possibility he would take off again when she came in. And ten to one Jenny wouldn’t stand by and see her mother hurt, she’d put up a fight.
When the short interval was over, and the band started off with a waltz, Danny looked for Betsy. Soon he was waltzing her around the floor, their bodies and steps in perfect harmony. They were watched with envy by other couples, some of whom left the floor so they could enjoy seeing what one said was poetry in motion. Betsy didn’t like to talk when she was dancing, so there was no conversation, only pleasure. ‘I enjoyed that, Danny,’ she said as he walked her off the floor. ‘I missed yer last night. Not that ye’re God’s gift to women, but because no one does a waltz as well as you.’
‘What, not even Spike?’
She chuckled. ‘He’s a trier, but not quite up to your standard. He’s coming on, though, and pretty soon yer’ll be having some competition from that quarter.’
‘Well, a bit of competition won’t do me any harm. Take me down a peg or two.’ Danny was walking away from her, when he suddenly turned back. Before he’d given it any thought, the words were leaving his lips. ‘Oh, I’ll be leaving early tonight. I promised me mam I’d take a message to one of her mates. But I’ll see yer tomorrow, without fail. Will yer tell Dorothy and Janet for me, in case they think I’m deserting them?’ He spun round, strode out of the hall, checked his overcoat out of the cloakroom, and five minutes later found himself standing at the tram stop with no clear intention in his mind.
Annie put the key in the door very carefully, so it didn’t make a sound. Then she turned to Jenny and put a finger to her lips before stepping up into the hall. She cocked an ear for any sign of life in the living room, and after a few seconds she jerked her head. ‘Come in, there’s no one here. Yer father must have gone to the pub.’
Jenny was so cold her teeth were chattering. She went straight to the fireplace and held out her hands, even though there was barely a flicker from the few coals in the grate. ‘I’m going to put a few pieces of coal on, Mam, ’cos I need to get warmed through before I go to bed. Me feet are like ice, and so are my ears and nose. It was stupid of me to rush out without taking me scarf and gloves. I should have had more sense because I knew how cold it was out. But me dad was in such a rage, I wasn’t thinking straight. All that was running through my head was that I had to get out, and quick.’
‘There’s some coal in the scuttle, sweetheart, so you pick a few cobs out while I put the kettle on. While I’m waiting for the water to boil, I’ll put a page from the newspaper in front of the fire and the draught from underneath will have the fire going in no time. We’ll soon have a hot cup of tea in our hands, and a nice bright fire to cheer us up.’
Jenny shivered, both from the cold and from nerves that were frayed. She dreaded her father coming home. What if he tried to maul her in front of her mother? She wouldn’t put it past him, for he didn’t care what he did when he’d got a few pints down him. He’d take a delight in humiliating the pair of them. She could see him now, in her mind’s eye, taunting them with that horrible smirk on his face, while slobbering at the mouth. ‘Mam, when our Ben comes in, I’m going straight up to bed. I couldn’t bear to face me dad.’
‘There’s the kettle whistling, sweetheart. Yer’ll feel better when yer’ve had a hot drink. And when yer go to bed, I’ll come with yer. We can keep each other warm.’
It was nine o’clock when Ben came home, and Annie poured him out a cup of tea. She’d made a fresh pot, for she’d known he’d be home soon, and that he’d be glad of a warm drink. As she handed him the cup, she said, ‘Yer father’s been up to his tricks again. In a temper because I wasn’t here to put his dinner in front of him, he took off on Jenny.’
‘What did he do, Jen?’ her brother asked, ‘Shout, or hit yer?’
Jenny told him the same tale she’d told her mother. ‘And I went to meet me mam coming out of the pictures. I was like a block of ice, ’cos I didn’t have enough clothes on.’
‘I got the fright of me life when I came out of the pictures and saw her waiting for me,’ Annie said. ‘It was me first time out at night, and it’ll be me last. I’ll never leave either of yer alone with him again.’
‘I made a right fool of meself through him,’ Jenny told her brother. ‘He’d got to me so much, I was crying me eyes out when I ran into the street. I’d banged the door shut and was leaning against the wall when Danny from over the road came out. He was on his way to a dance, and I tried to get away from him, ’cos I felt stupid for crying like a baby. But Danny was really nice, and he wanted to wait with me till me mam came home from the pictures. I wouldn’t let him, though, for I felt really awful. A seventeen-year-old, crying like a baby. All because I’ve got a lousy, bullying father. Honestly, I know yer shouldn’t say yer hate anyone, but I’m afraid I hate me dad.’
‘Had he been drinking, sis?’ Ben asked. ‘Or was it just his bad temper?’
‘It was both.’ Jenny sighed. ‘He stank of beer, and I’d say he’d had quite a few on the way home. That, on top of me mam not being in, well, yer don’t need me to draw a picture for yer. Both of yer know what he’s like.’
‘And he’s in the pub now, is he?’ Ben asked.
‘There’s nowhere else he can be,’ Annie said. ‘It’s not as though he’s got any friends he could have called on. I don’t think he’s ever had a friend in his life. Even the bloke who was his best man when we got married, I’ve never seen sight nor light of since that day.’
‘If he’d had drinks earlier, and he’s propping the bar up again now, he’ll be in a right state by throwing out time.’ Ben pulled a face. ‘And he’ll either make a fool of himself in the street again, or he’ll take it out on us. So I think I’ll go to bed when I’ve finished me tea, Mam, and I think you and our Jenny would be well advised to do the same.’
‘We intend to, sweetheart. We’d already decided to go to bed once you were in and had had a cuppa to warm yer up. So, if ye’re ready, I
think we should make ourselves scarce. The pubs start throwing out at ten, and it’s ten minutes to now.’ Annie dropped her head for a few seconds, so her children couldn’t see the despair in her eyes. She didn’t think she could put up with this life for much longer. It had been dragging her down for years, and now she felt she had reached rock bottom. With a weary sigh, she rose from the chair. ‘Come on, let’s go. With a bit of luck, yer father will be so drunk he’ll just throw himself on the couch and spend the night there.’
‘Are yer leaving the light on, Mam,’ Ben asked, ‘or shall I turn it off?’
‘Better turn it off, son, in case he sets fire to the ruddy house. If he’s no matches to light a ciggie, yer know he puts a piece of newspaper to the mantel. He’ll burn the house down one of these days.’
Ben pulled the chain at the side of the gas light, and plunged the room into darkness. As he followed his mother and sister upstairs, he said, ‘I wouldn’t care if he did burn the house down, Mam, as long as he was the only one in it.’
Ada raised her brows in surprise when Danny walked in. She looked to the clock on the mantelpiece to make sure she hadn’t got the time wrong. ‘What are yer doing home at this time? Are yer sickening for something?’
Danny pulled a chair out and sat down. ‘When I left here tonight, Mam, there was a little incident, and I couldn’t enjoy the dance because it was on me mind.’
It was Jimmy who asked, ‘What sort of an incident, son? Did someone get run over?’
‘No, nothing like that, Dad.’ Danny scratched his head. ‘In fact, I’m probably making a mountain out of a molehill. But I couldn’t get it out of me mind, and it put me right off dancing. Even the slow foxtrot didn’t seem the same.’
‘In the name of God, sunshine, are yer going to keep this mystery to yerself, or are yer going to tell me and yer dad about it?’