Meadow Lane

by Maureen Reynolds

  Anna and Thomas were touched by this gesture and Anna said, ‘I don’t mind helping out with Katie and Tommy will also help.’ She looked at her husband and he nodded.

  After that the party went with a swing and at two o’clock in the morning, the families left and Lizzie, Thomas, Anna and Tommy went upstairs. There was still no sign of Elizabeth but Lizzie said she was staying with a friend. ‘She hates family parties as she’s quiet and shy and we are all too outspoken for her liking.’

  When they were lying in bed, Thomas said, ‘I suppose they’re not such a bad bunch when you get to know them.’

  Tommy, who was reading in her bed, piped up, ‘They are all very loud, aren’t they?’

  Anna told her to put her book away as it was late and she needed her sleep. ‘I’ll go and help out with Katie tomorrow. Do you want to come with me, Tommy?’ Tommy said she would.

  Roseanne was late in arriving at Katie’s house the next morning and the two children were quarrelsome. Rosie rushed in, complaining. ‘Harry pushed me, Mum, and I’ve skinned my knee.’

  Harry protested his innocence. ‘You’re lying, you fell over all by yourself.’

  Roseanne told them to stop fighting. ‘Why can’t you be quiet like Thomasina?’

  Rosie made a face at her cousin and stomped out. Lizzie was decluttering a kitchen cupboard and Anna went to sit with Katie. She was looking a bit better and Anna asked her about her operation.

  ‘I had to get it as I didn’t feel well. As you know, we’ve been trying to have a child for years but it just hasn’t happened and now it never will. My husband Ian says not to worry but when I look at all the kids my brothers and sisters have I get really upset.’

  Anna felt sorry for her and took her hand. ‘Sometimes it’s hard to understand what life throws at us but I know you’ve got the strength to see this through and come out the other end.’

  Katie squeezed her hand but she looked so sad that Anna almost burst into tears. Suddenly there was an eruption of noise. Tommy rushed in. ‘Rosie has pinched my hair clasp, the one I got from Evie, and she won’t give it back.’

  Roseanne, who was busy helping Lizzie with the cupboard, marched through and got hold of her daughter. ‘Give that back to Thomasina.’

  She had the clasp in her hair and she reluctantly pulled it out, handing it to Tommy who put it in her pocket. ‘Well, are you not going to wear it?’ Rosie said loudly.

  Tommy said she wasn’t, adding, ‘I’m not wearing it until I clean it with Dettol as you’ve got nits in your hair and I don’t want to get them.’

  Rosie rushed in to see her mother. ‘Thomasina says I’ve got nits, Mum. Tell her I haven’t.’ Roseanne was very annoyed but Anna told her daughter to apologise to her cousin, which she did. However she didn’t put the clasp back in her hair until much later when she had wiped it with some of Lizzie’s disinfectant which was kept in a large plastic container in a cupboard under the stairs.

  Thomas had taken the bus into the city and was now sitting in the pub with his Guinness. He was sitting at a small table reading the paper when he heard a voice calling his name.

  ‘Good Lord, it’s Thomas Cassidy,’ said the voice.

  Thomas looked up and a tall, thickset man in a brown overcoat was standing beside him. He smiled when he recognised Pete Murdoch who had been his boss when he worked with the Hydro Board on one of their constructions. Pete sat down with his beer. ‘I haven’t seen you in years, Thomas, what brings you to these parts?’

  Thomas explained about visiting his wife’s family. ‘What about yourself, Pete, how are you?’

  Pete said he was fine. ‘I’m the same, I like to come over to see my parents every so often as they’re getting on in years now. Are you still living in Dundee, and where are you working now?’

  ‘I had to give up the construction work when my leg was badly broken so I’m now a barman in a pub, a bit like this one.’ He waved his hand around the bar. ‘What about yourself, what are you doing now?’

  ‘I’m still in the construction business but I’m now the owner of it. We’re based in Glasgow and believe me, Thomas, there’s loads of work going on there as new housing schemes are being built and old slums are being cleared.’

  Thomas felt wistful. ‘Just like the old days then.’

  Pete finished his beer and stood up. ‘Let me buy you another one.’ When he came back with the two glasses he said, ‘How would you like to come and work for me?’

  Thomas said his construction days were over because of his bad leg.

  ‘I’m not talking about being on the building sites. I need a reliable, honest storeman and I would like you to think about it. I can get your family a house so there’s no worry about accommodation.’

  Thomas said he was interested but he would have to discuss it with Anna. Pete opened his wallet and took out a business card. ‘This is the address of my office with the telephone number. Call me and we can arrange a meeting in Glasgow after your holiday here.’ He quickly finished his beer then stood up to leave. ‘I really would like you to take the job, Thomas.’

  Thomas could hardly wait to get back and tell Anna about this unexpected job offer. If she was happy with it then he could arrange the meeting before heading back to Dundee.

  Anna and Tommy had arrived back only a few minutes before Thomas, but as Lizzie was with them he didn’t want to tell Anna his news in front of her which was just as well as his wife said, ‘Lizzie has just been saying we should stay here as there is a job going at Mike’s factory.’

  This was the worst possible news he could think of and although he had made his peace with Anna’s family, the thought of living cheek by jowl with them was unimaginable, and not only to him but judging from Tommy’s expression, she also hated the idea.

  Lizzie was excited by her plan. ‘It’s a good well-paid job, Thomas, much better than your old job back in Dundee and we can all be together as a proper family again.’

  ‘The job sounds great, Lizzie, but where will we get a house? I’m sure it’s much the same here as in Dundee as there’s not a lot of houses for rent.’

  Lizzie said she had thought of that. ‘You can all stay with me and put your name down for a council house. I’m sure it won’t take long to get one.’

  Thomas looked at his wife. ‘What do you think, Anna?’

  His wife said it sounded like a good idea but she didn’t look very happy about it. She added, ‘We’ll have to think about it, Lizzie.’

  Lizzie, as usual, was matter of fact about the entire idea. ‘Well, you better make up your mind soon as the job won’t wait for you. Mike says there’s been quite a bit of interest in it already.’ She strode towards the door. ‘I told Aimee I would go over to see her but I won’t be long. Maybe you’ll have made up your mind by the time I get back.’

  Thomas was furious at this short timescale but he smiled. ‘I doubt it but you never know.’

  Lizzie gave him a baleful stare as she disappeared into the garden. The minute she was gone, both Anna and Tommy said they didn’t want him to take up the offer. Anna was especially against it. ‘It’s been fine having a holiday here but I couldn’t bear to be over here to live. I love my family but I couldn’t imagine being with them all the time, it would be like living in a zoo.’

  Tommy laughed but she said the same thing. ‘Having to play with Rosie and Harry every day isn’t like being with Evie.’

  Thomas asked them to sit down at the kitchen table as he had important news to tell them. They gave him a worried look but he said it was good news, at least for his part.

  ‘Would you mind living somewhere else, not here but in Glasgow. It would mean maybe not seeing Evie again or any of our neighbours in the lane.’

  Anna asked him to come out with whatever news he had as the suspense was making her more worried by the minute.

  ‘I happened to be in a pub on the main street when I bumped into an old contractor I used to work with on one of the Hydro schemes and he’s now got a busin
ess in Glasgow building new houses, and he’s offered me a job as a storeman.’

  Tommy was delighted but Anna wasn’t so sure. ‘Where will we live if we move there? Surely the housing shortage will be the same no matter where you live and we’re lucky to have our own house.’

  Thomas told her about getting accommodation from the firm. ‘I thought we could go and see Pete in Glasgow and at least look at what’s on offer.’

  ‘That means telling Lizzie you don’t want the job here.’

  Thomas was jubilant. ‘It most certainly does,’ he said. ‘Of course if you both want to stay here…’ Anna and Tommy both laughed and said a resounding no.

  Lizzie appeared an hour later. Although she didn’t know it, she had a piece of a spider’s web clinging to her hair. ‘I’ve just been helping Roseanne clean out Albie’s garden shed, what a load of old rubbish we’ve thrown out.’

  Anna asked, ‘Won’t he be angry that you’ve thrown away his things? I read somewhere that men love their sheds more than they love their wives.’

  Lizzie snorted. ‘Don’t be stupid, Anna, how can Albie love old wheels, bits of bikes and other rubbish?’

  They all stayed quiet, and happy with that reaction she marched into the kitchen to make the tea. Anna and Tommy went to help while Thomas smiled to himself at the thought of the enraged Albie finding his shed had been spring cleaned. Honestly, Lizzie was a one-woman house cleaner and rubbish collector, and nobody was safe from her bright pink rubber gloves.

  When Mike came home, they all sat around the table. Elizabeth wasn’t there and Anna asked why they hardly ever saw her, apart from hogging the shower every morning.

  ‘She works in a shop but she has an evening job too, she’s a right hard worker and so is Billy, he has two jobs as well.’

  They must take after their mother, Tommy thought, but sensibly stayed silent as they tucked into their steak pie and potatoes with Batchelors peas for the veg. This was followed by a bought apple tart from the local baker’s shop served with thick yellow custard.

  Anna happened to mention that her bakery job sold tarts just like this one and Lizzie pounced on this statement. ‘Talking about jobs, have you made up your mind about the job here?’

  Thomas tried not to grin but he felt so happy with the thought of telling them no. ‘It was good of you to think of me, Mike,’ he said, looking at the man. ‘But although I never mentioned it, I’ve been offered a job in Glasgow with my old boss from the Hydro Board days and I’ve accepted it.’

  Lizzie almost choked with annoyance. ‘I think this job will be better for you and your family, Thomas.’

  However, Mike said congratulations. ‘I’m really glad to hear it and I hope you’re happy there.’ Thomas said thank you and finished the last of his apple tart.

  Later, Anna asked him why he had said he had accepted the job and he said he really thought this job was the one for him. ‘Still, we’ll have to see what the accommodation is like, Anna, but if you and Tommy like it then I would like to take up Pete’s offer as I enjoyed working with him on the dams.’

  Anna said that was fine by her and they wouldn’t make any plans until they got to Glasgow.

  They heard Lizzie calling up the stairs, ‘I’m just taking over some steak pie for Katie’s tea and she has another cupboard that needs sorting out.’

  Anna and Thomas laughed so much as he said, ‘She’s some woman, that sister of yours, Anna.’

  42

  Sadie had had another row with her mother over her refusal to consider going back to America. Ed had sent a letter along with a money order for her to book a passage but even an enclosed note from Eddie, saying he missed her, didn’t change her mind.

  ‘I’m going to have my son brought back here,’ she said. Maryanne said it was extremely selfish of her to think Eddie should come back to a place where he was obviously unhappy but Sadie wouldn’t listen to this as she was sure that once she got her own place to live, all would be well. She hurt her mother very much when she stated, ‘It was living in this dump that made him run away and I can’t say I blame him. I mean, look at this room, everything is either ancient or falling apart.’

  Maryanne didn’t say another word but she put on her coat and left to go and see her friend. She was almost in tears when she walked away and she wished she could move on from having Sadie in her house. She was then immediately filled with remorse for thinking such a thing but she realised having her daughter there was a trial.

  When she reached her friend Dorothy’s house she was still upset. She hadn’t meant to come out with this row but when Dorothy asked her what the matter was, it all came pouring out, even the hurtful comment. Dorothy compressed her lips together and frowned. She was angry at Sadie for upsetting her mother. ‘You don’t deserve to be treated like that, Maryanne, you spent years and years doing without to bring her up. She had the best you could afford and with her looks she should have made a happy marriage instead of marrying in haste and repenting it later.’

  Maryanne wiped her tears away. ‘I shouldn’t worry you with all my problems but thanks for listening to a moaning mother.’

  ‘Have you had any tea?’ asked Dot, and when Maryanne said no, she said, ‘Let’s go and get some fish and chips from Dellanzo’s chip shop and bring them back here to eat. Then let Sadie either cook for herself or starve.’

  Maryanne was grateful for this support. She was still worried about Sadie but Dorothy’s insistence worked and they set off for the chip shop.

  Sadie had thrown Ed’s letter in the fireplace where she set fire to it. She had cashed the money order and she had no plans to use it on a ship passage. Tomorrow she would go to the police and a solicitor to get her son returned to her. She decided to go to the snug bar at the Windmill and have a relaxing drink.

  She was glad Thomas was on holiday as she didn’t know the young barman which meant he didn’t know her so he wouldn’t be able to pass on any gossip. She had heard some of the gossip that had gone around before so she was determined to be careful.

  The next morning, she decided to take the day off work to see what help she could find in getting Eddie back. She went to the police desk and asked to see someone in charge but when she was sitting in the interview room, the sergeant said there was nothing they could do to help her. Sadie was astonished. ‘But my husband kidnapped my son and now you’re telling me there is nothing you can do?’

  The policeman tried to be kind to the worried woman. ‘From what we believe, your son went willingly with his father and there is no question of kidnapping or any other offence.’

  She got to her feet and said angrily, ‘So I can’t expect any help from the great British police force?’

  The sergeant stood up and opened the door. ‘I’m sorry but there is nothing we can do.’

  Sadie went to Commercial Street and looked at a few brass nameplates of various solicitors. Choosing one, she entered a small, stuffy office with one woman busy at the typewriter who looked up as the door opened. Sadie said she wanted to see one of the solicitors named on the plaque outside.

  ‘Do you have an appointment?’

  Sadie, who was getting angrier by the minute, snapped, ‘No I don’t, but surely you have someone who can see me.’

  The woman asked for her name and disappeared through a back door and Sadie stood at the counter wishing she had gone to one of the other solicitors on the street. The woman came back and said Mr Blyth would see her as soon as he finished what he was doing.

  Sadie sat down on an uncomfortable chair and waited twenty minutes, growing more agitated. She was just making up her mind to leave when the door opened and an elderly man appeared. He spoke to the typist then left and a few minutes later another elderly man asked Sadie to come into his office.

  ‘What can I help you with?’ He quickly looked at her name which the woman had written down. ‘Yes, how can I help, Mrs Boyd?’

  Sadie went into a long story about Eddie and when she had finished the man said the s
ame as the sergeant, that Eddie had gone off willingly with his natural father and as he wasn’t a ward of the court there was nothing they could do. He added, ‘I believe he’s also an American citizen as he was born in the USA.’

  ‘What difference does that make? Surely as his mother I have a right to my son.’

  The solicitor said that it was a matter between her and her husband. ‘You will have to come to an amicable agreement with him so you can get access. If you can, then the court will be able to allow access but as he’s on the other side of the world that will be difficult.’

  Sadie was becoming more downhearted by the minute. ‘So that means you can’t help me get him back?’

  ‘I’m afraid so, and even if we could lodge a complaint it will cost you a great deal of money for your lawyer and any American lawyer your husband will hire, and the verdict could well be the same as it is now.’

  Sadie left the office and considered going to see another one further up the street but she decided to leave it for today. She made up her mind to write to Ed and tell him she wasn’t coming back but Eddie was her son and he belonged beside her. She picked up an airmail letter from the post office and wrote out her intentions before going out and posting it. That’ll make him think now, she thought as she walked home.

  Martha and Eliza were sitting outside and they called her over when they saw her. ‘Have you got the day off again, Sadie?’ asked Martha. ‘You’ve got a great job as you seem to be more at home than at work.’

  ‘Yes, Martha, I do have a good job and my boss recognises the importance of my fight to get my son back so he lets me have time off.’ With that statement, she walked off and left Martha muttering about what a liar she was. Eliza told her to keep quiet. ‘We don’t know that her boss doesn’t give her days off in order to get Eddie back.’

  Martha gave her daughter one of her pitying looks. ‘You believe everything you hear, Eliza, which makes you an idiot. I never believe a thing I hear and I don’t believe a word that young woman says.’