Runaways

by Carolyn McCrae

  “Do you want to do anything with your rooms?”

  “Could we paint them?” Al asked tentatively. “I’ve never liked it, it’s so yuccy.”

  “On one condition.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You don’t paint them black.”

  “Purple?”

  “Two conditions.”

  Tins of red and white paint were piled into the trolley.

  “Won’t Uncle Charles mind?” Al spoke tentatively though Linda wasn’t sure whether he really cared.

  “He won’t have to.” Jack was the stronger of the two, but still caught Linda’s eye to check whether he was going too far.

  “I’m sure he won’t as long as you only paint your own rooms and don’t make too much of a mess and clear up after yourselves and don’t…”

  “OK OK We get it.” The signals that Linda had sent to Jack, passed on to Al were accepted. As long as they were sensible they could, within reason, do as they wanted.

  Linda organised who was going to do what in the days leading up to the visit from Social Services and Bill’s return and the schedule she wrote out and pinned to the kitchen wall was going to be difficult to follow. Everyone would have to pull their weight and the fall back position of bringing in a local handy man would have been considered an admission of failure by everyone.

  When they got home and were talking about what they had planned Charles remembered a book that Holly had given him and which he had never thought to open, a book on D-I-Y detailing with diagrams and pictures even the most basic of techniques. He couldn’t remember why Holly had given it to him, after what argument and in what circumstances, but he was glad she had as they pored over the step by step instructions. He exerted his authority by insisting Linda and the boys stick to the instructions and follow them religiously to learn the best practices and not get into bad habits. Josie took over the kitchen and fed them the continuous stream of tea and coffee that she said was the essential part of being an English workman. Whenever they found they didn’t have the right tools Linda went off with either Jack or Al to buy them.

  “It’s amazing what five people can do in a week when they set their minds to it.” Charles sat at the head of the kitchen table with Jack and Al on one side and Josie and Linda on the other. “Well done everyone.” The woman from the Social Services had just left and had shaken Charles’s hand rather too firmly for his comfort, saying it all looked satisfactory. She could see no reason not to recommend that their young son could come back home.

  “How can anyone with that amount of power get it so wrong?” Linda asked anyone who cared to answer. “She had no idea what she was talking about, she probably didn’t even have the right notes. ‘your son’ indeed!”

  “All that matters is that the room was OK…”

  “More than OK it looks brilliant!” Al was really pleased with finishing touches he had put to what had been a very boring dining room, and was now a riot of red and white.

  “…and the house didn’t have any booby traps at wheelchair height…”

  “and all the ramps and handles were all in place.” Charles finished his sentence firmly.

  “Does that mean we can bring Bill back tomorrow?”

  “That’s what she said.”

  So the family was to be complete again.

  “You’ve worked a minor miracle Linda.” Charles said as he settled down to the familiar drive. “I can hardly recognise the boys. They didn’t moan and argue with each other and everyone else. And I didn’t hear them swear much either.”

  “They just needed someone to trust them, give them responsibility, not treat them like delinquents.” Noticing the hurt look on Charles’s face she hurried on “I’m not saying you did.”

  “No. You’re right, I probably acted like I was expecting them to be a problem.”

  “And Josie always treated them like the little brothers they were.”

  “But are no longer.”

  “Let’s hope they keep up with this new attitude, it’s only been a week and they had a project that interested them.”

  “It kept them away from that crowd they’ve been running with. I think they’re a bit younger than the others and I’m sure they get up to all kinds of things they shouldn’t. There’s two I’ve heard of that we need to worry about, Pod and Brickie. I’ve heard Jack and Al talking about them in tones of great respect but I shouldn’t think there’s anything respectable about them at all.”

  “Have you ever met any of them? Ever talked to them? Found out what they’re really like?”

  “No. They’ve never been near the house. They all hang out down the prom or around the bandstand, it’s where the town louts have always congregated.”

  “That’s not what you said the other day.”

  “I didn’t want to worry you.”

  “We’re going to have to wean them away.”

  “We can’t let them take Bill down there.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll think of something. We can’t let the miracle fail can we?”

  It was Bill himself who gave them the answer. As he wheeled himself along the long corridor of the hospital for the last time for at least a year he began to speed up, pushing his hands down fiercely on the rims around the wheels, propelling himself ever faster along the corridor. Just as Linda and Charles thought he would be through the doors and into the road he turned sharply around and headed back towards them.

  “I want to do sport.” He said with such determination. “I’m not just going to sit and do embroidery or woodwork, if I’m stuck in this thing I’m going to enjoy it. Jack and Al will help me won’t they?”

  “We all will.”

  “Bill Parry, athlete.”

  “It’ll be hard.”

  “But it’ll be worth it.”

  Josie helped her youngest brother write letters to Stoke Mandeville Hospital to see what he could do. She found them very helpful and was amazed at the amount of work being done to make life in a wheelchair much more than just basket-weaving.

  “Are we talking about a team game?” Bill was asked by the sympathetic woman on the other end of the phone and they had established what disability group he qualified for.

  “I hadn’t thought of it as ‘qualifying’.”

  “Well are you an amputee?” Bill was amazed at how down to earth people could be.

  “No. I’ve got both legs it’s just that they don’t work.” He decided to take the same realistic approach.

  “Are you visually impaired?”

  “No. I’ve got bloody good eyesight,” he said, possibly too aggressively though the woman at the end of the phone didn’t seem to mind, “and there’s nothing wrong with my hearing either.” He added pointedly, aware of a shuffling behind the door as Al and Jack jostled to hear what was going on.

  “Have you cerebral palsy?”

  “No, I’m just wheelchair bound because I ran out in front of a car and it hit me, broke both my legs and my back, severed bits of my spinal cord that are necessary for control of my legs and that’s it.”

  “Wheelchair then. That gives you a lot of choice. Do you like team games or are you an individual player.”

  “Individual I think.”

  “Well there’s archery, power-lifting, shooting, table tennis, bowls…”

  “I like the idea of archery.”

  “There’s a target for you as well. Sorry, no pun intended, but there is something good to aim at.” Bill heard her giggling in the background.

  “Very funny but what do you mean?”

  “The 1984 Paralympic Games might be a bit soon if you’re just taking it up but there’s always 1988 in Seoul.”

  “Wow, that would be something!”

  “It’s always a good thing to have a target, if it turns out to be a bit high or you don’t like it, there’ll always be something else.”

  The next weekend Linda drove Josie and Bill down to Buckinghamshire.

  “I loved it.” He spoke enthusi
astically as they reported the events of their day away to Charles.

  “Will it be OK? I mean everything will be terribly expensive. It’ll be an awful lot of money to buy good equipment and to get good training.”

  “Of course.” Charles wore a smug smile. “I’d be delighted but you’ve got to be sure. You’ll have to join a club and do it properly.”

  “I will.”

  “Can we do it too?” Jack spoke for his elder brother.

  Charles made a show of looking doubtful.

  “Honestly. We’ll do it seriously.” Al joined in.

  “Bill says we’re too weak, his arms are strong because of the wheelchair but we’d train.”

  “And the best thing is that we would all compete against each other.”

  “And we could set up the target thing in the garden and practice every day.”

  “It means we can all do it together.”

  Charles was smiling broadly, as was Linda. “Well that’s good because I’ve arranged for us all to go to Thornton Hough next Wednesday to see the club there, Neston Bowmen they’re called and you’ll get all the training and help you need.”

  Charles was amazed when Bill manoeuvred his chair close to his chair and reached up to hug him. “Thanks. I mean it. Really. Thanks.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Max has been burgled.”

  “I wondered who it was on the phone.” Linda had her back to Charles and couldn’t see the look on his face. “You were a long time. Was it bad?”

  “Pretty bad. Apparently Monika heard something and went downstairs to investigate and they hit out at her. She’s OK but badly shaken.”

  “Should I go round? Is there anything I can do?” Linda spoke as she wiped her hands on the dishcloth and went to turn around. She was shocked at the vehemence of Charles’s tone.

  “No. Absolutely not.”

  “Why not? What’s happened?”

  In the five months since Linda had returned to the Wirral and had taken over the reins of the Donaldson household she and Charles had been regular, if infrequent, visitors to Sandhey. She didn’t quite know what to make of the middle aged lady who lived with Max. Monika had always been friendly towards her when they had all spent time at Sandhey in 1975 and 1976 when she and Charles were working together to build up their business but her attitude was very different now. ‘She thinks Holly left you because of me’ she had suggested to Charles as they left after a particularly frosty tea. He had argued Monika must have known there were months between Holly’s going to Canada and her arrival but once the idea had been planted in his mind he thought she was probably right. If Monika thought they were living together as man and wife, which she obviously did, that would explain her attitude and the distance she put between them.

  Charles had always been close to Monika, he had once believed that he loved her and would look after her all his life, but he had met Holly and realised what love should be. As he had courted Holly he had noticed similarities between her and Monika. There was a possibility they were related. In one of his more perceptive moments he understood that her anger at no longer having Holly close would have turned Monika against him. He understood, also, that she would be poisoning Max’s mind against them as his greetings were now rarely friendly. He was just beginning to realise how much had changed when Holly left him.

  “What’s happened?” Linda repeated unable to even hazard a guess why Charles should look so angry.

  “Max thinks it was the boys.”

  “What!”

  “Max accused Jack and Al of being involved in the robbery.”

  “But why? What could possibly make him think something like that?”

  “Monika said she heard one of the robbers talking, he called one of the others ‘Pod’. She is prepared to say our boys were with him.”

  “Oh dear.”

  “Not ‘Oh dear’ at all. Even if one of the little bastards was Pod and another was Brickie why would that mean Jack and Al were involved? They haven’t hung around with them at for months now. Why would they be involved now?”

  “They couldn’t be.”

  “Of course not.” Charles was absolute in his confidence.

  “But Max thinks they are?”

  “Yes. Monika said they were and so he was very sure. He was very rude.”

  “What on earth did you say?”

  “I told him he was wrong. Quite strongly actually. I told him he was a prejudiced suspicious old man who didn’t know what he was talking about.”

  “Oh dear.”

  “Actually I said a lot more. He was being so unfair. He hasn’t bothered to understand how they’ve taken responsibility for Bill and how much time they spend with him. He just hasn’t bothered to get to know them. As far as he’s concerned they’re Parry scum. That’s what he called them ‘Parry scum’. I could hear Monika in the background saying I should never have taken them on, if I’d not taken them on Holly would still be … well she’d still be here. I was so angry with both of them. I probably said a lot of things I shouldn’t.” Charles finished rather lamely.

  “You were right to defend them.” Linda put her arm on Charles’s shoulder to comfort him. “Did he say what was taken?”

  “Not really, not in much detail, pictures, books. Nothing of real value he said.”

  “I didn’t think Max has anything ‘of no real value’ in the house.”

  “I didn’t believe him either.”

  “Anyway they don’t seem the things an opportunist thief would take, especially lads, surely they’d take the television and things they could easily sell? Why would they take pictures?”

  “I wondered that too. There’s a lot more to it than just a couple of youngsters trying to make a few quid for nothing.”

  “Did you say that to Max as well.”

  “I did, but he was adamant. He kept repeating that Jack and Al had to be involved. He’s calling in the police. He still has a lot of influence with them.” Charles wasn’t going to worry Linda by telling her how much influence he knew Max had, not only with the police, but with less visible powers behind normal law and order enforcement.

  “How did you leave it?”

  “Not very well I’m afraid. He reminded me of certain obligations I had towards him and he said I must hand them back to their family and the police will deal with them.”

  “But they had nothing to do with it! Hasn’t he any sense of justice? He’d condemn them without even checking the facts?” Linda was incredulous and angrily defensive of the children. “I’m going round. I’ve got to tell him he’s wrong. He’s being so unfair, so … Oh I can’t find the words. Surely he must understand you can’t condemn people without any evidence, no trial, no opportunity to prove their innocence?”

  “I don’t think that would be a good idea. He included you in the exodus. You were to go away and leave me in peace so Holly will return and we will all be together again. Monika has influenced him about many things, the children, you, me, us all. She hates us therefore now so does Max.”

  “The man is senile.”

  “I pretty much told him that too.”

  Max had been unambiguous. Charles must return the children to their proper family. He must send Linda packing. He must affect a reconciliation with Holly. Only then would he be accepted back into the family. Charles was to make a choice between loyalty to Max, his friend and protector for many years, the man who had supplied him with the funds to establish himself and enjoy his life the way he had wanted to, or loyalty to Linda and the children.

  Charles had found the decision surprisingly easy.

  “Isn’t there anything we can do? We’ve got to just sit here waiting for the police to call and take the boys away?”

  “Police? What’s going on?” Bill had wheeled himself into the kitchen.

  Linda and Charles looked at each other and Linda pursed her lips, shrugging, trying to say that they must be open and not try to hide anything. So Charles told him the bare bones.
Although he trusted his belief in Al and Jack some words of corroboration from Bill might remove any worries he might have had. “Someone has had their house broken into and they think Jack and Al are involved somehow.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “When did this happen?”

  “Late last night.”

  “Well it couldn’t have been them. We were all here weren’t we? Playing space invaders.”

  “It might have been some friends of theirs.”

  “Who?”

  “Pod.”

  “Oh him. They haven’t seen him for ages, nor Brickie. We don’t have time to hang around them any more. We decided ages ago that we didn’t much like them. Al said he was afraid of them and once they tried to push me over. There was a bit of a ruck and we haven’t seen them since.”

  “When was that?”

  “Ages ago. May. June. Early in the summer anyway.”

  “And you haven’t seen them since?”

  “No. Wouldn’t want to. Who did they rob anyway?”

  “Sandhey. Max and Monika.”

  “That figures.” Bill knew from the expressions on their faces that neither Charles nor Linda was prepared for his answer.

  “Go on.” Charles spoke firmly.

  Bill had spoken without thinking. Now he would have to explain that he had been wondering about why the smartly dressed man had spent so much time with the gang, and what he had really been after.

  “Just after I came home we saw Pod and Brickie around, we saw them in the street when we were going to the gym. It was good because then they just didn’t think that I was there and could hear them. They never looked me in the eye and just talked above my head, probably believing that I couldn’t see and was deaf and dumb as well.” There was such unfamiliar bitterness in his voice that made Linda think it wasn’t only Pod and Brickie who had acted like that. “Anyway I wasn’t deaf and I wasn’t blind though I could play dumb when it suited me.” Linda and Charles looked at each other wondering what else he saw and heard. “There was this funny bloke who turned up now and again. He seemed too old and too well off to have anything to do with them. He wasn’t fuzz, I mean police, he wasn’t anything like that. He was coloured, you know Pakistani or something.” Linda shuddered and Charles made an involuntary protective movement putting an arm on her shoulders. “He gave them money sometimes, said he’d tell them when he was ready to make them earn it. I reckoned it was drugs and they were getting stuff for him but I soon realised it was the other way round. He was giving them money and drugs. He wanted them for something.”