Many a Tear has to Fall

by Joan Jonker

  Tess drew in her breath. ‘Five shillings! Ooh, er, that’s a lot of money!’

  ‘It will come in the form of a postal order, and made out to your mother as you are under age.’ The headmistress smiled kindly. ‘Your holiday has brought you good fortune, Theresa, and I am very pleased for you.’

  ‘I’ll have to get back to my class, Miss Bond,’ Miss Harrison said. ‘Am I to tell them the news or would you rather I didn’t?’

  Overexcitement gave Tess a fit of the giggles. ‘I’ll be telling them, Miss Harrison, so it won’t be a secret. I’m so happy I couldn’t keep it to myself or I’d burst.’

  The headmistress raised a brow. ‘There is your answer, Miss Harrison.’

  Eight o’clock that night found Ann and George alone in the living room. They’d both been so concerned about Tess, whose eyes were unnaturally bright and her pale face flushed, Ann had suggested an early night in bed for her. And Maddy had immediately offered to go as well, making the excuse she was tired out herself by all the excitement. But the truth was, she could see her sister would make herself ill if she didn’t calm down. And the best place for that to happen was in bed, cuddling under the eiderdown.

  ‘This has certainly been a day and a half, love,’ Ann said as she swivelled her bottom around so she could stretch her legs out on the couch. ‘I haven’t got over the shock yet.’

  ‘I’m still trying to take it in myself, coming like that, right out of the blue. It’s wonderful for Tess, it will boost her confidence no end.’ George twirled the ends of his moustache until they were sharp points. ‘It was a bit too much for her, though, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was sick before the night is over.’

  ‘Madelaine will keep an eye on her, but if she can get a good night’s sleep she should be all right in the morning.’

  ‘We have two lovely daughters, Ann, we’ve got a lot to be thankful for. Both girls are kind and considerate. Take Maddy now, many a girl would be jealous of their sister getting so much attention, but not her. She was overjoyed and so proud. And Tess, saying she didn’t want any of the money, she wanted you to have it to help out. I didn’t realise they knew of the change in our circumstances. Have you discussed it with them?’

  ‘Yes, but I didn’t need to, they could see for themselves. Their penny pocket money was stopped, and the food they get is hardly what they’re used to.’ Ann made a quick decision and slipped her legs back over the edge of the couch. ‘I want to tell you something, George, and I want you to hear me through before saying anything.’ She wiped a hand across her forehead and took a deep breath. She wasn’t looking forward to this because he would be so hurt. But it had to be done, she’d put it off long enough. ‘If I’d been able to get a job, as I’d hoped, it would never have come to this. But it wasn’t to be, and I’m really sorry. You know I’ve had a struggle the last few weeks, but I didn’t tell you how hard a struggle. I haven’t been honest with you, love, and I think the time has come to bring everything out in the open.’

  Ann saw a frown of worry come to his face and she forced a smile. ‘It’s not the end of the world, love, but it’s something that has to be talked about before it gets out of hand. You see, no matter how many corners I cut, I can’t stretch the money to cover everything. And I’m now five shillings in arrears with the rent and no way of making it up.’

  George left his chair to sit next to her on the couch, and he reached for her hand. ‘Why didn’t you tell me before, love?’

  ‘That wouldn’t have solved anything, it would only have put the burden on to your shoulders and I didn’t want that, not after all you’ve been through.’

  ‘Then take Tess’s five shillings when it comes, and clear the rent arrears. That will save you worrying, and we can make it up to her when we can.’

  ‘That’s not the answer, George, because by the time the money comes through I’ll be ten shillings in arrears. It’s the rent that’s crippling me, it’s so high. I was talking to Lizzie last night and I asked how much her rent is. She pays six shillings and threepence a week, compared to the eleven and six I pay. The difference is over five shillings a week, and that is a lot of money.’

  ‘Why are you telling me this, Ann?’

  ‘Because if we moved to a cheaper house, our troubles would be over.’

  George leaned his elbows on his knees and dropped his head into his hands. ‘I’m sorry, love, I’ve failed you. Instead of giving you a better life, I’m dragging you down.’

  ‘What a load of nonsense you’re talking, George Richardson! You’ve given me a wonderful life and you’re the best husband in the world. I would willingly live in the coal shed if you were by my side. Besides, I don’t think your brother Ken, or Lizzie, would think they’ve been dragged down! They’re quite happy in their homes, and they have a few bob spare in their pockets every week, which we haven’t. It isn’t only the rent money we’d save, it’s less for coal because this place takes more to heat, the window-cleaner would be half the price, there’s all sorts we would be saving on.’ Ann glanced sideways. ‘You’re not too much of a snob to live in a two-up two-down, are you, George?’

  He tilted his head to look at her. ‘I was born in one, Ann, and lived in one until the day I married you. I was happy there, with marvellous parents, good mates and good neighbours. My memories of those days are warm and rich. No, I am not a snob, far from it.’

  ‘Then taking into consideration the fact that our money worries would be at an end, and we could even save for the holiday in Wales we’ve promised the children, would you have any objection to moving?’

  He shook his head. ‘If it was to the end of the world, Ann, I would follow you. But what makes you think it would be easy to find a house? It would have to be near, otherwise the children would have to change school and I don’t think they’d like that.’

  ‘We’ll have a word with your friend on Saturday, eh? You see, I’ve got every faith in Mrs Lizzie.’

  Chapter Fourteen

  Lizzie had been well briefed before her visit on Saturday afternoon. She was to put on an act and pretend to be surprised when Tess presented her with the news. As she would have been had George not been so proud he couldn’t keep it to himself. Mind you, she didn’t blame him for that. If it had been her daughter she’d be strutting round like a peacock, telling everyone who wanted to listen. She grinned to herself as she knocked on the Richardsons’ door. Even if they didn’t want to listen she’d have made them. Pinned them down if that was what it took.

  ‘Hello, Mrs Lizzie.’ Tess had been on tenterhooks waiting, and beat her sister to the door. ‘Wait until you hear what I’ve got to tell you. You’ll be amazed and flabbergasted.’

  ‘Ooh, it must be good, queen, ’cos it’s a long time since anyone was able to flabbergast me. I can’t wait to hear what it is.’ Lizzie slipped her arms out of her coat. ‘Just let me hang this up, then I’ll be all ears.’

  Tess was hopping from one foot to the other, and as soon as the coat was hanging on the hall stand she dragged Lizzie into the living room. ‘Sit down and make yourself comfortable, ’cos I’ve got a lot to tell you.’

  ‘Can I say hello to your mam and dad first, and Maddy? It’s bad manners to walk in someone’s house and then ignore them. If they got a cob on, which would be quite understandable, it would be me what gets thrown out, not you. And can yer imagine the sight I’d look, sitting in the middle of the road on me backside?’

  ‘We wouldn’t leave you there for long, Lizzie,’ Ann said. ‘And we’d all give a hand to help you to your feet.’

  ‘Yer’d need a crane to do that, queen, I’m no lightweight.’

  Maddy, who was sitting on the floor in front of the hearth, began to giggle. ‘While we were waiting for the crane, we’d bring you a cup of tea out to keep you warm.’

  ‘Now that’s what I call real mag . . . magnin . . . oh, what do I call it, George?’

  ‘Magnanimous is the word you’re looking for, Lizzie.’

  Tess lo
st her patience. ‘Will you all stop talking, please? I’ve been waiting for Mrs Lizzie all day, and now I can’t get a word in.’

  Lizzie shuffled her bottom on the chair until it found the position that suited it, then she folded her arms. ‘I’m all yours now, queen, waiting with bated breath for you to amaze and flabbergast me.’

  As Tess told of her good fortune, Lizzie gave the performance of her life. Her facial expressions and her gasps of surprise and pleasure were just what the young girl was hoping for, and she certainly wasn’t disappointed. It was a piece of superb acting, and if Lizzie could have seen herself she would have been highly delighted and taken the tram straight down to the Empire Theatre and asked for a job.

  ‘Well I never,’ she said when a very happy Tess had finished her tale. ‘Yer’ve really amazed and flabbergasted me. What a clever girl you are. I can’t find the right words to say what I think of it.’

  ‘How about marvellous?’ George said.

  ‘Or wonderful?’ Ann offered.

  ‘Or stupendous?’ was Maddy’s contribution.

  ‘I’ll take all of those, and mix them with fantastic. Here’s me, at my age, can’t string a sentence together, and you’re going to be in a magazine! I’ll have to buy one when it comes out so I can show it to people and say you’re a very good friend of mine. I might even go as far as to say we’re related. I mean, there’s not many folk I know what’s related to someone famous, so I’ll pile it on.’

  ‘You can be my auntie if you like,’ Tess said, getting into the spirit of things. ‘That would be nice.’

  Lizzie opened her mouth and pointed to her tongue. ‘I hope this is listening, ’cos her days for swearing are over. If I hear her coming out with a rude word, I’ll bite her and that will teach her a lesson.’

  George chuckled. ‘A painful lesson for you, Lizzie.’

  ‘It’s got to be, George! I mean, like, I can’t be related to a famous person and go round saying, “Where’s me bleedin’ purse?” It doesn’t sound right and doesn’t go with me new-found status.’

  Ann looked to the window. ‘If you girls want to play out for half an hour, you’d better go now because it’s beginning to get dark. And I want you out of the way for a short time while I have a private talk with Lizzie.’

  Her face the picture of innocence, Tess asked, ‘What will you be talking about?’

  While George and Ann looked at her blankly, Lizzie roared with laughter. ‘Oh, that’s a cracker, that is! What is yer private talk going to be about!’ She rocked back and forth slapping her knees. ‘Tess, queen, ye’re a bleedin’ treasure.’

  The girl had no idea what had brought on the laughter, but was glad Mrs Lizzie had found it amusing. She’d ask her sister when they got outside.

  Maddy scrambled to her feet. ‘Come on, Tess, I’ll get the skipping rope and see if Nita and Letty want to play.’

  ‘Wrap up warm, and don’t go out of the street,’ Ann warned. ‘It won’t be long before it’s pitch dark.’

  Tess came back into the room struggling into her coat. ‘You’ll still be here when we come back, won’t you, Mrs Lizzie?’

  ‘Give us a chance, queen, I’ve only just got here! If I left now I’d meet meself coming back! Besides, now I’ve parked me backside I won’t be un-parking it for an hour or so or it won’t have been worth the effort.’

  Maddy was tittering to herself as she handed Tess a pair of navy woollen gloves. Her sister was funny, and the funniest thing was, she didn’t know it! And she was a little love too! ‘Put those on and we’ll give next door a knock to see if Nita and Letty will come out.’

  When they’d left, Lizzie wiped a hand across her eyes and said, ‘Yer’ve got two smashing daughters, they’re a credit to yer. If yer ever get fed up, just pass them over to me.’

  ‘Not much fear of that, Lizzie,’ George told her. ‘We wouldn’t part with them, not even for a day.’

  ‘I think ye’re awful bloody tight, George, but I can see yer point. Anyway, what’s this about a private talk? Yer’ve got me curious now.’

  ‘It’s Ann who wants to talk to you, I’m just going to sit and listen.’

  ‘You’re involved as much as I am,’ Ann told him. ‘So if you have anything to say, or any questions, then speak now or forever hold your peace.’

  George grinned. ‘I will do that. Now, before Lizzie dies of curiosity, will you explain to her what you have in mind?’

  ‘Right, here goes.’ Ann took a deep breath. ‘I was telling George about the difference in our rents, Lizzie, and how I think it’s ridiculous for us to be struggling every week when we could make life a lot easier for ourselves. I love this house, and if I had a choice I would never leave. But it’s come to the point where I have to be realistic and admit we just can’t afford to live here now.’

  ‘I’ve already told yer my views on it,’ Lizzie said. ‘All ye’re doing is making the landlord rich while you are living on the bread line. I’m buggered if I’d live like that, but then I’m not you, so what I think doesn’t really matter. I don’t want to be the one to tell yer to do something yer don’t really want to do, and then get the blame for it later.’

  ‘I’m not asking you to tell us what to do, Lizzie, so you could never get the blame for our actions. All I was going to ask is, do you know of any empty houses in your area?’

  Lizzie cast an eye at George. ‘Is this what you want too?’

  ‘I’ll go along with whatever Ann wants to do. As long as the family are together, that’s all I ask. I’m sorry it’s come to us having to leave this house when Ann is so fond of it, but needs must when the devil drives. As long as she and the girls are happy, that’s all I ask of life.’

  When there was no response Ann leaned forward. ‘Lizzie, we don’t have a choice. I’m going to get deeper in debt every week. And Christmas is not far off, how am I to make it a happy one for the girls? There’s only one way, and that’s to cut down on our biggest outlay, which is the rent. So once again I ask, do you know of any houses that are empty in your neck of the woods?’

  ‘No, queen, not at the moment. They do come empty from time to time, but right now I don’t know of any. I do know one in our street is coming empty in the next two weeks, but I wouldn’t recommend it to yer. The landlord is going to have a hard time trying to find anyone decent to live there.’

  ‘Why is that? Is it broken-down or something?’

  ‘On the contrary, it’s one of the cleanest and best-kept houses in the street. It’s not the house that’s the problem, it’s the family what live next door to it.’

  ‘What’s wrong with them?’

  ‘It would be easier to tell yer what’s right with them! The woman, Nellie Bingham, is a real troublemaker, and her husband, Joe, is a bully. Everyone steers clear of them because they’re always looking for a fight. No one in the street has a kind word for them. That’s why Peggy Caldwell is leaving, she can’t stand it no more. And it’s a crying shame because they’re a lovely family and Peggy’s got her house like a little palace.’

  ‘Why doesn’t the landlord throw the bad neighbours out?’ George asked. ‘Wouldn’t that be better than allowing good tenants to leave?’

  ‘Oh, we’ve gone through that with the landlord, ’cos no one wants Peggy and her family to leave. The whole street’s up in arms about it. But according to the rent collector, there’s not much the landlord can do because the Binghams pay their rent on the dot every week. He has written a warning letter to them, but it doesn’t make a ha’p’orth of difference.’

  ‘What’s this Bingham woman’s house like?’ Ann asked. ‘A pig sty, I suppose?’

  ‘No, as it happens, she keeps the house clean. If she didn’t, the landlord would have grounds for throwing the family out. There’s two young boys, but they’re all right, they don’t cause any trouble. I feel sorry for them in a way, because they look really downtrodden. And who wouldn’t with parents like that? Their mother has a terrible tongue in her mouth and is too quick t
o use her fists. And the father, well, when he gets drunk, which is often, he’ll pick a fight with anyone around.’ Lizzie grinned and injected a lighter note to her voice. ‘He’s given us a few laughs over the years, mind, especially the night he was so rotten drunk he picked a fight with a lamp-post. He was punching hell out of it and swearing at the top of his voice. It brought the whole street out, and we all stood there laughing our heads off. It shows how drunk he was, he didn’t see us and thought it was the lamp-post laughing at him! Well, that made him more mad, didn’t it, and he kept on punching until his wife finally came out, told us all to sod off and dragged him in the house. It just goes to show what the booze can do to yer. It must deaden yer brain so that yer can’t feel any pain. His hands must have been in a terrible state and I bet he’d have been in agony when he sobered up. But the lamp-post had the last laugh, because when he passed it on the Monday morning both his hands were bandaged.’

  ‘So life in your street isn’t without its laughs, then?’ Ann asked.

  ‘We have our moments, queen. Most of the people are good neighbours, friendly and willing to do a good turn. But they say there’s a bad apple in every barrel and ours is the Bingham family.’

  George could see his wife’s mind working and said, ‘Forget it, Ann, it’s not for us.’

  ‘I wish I could forget it, love, but I can’t.’ Ann turned her eyes to Lizzie. ‘If we did take the house, would your rent man give us a chance of the next one that came empty? Then we wouldn’t have to stay there for that long. I could put up with a bit of bother for a short time while I straighten myself out, money-wise. That would be a load off my mind.’