Born Bad

by Josephine Cox

  Laying down the knife, she crossed the room to him. ‘Sure, I’ve never seen a man yet who can fix his tie.’ Reaching up, she flicked the tie here, then crossed it over there, and now she patted it down. Standing back to admire her handiwork, she gave him a little push. ‘Sit yourself down,’ she told him. ‘Young Tom is already up and dressed, and ready for breakfast, bless his little manly heart.’

  When Harry began fiddling with his tie again, she slapped the back of his hand. ‘Will ye leave that alone, or do I have to clip your ear an’ all?’

  ‘Sorry, Kathleen,’ Harry said. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me. All I’m doing today is accompanying one of the salesmen on his rounds, and I feel like a little boy on my first day at a new school.’

  Kathleen laughed out loud. ‘Do ye not know what us women have always known?’ she asked.

  ‘No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me.’ He relaxed with a smile. ‘So what is it that you women have always known?’

  Kathleen chuckled. ‘Only that a man needs a wise woman to tell him what to do.’ She patted her ample chest. ‘And they don’t come any wiser than Kathleen O’Leary!’

  ‘Well, thank you for that, Kathleen O’Leary,’ Harry grinned, tongue in cheek. ‘I feel ten times better now, for knowing that.’

  ‘Sausage or black pudding?’ she wanted to know. ‘You can’t have both, because there are only two sausages and somebody’s got to go without.’

  Harry loved her jolly banter. It lifted his spirits. ‘I’m happy either way,’ he told her.

  ‘But what would you prefer?’

  ‘The sausage, if it’s going begging.’

  ‘Right then! You can have the last sausage. Tom’s already opted for the other one.’

  ‘No, I’m all right, Kathleen, honestly. If Tom’s already claimed one sausage, you’d best have the other. I’ll be absolutely fine with the black pudding.’ He glanced about. ‘Where is Tom, by the way?’

  ‘Outside, chasing the cat.’

  Harry went to the back door and called him in. ‘Hurry up, son. I’ll be away to work in a few minutes.’

  When Tom came running in through the back door, Harry scooped him into his arms. ‘I hear you’ve been chasing the cat?’

  Tom shook his head. ‘No, Daddy. I was just running, and the cat ran after me.’

  ‘Oh, I see. The cat was chasing you.’ Harry set him down. ‘Well, now it’s time for breakfast. After that, I’m away to my new job, and you’ve got the lovely Kathleen to take care of you.’ He lowered his voice to a more intimate level. ‘So are you happy with that, son?’

  Tom’s face lit up. ‘Me and Kathleen are going on the train to Bedford, and we might go down to the river and feed the ducks, that’s what Kathleen said.’

  ‘All the way to Bedford? Wow! And feeding the ducks, lucky you!’ Harry feigned disappointment. ‘And there’s poor me, having to go to work. It’s just not fair.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Daddy, but you have to go to work,’ the small boy declared. ‘Kathleen said you have to “shake a leg” and get out to work. Right? I’m not to worry, ’cos you need to earn us a living, don’t you?’ His little head was nodding fifteen to the dozen, as though encouraging Harry to agree.

  Harry had to smile. ‘You’re right,’ he answered stoutly. ‘Some of us can play, and some of us have to work. Is that what you mean?’

  Tom nodded. ‘Yes, Daddy. That’s what Kathleen said.’

  Harry turned away with a grin on his face. This past year had been a nightmare. Only now, with Kathleen back in his life and little Tom taking so well to his new environment, did Harry’s heart feel easier. He realised how his darling wife had known what she was doing, when she made him promise to go back to the place of his childhood. She had been so right. And he was so immensely grateful for her wisdom.

  For a moment he held her memory close, and he was sad.

  Then Kathleen’s cheery voice came sailing across the kitchen, and all the pain of the past was pushed into that special, private corner of his heart.

  With her usual hustle and bustle, Kathleen served the breakfast, and what a breakfast it was: sausage, black pudding, bacon and eggs, with a pile of newly baked, fresh-cut crusty bread, and a pint of tea on the side.

  ‘Crikey, Kathleen!’ Harry was amazed. ‘It’s Monday morning and I’m away to a new job. With this lot inside me, I’ll be lucky to get to the first call.’

  ‘Away with ye!’ Dipping her crust into the plump egg yolk, she wagged a finger at him. ‘A man needs a good start to the day.’

  Harry tucked in. ‘Whatever you say.’ He looked over at Tom who was munching on a piece of crispy bacon. ‘All right, son?’

  Tom gave a little nod. He was far too busy to talk.

  ‘Hang on, what’s this sausage doing on my plate?’ Harry complained. ‘I thought I said I’d be happy to settle for the black pudding?’

  ‘Ah, well now.’ Kathleen looked positively guilty. ‘The thing is, I’m very partial to black pudding, only I didn’t like to say, and so I took yours and gave you the sausage instead. And it’s no good you asking for it back, because this is the last piece!’ With the cheekiest grin, she popped the chunk of black pudding into her mouth.

  ‘Naughty Kathleen!’ Tom was earwigging.

  ‘Sure, when ye get to my age, being naughty is the only real thing you have to look forward to,’ she told him.

  Tom was intrigued. ‘When will I get to your age?’

  ‘Let me see …’ Kathleen pretended to ponder. ‘Well now, I reckon you could get there tomorrow. But if truth be told, ye have to work up to it, and do things, and learn things, and then you get bigger and wiser; and then you might be ready to be as old as your Auntie Kathleen. So, has that answered your question now?’

  Tom gave a deep, grown-up sigh, popped the tail end of his own sausage into his mouth and nodded. Then he shook his head, and nodded again. ‘Mmm!’

  Sausage gone. Subject closed.

  Having arrived in Bedford town, Harry parked the Hillman at the back of Jacobs’ Emporium and made his way inside the staff entrance.

  ‘Morning, Harry!’ That was the effervescent Amy, chirpy as ever. ‘Fighting fit, are you?’

  Looking more like sixteen than twenty-four, with her mousey-coloured hair in a pigtail down her back and a white shirt that gave her the demeanour of a schoolgirl, she merrily informed him, ‘Mr Jacobs isn’t about and Len is up in the office working out his round. I’m just making a brew, so d’you want a cuppa while you wait?’ She had taken to Harry the first time he walked into the shop. He was good-looking and easy-natured, though there was something about him that made her want to cuddle him and tell him not to worry, that everything would be all right.

  Harry shook his head. ‘I’ve had enough tea this morning to float a battleship,’ he laughed. Still full from breakfast, he wanted to be able to tackle the streets of Bedford without puffing and panting at the slightest little hill he might come across.

  He did have a question though. ‘This tallyman job – what’s it really like?’ he asked. He’d chatted to her about it last time, before his interview, but his nerves had got in the way and he still didn’t really know what he was letting himself in for.

  ‘It’s okay, I guess.’ Leaning forward across her desk, she crossed her arms, and gazed up at him, as though waiting for his next question.

  ‘What’s “okay” supposed to mean exactly?’ Harry was amazed that from the very first, he had fallen so naturally into conversation with this bright, curious little creature.

  Amy briefly pondered, then she sat up straight and explained, ‘Well, it means that some days you can go from house to house with never a problem. The sun is shining. You knock on the door, they open it, hand you the money with a smile; you sign their little tally-book, and away you go, job done – unless, of course, you’re offered a piece of cake that you can’t refuse.’

  Harry got all that. ‘Right, so that’s some days. What about the others?’

 
Twisting her mouth into a wide wavy shape, she pondered again. ‘Well, on other days, it might be chucking it down with rain and you’re soaked to the skin. Then you knock on the door, and get no answer. You knock again; still no answer, but you know the customer is in, because she’s done it before. So you peer through the window, and you can see her legs sticking out from behind the sofa, and you know she’s hiding from you.’

  Harry got the picture. ‘So then what?’

  ‘Then you call through the letterbox and you say that you’ll be sending somebody round to collect the furniture if she doesn’t come to the door right this very minute.’

  ‘And will she come to the door?’

  ‘You never know your luck. It all depends on how much in arrears she might be.’

  ‘So if I’ve persuaded her to come to the door, what do I do then?’

  ‘Well, you ask her for payment. Usually, she’ll plead that she’s a bit short on her housekeeping this week, and that you’ll have to wait. Besides, her little Joey needs a new pair of shoes, but don’t worry because she’ll be sure to catch up with you next week.’

  ‘I see. And if she’s got no money, I just write it down in my tally-ledger, and that’s a black mark against her, is that it?’

  ‘Something like that, yes.’

  ‘And if she won’t come to the door, I just go away and she still gets a black mark, yes?’

  Amy nodded. ‘That’s about the size of it.’

  ‘So, if she doesn’t catch up with the arrears next week, what happens then?’

  ‘Then you report it to Mr Jacobs and he deals with it, in his own way.’

  ‘I see!’

  When he frowned, she quickly put his mind at rest. ‘Jakey won’t send round a gang of thugs to sort her out, if that’s what worries you,’ she told him with a grin. ‘He’s a good man and does his best to help the customers out. But at the end of the day, he’s also a businessman. This store provides us all with a living, including himself.’

  ‘I understand that.’

  ‘Okay. So you will also understand that he needs a regular supply of money to buy the stock, or he might as well shut up shop. So, if he gets a bad payer, he’ll make arrangements for her to pay a smaller amount until the debt is cleared. Meantime, she won’t be allowed in the shop. Once the debt is paid, she can buy whatever she likes from the store, cash in hand, but she won’t be allowed to buy anything else on tick.’

  ‘And that happens often, does it?’

  ‘Thankfully, not too often.’ She took a sip of her lukewarm tea. ‘Are you sure you don’t want a cup?’

  Harry was about to reply, when Len emerged from sorting out his round; a larger-than-life character, with bags of charm and a high opinion of himself, he was all smiles and teeth and loud with it. But there was something about him which Harry could not put his finger on, but which put him instantly on his guard.

  ‘Well, Harry, my lad!’ The other man addressed Harry with a wide, flamboyant grin. ‘Good to see you.’ Grabbing his hand, he shook it vigorously. ‘So! You’re ready to face the big wide world, are you?’

  Harry had taken an instant dislike to him, but he knew better than to show his feelings, especially as he was to work with this man until he knew the ropes well enough to go out on his own. ‘Ready when you are.’ Harry looked him squarely in the eye. ‘In fact, I’m looking forward to it.’

  Len took stock of Harry; the broad shoulders and confident stance, and those deep, dark eyes which seemed to see right through him. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he would have to be on his guard with this one. ‘Right!’ He made a sweeping gesture towards the doors. ‘Let’s be off then, shall we?’

  ‘Have fun,’ Amy’s voice called after them. ‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’

  ‘Hah!’ Len waved a hand to her. ‘The world’s our oyster then, is it?’

  ‘Bloomin’ cheek!’ And as Amy saw the car drive away, she murmured, ‘you’ll need to watch that one, Harry my love. People are not always what you might think.’

  Going about her work, she began singing, softly at first, then with gusto, until a customer complained that he couldn’t hear himself think. Jacob, called down to her, ‘AMY! Will you stop that damned caterwauling! I can’t hear myself think!’

  Muttering under her breath she grumbled, ‘Miserable devil. It won’t be long before I get discovered and then you’ll see! People will pay to hear me sing.’

  Not too far away, two men were loading a sofa onto the van. ‘Thank God she’s stopped that bloody racket!’ one said to the other. ‘It does my ’ead in.’

  ‘So, Harry, meladdo, d’you think you’re suited to it, or have you had enough already?’ Planning to baptise Harry into the roughest areas first, Len had cunningly switched the order of route. ‘It’s not easy, is it?’ he said slyly. ‘Trying to get money out of these people is like pulling teeth without anaesthetic.’

  ‘They’re probably good people, just fallen on hard times.’ Harry had seen enough to know that Len had no respect for the customers. The poorer they were, the more contemptuous he was; though if the woman of the house was pretty or friendly, he turned on the charm like he’d been born to it.

  ‘Huh! You’re too easily fooled,’ Len retorted curtly. ‘It’s one thing when they come into the shop, and it’s an altogether different story when you visit their homes. Many of these people are liars and thieves, straight out o’ jail, some of ’em. Man, woman or child, they’ll take what they want and lie through their teeth to get it.’

  Harry found that hard to believe. ‘They can’t all be that bad, surely?’

  ‘Well, all right, maybe I am exaggerating just a little. I just don’t want you lulled into a false sense of security with their canny lies and false smiles. Be on your guard, that’s all I’m saying.’

  ‘If they’re bad payers, why were they allowed to get into debt?’ In the short time he had known him, Harry’s instinct told him not to pay too much heed to what Len had to say. ‘Surely it would have been better all round if Mr Jacobs had refused to let them have credit in the first place?’

  ‘Hmh! Listen to you. Been at it five minutes and already you’re dishing out the advice.’

  Harry mentally kicked himself. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean it to sound that way.’ The last thing he needed was to get off on the wrong foot with the man chosen to teach him the job.

  Taking a cigarette from his jacket pocket, the other man lit it and took a long, slow drag. ‘In case you hadn’t realised, Jacobs is one hell of a smart businessman.’ Watching Harry with his beady eyes, he blew the smoke out in a perfect ring. ‘He knows that if he doesn’t give them credit, someone else will. Besides, if they don’t pay back what they owe, it’s only a matter of time before he has them in the petty courts.’

  He gave a dissatisfied grunt. ‘It’s all decided by the local magistrate. He listens to their sorry tale, then lets them pay off the debt at a few measly quid a month. I tell you what though – if I were in Jacobs’ shoes, I’d forget the courts.’

  ‘And do what?’ Harry anticipated his answer.

  ‘I’d send the heavies round, that’s what I’d do. Teach the buggers a lesson they won’t forget in a hurry. Either that, or seize their belongings. I wouldn’t wait months till the debt’s paid up, that’s for sure. Hit ’em where it hurts, that’s what I say.’

  Harry bristled. ‘It’s just as well Mr Jacobs is in charge then, and not you, eh?’

  Flinging his cigarette on the ground, the other man screwed it flat with the heel of his shoe. ‘Are you having a go at me, or what?’ He gave a half-smile, but his pale eyes glittered with anger.

  Harry shrugged. ‘What makes you think that?’

  ‘I didn’t much care for that remark.’

  ‘Just an observation, that’s all.’ Harry played it cool. He needed to keep this job. Also, he believed he could make a few changes if he went about it the right way. Antagonising Len was not a clever move just now.

  ‘So you’
re not having a go then?’

  ‘Is there any reason why I should?’ Harry answered cagily.

  It seemed an age before the other man replied.

  He gave a sly sideways glance at Harry, then he licked his dry lips and burst out laughing. ‘You’re a card an’ no mistake!’ he chortled. ‘D’you know what? You and me are out of the same mould. Something tells me we’re going to get on like a house on fire.’

  Harry gave no response but the other man’s sickening observation only hardened his resolve. He promised himself that once he knew the ropes, he would never work with this man again.

  In fact, he had not altogether dismissed the idea of speaking with Mr Jacobs about Len’s attitude to the customers.

  The day went by much quicker than Harry expected.

  By lunchtime, they had covered all the streets west of the river. They had a light lunch in the bar of the Swan Hotel, where Len eyed up every waitress, guest and even the shy young woman who came in trying to sell bed linen to the manageress. ‘I wouldn’t mind trying out a bed or two with her!’ he said lasciviously.

  Len ogled her from the minute she set foot in the foyer, to when she followed the manageress to her office and then went and sat at the bar to partake of a glass of orange juice to drown her disappointment at not making a sale. And now, as she carried her wares towards the main doors, he said to Harry, ‘You just watch me in action! I’ll have her eating out of my hand in no time.’

  Glancing back to wink at Harry, he stalked the young woman to the door. ‘You can sell me anything you like, my little beauty,’ he teased. ‘Any time, any place. I’m not a hard man to please.’

  The young woman looked him up and down, noting the beer belly and the drooping jowls, and she gave a kind of snort. ‘Clear off, you creep!’ she snarled. ‘If you think I’d even give you a second glance, you’re way out of your tree.’ She’d had a bad day and he was making it worse.

  ‘Hey!’ Rattled by her remarks, Len took a step towards her. ‘Seems to me like you need a lesson in manners, you little tart.’