Swansea Girls

by Catrin Collier

  ‘Look.’ An enormous tanker loomed on the horizon, dwarfing the yachts circling in the bay.

  ‘When I was younger I used to come down here to watch the ocean-going ships sail in and out of the docks. I was so sure then that I’d leave Swansea on one of them. Travel round the world, make my fortune and return with chests stuffed full of treasure.’

  ‘Like Dick Whittington.’

  ‘Oh, much richer than him.’ He laughed. ‘My father destroyed that particular fantasy when I was eight by taking Helen and me across to Ilfracombe on a day trip. Our return wasn’t at all like I imagined.’

  ‘Uncle Roy and Auntie Norah took me on one of those trips too.’

  ‘We could go again – together.’

  ‘I’d like that.’ ‘

  ‘Do you mean that, or will you always see me as Helen’s older brother?’

  ‘You’ll always be Helen’s older brother.’

  ‘I suppose I will,’ he murmured, not thinking about what he was saying. Slipping his fingers beneath her chin, he tilted up her face and kissed her. His touch was so light, so gentle that afterwards she couldn’t be sure it had happened. She drew back, ashamed of herself for expecting more after last night.

  He looked into her eyes before bending his head to hers a second time, and this time the touch of his lips on hers was firmer, more assured, and as his hands slid round to her back, she finally put all thoughts of his other girls from her mind.

  ‘John ...’

  ‘Is something wrong, Norah?’

  ‘We’ve had a call from the hospital.’ John heard a sharp intake of breath as Norah fought to keep control. ‘Annie died a few minutes ago. Roy’s gone for the boys. Can you bring Katie home?’

  ‘Do you want me to tell her?’ he asked, amazed to find himself volunteering for the task.

  ‘Whatever you think best.’

  ‘And if she asks what happened?’ John spoke quietly and calmly, in an attempt to force Norah to concentrate on practical matters.

  ‘From the symptoms, the doctor thinks it might have been a brain haemorrhage. He said it was not an entirely unexpected complication, given the severity of her injuries, but there was nothing he or anyone else could have done to save Annie, even if they had known it was going to happen. As Roy said, she has taken a lot of battering over the years. Roy’s bringing the boys here ...’

  ‘Don’t worry about Katie, I’ll get her to you as soon as I can.’ John put down the receiver and picked up his jacket from the back of his chair. Checking his car keys were in the pocket, he went to the door. Katie was sitting ashen-faced at her desk. He looked at her and realised she knew. ‘Get your coat, Katie,’ he murmured gently.

  Dry-eyed, she walked like an automaton to the coatstand.

  John picked up the telephone receiver and hit the button that connected to the warehouse floor. ‘Geoff, I have to go out. You’re in charge and, given the time, you’ll have to close up tonight ... No, don’t take the takings to my house ...’ He watched Katie button on the new grey woollen coat she had bought with the advance he had given her. She’d mismatched the top and second buttons and the hem hung uneven, lending her a quality even more urchin and orphan-like than usual. Orphan-like ... ‘That’s right, Geoff, straight to the night safe. Take Mike and Alan along with you for security. Don’t worry about up here. I’ll lock the office.’ He replaced the receiver.

  ‘Katie?’

  She looked so lost and forlorn; John did what he would have done if she had been his own daughter. Opening his arms, he held her tight before leading her gently out of the building to his car.

  ‘The bastard! The bloody bastard!’ Beside himself with rage, Jack slammed his fist into Norah’s kitchen wall.

  ‘Jack, come on now, there’s a good lad.’ Roy pulled him back. Holding Jack’s wrists firmly in his hands, he examined his knuckles. ‘Do that again and you’ll likely break some bones, and that won’t help anyone.’

  As tears of pure rage, frustration and despair began to fall from Jack’s eyes, Roy signalled to Norah.

  ‘Would you and Jack like to be alone for a bit, Martin?’ she asked.

  ‘Please, Mrs Evans,’ Martin accepted gratefully.

  ‘I’ll send Katie in when she gets here. If you need us before then, we’ll be in the parlour.’ Roy and Norah closed the door behind them.

  ‘All that bloody effort to get rooms and decorate them! All that bloody work for nothing. Mam will never set foot in them, never see them, never know how much we wanted to get her away from him ...’

  ‘But Katie will, Jack. We have her to think about now.’

  ‘She’ll be better off up here.’

  ‘She’s our sister,’ Martin reminded, trying to get his brother to think of something other than the part their father had played in their mother’s death. ‘We have to look after her, protect her ...’

  ‘Like we protected Mam?’

  Jack’s rage dissolved into tears and with them erupted years of pent-up emotion. Martin held his brother, realising that for all his anger, swagger and bravado, Jack hadn’t come any distance since he was six years old and Roy Williams had caught him stealing cigarettes from the corner shop.’

  ‘How did Mam die, Mr Griffiths?’ Katie asked as he turned the car into Walter Road.

  ‘Mrs Evans told me they can’t be sure yet, but the doctor thinks one of the blood vessels in her brain burst. The end was sudden and very quick. She wouldn’t have felt any pain. She would have simply gone to sleep and never woken up.’

  ‘It happened because Dad beat her.’

  ‘No one can be sure of that, Katie.’

  ‘I can.’ She turned her small white face to his. ‘Can I see her?’

  ‘The hospital won’t let you, yet. The nurses will need time to wash your mother’s body and lay it out properly,’ he explained, leaving out all mention of the indignities of post-mortem examination. ‘When my grandmother died I wanted to see her but I had to wait two days until I was allowed to bring her body home.’

  ‘We don’t have a home ...’

  ‘You and your brothers have a lot of friends, Katie, and I’m sure Mrs Evans and Constable Williams will arrange something suitable. Whatever happens, I promise you that you will be able to see your mother before she’s buried.’

  ‘I’d like a lock of her hair. Mam had one of her own mother’s.’

  ‘You’ll be able to cut one, Katie.’

  ‘Thank you for telling me the truth, Mr Griffiths.’ Katie stared straight ahead as he pulled up outside Roy’s and Norah’s house. ‘Most people would have tried to fob me off with lies about how Mam died.’

  He laid his hand on her arm, preventing her from leaving the car. ‘Take whatever time you need and if there is anything – anything – you can think of that I can do to help, you will ask me?’

  ‘Yes, Mr Griffiths.’

  John left the driver’s seat and walked round to help Katie from the car.

  Norah opened the door to them before they reached it. ‘Your brothers are in the kitchen, Katie.’

  ‘Thank you, Auntie Norah.’ Katie ran through the hall.

  ‘Come into the parlour, John.’

  ‘Thank you, Norah, I will for a few minutes, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘It’s good of you to bring Katie home.’ Roy ushered him to a comfortable chair.

  ‘Least I can do.’ John strained his ears but no sounds came from the kitchen.

  ‘They’re best left alone. Sorry, I’d like to offer you tea, John, but the kettle’s in the kitchen.’

  ‘I think something stronger is in order.’ Roy removed three glasses and a bottle of brandy from the cupboard in the alcove next to the fireplace.

  ‘Has anyone told Ernie?’ John asked.

  ‘We couldn’t get an answer at the flat. Mrs Lannon’s given him notice for non-payment of rent and he’s supposed to be out by this Sunday, but no one’s seen him since the boys put him to bed last night.’

  ‘Someone will have t
o identify Annie.’

  ‘I’m taking Martin and Jack down to the hospital. They wanted to see Katie before they went.’

  ‘She wants to see Annie.’

  ‘That might be best left until after the post-mortem.’

  John bowed to Roy’s superior professional knowledge of the rituals of sudden death. ‘Did Annie have any insurance?’ John looked from Roy to Norah. ‘I’m not prying. Annie was my neighbour as much as yours and I’ve done precious little over the years to help her.’

  ‘You ...’

  John held up his hand. ‘No excuses, Norah, we both know I could have done a lot more for her and the children. Please, I’d regard it as an honour if you’d allow me to pay for the funeral, but I do have a condition. You have to tell the children it was covered by an insurance policy. I don’t want them feeling they owe me anything.’

  ‘I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘It’s only money, Norah,’ John dismissed. ‘And money is meaningless once you’ve enough to live on, but it’s the most important thing in the world when you can’t cover the bare essentials.’

  ‘In that case, John, we accept on behalf of the children.’

  ‘And they’ll never find out?’

  ‘Not from us.’

  ‘Thank you.’ He sipped his brandy. ‘Is Lily with the boys?’

  ‘She’s with Joe.’ Norah made a face as she drank her brandy but John noticed she managed more of it than him. ‘They said they were going to walk to Mumbles.’

  ‘I could try to find them.’

  ‘Let her enjoy the evening as long as she can. There’s nothing she can do for now, and as Katie’s sharing her room, she’ll be with Katie all night.’

  John nodded.

  ‘But if you have time, John, perhaps you could drive the boys and me down to the hospital,’ Roy suggested. ‘I know it isn’t far, but Jack’s taken the news badly and he’s unpredictable enough normally.’

  ‘I’ll be glad to, Roy. And if you need anything, or more money ...’

  ‘You’ll be the first one we come to,’ Roy promised, recognising John’s need to be of use. The doorbell and telephone rang simultaneously. ‘And you can start helping now by answering the door, while I get the phone.’

  As soon as news spread of Annie’s death a procession of neighbours found their way to Norah’s and Roy’s door. The first was Mrs Lannon, who insisted on going into the kitchen to hand Martin a key to the new lock she’d had fitted to the door of the family’s old basement flat to deny his father access. After telling him to take all the time he wanted to clear the place of the family’s possessions, she hugged Katie, almost hugged Jack before thinking better of the idea in the face of his obvious disapproval, and joined Norah and Roy in the parlour.

  The next was Joy Hunt, who sat stiffly, sipping a cup of tea Katie had made, while steadfastly refusing to look Roy in the eye. Like John, she offered money, help with Katie, and food and drink for the post-funeral meal. The Jordans came; Doris took over the kitchen and sent Adam down to the basement to see if he could do anything for the boys who had retreated there with Katie.

  ‘Is it ever going to stop?’ Jack snapped, as the doorbell overhead rang, yet again, and footsteps echoed above their heads.

  ‘People are trying to be kind,’ Martin commented absently, haunted by an image of his mother, as she had been the last time he had seen her. White, lifeless, too exhausted to talk, her face bruised black and blue, the crown of her skull, jaw, hands and arms encased in bandages. Like Jack, he burned to do something to his father but Roy’s words – cool, calm, sensible – stayed with him: ‘You have your brother and sister to think about now, boy. They have no one else and they need you. Forget revenge and forget your father. With luck, you may never see him again.’

  ‘They weren’t bloody kind when Mam was alive.’ Jack’s voice, angry and savage, cut through his thoughts.

  ‘That’s unfair, Jack.’

  Both Jack and Martin turned to their sister. They were the first words Katie had spoken since they’d left upstairs.

  ‘Mrs Evans and Mr Williams have done everything they can for us and if they didn’t do more before, it was only because Mam wouldn’t let them.’

  ‘Martin, Jack.’ Roy knocked on the connecting door. ‘When you’re ready, Mr Griffiths will take us down to the hospital.’

  Adam rose to his feet. ‘I’d better go,’ he said awkwardly, glancing at Katie who had consistently ignored him, whether deliberately or not he couldn’t decide.

  ‘Thanks for coming round.’ Martin left his chair.

  ‘I’ll tell the other boys what happened, Jack.’

  ‘Other boys?’ Jack looked at Adam blankly for a moment, then he remembered. ‘The youth club dance.’

  ‘They’ll probably push the booking on a few weeks. They have a record player. Perhaps in a month or so ...’

  ‘No, I’ll play on Saturday.’

  ‘Jack, it’s not important.’

  ‘I have nothing better to do.’

  ‘Marty?’ Adam appealed.

  ‘Jack’s right, none of us is doing any good sitting around here listening to the bell ring upstairs. We may as well go.’

  ‘Won’t people think it disrespectful?’

  ‘People can think what they bloody well please. My mother knew what I thought of her and what I’ll carry on thinking of her for the rest of my life. I’ll change out of my working clothes. I’ll only be a couple of minutes, Mr Williams.’ Jack walked down the passage towards his bedroom.

  ‘Can I go with you?’ Katie asked Roy.

  ‘This is only going to be a lot of forms and papers, Katie. You’d be better off waiting to see your mam. I’ll arrange to have her brought back here as soon as the hospital release her body, but that probably won’t be for a day or two. Once she’s here you can spend as much time with her as you like before the funeral.’

  ‘Here? To this house?’

  ‘Norah’s arranging the parlour now, Martin. She could probably do with some help, Katie, after the boys and I have left.’

  ‘I’ll come up then, Mr Williams.’

  ‘Please, call me Uncle Roy, Katie. Mr Williams sounds funny coming from you. I’ll be upstairs, Martin. Take your time. The hospital won’t mind an extra ten minutes or so.’

  ‘That should do it.’ Norah surveyed the room. After firmly ushering out the last of the well-meaning neighbours, she and Katie had pushed back the chairs, lining them up against the wall to clear the rug in the centre for the trestles for the coffin. Norah had closed the curtains before they started and intended to keep them closed in the hope that the rest of the neighbours would remain at bay for a day or two, or at least until Katie and the boys had become accustomed to receiving condolences and Jack could handle sympathy with slightly better grace than he had earlier.

  While she polished the chairs and side tables, Norah set Katie the task of washing every flower vase in the house and placing them on the sideboard in readiness for bouquets.

  ‘We need to talk about food and how many people are likely to come back here after the service,’ Norah said, as Katie carried in the last tray of vases. ‘Mrs Jordan, Mrs Hunt and Mrs Lannon have offered to help. Do you have many relatives, Katie?’ she asked, in an attempt to draw the girl out of the silence she had withdrawn into since Martin and Jack had left with Roy and John.

  ‘No, Mam’s parents died before I was born. I think she has two brothers but we haven’t heard from them in years. Not even a Christmas card.’

  ‘Do you know if they live in Swansea?’

  Katie shook her head.

  ‘The undertaker will put a notice in the Evening Post. If they are living in the town, hopefully they, or someone who knows them, will see it.’

  ‘With the notices in the paper, the coffin, the cars and everything else, this funeral is going to cost an awful lot of money.’

  ‘Yes, Katie.’ Norah faced Katie head on, and prepared to tell the second-biggest lie of her life. ‘It is
going to be a very expensive time for you and your brothers, but your mother had an insurance policy that will more than cover the costs.’

  ‘I never saw Mam pay an insurance man. She tried to take out a policy once, but Dad sent the man packing. He said we needed all our money for life, not death.’

  ‘That’s why she asked me to take the premiums out of the money I paid her for helping me with the sewing. So your father wouldn’t find out.’

  ‘She paid all the premiums herself?’ Katie asked suspiciously.

  Norah thrust her hands into her cardigan pockets and crossed her fingers. ‘She did. You can have the payout yourself if you want, and you and your brothers can arrange everything. You might be able to do it cheaper ...’

  ‘No, thank you, Auntie Norah. You and Uncle Roy know more about funerals than Marty, Jack and me.’

  ‘Unfortunately.’ Norah jumped as the doorbell rang. ‘Who can that be? I thought the neighbours would realise we need a bit of peace.’

  Before she had time to open the door, the bell rang again, only this time whoever was there kept their finger on the button.

  ‘They’re going to run down the clockwork.’

  ‘It’s my father.’ Katie’s eyes rounded in fear.

  ‘It’s all right, Katie.’ Norah tried to speak calmly although her own heart was thundering.

  ‘Katie!’ Ernie opened the letter box and yelled above the sound of the bell. His voice took on an ominous tone as it echoed down the passage. ‘Out here this minute, girl, with your wages! Now! Or I’ll come in to get you.’

  ‘Katie, go into the kitchen, there’s a good girl, and sit down before you fall down,’ Norah ordered. ‘I’ll see to your father.’

  ‘Please, Auntie Norah.’ Katie clutched at Norah’s arm in an effort to stop her going to the door. ‘Please, don’t go out there. Don’t talk to him. Please, make him go away ...’