by Katie King
The result was that the children were asked by Roger if they wanted to contribute their pocket money towards a weekly visit to the cinema to see the news broadcasts, which they did. Roger told them that he would be accompanying them, as chaperone.
‘Pa!’ Tommy’s voice had a whine to it, ‘the lads from school won’t ’ave anyone wi’ ’em. It’ll make us seem like babies if we can’t go on our own.’
Roger replied uncharacteristically gruffly, ‘Well, the deal is that I come with you, so you must like it or lump it. And if that is a problem for all, or any, of you – Tommy, are you listening? – then the cinema and Pathé News, and putting pins in maps is off the agenda, I’m afraid. And I mean it.’
Chapter Twenty-five
With quite a lot of scrimping and planning, Jessie had saved a whole two bob of his pocket money to buy Connie a birthday present. One morning, not long after he’d fed and cleaned out Milburn, and given her a wash-down as the weather was so warm and clammy even right in the middle of the night that the pony had sweated up in her stable, he left the others to deal with the chickens and Porky as he wanted to walk to the shops with Peggy, who was on her way to her morning stint at June Blenkinsop’s and who was pushing Holly along in the perambulator.
As they strolled along, Jessie told his aunt that he’d wanted to go to the shops on his own in order to choose Connie’s birthday present as he didn’t want to be distracted by the others as to what he might choose to get her.
Peggy told Jessie that he was a very nice brother for Connie to have, and that she personally was proud of him for wanting to get his sister something nice for her birthday. Jessie gave such a grin of joy at her compliment that Peggy gave him a shilling to add to his spending fund (thinking she must remember to do the same for Connie later) as she vowed to herself that she would tell the children more often when she felt they were doing something nice. It didn’t cost her anything to do this in the emotional sense, and the rewards really seemed worth it as far as the children were concerned, to judge by Jessie’s grin. And, Peggy admitted to herself, it was nice to make somebody else smile, as she hadn’t been too good at this since the trip to the seaside, other than with Holly of course. But Holly smiled easily and could even find her own feet hilarious, and so Peggy didn’t feel particularly impressed with herself for making her daughter chuckle.
At the shops Jessie enjoyed himself as he wandered about for an hour or more, and eventually made his mind up that his sister’s present would either be two cinema tickets so that Connie and Aiden could go to the flicks on their own or a tube of pink Chapstick (it almost looked like a pale lipstick, although he knew it would be colourless on her lips as Aunt Peggy had one – but Jessie had heard Connie and Angela talking only the day before about how much they were looking forward to having their own lipsticks one day, provided there was still some left in the shops by the time they were old enough as they’d heard on the wireless that make-up was running out and was increasingly hard to find, and so this seemed a good compromise that Jessie could afford and that he thought his sister would appreciate). Jessie didn’t think Connie and Aiden were necessarily girlfriend and boyfriend, but he knew they liked being together and so he thought Connie might enjoy the cinema tickets as a thoughtful present. This was a bigger gesture than it might have first seemed, as Jessie often felt a bit jealous of the way Connie looked at Aiden, as until they had arrived in Harrogate he was used to being the one she wanted to spend time with more than anyone else and so when she gave Aiden her special, conspiratorial look, it did give her brother a pang somewhere deep down inside him.
Jessie was standing on the pavement near the shops and, frozen in indecision as to which was the present that Connie would most enjoy, he had just tossed a halfpenny in the air to help him decide – heads for the Chapstick, tails for the cinema tickets – when he was unable to adroitly catch the coin in his right hand ready to slap on his left forearm, and with a sigh of frustration he had to watch it skitter off his arm and down onto the pavement.
But before he could lean over to pick it up, a mouldy old boot with the leather at the toe worn completely through, the tread of the heels ground down to nothing, and the laces so raggedy that they were long enough for only the top two lace-holes to actually be used, stamped itself down hard on the halfpenny as it was spinning, and flattened the coin into a mossy cleft in the pavement.
Jessie, who had been deep in concentration, jumped with the shock at what he was seeing. He had thought he was in a pleasant, dreamy world of his own, thinking about presents and birthdays. But as he looked up quickly, his heart sank. In fact he was in his worst nightmare.
He was alone, with none of his friends nearby, while standing directly in front of him were the five evacuee boys from Hull, oozing cockiness and delight at having discovered one of the TT Muskets hived off from the rest of the gang. He fancied he could smell their unwashed bodies, and sense them sidling around to circle him completely.
Jessie hoped one of them would be looking at least a little friendly, but no such luck as every single one of their dingy, blank-looking faces seemed nothing short of mean and aggressive, and clearly out for trouble.
As he felt the chilly shiver of somebody walking over his grave despite the heat of the morning, Jessie knew without a shadow of doubt that he was in for a drubbing. He was hopelessly outnumbered and, although he had assiduously concentrated during the self-defence lessons that Roger had organised in the church hall, he realised now that out in the real world events unfolded in a very different way to how one practised for it in a class and he, distressingly, had nothing in this particular situation to offer in his own defence. Jessie looked about wildly, hoping to see anything or anyone that might come to his aid, but in this he was defeated immediately, quickly concluding that there was precious little he could do to help himself. He would just have to face whatever was coming his way with all the bravery he could muster.
It was the biggest, the one who had told the Tall Trees lot to bugger off when he’d been leaning over the wall yelling at them just after Connie had humiliated them all, who had his foot on Jessie’s coin. Of course it was.
Gone was the Hull boys’ now silly-seeming routine of showing off and posturing. Jessie longed for it to be back, as in comparison with the brooding, hard, vindictive stares of these lads up close that he could see before him now, if they had employed their old series of moves perhaps it could have bought Jessie just a little time to try to think of a way out of his predicament. But there was no chance of that this morning, he could see.
‘’Ey up, that’s t’ little runt from t’ gang wi’ t’ daft pony an’ t’ cocky bonny lass,’ said one with a hideous inevitability.
The capless, big one in the middle replied significantly, ‘Aye, yer right, bonny lad, so it is. An’ wot a little runt ’e be’, and then he stepped forward and began giving Jessie sharp pushes in the chest. This boy was strong, and with two of his compadres having moved behind Jessie to cut off any chance of escape, Jessie found himself being forced backwards into an alley. Each time his chest was struck Jessie felt a jab of pain that made him wince (not too obviously, he hoped), but he suspected that this was just a prelude to something much worse.
He was right, and the only good thing about it all was that he didn’t have to wait too long for it to happen.
‘I, er … I …’ he tried, but his words were lost in a kerfuffle and suddenly Jessie found himself on the ground, bashing his hip bone and his elbow as he went down, as one of the lads behind him had stuck out a leg which Jessie had been pushed backwards against until he lost his balance and had tumbled down onto the cobbles in the alley. It was all happening so quickly that now he didn’t even have time to be scared.
Then, without further ado, all these Hull evacuees pounced. They were full of bloodlust, Jessie thought, and he quailed as he heard them yell ‘take that’ and ‘what d’ yer think o’ that, yer fuckin’ jessie?’ and ‘yer bleedin’ soddin’ toe-rag’, as viciou
sly they repeatedly kicked and punched him.
All Jessie could do was to tuck his chin to his chest, and try helplessly to cover his head with his arms and hands as the blows and thumps and kicks rained relentlessly down on him although, oddly, after the first wincing jolts of pain, for a while he felt very little. As he lay on his side sucking up what they had to offer – which was a lot – Jessie drew his knees as close up to his belly as he could in order to make himself as small a target as possible as he just tried to get through the next minute or two.
‘Yer jessie, yer little bleeder!’ one yelled, but Jessie had already got the point.
The assault seemed to go on for ever although Jessie heard the breathing of the boys become more laboured as their initial enthusiasm dwindled, and gradually he felt a slight lessening of the power of their kicks and punches.
And then there was a slight pause.
The next thing Jessie heard was Tommy’s strident voice shouting with – as Jessie thought to himself as he was now hit by wave after wave of pain sweeping over him – a depressing lack of originality in swearwords, ‘’E might be a right jessie all right, but he’s our fuckin’ jessie, d’ yer ’ear, yer fuckin’ maggots? Lay off ’im. ’E’s our fuckin’ Jessie, d’ yer get it, yer fuckin’ bastards? OUR fuckin’ JESSIE!’
While correct in the technical sense, Jessie didn’t think the Hull lads had any idea of his name, and so he couldn’t help feeling that Tommy was perhaps not promoting quite the most sensible version of him, and it was an assertion that in all likelihood would lead to a greater flurry of kicks and punches on his prone body.
However, Jessie was wrong in this assumption, as then there was a different sound of hitting as the complexion of the attack altered and there was a flurry of faster-seeming whacks and blows, accompanied by somebody grunting with the effort of what they were doing. These were whacks and blows that weren’t touching Jessie any longer as they were being targeted elsewhere, just above where he was lying in the dirt, and there was a long moment or two where time stretched elastic before the harsh, ear-piercing sound of a policeman’s whistle interrupted whatever it was that was going on in the alley.
But by this point Jessie was oblivious and beyond caring, as he was no longer conscious.
Chapter Twenty-six
Her sandals making slapping noises on the floor, Connie barged into June Blenkinsop’s where Peggy was sitting behind the counter taking the money from customers.
‘Aunt Peggy! Aunt Peggy, come quickly, Jessie’s been hurt! Hurt very bad. He’s not moving and his eyes are shut, and I think he’s dying,’ Connie screamed really loudly as she pushed her way to the front of the queue.
The café sounds of pleasant chattering and cutlery on crockery fell silent as most of the customers were regulars, and so they knew Peggy and all the evacuees at Tall Trees, especially since the arrival of Milburn had made them such a distinctive bunch of children over the summer. Several of the customers had remarked at various times to Peggy that the Tall Trees children looked as if they were having a wonderful time larking around.
For an instant Peggy looked frozen in the dead still of the teashop as she stared uncomprehendingly at Connie as if she couldn’t quite take on board what her visibly distraught niece had just said to her.
‘Aunt Peggy – Jessie’s dying!’ Connie tried again, and this time Peggy understood her niece’s desperate words.
June told Peggy to just go with Connie, assuring her that she could manage both the till and keeping an eye on Holly, who was happily snoozing the morning away in her perambulator that had been placed in the shade in the teashop’s back yard, insisting that Peggy should hurry off and do what she had to do.
With this Peggy was able to put herself in gear. She gave the tiniest of grim smiles in her friend’s direction and, wrenching off her pinny and throwing it towards the counter but it landing on the floor in her haste to leave, she fairly raced from the café with Connie at her side, followed by several calls of good luck from the customers. Hot on their heels was one of James’s doctor colleagues, who’d been enjoying an early lunch but who had downed his knife and fork immediately when he realised a child was lying very possibly badly hurt.
The alleyway where Jessie’s duffing-up had taken place was only a few streets away, and by the time a slightly breathless Peggy and Connie ran into it a policeman was there. He was holding with one of his giant meaty hands firmly onto the arm of the now chastened-looking ringleader of the Hull boys, whose knuckles were skinned and whose brow was sweating around a crop of angry-looking whiteheads, while the policeman was using his other hand to clasp the upper arm of Tommy, who was leaning forward to get a view of the Hull boy around the policeman’s generous belly, staring at him furiously. The Hull boy was alone now as the rest of his gang had made themselves scarce at the copper’s whistle but this one had been too shocked at what had happened to run away quickly enough and now he was making sure he didn’t catch Tommy’s eye.
Several members of the public were gathered around Jessie, who was still out cold, lying forlorn and bloody and completely motionless in the dirt and filth of the alley.
Peggy was horrified when she realised that the small bundle of crumpled clothes that initially she had taken for some tatty and ancient garment discarded in a heap by a lax owner was actually her nephew, when she peered more closely at what everyone was looking at. She was struck by how little and vulnerable Jessie looked lying there, deathly white, and with his mouth open and blood on his teeth.
Jessie’s limbs were lying anyhow, his dark lashes feathered on an alabaster cheek as the young doctor kneeled on the cobbles to check that he was breathing. Then, the doctor gently turned Jessie onto his side and placed his own jacket under his head, after which he bent Jessie’s top leg forward at the hip and then back at the knee so that he was propped up.
As Peggy saw the doctor carefully feel in Jessie’s mouth to make sure there were no obstructions, she thought what a pitiful sight it all was, and she was really glad that Barbara and Ted weren’t going to be seeing their dear son lying helpless like this.
Connie began to howl, spooked by how deathly still Jessie was, and Peggy pulled her close. Worried that more of the children from Tall Trees may have been set on by the gang, Peggy asked where everyone was and through Connie’s sobs learned that Aiden had run to the hospital to see if he could find James, and that Angela and Larry were back at Tall Trees and so they had no idea that anything had happened. Connie had been going to the shops herself as she had wanted to buy her brother a present (just like he had been buying one for her, although Connie didn’t know this), while Tommy had been with her as he’d been sent on an errand by Mabel, and Aiden had been there too as he was on the way to June’s to take over from Peggy early as Mabel had thought she looked a bit drawn that morning.
The long and short of it was that the children had seen the last bit of Jessie being pushed into the alley as they turned the corner at the top of the road but they hadn’t been able to get there in time to prevent him taking quite a pasting doled out by the five boys.
Connie was just starting to describe Tommy’s lightning defence of Jessie when Aiden ran back to the group in the alley at this point, panting extravagantly and looking very worried, and between gasps wheezing out that he hadn’t been able to find James at the hospital. However, the doctor who’d been looking after Jessie told Aiden he mustn’t worry as somebody had just telephoned from a nearby newsagents to the hospital on his say-so to request an ambulance.
The doctor tried to reassure Peggy further by saying that James was an expert in head injuries and so it was best that Jessie be taken to the hospital as soon as possible, and to this Peggy could only mutter, ‘We know, thank you, all about Dr Legard, as unfortunately we’ve already had experience of the extent of his skill as he’s been looking after one of our other evacuees, Angela, and he also treated myself and my daughter.’
Then quite a lot happened at once. Another two policemen tur
ned up, and both Tommy and the Hull boy were marched off to the police station. And the ambulance arrived, and Jessie was put on a stretcher and lifted into the back of it. His eyes started to flicker open at one point although alarmingly all Peggy could see was the whites of his eyeballs, and he let out a reverberating groan that sounded to her almost as if he were experiencing all the pain and distress there was in the world.
‘Connie, you and Aiden run home now and tell Mabel and Roger what has happened and that Tommy is going to be at the police station – that’s really important, as they must know where he is as quickly as possible,’ instructed Peggy over her shoulder as she climbed into the ambulance after the stretcher. ‘I’m going to the hospital with Jessie, and you children – listen to me, as this is important – I want you all to wait back at Tall Trees together so that we know where you are. Nobody is to leave Tall Trees, do you hear me? I will let you know as soon as I can when there’s any news, and so try not to worry too much, Connie, as hospital will be the best place for him. And Aiden, can you pop into Gracie’s greengrocers on the way and get her to pick up Holly from the café please and take her back to Tall Trees?’
The door to the ambulance was closed and Peggy caught a glimpse of Connie and Aiden’s ashen faces as they stood side by side to watch the ambulance drive away.
Then Peggy turned to look at Jessie for what felt like a long while. He had an ambulance man taking his pulse, and then Peggy stared down at her own hands, which she saw with some surprise, as she had been oblivious, that they were shaking uncontrollably.