A Wise Child

by A Wise Child (retail) (epub)

  ‘It very near killed me mam,’ Maggie said. ‘I lived with her and me youngest brother, our Henry, because Johnny was in the army. He got wounded in 1916 and our Freddie died of wounds that year.’

  ‘You had a bad time,’ Nellie said sympathetically. ‘Is that why Johnny’s chest is bad?’

  ‘Johnny reckons there was gas trapped in some of the trenches although the gas attacks was over,’ Maggie said. ‘But I think it’s because he was laying in water in a hole for hours after he was wounded in the leg. Anyhow he got sent back to England although they kept him in the army and that’s why they won’t give him no pension.’ She laughed. ‘I wouldn’t never have had so many kids if he’d got kept in France but he could get home on leave like from England.’

  ‘You must have been glad he was safe,’ Nellie said.

  ‘Oh aye, and we really got on our feet then. Living with me mam, I could save. Johnny’s allotment wasn’t much but it was regular and Mam minded the kids while I went out cleaning.’

  ‘When did you come to live next door?’ Nellie asked.

  ‘Near the end of the war when Mam died and our Henry went in the army. I got a nice little home round me but then when Johnny came home he couldn’t get work and I lost me cleaning job, so in no time all me nice bits were in the pawnshop. Still, plenty worse off than me,’ Maggie said cheerfully.

  The Nurse McCann paid her last visit to Nellie on the day that she allowed her downstairs for the first time. She approved Nellie’s arrangements for keeping the baby warm but wrinkled her nose distastefully at the smell of rotten fish that pervaded the room.

  ‘Have you done anything about getting rid of that old woman?’ she demanded.

  Nellie shook her head. She was ashamed to say that she was afraid to tell Janey to go so she murmured nervously, ‘I can’t, Nurse. She was good to me.’

  The nurse snorted. ‘So you told me,’ she said. ‘Now I’ve warned you, Nellie, not to take her concoctions and don’t let her bully you but don’t borrow from her and get into her clutches whatever you do. There’s too many round here that’ll never be free of her. If they borrow a pound she gives them eighteen shillings and makes them take two shillings’ worth of her stinking fish to make up the pound. Then they’re paying it off for ever.’

  Nellie said nothing and the nurse went on, ‘You know your ma worked with her, beating up anyone who couldn’t pay, but now she’s gone Janey’s got someone else to terrify these poor souls. It makes my blood boil.’

  ‘I never knew – about Ma, I mean,’ Nellie whispered. She realised that she was not surprised by the midwife’s words, as she recalled her mother, tall and rangy, more like a man than a woman. A man’s cap was always skewered to her sandy hair and she wore her sleeves rolled up, a sacking apron and men’s heavy boots laced with string. She had a loud and raucous voice, frequently raised in anger.

  The nurse’s voice broke into her thoughts. ‘Yes, love, Harriet was the bully for Janey. I’ve seen people after she’d beaten and kicked them half to death but no one would ever talk. Dr Wilson tried for years to get them behind bars but they were too crafty.’

  Nellie flushed and bent her head and the nurse said briskly, ‘No need for you to feel ashamed, Nellie. I know you often felt the weight of your ma’s hand and her boots yourself. I’m just warning you not to get into Janey’s clutches. I know you’ll have to wait eight weeks for Sam’s allotment to come through but you can get tick at the corner shop. Mrs Deakin knows you’ll have money coming.’

  ‘I’ll be all right. Sam left me money,’ Nellie said.

  ‘That’s good. He’s a decent fellow and you’re a good girl, Nellie, although you got all the spirit knocked out of you when you were a child, and now you’ve got a lovely baby. Stand up to that old woman and do what’s best for all of you. If you won’t tell her to go, try and find somewhere else to live.’

  ‘But what about Bobby?’ Nellie said.

  ‘Take him with you, but if you can’t, don’t worry about Bobby. Everything slides off him like water off a duck’s back. He’ll be working soon anyway and making his own life.’

  ‘You know a lot about people round here, Nurse,’ Nellie said with a shy smile.

  ‘I know everything about people round here,’ the nurse said emphatically, ‘but I don’t gossip. I speak my mind though and some people don’t like it, but that’s my way.’

  ‘I’m very grateful for the way you looked after me,’ Nellie said blushing, ‘and for – for what you’ve told me like about Janey. Most of all for the way you saved the baby.’

  ‘Aye, well, like I said at the time, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,’ the nurse said but she looked pleased.

  After some thought Nellie had decided to name the baby Thomas, after her father, and Nurse McCann agreed to be his godmother. Bobby was a very proud godfather. The baby continued to thrive and Nellie soon regained her strength.

  Chapter Three

  The months until Sam’s return passed quickly for Nellie. As the weather improved and she grew stronger she ventured out, at first only as far as the corner shop with Maggie beside her to give her support and then further and further afield.

  Fear of what her neighbours might think about her baby’s early arrival made her afraid to leave the house at first but Maggie came one day and announced that she would walk to the corner shop with her.

  ‘It’s not doing the baby and you no good, being stuck in the house all day with that stink of rotten fish. I know Bobby does your messages but what about when he starts work?’ she said.

  They set off, Nellie keeping close to her friend and glancing about her timidly. She had left her coat behind in her headlong flight from Leadbetter’s house but most of her neighbours wore shawls so she wore her mother’s shawl with the baby wrapped snugly within it.

  Many of the neighbours were at their doors and when one asked to see the baby the others clustered round.

  ‘God luv him, hasn’t he come on? Your Bobby said he was like a fourpenny rabbit born,’ said Bella Edwards. She was a hugely fat woman who had borne ten children, seven of whom survived.

  ‘Nurse McCann saved his life,’ Nellie said shyly and there was a chorus of praise from the women for the nurse.

  ‘Proper clever, she is. Better than the doctor half the time and not just with babies,’ said another woman, ‘the way she can tell you what’s wrong with the kids and what to do for them.’

  Bella’s huge body shook as she laughed. ‘Mind you, she doesn’t put any bones in it. She tells you right out what she thinks of you,’ she said.

  ‘Come on, Nell. Nurse’ll have me life if you catch cold,’ Maggie said. ‘Her first time out,’ she explained to the women.

  To a chorus of ‘Watch yourself, girl,’ and ‘He’s a lovely lad,’ Nellie and Maggie walked on to the shop. The fact that what she had dreaded had been in reality so easy and pleasant gave Nellie courage and a determination to confront her problems in future.

  Her resolve was soon tested. She knew that Charlie West was often in and out of Janey’s side door but one day he swaggered down the street and knocked on the street door of the house. When Nellie opened the door he pushed past her into the kitchen without a word.

  He was a small man with a narrow foxy face and black hair parted in the centre and sleeked back close to his skull. An ex-seaman now working ashore and a bachelor, he lived nearby with his mother who doted on him.

  He ran his eyes over Nellie and then slipped his arm round her waist. ‘Nice little figure you’ve got since you dropped your bundle, Nellie,’ he said offensively.

  Nellie tried to twist away from him, her face scarlet, but he held her firmly.

  ‘What are you worrying about?’ he said. ‘Sam won’t mind. Soft Sam. He’ll believe anything you tell him, won’t he?’

  Anger gave Nellie strength and she gave him a push which sent him staggering against the table. ‘Keep your hands off me,’ she said. ‘And don’t you call my husband names. He’s worth
ten of you.’

  Surprise kept him silent for a moment then he laughed unpleasantly. ‘What about this wonderchild then?’ he began but Nellie stepped forward and hit him across the face with all her strength.

  ‘Why you—’ he began but Janey had opened the door into the parlour. She said viciously to him, ‘Button your lip and come in here.’

  Charlie put his hand to his face and scowled at Nellie, his face dark with anger, but he obeyed Janey and went into the parlour.

  Nellie snatched up the baby and flung her shawl round both of them. She was shaking as she knocked at Maggie’s door and after a glance at her face Maggie drew her in and said urgently, ‘What’s up, girl? The baby—?’

  Nellie shook her head then shook it again, unable to speak as Maggie asked, ‘Sam?’

  Maggie’s youngest children sat on a sack before the fireless grate and the room was bare and cold, but Johnny Nolan stood up from the dilapidated armchair for Nellie to sit down, and Maggie slipped a comforting arm around her.

  ‘That Charlie West,’ Nellie said with a sob. ‘Putting his arm round me and saying things about Sam.’ She wiped her eyes. ‘I smacked his face,’ she admitted.

  ‘Good for you!’ Maggie cried. ‘I hope you hurt him.’

  ‘I give him a shock, I think,’ Nellie said. ‘Janey called him into the parlour so I run in to you.’

  ‘I’m glad you did,’ Maggie said. ‘Did he come through from her parlour? I know he’s always in and out there.’

  ‘No, he pushed in when I opened the door,’ Nellie said. ‘I’ll be more careful next time.’

  ‘There’s fellas like that,’ Johnny said, ‘take advantage, like, a woman on her own.’

  ‘But Nellie’s not on her own,’ Maggie cried. ‘Sam’d beat the living daylights outa that little runt if he knew. Tell him you’ll tell Sam if he tries it again. That’ll frighten the life outa him. Mind you, that Charlie West only tries it on with women to cause trouble, but he’d run a mile if they took him on.’

  Nellie began to smile and Maggie said heartily, ‘That’s more like it, girl, and now you’ve started it try giving Janey a belt if she annoys you.’

  Nellie stood up. ‘Thanks, Mag,’ she said, ‘and Johnny,’ smiling timidly at him. ‘I was just that upset.’

  ‘Aye, well, don’t get upset over that little toad. He won’t bother you no more probably after you’ve clouted him like that,’ Maggie said.

  ‘I hope so,’ said Nellie but she thought uneasily of the look on Charlie West’s face and wondered how he would take his revenge. ‘Will you come in for a cup of tea in the morning, Mag? Bring the kids. I miss our talks.’

  Maggie agreed and Nellie went back to her own house but all was quiet there. She sat by the fire nursing the baby and thinking of the bareness and coldness of the house next door, yet there was a warmth of feeling there.

  She looked round her own kitchen wondering what she could do to make it more comfortable for Sam to return to. Bobby had started work with a building firm as a ‘can lad’ with hopes of being apprenticed to a tradesman when he was sixteen and when he came home Nellie discussed her plans with him.

  ‘These houses aren’t no good, Nell,’ he said. ‘The fellas at work said that when I said where I lived. They said they was built on a marsh; that’s why they’re so damp and the floorboards are rotten. And the cockroaches and bugs and that.’

  ‘Well, we can’t pull them down and we can’t get nowhere else so we’ll just have to do the best we can,’ Nellie said sharply.

  Bobby laughed. ‘You haven’t half changed, Nell,’ he said. ‘You was always frightened of your own shadow, Mrs Deakin at the shop said. And the way you was before Tommy was born, like you was half dead.’

  ‘Aye, well, I’ve got to be more hard-faced now for Tommy’s sake,’ Nellie said. ‘Ask the fellas at work the best way to shift the cockroaches and bugs, Bob.’

  Her plans for the house helped to push the thought of Charlie West to the back of Nellie’s mind and she slept soundly. Maggie came in the following morning with her two youngest children, Walter who was two years old and Richie who was four.

  ‘I’ve missed you coming in since I was up, Mag,’ Nellie said, smiling at the children.

  ‘I didn’t like to be running in and out. It was different when I was looking after you, like,’ Maggie said.

  ‘Gosh, you’re dafter than me even,’ said Nellie.

  Nellie had a good fire burning and she had cut a plateful of bread and jam and made tea. The children sat wide-eyed gazing at the flames and devouring the bread and jam and Maggie broke a piece from her own slice and gave it to Richie.

  ‘Don’t give him yours, Mag. There’s plenty more,’ Nellie said standing up to cut more bread.

  ‘I worry about him,’ Maggie said with a sigh. ‘I took him to the dispensary yesterday and the doctor said he had rickets. Said he needed better food but what can I do? We’re only just keeping alive as it is. Johnny got two half days on the docks last week but they only take the Relief off us so we’re no better off.’

  Richie had stood by Maggie’s chair and she said anxiously, ‘Do you think he looks more bandy, Nell?’

  ‘No, I think kids’ legs are all bandy when they’re little,’ Nellie said. ‘They’ll straighten out when he grows up.’

  Maggie looked unconvinced. ‘I’d kill for a job,’ she said, ‘but there’s nothing. All the jobs are took. Step washing and cleaning, taking in washing, everything’s took. Johnny’s got no pull at the docks, no family, like, there and he hasn’t got no money to give backhanders. I’m getting desperate.’

  ‘Never mind, Mag, things’ll get better,’ Nellie comforted her. ‘You know you’re welcome to anything we’ve got.’

  ‘I don’t like putting on good nature,’ Maggie said, lifting the corner of her apron to dry her eyes, ‘you and Sam have helped us already.’

  ‘And look what you’ve done for me,’ said Nellie.

  ‘We didn’t have no fire when you came in yesterday,’ Maggie said, ‘but we do usually. The kids get wood from the back of the market and coal off the sidings, like.’

  ‘You’re welcome to coal from our coalplace any time, Mag,’ Nellie said. ‘I’d rather see it going on your fire than on Janey’s.’

  ‘But then she pays for it in her rent,’ Maggie said.

  ‘Rent! What rent? She never lets on about rent and I don’t like to ask her,’ Nellie said.

  ‘And here’s me thinking you were getting more tough,’ Maggie exclaimed. ‘You’re too soft for your own good, Nell.’

  Nellie smiled. ‘I know,’ she said, ‘but I’m getting better, aren’t I? Our Bobby said last night I was.’

  Maggie smiled too. ‘You’ve still got a long way to go though, girl,’ she said. She stood up and drew her shawl round her shoulders then went to Tommy’s makeshift cot, where he lay waving his arms and legs and gurgling to himself. ‘God luv him, he’s as good as gold, isn’t he?’ she said. ‘We never hear a sound out of him in the night.’

  ‘Yes, he sleeps right through,’ Nellie said proudly.

  ‘Sam’ll be made up when he comes home, the size of him now,’ Maggie said.

  She turned to her children but Nellie said quickly, ‘Can they stay for a bit, Mag? Our Bobby’s home at one today, being Saturday. He’d be made up if they had their dinner with him.’

  Maggie’s face grew red. ‘I’m sorry for moaning like that,’ she said. ‘We don’t do so bad really.’

  ‘You weren’t moaning,’ Nellie protested. ‘Not like me last night.’

  ‘I suppose he’d gone, Charlie West?’ Maggie asked and when Nellie nodded she went on, ‘It makes me mad. Johnny tries so hard and the likes of West leaves the sea and walks right in to a job.’

  She went out and Nellie gave the little boys string and wood to play with. She had a stone jar full of cheese toasting in the oven and when Bobby came home she toasted thick slices of bread and spread the cheese on it.

  Bobby had brought hom
e a blowlamp and a bottle of Lysol and as he cut the toast into strips for Richie and Nellie helped Walter, he told her excitedly about the advice his workmates had given him.

  ‘They told me to go over the walls with the blowlamp to kill the bugs and to wash the bedframes and the floors with the Lysol. The boss said I can have some cement to fill the holes round the fireplace to keep the cockroaches out too.’

  After the children had eaten their fill of the toasted cheese, followed by broken biscuits and tea, Nellie took them home by the back entry.

  Bobby had received his first week’s wages of six shillings and proudly handed four of them to Nellie so before taking the children home she went to the corner shop. She then wrapped some tea and a tin of condensed milk, a loaf and a jar of jam and took them next door.

  The children carried a bag of broken biscuits paid for by Bobby to share with their brothers and sister.

  ‘I’ve brought you these, Mag,’ Nellie said. ‘A mug out of Bobby’s first week’s wages.’ Before Maggie could speak she went on quickly, ‘When all your kids are working you can do the same for me.’

  Tears had filled Maggie’s eyes as she looked at the groceries but she blinked them away and protested, ‘But Nellie, girl, you need that money.’

  ‘No I don’t, Mag. Sam’s allotment has come through and all so I’m really on Easy Street.’ She laughed. ‘Don’t tell Bobby though. He thinks he’s keeping the house.’

  While Maggie recovered her composure Nellie rattled on about the plans that she and Bobby had for the house.

  ‘The fellas at work have told him what to do and lent him a blowlamp. They’ve give him some Lysol an’ all and the boss is going to give him something to fill up the holes and keep the cockroaches out. The Keatings powder is no use. There’s too many of them.’

  Johnny Nolan came in the yard door and Nellie said hastily, ‘I’d better get back in case Bobby starts without me and burns the house down.’

  Maggie put her hand on Nellie’s arm. ‘You’re a good girl,’ she said huskily, ‘and a good neighbour.’