A Wise Child

by A Wise Child (retail) (epub)

  ‘Probably all just got on top of you,’ Meg said, ‘but you’ll feel better now you’ve heard from Sam, won’t you?’

  Tommy had brought his letter to show Meg and now he carried the kitten to her. ‘I wonder will me dad bring me a monkey?’ he said.

  ‘Not likely,’ Nellie exclaimed. ‘I’m not having no monkey in the house.’

  ‘Well, could we just have a kitten instead, Mam?’ he wheedled. The two women looked at each other and laughed. ‘I think you’re a bit of a crafty monkey yourself,’ Meg said.

  ‘Can I, Mam?’ Tommy persisted.

  Nellie said firmly, ‘No. I’ve got enough with cats yowling round the house all night after Janey’s fish. A cat’d be drove mad anyhow in the house with the smell of the fish.’

  ‘How’s Maggie Nolan?’ Meg asked.

  ‘The funeral’s tomorrow,’ Nellie said. ‘And d’you know what? He’s getting buried at Ford!’

  ‘The Catholic cemetery?’ Meg exclaimed. ‘Oh God, she’ll be the talk of the wash house, won’t she?’

  ‘She says it’s what Johnny would want with him asking for the priest, like, but there’s something else she only told me on the quiet. She had to let her policies lapse when they had hard times. She took out more when things got better but they wouldn’t insure Johnny the way he was. She’d have had to find all the money for the funeral herself.’

  ‘That’d take some doing,’ Meg exclaimed.

  ‘I know. When they come and told her there was space in Johnny’s mam’s grave in Ford it solved her problem, like, because some second cousin of Johnny’s says she’ll pay all the expenses.’

  ‘She must be well off or else she had him well salted,’ Meg observed.

  ‘Maggie says she wished she’d knew about her when they was desperate. She always thought Johnny had no family and so did he. Maggie’s brother and his wife won’t come to the funeral though.’

  ‘You’d think he’d put his pride in his pocket,’ Meg said. ‘His only sister and her with no sons old enough to look after her.’

  ‘Her girls are good though,’ Nellie said. ‘I never seen much of them once they was grown up until now.’

  ‘It’s not the same as a grown-up son though, is it?’ Meg said. ‘How old are they?’

  ‘Sixteen and eighteen,’ Nellie said. ‘The eldest one’s proper bossy but maybe it’s just as well. They only used to be in for their tea and out again once they started work but they’ve stuck by Maggie now.’

  Nellie suspected there would be some comment from Ada Ginley, especially after she went in the funeral car with Maggie Nolan, and it soon came. A few days later Nellie turned into the street Ada Ginley stepped out of her house with a bundle of washing on her head.

  ‘Here she is,’ she shouted as she approached Nellie. ‘The one that fetched Father Bunloaf to the Nolans. Went to a pape’s funeral at Ford an’ all. Maybe yer a bit of a redneck yerself.’

  Nellie had walked past with her head high but at that she turned back. ‘No I’m not and I’m not a lemon pelter either. I’ve got more sense.’ She would have liked to add a comment about people fighting over religion who never went to church but she knew it was wiser to beat a retreat before Ada recovered from her surprise.

  She was delighted with herself for answering back and as soon as Gertie returned from work she hurried over to tell her.

  ‘I was just going to come over for you,’ Gertie exclaimed. ‘I think Prudence will tell your fortune tonight.’

  ‘Is Lettie out?’ Nellie whispered.

  ‘Yes and she’s only just gone. To Belmont Road to see about a sewing machine or something but she’ll be a while. Hang on.’ Gertie went to the parlour and came back to say, ‘Prudence says give her ten minutes to compose her mind and she wants you to clear your mind too.’

  Nellie found this difficult and she was nervous when she was ushered in to Mrs Gilligan but she relaxed as soon as the woman took her hand. She smiled at Nellie then bent her head and studied the palm of Nellie’s left hand closely.

  She said nothing but eventually released the hand and drew a piece of velvet from a crystal ball which stood on the table between them. She cupped her hands round the crystal ball, still not speaking, but Nellie felt no impatience only a feeling of peace and tranquillity.

  At last Prudence spoke. ‘I feel fear, fear. Your life has been dominated by fear. Even now.’ She stopped and gazed into the crystal. ‘Birth and death then a dark cloud of hatred and bitterness. I see a tall woman or is it a man? Red hair.’

  ‘My mother,’ Nellie whispered but Prudence shook her head violently.

  ‘No, no, not your mother. Cleanse your heart of bitterness. A dark cloud but a golden thread stretching through your life. Stretching almost to breaking point but time, time, then it will draw you back. Violence has cast a shadow and will breed violence.’

  Prudence took Nellie’s hand again then lay back in her chair and closed her eyes. ‘You must be strong,’ she murmured. ‘Great fear and sorrow and misunderstanding. Water, much water, then sunshine and joy. I see a T which will bring joy. Riches and honours.’

  She was silent again and Nellie thought she had finished and was about to withdraw her hand when Prudence spoke again.

  ‘Be strong,’ she murmured. ‘Keep faith and hope. Fight fear. Death will come and much will be made clear.’

  ‘Whose death?’ Nellie said urgently but Prudence only opened her eyes and smiled at her vaguely. She sat up, still smiling dreamily, and covered the crystal and Nellie felt dismissed.

  Gertie was waiting for her and drew her into the scullery. ‘Well?’ she said eagerly. ‘What did she say?’

  ‘She said Tommy was going to bring me joy and riches and honour,’ Nellie whispered. ‘And she said my life had been dominated by fear.’

  ‘That was true enough, wasn’t it?’ Gertie said. ‘About the fear and it was good news about Tommy. What else did she say?’

  ‘I can’t think properly. Something about a red-haired woman, not me mam, and a golden thread. I’ll have to think but I’m made up about Tommy,’ Nellie said.

  She was anxious to get home and think over what had been said but she was grateful to Gertie and knew that she was proud to have arranged the fortune telling.

  ‘Thanks very much, Gert,’ she whispered. ‘I’ll try to sort it out in me mind and come and tell you all about it.’

  Tommy was in the kitchen when she returned home and anxious to tell her about his lesson with Miss Helsby, but Nellie told him impatiently to go out and play. She wanted to remember and think over all Prudence had said and find the meaning of it and she took her knitting and sat down by the fire.

  Violence casting a shadow and a dark cloud of bitterness, she thought. That must have been Leadbetter’s violence and with a stab of fear she remembered that Prudence had also said that it would breed violence. The bitterness and hatred must be what I felt about him, although she seemed to be talking about the red-haired woman with that.

  Who did she know with red hair? Nobody, only me mam and our Bobby, she thought. She said it wasn’t me mam and I’m not likely to fall out with Bob. Could it be Mrs Grogan? She was grey now but she might have been red-haired but then I’ve only known her a few months.

  She was interrupted by a knock on the door and Gertie came in. ‘I couldn’t wait,’ she said. ‘I was dying to know all she told you. We had a narrow escape. Lettie came in just after you went, wrong address or something, and she was raging. She said her mother was like a wet rag and had I been letting my friends pester her?’

  ‘Oh gosh, Gertie, I hope she didn’t carry on at her mother,’ Nellie said. ‘I mean, it’s good of Prudence to do it for us, isn’t it?’

  ‘No, she wouldn’t shout at her mam. She wouldn’t take no notice anyhow if she did. It’s just that it takes a lot out of Prudence and that makes Lettie mad.’

  ‘I’ve been sitting here trying to think about what she said, Gert,’ Nellie said. ‘It wasn’t straightforward like with yo
u and Katy, only that about Tommy and about me life being dominated by fear.’

  ‘That was true about you being nervous and frightened, like, wasn’t it?’ Gertie said.

  ‘God, yes. All me life. I was always frightened of me mam and the other kids and the school board and everyone. Some of the people where I took the washing. The other maid in me last place, remember Lily we met in the queue? She said I was frightened of me own shadow.’

  ‘And Prudence couldn’t have knew that, could she?’ Gertie said. ‘Come on, what else did she say?’

  ‘She said about birth and death and a dark shadow of bitterness and hatred,’ Nellie said.

  ‘That must’ve been Johnny Nolan and Katy’s baby and the dark shadow Ada Ginley and that lot carrying on at you.’ Gertie said.

  Nellie agreed rather doubtfully, but not really believing the explanation. ‘She said something about a golden cord stretching almost to breaking point and drawing me back,’ Nellie said. ‘And a death and all would be made clear.’

  ‘She talks lovely, doesn’t she?’ Gertie said. ‘Whose gonna die? Did she say?’

  ‘No, I asked her but she just smiled. I think she was finished then, like,’ said Nellie.

  They heard sounds in the parlour and Gertie stood up hastily as Janey came through to the kitchen, darting a malevolent glance at her. ‘I’ll see you later, Nell,’ Gertie said slipping away.

  ‘What did that soft mare want?’ Janey demanded.

  ‘She called over to see me,’ Nellie said calmly. Fight fear, she thought.

  She thought often of all she had been told by Prudence during the following days,but she was still puzzled by much of it. Gertie’s explanations seemed too glib.

  Only the words about her life of fear and about the future in store for Tommy were clear and sometimes with a sinking heart she thought of the words about violence which she had told to no one. ‘Violence will breed violence.’

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sam felt that he was having a good trip although the tropical heat was affecting several of the crew and the work was harder as a result. He liked most of the men on his watch, particularly Billy Olafson and of course George.

  Sam found a ready listener in Billy to his stories about Tommy and his cleverness and Nellie’s skill at homemaking. In return he listened to Billy’s tales about his wife and children, although in his heart Sam was convinced that his wife and his son were far superior to anyone else.

  The letters from Tommy were taken out and read and reread until they were dog-eared and shown to anyone who might have missed seeing them on an earlier occasion.

  Wherever they put in he bought small gifts for Nellie and Tommy until his shipmates joked, ‘Isn’t yer locker full yet, Sam?’

  He bought beautifully carved ships and canoes for Tommy and walnut shells fully rigged to make tiny ships, as well as whistles and drums and masks.

  For Nellie he bought crudely painted pots and dishes and bowls in inlaid metal and baskets woven from rushes. When ashore with George and Billy at Sierra Leone they were pestered to buy large bags of soft dyed leather but Billy and George refused. ‘I’m not spending no more,’ Billy said. ‘These fellers’d have the shirt off your back.’

  George refused firmly but Sam lingered. ‘Be handy for her messages, one of these, wouldn’t it?’ he said, and the seller renewed his entreaties for them to buy.

  ‘A bit posh for messages,’ George said. ‘The old American cloth’s all right for spuds and that,’ and they walked away.

  Neither of his friends was surprised when Sam suddenly turned back to buy one of the bags. ‘He’s soft about his missus, isn’t he?’ Billy said to George as they waited for Sam to finish haggling. ‘What’s she like?’

  ‘A real nice little woman,’ George said. ‘Very quiet and ladylike. She was in good service and she keeps herself and the lad very nice.’

  ‘I suppose it’s easy for her with just the one,’ Billy said. ‘My missus never has nothing for herself be the time she’s rigged the kids out in boots and clobber from Paddy’s Market. As long as she’s got something to put in their bellies she doesn’t care.’

  ‘Aye, well, Nellie does a bit of cleaning an’ all, so they do all right,’ George said.

  Sam rejoined them carrying one of the bags. ‘I got him down to half what he was asking,’ he excused himself, ‘too good to leave at that price.’

  ‘You’re a soft ha’p’orth, Sam,’ Billy said affectionately and Sam felt none of the anger which such a comment from someone like Hagan would have aroused. As the ship turned for home, Sam looked forward eagerly to presenting his gifts to Nellie and Tommy.

  * * *

  Tommy had moved up from Miss Helsby’s class but he still went for the speech training on two nights a week after school. The other boys who had started with Tommy found various reasons for not attending the classes but Tommy enjoyed them.

  Some of the boys had left because they were mocked by their schoolmates but there was a core of obstinacy in Tommy which made him persevere in spite of the taunts. Despite his quiet manner he was always ready to fight and the combination of his sturdiness and the knowledge that he had been trained by his father made other boys wary of him.

  His speech improved rapidly and he soon lost his nasal tone and the exaggerated diction of his first attempts. Miss Helsby began to alter his habits too. Every night he thoroughly washed his face and body as far as the waistband of his trousers, then his feet and legs in a bowl of water in the scullery.

  He had always had a bath on Saturday nights in the zinc bath before the fire but one Saturday he asked his mother for twopence to go to the public baths.

  ‘What d’you want to go there for?’ Nellie demanded. ‘You’ve very near got yourself washed away already.’

  ‘I want to have a good soak, Mam,’ Tommy muttered. ‘Miss Helsby said we should try to have a proper bath.’

  ‘You do have a proper bath every Saturday,’ Nellie said indignantly, ‘and you get a clean gansey and socks every Monday morning an’ all.’

  ‘I know, Mam,’ Tommy said humbly and Nellie relented.

  ‘All right but don’t think I’m made of money,’ she said.

  She was more ready to encourage Tom because the previous day when washing her hair she had felt the lump from the stitches which she had received. That doctor didn’t care how he done that, she thought. All of them there turning their noses up at me and treating me like dirt. She remembered her humiliation and her resolve that Tommy would always be treated with respect and it made her feel more warmly towards Miss Helsby’s efforts.

  If she learns him to speak nice and to behave proper nobody won’t be able to look down on him, she thought.

  Yet sometimes she wondered uneasily what Sam would think of it all. Tommy had started taking some of the blacking she used for the grate to polish his boots every night and he used a rag dipped in salt to clean his teeth.

  Sometimes Nellie watched him, wondering if she had started more than she had intended. Was Tommy going to grow away from them?

  Perhaps learn to look down on his parents? But she was reassured when she heard him in the street with his mates, yelling to them with his careful speech forgotten.

  I’ll tell him to talk ordinary when Sam comes home and to drop all this messing with his teeth and his boots, she decided. He’s a sensible lad and he’ll probably be just ordinary with his dad, like with his mates. She had not heard from Sam since she had told him about the lessons.

  The school holidays had started but Nellie was not now as free to take Tommy out so he was spending more time with his friends. Meg was having a difficult pregnancy and Nellie spent as much time as possible with her. She also kept Maggie company whenever possible during the day, although Susan and Josie arranged that one or the other of them would be with her every night.

  Nellie’s cleaning mornings had been increased to four, so her days were full, but she still went out with Gertie twice a week to the cinema. Her time passe
d so quickly that she was amazed one day when Rose Adams called and said that she had not seen Nellie for over a month.

  ‘I thought I’d just slip round and see if you were all right,’ Rose said and Nellie felt guilty.

  ‘I don’t know where the time goes, Rose,’ she said. ‘Of course, I’m working four mornings now and then with Bob’s wife not being well—’

  ‘Never mind. “Better to wear out than rust out,” as my mam used to say,’ Rose said with a smile. ‘I think the lads are having a good trip this time.’

  ‘Yes, and they’re homeward bound now,’ Nellie said eagerly.

  ‘Aye, doesn’t it seem a long time since they went?’ Rose said. ‘I don’t like long trips. You just get used to each other again then it’s time for them to be off.’

  ‘I think Sam’ll see a big change in Tommy,’ Nellie said. ‘It’s not just that he’s grown but he seems more grown up, like. Not a little lad any more.’

  ‘Aye, they’re not babies for long,’ Rose said with a sigh. ‘It must be nice for you having your brother back in Liverpool though.’

  ‘We’re worried about Bob’s wife though,’ Nellie said. ‘She had bronchitis in the winter and she got over it but the cough never left her. She’s as thin as a rail too, even though she’s expecting.’

  Although Rose said all the right things Nellie felt that she was not really attending to what she was saying.

  Suddenly a strange thought crossed her mind. ‘Rose, you haven’t come to bring me bad news, have you?’ she exclaimed in alarm.

  ‘No, no, nothing like that,’ Rose said. She hesitated then put her hand on Nellie’s.

  ‘Jealousy’s an awful thing, girl,’ she said. ‘And there’s a few jealous of you.’

  ‘Of me?’ Nellie said astounded. ‘But why, Rose?’