Pure as the Lily (18 page)

The art to convey, I pray you, God of words, Keep me simple For this day.

There! Mrs. Briggs. “

“Oh, Mr. Walton, that was luvly.”

“But it wasn’t po ... poetry, Mrs. Briggs.”

“No, be-buggered! you’re right there, mate, it wasn’t.” The two men passing, one an air-raid warden, laughed uproariously and Jimmy, looking after them, shouted, “I abhor the unhallowed mob and hold it aloof!”

“Good for you, chum,” they called back.

“Never mind, Mr. Walton. It sounded poetry to me.” Her voice was consoling.

“They’re ignorant.”

“No, no, Mrs. Briggs.” He was shaking his head widely from side to side now.

“They’re right; it’s not even rhyme ... blank verse is the only name you could give it, but that’s what the books say there isn’t any of. And you know what there isn’t any of? ... Poetic prose, they say there isn’t such a thing as poetic prose.... Your fish and chips will be getting cold, Mrs. Briggs.”

“I can always warm them up, Mr. Walton. But you know something? I was lucky to get them. It’s the first time Pearson’s been open this week. Mr. Fielding tipped me off, I didn’t know they were open and there was only ten afore me, I was lucky.”

It was as if they both had decided they’d had enough culture for one night.

“Yes, you were lucky, Mrs. Briggs. You know, I think you’re very lucky in all ways, Mrs. Briggs.”

“What makes you say that Mr. Walton?”

“Oh’—he was swaying and when he tripped off the kerb she put out her hand quickly and drew him on to the pavement again, and he said, “ Because the Gods that be made you kind. “ His voice faded away into a whisper as he finished; his

head drooped on to his chest again, and as they turned into Haven Terrace the moon was obliterated by the clouds and they were shoulder to shoulder as they groped their way up the street. And when they opened the door and stepped into the dim, blue-painted, bulb-lit lobby he made a dramatic gesture in placing his fingers on his lips and whispered, “Good night, Mrs. Briggs, it’s been a pie ... pleasure’; and she whispered back at him, “And for me an’ all, Mr. Walton.” Then he was tip-toeing to the door.

The door opened straight into the passageway and there, at the far end, stood his mother and Betty, and they were both staring at him as if with one pair of eyes.

“What did I tell you?” Betty was looking at Alice, and Alice, coming slowly up to him, glared at him as she said, You’re in a nice pickle, a picture you are. A schoolteacher, and look at you! To think I’d see the day. “

“To think you’d see the day, Ma.” He shook his head sadly at her.

“Aw! what have I done to be made to suffer, this an’ all?” She turned her head and looked at Betty.

“One after the other of them, and now this, a sot!” She glared back at her son. “Cos that’s all you are; that’s all you are a sot, a drunken sot. An’ where d’you get the money from? “ Tes, Ma; that’s all I am, a drunken sot. An’ where do I get the money from? Why, Betty, Betty, Bett’s kind, Betty is. “

As he turned to go into the sitting-room Betty cried after him, “We’ve been waiting for you to take your mother home’; then, “ Come’on, Mam,” she said.

“By! I’ll have something to say to him in the morning When the door banged he sat down and stared through the open sitting-room door into the passage. They had gone, the two women that were one; funny, he’d never be able to get over that mystery. Of all the people in the world that he could have chosen, or could have chosen him, he had to pick on Betty, Betty who was his mother, and his mother who was Betty. As he stared towards the far door he seemed to see E-^’ ‘

|j’ir , through it and across the hall, into the house opposite where Mrs. Briggs lived, and he had the greatest desire to get up and go to her. But then there was Mr. Briggs, and Mr. Briggs was big, very big.

He stood up now and said aloud, “Mr. Briggs is very big. Remember that. Jimmy; Mr. Briggs is very big.”

it was Saturday, and a week before Christmas. The queues outside the outdoor beer shops were as long as those outside the butcher’s, longer. Everybody was trying to stock up for Christmas and, of course, for what was much more important, the New Year.

It was half past one and Jimmy had managed a couple of whiskies and two pints and he was feeling very mellow as he went upstairs to Mary’s.

“Hello there.”

“Oh, hello, Jimmy. Fancy seeing you at this time! We’ve just finished dinner but there’s plenty left, like some?”

Tike some? Fancy asking me such a silly question. Why do you think I came? Where are the nippers?

I’m going to take them down to the Market; who knows what we might pick up. “

“I’m afraid you’re out of luck. Jimmy.” Mary had left the sink where she had been washing up and was piling a plate with cold meat, cheese and pickled onions. David’s down in the Flake Street shop . as usual’ —she dipped her chin—’and across there’—she pointed out of the kitchen and towards a far door—’the other one’s in bed;

she’s got a cold on her, and I’m afraid she’ll be stuck with it over the holidays. “

“Aw, that’s too bad.” He went out of the kitchen, pushed the bedroom door open and, thrusting his head around it, said, “Who’s got sniffles and sneezes, coughs and wheezes?”

“Oh! Uncle Jimmy.”

He now stood over the bed with his hands on his knees and looked down on the flushed face of Annie,

‘you feeling bad, love? “

“Awful, Uncle.”

“Aw, rotten luck. I was going to take you to the Market.”

“Were you. Uncle Jimmy?” She smiled wanly, sniffed, then said slyly, “I’m all stuffed up but I can still smell you’ve been drinkin’.”

“What!” In mock indignation he stretched his six foot three high above her.

“That’s libel, that is. Me drinking! I’ve never touched a drop in me life.” He turned now to Mary who was standing in the doorway. Do you hear what your daughter is accusing me of? She says she can smell I’ve been drinking. What are you going to do with her? “

“Give her a prize for telling the truth.”

Tell us a story, Uncle Jimmy. “ Annie moved restlessly in the bed, and Mary put in quickly, “ He’s going to have a bite of dinner, and. you get to sleep, miss. “

“Aw, Uncle Jimmy, give us a rhyme then. Go on.”

A rhyme. Jimmy walked round the foot of the bed clapping his hands gently together, saying, “A rhyme, a rhyme, give her a rhyme. Ah yes.”

He now stood with one arm outstretched.

“I know one about your favourite subject... and mine... drink. It goes like this:

“Annie stood outside the Ellison Arms And watched the men go in. They all walked straight and spoke to her They asked her where she’d bin.

“She waited behind Haggerty’s wall And she watched them all come out.

They all wanted to talk at once

And began to lark about And their legs began to wobble And some went in-and-out.

“Then Annie began to wave her arms, Kick up her legs and shout: I take after me Uncle Jimmy And I’ve had a bottle of stout. “ Annie was lying now, her hands covering her mouth, shaking with laughter while Mary, smiling primly, pushed Jimmy from the room saying, “Go on with you!”

When he was seated at the table she looked at him and said.

“She was right, you stink of it.”

“I don’t.” He flapped his hands at her.

“I’ve only had one. No’—his head went back on his shoulders “ I’m not going to be like most drunks and lie about it, I’ve had a couple of straights and two pints. “ Mary’s eyebrows moved up just the slightest.

“Is that all?”

^That’s all. “

“Well, it doesn’t take much to knock you over, that’s all I can say.

And I’ve said it before. “

“I know that, Mary, dear, but just let me get this down and it’ll soak up the liquor and I’ll be ready for more.” He only just prevented himself from pointing to his coat lying over the chair, and in the inside pocket of which was a quarter bottle of whisky that he was going to keep for Christmas . < if he could.

Mary poured herself out a cup of tea and sat down opposite him and said quietly, “I’m worried.

Jimmy.”

“Ah now! Now!” He wagged the fork at her.

“Don’t, don’t. I don’t want you on me conscience an’ all. Well, what I mean is, I don’t want to have it on my mind I’m adding to your lot, your ... your plate’s full enough as it is.”

“Well then, keep that in mind and go steady. By the way, we’ve got Cousin Annie coming across to stay; she’s been bombed out.”

No! “

“fes, it happened yesterday in that early morning raid.”

“I heard they got it across the water but that there wasn’t much.”

“No, only one bomb. It didn’t hit her place, of course, but it’s taken the roof off.”

“Do you mind her coming?” , “No, not really; she’s a fusspot but she’s good at heart.”

“Where are you going to put her?”

“Oh, we’ll find some place. A shakey-down in the front room until Ben gets that cubby-hole of his cleared out. He’s going to take all the stuff down to the Rington Road shop, and then I’ll fix it up for her, that’s if she’s still here. They’ll likely get round to doing her place afore long.”

‘you going to have your work cut out? “

“Oh no. No, she shouldn’t be any trouble; in fact, she’ll be a help.” She smiled wryly but more to herself than at him. She could do without Cousin Annie’s help because a little of her went a long way.

After a silence between them he said, “What’s the news, did you hear it?”

“Oh yes, nothing much. Talking about the Pacific; it seems to be full of aircraft carriers.”

“Well, I wish they’d do something soon and get those Japs out of the way.”

“They took Tarawa.”

“That all? Nothing else?”

“I didn’t hear, but then I was going back and forward.”

Jimmy got up and walked to the window and stood looking through the border of black-out paper that surrounded it and started to sing quietly, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas’.

“And that’s what we don’t want, thank you very much.”

He turned to her abruptly.

“It would have been different if they had taken me.”

“Well, they didn’t. And don’t start and go through all that again.” Well, I still can’t understand it. Flat feet! “

“Well, you are flat-footed, and that’s that. Anyway, some body has to stay behind and see to the children; your job is just as important as if you were over there.”

“Aw.” He turned his head slowly to one side and his voice held utter scorn.

“Who you kiddin’ Mary? You’re talking to me, Jimmy. I’ll tell you something’ he was pointing at her “ I feel like crawling when I’m standing at the bar next to any of them in uniform. Half my size and years younger, and in uniform, and they look at you and say “Deferred, mate?” And how they say it! “ Don’t be so bloomin’ soft. “ Her voice held real anger now.

“And use your head. If it wasn’t for you and the men in the docks and the women in the factories they wouldn’t be in uniform. What your trouble is, you’re too thin-skinned. Go on, get yourself out. Take a walk into Shields, to the Market as you intended. The air will do you good, get rid of the fumes and clear that stupid mind of yours. And, by the way, if you see anything fresh going, in the Market I mean, get it for me, no matter what it is.”

He turned to her now, saying, “You’re kiddin’, aren’t you, with your own private black market running here?”

“Oh our Jimmy! it isn’t a black market.” She was indignant but she was smiling.

“If we exchange a little butter and sugar for a little meat, or some such, what harm’s in that? We have our coupons like everybody else.”

“Aw, Mary!” He pushed her in the shoulder, and she pushed him back the same way and they both laughed. Then she said, “Well, you be thankful anyway, you get your share of it.”

“I am, and thank you very much, Mrs. Tollett.”

“Go on.” She pressed him towards the door; then pulling him to a stop, said, “Go steady, Jimmy, please.”

“I will, Mrs. Tollett. God bless you, Mrs. Tollett. God bless you.” He kept touching his hat, and she lifted her foot but missed in her

aim and nearly fell over. He ran down the stairs and, at the bottom, stopped and looked back up at her.

They were both laughing.

In the street he hummed again the Bing Crosby song, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas’. There was snow in the air;

the air itself was like a knife on the throat. The sky was low and the atmosphere a pale grey haze and all the way into Shields, in one way or another, everyone seemed to be endorsing the title of the song.

“By! it’s enough to cut you in two.”

“It won’t be long now, you can smell it.”

“Bet the place is thick by the morrow ... as if we hadn’t enough to put up with.”

“One blessing, it’ll stop the bloody raids.”

He got off the bus at Laygate and made his way down the Mill Dam bank towards the Market; at St.

Hilda’s Church a bedraggled figure was shaking a box in front of the passersby while he cried, “Help to get bits for the poor baims.” He thrust the box in front of Jimmy.

“It’s for the baims, sir.” As Jimmy, a wry smile on his face, went to put his hand in his pocket a passer-by laughed and said, You must be barmy, man; it’s more like beer for his belly. “ Whereupon the benevolent old man came out with a mouthful of abuse that both startled and amused Jimmy. He put his hand back in his pocket and walked on.

Would you believe it! They got up to all kinds of tricks, and a war on. What a pity, what a pity that people cheated, especially at Christmas. It was a time of good-will, Christmas, even with a war on.

That’s what they said they were fighting for, wasn’t it, good-win to all men. Mind your eyes, not that he believed in the religious reason for all the Christmas waffle, the whole thing was a collossal fable, but nevertheless it was a nice fable. It was the kind of fable that you could do with more of, and if people weren’t nice to each other at Christmas then they’d never be nice to each other. Would Betty be nice to him? Would his ma be nice to him? Would he be nice to her and say “Come on, Ma, it’s 10 145