THE BONDAGE OF LOVE (5 page)

To this he could say nothing because Sammy was beckoning them towards the counter. And there the young man said, "You ... you want to join? And you can pay the fee?" Before either of them could answer, he smiled as he said,

"That's good. I always like to book new members in who can pay the fee. But still, it doesn't matter one way or the other." He looked at Katie now, saying, "What are you going in for, miss?"

"I... I think it might be jujitsu."

"Oh, defence. Well, that's fine. And you?" He was addressing Willie and Willie wetted his lips, swallowed and said, "Well, I... I only came for a look round; but I think it's going to be ... well, very interesting. I... I might... may I leave it?"

"Leave it? Of course you can leave it. There's plenty time to make up your mind, isn't there, Sammy?" He pouted his lips in Sammy's direction, then went on, "Six days a week. Take your choice, from nine in the morning, swimming, till ten at night when they finish boxing.

There's a lot in between. Oh, yes, I'd say. And we're open on Sunday.

Well, now, Sunday's a different kettle of fish. There's talks and

discussions and lots of things go on on a Sunday. Anyway, here's a pamphlet.

That'll tell you what you've got a choice of. " He now looked to the side towards where Jimmy was talking to Daisy. Her gaze was directed towards the floor, and the young man behind the counter remarked, " Those two been at it again? Daisy's a pickle, isn't she? No harm in her though. No harm in her.

They're a family, the Gallaghers, the whole lot of them. But there they are," he shook his head, " Sunday after Sunday the whole family filling the back row of the church. " He now nodded towards Katie, saying, " Catholics?

"

"No. No, we're not Catholics."

"Well, that'll even things up a bit. Half of them that come in here are, you know. Father Hankin unloads them all on us."

"You talk too much. Sandy." Sammy's tone was curt, and he motioned Katie and Willie towards where Jimmy and Daisy were standing, saying, "Well, come along; we'll do the rounds else we'll have no time for practice." . As Katie was to say to Fiona later that night, she didn't know about Willie, but she was amazed at what she saw there. And she went on to describe the

fencing room, the boxing ring that was set in a kind of small amphitheatre, the badminton rooms, the table tennis rooms, the restaurant and what Jimmy had proudly called their common room, where you could go and write a letter or sit quietly. Then there was the swimming pool, and the private baths behind; seaweed bath, salt bath.

And all this was only on the ground floor. On the second floor was a

marvelous roller-skating rink, and on this floor, too, was a large cafe where you could purchase all kinds of snacks and, twice a week, fish and chips. It being Tuesday night, and presumably a fish and chip night, the place had been crowded.

And of Daisy, she said again, "Oh Mam, you should see Jimmy's girlfriend. No magazine could do her justice. And yet," she had added after a thoughtful moment, 'there's something about her;

I could imagine, given the chance, she would have made something of herself, because she's far from stupid. And I must tell you about the family

sometime. Oh, yes, when Dad's here I must tell you about the family; at least how Daisy herself describes them. "

But before this, back at the Centre, Willie was being instructed into the art of fencing by the said

Daisy, who apparently had been fencing for the past two years, and twice a week at that, and was no mean hand with a foil. In fact, as she was now bragging, "I'm going' on to sabres, no matter what Mr. Davies says." She now went into a Welsh accent, '"Sabres are not for ladies, not even young lasses, sabres are menswear, so to speak. Stick to the foil and it won't let you down; but you pick up a sabre and you can do nothing with it but show

yourself up." She had added that she was glad that Jimmy wasn't of the same mind as "Look you' Davies.

They were in the small room where all the fencing gear was kept and she was saying to him in no small voice, "Bend your knees, further.

Now put your right heel towards your left instep. "

When he got slightly fuddled keeping his knee bent and obeying the last order, she said, "You know where your heel is, don't you? It's much smaller, but it's the next thing that sticks out after your backside."

Willie straightened his twisted body so quickly that it almost knocked Daisy on her back. Then he leant against a rack where there were stacked a number of thick, white, padded coats and, placing two hands over his mouth, he tried to still his laughter, the while she hissed at him, "Cool it! Else they'll hear you next door, and Jimmy's in the middle of a bout. He hates noise and such 'cos he can't hear himself instructing. Ah, come on." She was smiling now, and in a very low voice, she said, "You looked so funny; just me rawness as Jimmy would say. He's always on about me rawness."

Willie straightened up from the rack and sat on a form on the opposite side of the room, and as he wiped his eyes, he said, "How old are you?"

"On sixteen."

"You're not, are you?"

"Yes. Yes, I am." Her tone was definite.

"Good gracious! I wouldn't have thought it."

"Well, how old did you think I was?"

"Oh, fourteen."

She drew up her small frame now and her head wagged as she said, "Let me tell you I'm often taken for nineteen."

"No, no," he said now, 'unless it would be in the dark. "

"What d'you mean?" She was on the defensive again.

"Well, if people heard you they might think you were nineteen, but never to look at." He started to laugh again.

"Yes, if they heard you in the dark, definitely they would think you were nineteen."

"You think you're funny?"

His face straight now, he said, "No. No. I was only, well... well, I saw the humour of it."

"Well, all I can say is your sense of humour's a very private thing, if only you can see what there is to laugh at in it."

"Oh," he was on his feet now.

"I'm saying all the wrong things. You see, I've never met anybody like you.

Oh, there I go again." He shook his head.

"Well, I mean, the only person like you I know is ... Sammy, and we've been great friends for years."

"You and Sammy friends?"

"Oh yes."

Her eyes widened now and then she wagged her finger slowly at him as she said, "His father died just recently, and he went to live with ... is it you and her ... your sister he lives with?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Really. The whole family likes him, in fact, more than likes him."

"Did you know his da?"

"Oh yes. Mr. Love was a wonderful man."

"Mr. Love was a wonderful man? You say that?"

"Yes. Yes, I say that."

"D'you know where they used to live? Well, they did until Sammy saved some bloke. Oh," - her head was bobbing now 'it was your da that he saved? "

"Yes."

"And... and so you took him in to live with you?"

"Yes, but he had stayed at our house a lot before that."

"And you knew Mr. Love?" she said again.

And again he said, "Yes. Yes, I knew Mr. Love. We all knew Mr. Love, and like the name, we loved him. And we were terribly, terribly sorry when he died. We looked after him for quite some time before he died."

"In your house?"

"Yes, in our house."

"He was a Catholic, a wooden one, but, nevertheless he was a Catholic, like Sammy."

"I know."

"And he had been along the line and he was always punching people up."

Willie smiled broadly at her now, saying, "Yes, I know. It wasn't really his fault."

"No?" It was a very large question mark to this syllable, and he repeated,

"No. It was because of circumstances in his life and the fact that he had a quick temper." He almost added, "As you have." So far though, to his knowledge she had used only her tongue, but he wouldn't put it past her. On this thought he wondered what she did here besides fencing, and he said, "Do you only fence, I mean ... ?"

"No, I don't only fence. I do jujitsu."

"No!"

"Yes." The word was drawn out and her voice was quiet and she was smiling.

Then she added, "So ... you ... look ... out."

"I will. Thank you for warning me." Then he added, "Do you think Katie will take to it?"

"Well, it's up to her, on how she feels. I took to it because I wanted not only to protect myself, but also to get at those who got at me for no reason whatever. Oh, you wouldn't understand." She shook her head.

And when he said, "No, I don't suppose I would, not yet anyway," she became silent, the while looking at him, and then she rubbed her finger round her painted lips before she asked, "What... what kind of a house have you got?

Is it a big 'un?"

"Yes, biggish."

"Has it got a garden?"

"Yes, a very big garden."

Her neck seemed to stretch out now from her beaded collar as she said, "And, I suppose, you've got a swimming pool, and everything that goes with it?"

He didn't answer her, but when she said, "Well?" he said quietly, "Would it matter to you if we had, because it doesn't matter to me, or anybody else in the house. And we have a games' room, too, with all kinds of gymnastic

appliances. In a small way, of course. Not like here, but it's very handy.

It's only a pity that I've never felt that way inclined. I'm not athletic at all. I play a little cricket, and I have to play rugger, as everybody else does, at school."

"Which school d'you go to?" The question was quiet.

He seemed reluctant to say it, but he had to, "Dame Allan's in Newcastle."

She turned away from him now and, taking a coat from a peg, she handed it to him, saying, "I have five brothers. I used to have six, but John went to Australia. He could have gone to a good school, but me da wouldn't let him.

Even when his teacher came and explained that he was very good with maths and science and he could do better, because he had a head on him. But me da wouldn't hear of it because he was the eldest then, and there were eight of us below him; he said he had to go to work and help to bring the others up."

She now turned her head away as she ended, "He said it was his duty to help to bring us all up." Her voice now sounding as if she were talking to herself bitterly, she said, "Folks must get some fun in some way out of having you in the first place, but what do they do? They expect the result to pay for it all their lives." She turned and looked at him again.

"Parents ruin people's lives, you know. They do. I have proof of it.

We all have proof of it in our bolt-hole, the Browns next door. There were three sisters to begin with; there are only two now because Janet died last year. Annie is the elder, she's in her sixties, and then there's Bella, and they both could have been married, I understand, if it hadn't been for a death-bed promise they gave their mother to see to their father. And he lived until he was nearly ninety, next door.

But as rowdy as our lot are, we've become a family. I'm positive they love it when we're having a bust-up and when my da is on the rampage, because then they know we'll all swarm in there. And they bed us down, and have done over the years. And, you know, me ma's reasoning is funny, because she says they had to give their mam the death-bed promise about looking after their dad for the simple reason it was all written, God cuts the pattern and then He fits it in in pieces, and if they had married they would have gone away and there would have been no Browns for us to go round to, especially when we were younger and . and me da was running riot with the poker. Yet it was funny, he never came into the Misses Browns's, and when he met them in the street he would always touch his cap to them. Very funny. And yet not funny, because in the house he would say the most terrible things about them, and

their spinsterhood, and how they could get rid of it if they would only give him a chance. "

"Here!" She pushed a jacket at him.

"Get that smarmy look off your face. I'm not holding this in front of you for you to examine the lining. Get it on."

"But... but why?"

"For the simple reason, if you're wearing that and it's buttoned up to your neck and you've got a foil in your hand, it helps you to bend your knees, and to know where your heel should go."

As he looked at her he had the strangest feeling. It was something akin to that which he felt for Sammy. In this moment he also felt he couldn't get home quickly enough to tell both his mam and dad about her, and the things she said. In a way she could almost match Mr. Love.

Yet, it was strange: when he got home he didn't mention their one-sided conversation; in fact, he had little to say about Daisy Gallagher for almost a year after attending this first fencing class in the Sports Centre.

It was Katie who did the talking when they got home. She had seen a

demonstration of karate and another of judo. They were different, but both were for self-defence. She was going to take up judo first, because this would teach her how to throw. Karate was supposed to be the gentler type of defence, but this required one to have very strong arms. And yet, no, she had said, as if it were she herself who had been delivering the lecture, it really depended on

the swiftness and the movements of the body. You bent backwards and you brought the assailant with you. And here she had actually described what she had seen, with Sammy being a willing model on this occasion. And she had finished, "Everybody was so nice," only for Sammy to put in, "Oh! Oh! Oh!

What about Daisy?"

"Oh ... yes, Daisy. I must tell you more about Daisy sometime, Mam.

She's a scream. You know whom she put me in mind of? " She now turned to Sammy.

"Your father. When she opens her mouth, somehow you've got to laugh; more so when she's angry."

"Yes, and you put your foot in it. In fact, your two feet, by laughing in the wrong places. And' -Sammy had turned to Bill 'she called her po-face and promised to wipe the grin off her face." And Bill, looking at Katie, said, "The girl said that to you?"