The Girl From Number 22 (38 page)

‘I’d like to say I did, but to be frank with yer, there was so much going on I didn’t even think about the dance.’

‘Oh, ay, and what was that, then? I’m cut to the quick because yer didn’t miss me, and to make up for it I think yer should tell me what yer got up to.’

‘I’m sorry to disappoint yer, but there was no excitement.’ Danny went on to tell her the same tale he had told Dorothy. ‘So yer see, it was more dull than exciting. Not that me mam’s friends are dull, like, but they spent the night going on about the old days, and it was a little bit before my time.’ As he was talking, Danny was thinking he was getting to be like his mam for making stories up. As she’d once said to him, ‘I don’t tell lies, sunshine, I just make things up to make people laugh and be happy.’ Then Danny changed the subject. ‘I believe Spike had yer up a few times last night. He seemed dead chuffed about it.’

‘Yeah, he’s not a bad lad, Spike. Not the brainiest person in the world, but he means well. Wouldn’t hurt a fly.’

Danny was about to tell her about the curled fist, when the music stopped and the interval was announced. He walked Janet back to her friends, then joined the bunch of lads by the door. He was laughing and joking with them as usual, but inside he was feeling restless. And against his will, he kept thinking about Jenny. Did she meet her mother, and what happened when they got home? If Tom Phillips had taken off once because his wife wasn’t home to serve him his meal, then there was every possibility he would take off again when she came in. And ten to one Jenny wouldn’t stand by and see her mother hurt, she’d put up a fight.

When the short interval was over, and the band started off with a waltz, Danny looked for Betsy. Soon he was waltzing her around the floor, their bodies and steps in perfect harmony. They
were watched with envy by other couples, some of whom left the floor so they could enjoy seeing what one said was poetry in motion. Betsy didn’t like to talk when she was dancing, so there was no conversation, only pleasure. ‘I enjoyed that, Danny,’ she said as he walked her off the floor. ‘I missed yer last night. Not that ye’re God’s gift to women, but because no one does a waltz as well as you.’

‘What, not even Spike?’

She chuckled. ‘He’s a trier, but not quite up to your standard. He’s coming on, though, and pretty soon yer’ll be having some competition from that quarter.’

‘Well, a bit of competition won’t do me any harm. Take me down a peg or two.’ Danny was walking away from her, when he suddenly turned back. Before he’d given it any thought, the words were leaving his lips. ‘Oh, I’ll be leaving early tonight. I promised me mam I’d take a message to one of her mates. But I’ll see yer tomorrow, without fail. Will yer tell Dorothy and Janet for me, in case they think I’m deserting them?’ He spun round, strode out of the hall, checked his overcoat out of the cloakroom, and five minutes later found himself standing at the tram stop with no clear intention in his mind.

Annie put the key in the door very carefully, so it didn’t make a sound. Then she turned to Jenny and put a finger to her lips before stepping up into the hall. She cocked an ear for any sign of life in the living room, and after a few seconds she jerked her head. ‘Come in, there’s no one here. Yer father must have gone to the pub.’

Jenny was so cold her teeth were chattering. She went straight to the fireplace and held out her hands, even though there was barely a flicker from the few coals in the grate. ‘I’m going to put
a few pieces of coal on, Mam, ’cos I need to get warmed through before I go to bed. Me feet are like ice, and so are my ears and nose. It was stupid of me to rush out without taking me scarf and gloves. I should have had more sense because I knew how cold it was out. But me dad was in such a rage, I wasn’t thinking straight. All that was running through my head was that I had to get out, and quick.’

‘There’s some coal in the scuttle, sweetheart, so you pick a few cobs out while I put the kettle on. While I’m waiting for the water to boil, I’ll put a page from the newspaper in front of the fire and the draught from underneath will have the fire going in no time. We’ll soon have a hot cup of tea in our hands, and a nice bright fire to cheer us up.’

Jenny shivered, both from the cold and from nerves that were frayed. She dreaded her father coming home. What if he tried to maul her in front of her mother? She wouldn’t put it past him, for he didn’t care what he did when he’d got a few pints down him. He’d take a delight in humiliating the pair of them. She could see him now, in her mind’s eye, taunting them with that horrible smirk on his face, while slobbering at the mouth. ‘Mam, when our Ben comes in, I’m going straight up to bed. I couldn’t bear to face me dad.’

‘There’s the kettle whistling, sweetheart. Yer’ll feel better when yer’ve had a hot drink. And when yer go to bed, I’ll come with yer. We can keep each other warm.’

It was nine o’clock when Ben came home, and Annie poured him out a cup of tea. She’d made a fresh pot, for she’d known he’d be home soon, and that he’d be glad of a warm drink. As she handed him the cup, she said, ‘Yer father’s been up to his tricks again. In a temper because I wasn’t here to put his dinner in front of him, he took off on Jenny.’

‘What did he do, Jen?’ her brother asked, ‘Shout, or hit yer?’

Jenny told him the same tale she’d told her mother. ‘And I went to meet me mam coming out of the pictures. I was like a block of ice, ’cos I didn’t have enough clothes on.’

‘I got the fright of me life when I came out of the pictures and saw her waiting for me,’ Annie said. ‘It was me first time out at night, and it’ll be me last. I’ll never leave either of yer alone with him again.’

‘I made a right fool of meself through him,’ Jenny told her brother. ‘He’d got to me so much, I was crying me eyes out when I ran into the street. I’d banged the door shut and was leaning against the wall when Danny from over the road came out. He was on his way to a dance, and I tried to get away from him, ’cos I felt stupid for crying like a baby. But Danny was really nice, and he wanted to wait with me till me mam came home from the pictures. I wouldn’t let him, though, for I felt really awful. A seventeen-year-old, crying like a baby. All because I’ve got a lousy, bullying father. Honestly, I know yer shouldn’t say yer hate anyone, but I’m afraid I hate me dad.’

‘Had he been drinking, sis?’ Ben asked. ‘Or was it just his bad temper?’

‘It was both.’ Jenny sighed. ‘He stank of beer, and I’d say he’d had quite a few on the way home. That, on top of me mam not being in, well, yer don’t need me to draw a picture for yer. Both of yer know what he’s like.’

‘And he’s in the pub now, is he?’ Ben asked.

‘There’s nowhere else he can be,’ Annie said. ‘It’s not as though he’s got any friends he could have called on. I don’t think he’s ever had a friend in his life. Even the bloke who was his best man when we got married, I’ve never seen sight nor light of since that day.’

‘If he’d had drinks earlier, and he’s propping the bar up again now, he’ll be in a right state by throwing out time.’ Ben pulled a face. ‘And he’ll either make a fool of himself in the street again, or he’ll take it out on us. So I think I’ll go to bed when I’ve finished me tea, Mam, and I think you and our Jenny would be well advised to do the same.’

‘We intend to, sweetheart. We’d already decided to go to bed once you were in and had had a cuppa to warm yer up. So, if ye’re ready, I think we should make ourselves scarce. The pubs start throwing out at ten, and it’s ten minutes to now.’ Annie dropped her head for a few seconds, so her children couldn’t see the despair in her eyes. She didn’t think she could put up with this life for much longer. It had been dragging her down for years, and now she felt she had reached rock bottom. With a weary sigh, she rose from the chair. ‘Come on, let’s go. With a bit of luck, yer father will be so drunk he’ll just throw himself on the couch and spend the night there.’

‘Are yer leaving the light on, Mam,’ Ben asked, ‘or shall I turn it off?’

‘Better turn it off, son, in case he sets fire to the ruddy house. If he’s no matches to light a ciggie, yer know he puts a piece of newspaper to the mantel. He’ll burn the house down one of these days.’

Ben pulled the chain at the side of the gas light, and plunged the room into darkness. As he followed his mother and sister upstairs, he said, ‘I wouldn’t care if he did burn the house down, Mam, as long as he was the only one in it.’

Ada raised her brows in surprise when Danny walked in. She looked to the clock on the mantelpiece to make sure she hadn’t got the time wrong. ‘What are yer doing home
at this time? Are yer sickening for something?’

Danny pulled a chair out and sat down. ‘When I left here tonight, Mam, there was a little incident, and I couldn’t enjoy the dance because it was on me mind.’

It was Jimmy who asked, ‘What sort of an incident, son? Did someone get run over?’

‘No, nothing like that, Dad.’ Danny scratched his head. ‘In fact, I’m probably making a mountain out of a molehill. But I couldn’t get it out of me mind, and it put me right off dancing. Even the slow foxtrot didn’t seem the same.’

‘In the name of God, sunshine, are yer going to keep this mystery to yerself, or are yer going to tell me and yer dad about it?’

Danny smiled, and his dimples appeared. ‘I’m not having yer on, Mam, but I guess yer’ll think I’m crazy when I tell yer what’s been playing on me mind.’

Ada tutted and clicked her tongue. ‘If yer don’t hurry up and put me out of me misery, sunshine, so help me I’ll clock yer one.’

Once he started, it didn’t take long for Danny to explain what had happened, and what his thoughts were. ‘I felt really sorry for Jenny, ’cos yer could see she was ashamed. She’d been crying and her eyes were red. She was shivering in just her working coat, with nothing round her neck and no gloves. And after seeing the antics that father of hers can get up to, I was really afraid for her. I offered to walk with her to meet her mother, but she wouldn’t have it. She practically chased me off. I couldn’t very well stick around when she didn’t want me there, but I got the feeling there was more to it than a shouting match with her father.’

Ada left her chair and crossed to the window. She drew the curtain aside and looked out at the house opposite. ‘I can’t see a
light. I wonder if the queer feller’s in the pub, and Annie and the kids have gone to bed to keep out of his way?’

‘It’ll be throwing out time in the pub any time now,’ Jimmy said. ‘I hope he doesn’t kick off like he did last night. I don’t mind carrying him home once in a while, but I’m blowed if I’ll do it night after night.’

‘I’ll keep me eye open for him,’ Ada said. ‘He goes to the pub at the top of the road each night, so I’ll watch for him.’ There was anger in her voice when she said, ‘Me blood is boiling, it really is. To think that in the house opposite, a woman and two children have gone to bed early because they’re frightened of a flaming, jumped-up drunkard. I’ve never known the likes of it before.’ She turned her gaze back to number twenty-two. ‘I hope he does start, ’cos I’m just in the mood for him. I’ve made a friend of Annie, and I’ll not stand by and see a friend in trouble.’

Danny scraped his chair back. ‘Mam, come and sit down. I’ll walk up to the pub, and when he comes out I’ll follow him.’

‘That’s if he’s in there,’ Jimmy said. ‘He might not be.’

‘He’ll be there.’ Ada dropped the curtain and returned to her chair. ‘Apparently he has a routine that he sticks to without fail. A few pints in a pub down by the docks where he works, home to be waited on hand and foot, then up to the pub on the corner. And he stays there until the landlord throws him out.’

Danny donned the overcoat he’d taken off when he came in. ‘I’ll walk up now. I won’t do or say anything to him, I’ll just walk behind and see what he gets up to.’

‘I don’t like the idea of yer getting tangled up with him, sunshine, ’cos he’s a bad bugger. Stay here and we’ll keep a lookout through the window. If he starts anything, the three of us can deal with him.’

‘I’ll go with Danny, if it makes yer feel better, love,’ Jimmy said. ‘But if it’s to be a regular occurrence, I think the police should be called. A night in the cells might just bring the man to his senses.’

‘There’s no need for you to come, Dad, I’ll be all right on me own. I’m a big boy now, yer know, and a big sober boy can lick a drunken man any day. If he’s in the state he was last night, he’ll see three of me.’ Danny dropped a kiss on his mother’s cheek. ‘I’ll yell if I need any help, but it’s not very likely.’

With his coat collar pulled up to protect his ears from the biting wind, Danny walked up the street. He could hear the voices of men laughing and joking as they left the pub, but they were men who could only afford one pint, and they made it last until last orders were called. When the exit of the drinkers tailed off, and there was no sign of Tom Phillips, Danny thought he’d missed him. Until he heard the landlord’s voice saying, ‘Out yer go, mate. And if yer make it home in the state ye’re in, it’ll be a bloody miracle.’ And into view came the staggering figure of Jenny’s father. He could hardly stand, and put his hand on the wall to support him.

Danny stood back in the shadows, watching with amazement the performance of the man from twenty-two. Backwards, forwards and sideways the body rolled, and several times Danny held his breath as it seemed the man must surely fall. But when Tom Phillips had finally got himself facing the right way, he began to sway and roll his way forward. Then he began to talk to himself in a loud voice, using words that only the lowest of the low would use. The street was deserted and quiet, but the drunken man had no thought for other people. In fact he was so drunk, Danny told himself the landlord of the pub had been right. It would be a miracle if Tom Phillips ever made it to his front door.

It was when Jenny’s father began to shout his obscenities out loud that Danny decided to try to calm the man down so the family wouldn’t be humiliated. Jenny had had enough of this man for one day. So when they were near enough to number twenty-two, Danny came alongside him, but stepped into the gutter to dodge the swaying figure. How the man was even on his feet was a mystery to him. ‘Good evening, Mr Phillips.’