The Wish House and Other Stories (57 page)

‘That would be when I was at Cosham,’ said Mrs Fettley.

‘You
know, Liz, there wasn’t no cheap-dog pride to folk, those days, no more than there was cinemas, nor whisk-drives. Man or woman ’ud lay hold o’ any job that promised a shillin’ to the backside of it, didn’t they? I was all peaked up after Lunnon, an’ I thought the fresh airs ’ud serve me. So I took on at Smalldene, obligin’ with a hand at the early potato-liftin’, stubbin’ hens, an’ such-like. They’d ha’ mocked me sore in my kitchen in Lunnon, to see me in men’s boots, an’ me petticoats all shorted.’

‘Did it bring ye any good?’ Mrs Fettley asked.

“Twadn’t for that I went. You know, ‘s well’s me, that na’un happens to ye till it
‘as
‘appened. Your mind don’t warn ye before’and of the road ye’ve took, till you’re at the far eend of it. We’ve only a backwent view of our proceedin’s.’

“Oo was it?’

“Any Mockler.’ Mrs Ashcroft’s face puckered to the pain of her sick leg.

Mrs Fettley gasped. “Arry? Bert Mockler’s son! an’
I’d
never guessed!’

Mrs Ashcroft nodded. ‘An’ I told myself –
an’
I beleft it – that I wanted field-work.’

‘What did ye get out of it?’

‘The usuals. Everythin’ at first – worse than naught after. I had signs an’ warnings a-plenty, but I took no heed of ’em. For we was burnin’ rubbish one day, just when we’d come to know how ’twas with – with both of us. ’twas early in the year for burnin’, an’ I said so. “No!” says he. “The sooner dat old stuff’s off an’ done with,” ’e says, “the better.” ‘Is face was harder ’n rocks when he spoke. Then it come over me that I’d found me master, which I ’adn’t ever before. I’d alius owned ’em, like.’

‘Yes! Yes! They’re yourn or you’re theirn,’ the other sighed. ‘I like the right way best.’

‘I didn’t. But ‘Arry did…‘Long then, it come time for me to go back to Lunnon. I couldn’t. I clean couldn’t! So, I took an’ tipped a dollop o’ scaldin’ water out o’ the copper one Monday mornin’ over me left ‘and and arm. Dat stayed me where I was for another fortnight.’

‘Was it worth it?’ said Mrs Fettley, looking at the silvery scar on the wrinkled fore-arm.

Mrs Ashcroft nodded. ‘An’ after that, we two made it up ‘twixt us so’s ’e could come to Lunnon for a job in a liv’ry stable not far from me. ’E got it. I ‘tended to that. There wadn’t no talk nowhere. His own mother never suspicioned how ‘twas. He just slipped up to Lunnon, an’ there we abode that winter, not ‘alt a mile ‘tother from each.’

‘Ye paid ‘is fare an’ all, though’; Mrs Fettley spoke convincedly.

Again Mrs Ashcroft nodded. ‘Dere wadn’t much I didn’t do for him. ’E was me master, an’ – O God, help us! – we’d laugh over it walkin’ together after dark in them paved streets, an’ me corns fair wrenchin’ in me boots! I’d never been like that before. Ner he! Ner he!’

Mrs Fettley clucked sympathetically.

‘An’ when did ye come to the eend?’ she asked.

‘When ’e paid it all back again, every penny. Then I knowed, but I wouldn’t
suffer
meself to know. “You’ve been mortal kind to me,” he says. “Kind!” I said. “Twixt
us?”
But ’e kep’ all on tellin’ me ‘ow kind I’d been an’ ‘e’d never forget it all his days. I held it from off o’ me for three evenin’s, because I would
not
believe. Then ’e talked about not bein’ satisfied with ‘is job in the stables, an’ the men there puttin’ tricks on ‘im, an’ all they lies which a man tells when ‘e’s leavin’ ye. I heard ’im out, neither ’elpin’ nor ‘inderin’. At the last, I took off a
liddle brooch which he’d give me an’ I says: “Dat’ll do.
I
ain’t askin’ na’un.” an’ I turned me round an’ walked off to me own sufferin’s. ’E didn’t make ’em worse. ’E didn’t come nor write after that. ’E slipped off ‘ere back ‘ome to ‘is mother again.’

‘An’ ‘ow often did ye look for ‘en to come back?’ Mrs Fettley demanded mercilessly.

‘More ’n once – more ’n once! Goin’ over the streets we’d used, ‘I thought de very pave-stones ’ud shruck out under me feet.’

‘Yes,’ said Mrs Fettley. ‘I dunno but dat don’t ‘urt as much as aught else. an’ dat was all ye got?’

‘No. ‘Twadn’t. That’s the curious part, if you’ll believe it, Liz.’

‘I do. I lay you’re further off lyin’ now than in all your life, Gra’.’

‘I am…an’ I suffered, like I’d not wish my most arrantest enemies to. God’s Own Name! I went through the hoop that spring! One part of it was ’eddicks which I’d never known all me days before. Think o’
me
with an ‘eddick! But I come to be grateful for ’em. They kep’ me from thinkin’

“Tis like a tooth,’ Mrs Fettley commented. ‘It must rage an’ rugg till it tortures itself quiet on ye: an’ then – then there’s na’un left.’

‘
I
got enough lef’ to last me all
my
days on earth. It come about through our charwoman’s liddle girl – Sophy Ellis was ’er name – all eyes an’ elbers an’ hunger. I used to give ’er vittles. Otherwhiles, I took no special notice of ‘er, an’ a sight less, o’ course, when me trouble about ‘Any was on me. But – you know how liddle maids first feel it sometimes – she come to be crazy-fond o’ me, pawin’ an’ cuddlin’ all whiles; an’ I ’adn’t the ’eart to beat ’er off…One afternoon, early in spring ‘twas, ’er mother ‘ad sent ’er round to scutchel up what vittles she could off of us. I was settin’ by the fire, me apern over me head, half-mad with the ‘eddick, when she slips in. I reckon I was middlin’ short with ‘er. “Lor’!” she says. “Is that all? I’ll take it off you in two-twos!” I told her not to lay a finger on me, for I thought she’d want to stroke my forehead; an’ – I ain’t that make. “I won’t tech ye,” she says, an’ slips out again. She ’adn’t been gone ten minutes ‘fore me old ‘eddick took off quick as bein’ kicked. So I went about my work. Prasin’ly, Sophy comes back, an’ creeps into my chair quiet as a mouse. ’ereyes was deep in ’er‘ead an’ er face all drawed. I asked ’erwhat ‘ad ‘appened. “Nothin’,” she says. “On’y I’ve got it now.” “Got what?” I says. “Your ‘eddick,” she says, all hoarse an’ sticky-lipped. “I’ve took it on me.” “Nonsense,” I says, “it went of itself when you was out. Lay still an’ I’ll make ye a cup o’ tea.” “’Twon’t do no good,” she says, “till your time’s up. ‘ow long do
your
’eddicks last?” “Don’t talk silly,” I says, “or I’ll send for the
doctor.” It looked to me like she might be hatchin’ de measles. ‘Oh, Mrs Ashcroft,’ she says, stretchin’ out ’erliddle thin arms. “I
do
love ye.” There wasn’t any holdin’ agin that. I took ’erinto my lap an’ made much of ‘er. “Is it truly gone?” she says. “Yes,” I says, “an’ if ’twas you took it away, I’m truly grateful.”
‘“Twas
me,” she says, layin’ ’ercheek to mine. “No one but me knows how.” an’ then she said she’d changed me ‘eddick for me at a Wish ‘Ouse.’

‘Whatt?’ Mrs Fettley spoke sharply.

‘A Wish House. No! I ’adn’t ’eard o’ such things, either. I couldn’t get it straight at first, but, puttin’ all together, I made out that a Wish ‘Ouse ‘ad to be a house which ‘ad stood unlet an’ empty long enough for Some One, like, to come an’ in’abit there. She said a liddle girl that she’d played with in the livery stables where ‘Any worked ‘ad told ’erso. She said the girl ‘ad belonged in a caravan that laid up, o’ winters, in Lunnon. Gipsy, I judge.’

Ooh! There’s no sayin’ what Gippos know, but I’ve never ’eard of a Wish ‘Ouse, an’ I know – some things,’ said Mrs Fettley.

‘Sophy said there was a Wish ‘Ouse in Wadloes Road – just a few streets off, on the way to our greengrocer’s. All you ‘ad to do, she said, was to ring the bell an’ wish your wish through the slit o’ the letter-box. I asked ’erif the fairies give it ‘er? “Don’t ye know,” she says, “there’s no fairies in a Wish ‘Ouse? There’s on’y a Token.’”

‘Goo’ Lord A’mighty! Where did she come by
that
word?’ cried Mrs Fettley; for a Token is a wraith of the dead or, worse still, of the living.

‘The caravan-girl ‘ad told ‘er, she said. Well, Liz, it troubled me to ’ear ‘er, an’ lyin’ in me arms she must ha’ felt it. “That’s very kind o’ you,” I says, holdin’ ’ertight, “to wish me ‘eddick away. But why didn’t ye ask somethin’ nice for yourself?” “You can’t do that,” she says. “All you’ll get at a Wish ‘Ouse is leave to take someone else’s trouble. I’ve took Ma’s ‘eddicks, when she’s been kind to me; but this is the first time I’ve been able to do aught for you. Oh, Mrs Ashcroft, I
do
just about love you.” an’ she goes on all like that. Liz, I tell you my ’air e’en a’most stood on end to ’ear ‘er. I asked ’erwhat like a Token was. “I dunno,” she says, “but after you’ve ringed the bell, you’ll ’ear it run up from the basement, to the front door. Then say your wish,” she says, “an’ go away.” “The Token don’t open de door to ye, then?” I says. “Oh no,” she says. “You on’y ’ear gigglin’, like, be’ind the front door. Then you say you’ll take the trouble off of ‘oo ever ’tis you’ve chose for your love; an’ ye’ll get it,” she says. I didn’t ask no more – she was too ’ot an’ fevered. I made much of ’ertill it come time to light de gas, an’ a liddle after that, ’er‘eddickmine,
I suppose – took off, an’ she got down an’ played with the cat.’

‘Well, I never!’ said Mrs Fettley. ‘Did – did ye foller it up, anyways?’

‘She askt me to, but I wouldn’t ‘ave no such dealin’s with a child.’

‘What
did
ye do, then?’

‘Sat in me own room ‘stid o’ the kitchen when me ’eddicks come on. But it lay at de back o’ me mind.’

“Twould. Did she tell ye more, ever?’

‘No. Besides what the Gippo girl ‘ad told ‘er, she knew naught, ’cept that the charm worked. An’, next after that – in May ’twas – I suffered the summer out in Lunnon. ’twas hot an’ windy for weeks, an’ the streets stinkin’ o’ dried ‘orse-dung blowin’ from side to side an’ lyin’ level with the kerb. We don’t get that nowadays. I ‘ad my ‘ol’day just before hoppin’,
^*
an’ come down ‘ere to stay with Bessie again. She noticed I’d lost flesh, an’ was all poochy under the eyes.’

‘Did ye see ‘Any?’

Mrs Ashcroft nodded. ‘The fourth – no, the fifth day. Wednesday ‘twas. I knowed ’e was workin’ at Smalldene again. I asked ‘is mother in the street, bold as brass. She ’adn’t room to say much, for Bessie – you know ’ertongue – was talkin’ full-clack. But that Wednesday, I was walkin’ with one o’ Bessie’s chillern hangin’ on me skirts, at de back o’ Chanter’s Tot. Prasin’ly, I felt ’e was be’ind me on the footpath, an’ I knowed by ‘is tread ‘e’d changed ‘is nature. I slowed, an’ I heard ’im slow. Then I fussed a piece with the child, to force him past me, like. So ’e
‘ad
to come past. ’E just says “Good evenin‘”, and goes on, tryin’ to pull ‘isself together.’

‘Drunk, was he?’ Mrs Fettley asked.

‘Never! S’runk an’ wizen; ‘is clothes ‘angin’ on ’im like bags, an’ the back of ‘is neck whiter ’n chalk. ’twas all I could do not to oppen my arms an’ cry after him. But I swallered me spittle till I was back ‘ome again an’ the chillern abed. Then I says to Bessie, after supper, “What in de world’s come to ‘Arry Mockler?” Bessie told me ‘e’d been a-hospital for two months, ‘long o’ cuttin’ ‘is foot wid a spade, muckin’ out the old pond at Smalldene. There was poison in de dirt, an’ it rooshed up ‘is leg, like, an’ come out all over him. ’E ’adn’t been back to ‘is job – carterin’ at Smalldene ‘ more’n a fortnight. She told me the doctor said he’d go off, likely, with the November frostes; an’ ‘is mother ‘ad told ’erthat ’e didn’t rightly eat nor sleep, an’ sweated ‘imself into pools, no odds ‘ow chill ’e lay. an’ spit terrible o’ mornin’s. “Dearie me,” I says. “But, mebbe, hoppin’ ‘ll set ’im right
again,” an’ I licked me thread-point an’ I fetched me needle’s eye up to it an’ I threads me needle under de lamp, steady as rocks. an’ dat night (me bed was in de wash-house) I cried an’ I cried. an’
you
know, Liz – for you’ve been with me in my throes – it takes summat to make me cry.’

‘Yes; but chile-bearin’ is on’y just pain,’ said Mrs Fettley.

‘I come round by cock-crow, an’ dabbed cold tea on me eyes to take away the signs. Long towards nex’ evenin’ – I was settin’ out to lay some flowers on me ‘usband’s grave, for the look o’ the thing – I met ‘Any over against where the War Memorial is now. ’E was comin’ back from ‘is Orses, so ’e couldn’t
not
see me. I looked ’im all over, an’ ‘“Any,” I says twix’ me teeth, “come back an’ rest-up in Lunnon.” “I won’t take it,” he says, “for I can give ye naught.” “I don’t ask it,” I says. “By God’s Own Name, I don’t ask na’un! On’y come up an’ see a Lunnon doctor.” ’E lifts ‘is two ‘eavy eyes at me: “Tis past that, Gra’,” ’e says. “I’ve but a few months left.” ‘“Any!” I says. “My man!” I says. I couldn’t say no more. ’twas all up in me throat. “Thank ye kindly, Gra’,” ’e says (but ’e never says “my woman”), an’ ’e went on up-street an’ ‘is mother – Oh, damn ‘er! – she was watchin’ for ‘im, an’ she shut de door be’ind ‘im.’

Mrs Fettley stretched an arm across the table, and made to finger Mrs Ashcroft’s sleeve at the wrist, but the other moved it out of reach.

‘So I went on to the churchyard with my flowers, an’ I remembered my ‘usband’s warnin’ that night he spoke. ’E
was
death-wise, an’ it
‘ad
‘appened as ’e said. But as I was settin’ down de jam-pot on the grave-mound, it come over me there was one thing I
could
do for ‘Arry. Doctor or no doctor, I thought I’d make a trial of it. So I did. Nex’ mornin’, a bill came down from our Lunnon greengrocer. Mrs Marshall, she’d lef’ me petty cash for suchlike – o’ course – but I tole Bess ’twas for me to come an’ open the ‘ouse. So I went up, afternoon train.’

‘An’ – but I know you ’adn’t – ’adn’t you no fear?’

‘What for? There was nothin’ front o’ me but my own shame an’ God’s croolty. I couldn’t ever get ‘Any-’ow could I? I knowed it must go on burnin’ till it burned me out.’

‘Aie!’ said Mrs Fettley, reaching for the wrist again, and this time Mrs Ashcroft permitted it.

‘Yit ’twas a comfort to know I could try
this
for ‘im. So I went an’ I paid the greengrocer’s bill, an’ put ‘is receipt in me handbag, an’ then I stepped round to Mrs Ellis – our char – an’ got the ‘ouse-keys an’ opened the ‘ouse. First, I made me bed to come back to (God’s
Own Name! Me bed to lie upon!). Nex’ I made me a cup o’ tea an’ sat down in the kitchen thinkin’, till ‘long towards dusk. Terrible close, ‘twas. Then I dressed me an’ went out with the receipt in me ‘andbag, feignin’ to study it for an address, like. Fourteen, Wadloes Road, was the place – a liddle basement-kitchen Ouse, in a row of twenty-thirty such, an’ tiddy strips o’ walled garden in front – the paint off the front doors, an’ na’un done to na’un since ever so long. There wasn’t ‘ardly no one in the streets ’cept the cats.
‘Twas
‘ot, too! I turned into the gate bold as brass; up de steps I went an’ I ringed the front-door bell. She pealed loud, like it do in an empty house. When she’d all ceased, I ’eard a cheer, like, pushed back on de floor o’ the kitchen. Then I ’eard feet on de kitchen-stairs, like it might ha’ been a heavy woman in slippers. They come up to de stair-head, acrost the hall – I ’eard the bare boards creak under ’em – an’ at de front door dey stopped. I stooped me to the letter-box slit, an’ I says: “Let me take everythin’ bad that’s in store for my man, ‘Arry Mockler, for love’s sake.” Then, whatever it was ‘tother side de door let its breath out, like, as if it ‘ad been holdin’ it for to ’ear better.’