Star Sullivan (4 page)

When she was nearly sixteen she decided that there was no point in staying on at school.
Mam could get her a job in the supermarket, and she would be bringing in some money, which they badly needed. Kevin didn’t give anything at home. Lilly had left her job, being sick and everything. Michael was on probation now and had been fired from the garden centre where Mr Hale worked. Her father had been having very bad luck on the horses and as a result owed Certain People a lot of money, so even though he worked like a dog his whole wage packet went straight to the Certain People, not to her mam.

Nobody took much interest in Star leaving school. Nobody except Laddy.

‘You’re mad to quit now,’ he said to her, when she told him her news.

‘Why? Didn’t you leave school early?’ Star asked.

‘Not as early as fifteen, and anyway I regret it. I often think that if my mother had been around I would have stayed on and got a career.’

‘But you
have
a career,’ Star cried. ‘You do a bit of this and a bit of that.’

‘Star, I help to run a cycling club, I store dodgy things in that shed, I drive even more
dodgy things in a big van, I work hours as a barman in one club and as a bouncer in another. Is that a career?’

‘It’s a lot of careers,’ she said, her eyes shining.

‘Don’t you want to learn more things, know more?’ he said.

‘Not really. I just want things to be all right for everyone, that’s all I want.’

‘It’s a pretty big wish,’ Laddy said.

Lilly was still in hospital and barely knew who Star was. The boys were too busy and Dad was too upset about the people who had lent him money. Only Mam knew about Star’s new yellow coat and her yellow and white hat and how she went to work at the bakery section of the supermarket, handing out rolls and scones to people, with little pincers. Only Molly Sullivan saw the way people smiled at her kind, willing daughter who looked so pretty and eager to please. Some day someone would break Star’s heart into pieces. She was the kind of girl to trust anyone who said anything nice at all.

At last the hospital were sending Lilly home. Molly and Star were getting her room ready for
her. There were only three bedrooms at number 24 Chestnut Street, one for Mam and Dad, one for the boys and one for the girls. But Lilly would need a room of her own now. Kevin was hardly ever in the house but Michael was still around, so where did that leave Star?

She told Laddy about it as she told him everything. Topper didn’t seem to be round so much any more. Laddy said he had the perfect solution. He needed someone to keep an eye on things in their shed at night. Michael could have a bed there, and he would set it up straight away.

So before Lilly was back from hospital it had all been done. Laddy had given the boys a tin of white paint each to freshen up all the bedrooms, and he supervised the job. He got Kevin to move all his gear over to Gemma’s flat. Kevin didn’t like it.

‘But how can Star sleep in your old room with all your weight-training stuff and trainers?’ Laddy asked.

There was no answer. Kevin complained that Gemma would want a ring on her finger if much more of this went on.

Star looked around her bright, clean, new
room. Laddy had even put up shelves for her in the corner and given her a blue rug for the floor. From the window she could see the garden shed where her brother Michael was now sleeping. The shed that Laddy had told her was full of dodgy things.

Michael now made breakfast for Mr Hale and Laddy in the mornings. Big mugs of tea, just as they liked it, and two pieces of toast each. Star’s mam was amazed that Michael would do that in someone else’s house when she had never been able to make him do it in his own.

‘I wasn’t hard enough on him, I suppose,’ she told Star.

‘But you wouldn’t have wanted a row,’ Star said, as if it was very clear and simple.

‘That’s it, Star, I never wanted a row,’ her mother said.

Michael didn’t want anyone coming into his shed. ‘It’s the Hales’ business, that shed,’ he would say, if anyone asked. So Star and her mother had given up. Kevin didn’t ask and Lilly didn’t care.

One night, Star stood behind her curtain and watched as Michael and Laddy carried what
must have been fifty boxes from the shed into a waiting van. Then Michael got into the driver’s seat and headed off. Michael, who had no driving licence, driving a van full of stolen goods!

And then when he had gone she saw Laddy sweep out the shed carefully and put the rubbish in a black plastic sack. He went back into the house, leaving the shed door open. This was a chance for Star to see what it was like so she stole downstairs and peeped around the open door.

It was empty of boxes now. All it contained was just Michael’s single bed, a red rug on it and a red reading lamp beside it. A coat-stand too where he hung his clothes. Very simple, certainly. Her heart thumping about the danger they must be in, she crept back to her room.

At dawn there was a lot of noise. The bin men were due to collect the rubbish that day. Without thinking, Star went and took Laddy’s black rubbish bag from next door and added it to their own bags.

An hour later two police cars arrived. Laddy was being questioned about his movements on
the previous night. Over and over he claimed to have been at home in Chestnut Street.

Where was Michael Sullivan?

He said the boy had gone off somewhere on a train.

‘Not in a van?’ the sergeant asked.

‘No, I don’t think he has a driving licence.’ Laddy looked innocent.

‘And your father was asleep, your stepmother was away, so there are no witnesses of where you were last night?’

Star Sullivan stepped forward. ‘I was with him all night,’ she said in a clear voice.

‘And you are . . .?’

‘Star Sullivan, Laddy’s next-door neighbour and girlfriend.’

‘Where did you spend the night?’

‘In the shed, in a single bed with a red rug and a red light.’ Star spoke very definitely.

‘This is so, Mr Hale?’

‘This is so,’ said Laddy.

A
FTER THAT EVERYTHING CHANGED
. Star was the centre of a lot of attention in the Sullivan home.

‘Did you know she was sleeping with that fellow next door?’ Shay asked Molly.

‘No idea on God’s earth,’ Molly said, still shocked by it all.

‘Well, it’s up to you to make sure she’s . . . all right, you know.’

‘It’s a bit late to be thinking about that now,’ Molly said. ‘Either she’s being sensible or she isn’t, and you know Star.’

But apparently they didn’t know Star.

Kevin her eldest brother was also shocked. ‘Making herself cheap with everyone all over the place,’ he said.

‘I wouldn’t say that,’ Molly began.

‘What
would
you say, Mam?’ Kevin asked.

‘Not much,’ Molly agreed.

Lilly was astounded. How could someone
who was as old as Laddy and as good-looking have gone for little Star who was fat and foolish? Nice, of course, but boring.

‘Men don’t always look for brains, you know,’ Molly said ‘And I’ll have you know that Star is far from fat, she’s grand-looking.’

Only Michael knew that it wasn’t true. When he came back from his trip to hear that he had just missed being put in gaol again, and this time thanks to his little sister, he sat down with the shock.

‘She was here in my bed with you?’ he said to Laddy.

‘Of course she wasn’t. She just
said
that.’

‘She’s very young for you, Laddy.’

‘God, Michael, I wasn’t near her, she just came out of a clear blue sky and said it, and got us both off the hook. You had dropped me in it, you know that.’

‘It’s not like Star to think so quickly.’

‘I know. She even got rid of the black rubbish bag, gave it to the bin men and all.’

‘Well, wouldn’t people surprise you?’ Michael said, delighted.

He gave Star a very smart mobile phone. As a thank-you present.

‘Ah no, really, Michael, thank you, but no. I don’t really have anyone to phone.’

‘What
would
you like then?’

‘I’ve got everything, Michael, a lovely room of my own and a nice job. I’m fine.’

He looked at her. She meant it.

Laddy also asked her what he could give her to thank her for thinking so quickly. She told him she didn’t need anything at all.

He was puzzled by her. Years of odd jobs here and there and time spent in nightclubs had not prepared Laddy for a girl like Star, who truly could not think of any present she might like. Topper would have known, so would Biddy, so would almost everyone Laddy had ever met.

‘What would you like best in the world, Star?’ he asked.

Star thought hard about the question. ‘I suppose I’d like Dad to have one big win that would pay off all that he owes and for him never to gamble again,’ she said, after a while.

‘But that’s not going to happen. If he did have one big win, then he’d think he would have another, and it would just start all over again.’

‘He might have learned his lesson,’ Star said.

‘What else would you like?’

‘I’d like Lilly to eat properly and not to have her bones sticking out. She doesn’t eat
anything
. I try to hide it from Mam.’

‘That’s not sensible,’ Laddy said.

‘I know, but I don’t want more fights. And then I’d like someone to look after Michael and keep him out of trouble. It’s not
much
to ask, but it’s kind of hard to organise.’ She looked very young and innocent. Her eyes were big and full of hope. Her red-brown hair was shiny.

Laddy stroked her face. ‘All right, we’ll see what we can do. Give your father one big win, for example,’ he said.

‘He has no money, you see,’ she began.

‘I’ll lend it to him. Not today, in a couple of weeks. Not a word, right?’

‘Not a word,’ Star said.

‘And we’ll see what we can do about Lilly and Michael,’ Laddy promised.

They were surprised in number 24 that Star didn’t seem to go out with Laddy. Sometimes they asked her.

‘Has he dropped you, then, now that he’s got what he wanted?’ Lilly wondered.

‘If he’s treating you badly, just tell me,’ Kevin said, with a great frown.

‘Not going out with your fellow, then?’ her father would ask.

‘He’s a good bit too old for you, Star, you’d be much better off finding someone of your own age,’ Molly would say.

Star never said anything. Other people brought it up. Like Biddy, who lived in the Hales’ house and everyone assumed was the girlfriend of Laddy’s dad.

‘You do surprise me,’ Biddy said to her one day. ‘But then, they always say watch out for the quiet ones. He’s a bit of a handful, our Laddy, but he’s worth waiting for, they tell me.’

Star tried to look as if Laddy had been well worth waiting for.

Topper, the girl in the short skirts, came round. Star was working in the garden, as she often was. Topper sat on the wall as she talked.

‘You didn’t take long to move in when I left,’ she said.

Star tried to look as if she was someone who was used to moving in quickly.

‘He won’t be faithful to you, he doesn’t know how,’ Topper said, in a pleased voice. ‘I just
thought you should know. I was only going out with him for three weeks when he found someone else.’

‘Oh dear,’ Star said.

‘And when I made a fuss, he said that’s the way he was. Has he said that to you?’

‘No, no, he hasn’t.’

‘But you haven’t made a fuss yet, have you?’

‘No, no, I didn’t make any fuss,’ Star agreed.

‘You will,’ said Topper, ‘and it will do you no good.’

At the supermarket, Kenny who worked at the fish counter asked her out. Star was about to say no when she realised that maybe Laddy would take more notice of her if he believed her to be the kind of girl who had real dates. So she agreed to go to the pictures with Kenny and then for a Chinese meal.

But none of it mattered to Star, except to tell Laddy. She had a real date. He would have to be impressed.

Laddy said the movie was brilliant. He had seen it on a dodgy DVD and it was first class. He said she should go for prawns and sesame toast at the Chinese restaurant. ‘We must
make a good impression on this Kenny,’ he said.

Star felt tears of rage in her eyes. This was
not
the response she had expected or wanted. What had happened to good old-fashioned jealousy?

Then Laddy remembered something. ‘Your father’s big bet will be coming up in a week or so. Start talking to him about this trainer. Say you heard about it at work, don’t let it get back to me.’

‘I wish now I’d never told you about my dad,’ Star said. ‘I’m starting to worry all over again.’

‘No, it will be fine when the time comes. I’ll lend him a thousand euro and he’ll win a fortune.’

Star nearly fainted. ‘A
thousand
euro on top of what he owes! Oh, Laddy, this is terrible.’