Try a Little Tenderness (12 page)

‘They’re not, girl, just look at them. That one’s cockeyed.’

Wilf pushed his straw hat to the back of his head. ‘Amy, when yer come back it’ll be decapitated. Yer won’t see the eyes because it won’t have no head.’

‘Ah, yer won’t hurt it, will yer?’

‘Amy, the bleedin’ rabbit is as dead as a dodo.’

‘I know, Wilf, and I won’t say keep yer hair on ’cos yer haven’t got that much to keep on. But yer see, me saying it was cross-eyed was just an excuse. The truth is, it reminds me of my feller.’

Mary gasped. ‘Amy Hanley, how can yer say such a thing?’

Amy turned wide eyes on her friend. ‘Yer haven’t seen my feller in bed, fast asleep, have yer, girl?’

‘I should hope not!’

‘Well, yer don’t need to now, ’cos I’m telling yer, that’s what he looks like … except the rabbit’s better-looking.’

Mary slipped her arm from her friend’s and put two hands on her ample waist. ‘Out, Amy Hanley.’ She pushed the reluctant woman towards the door, calling over her shoulder, ‘Twenty minutes, Wilf. And if I’m on me own, yer’ll know I’ve pushed this one under a tram.’

‘That won’t do yer no good, Mary, she’d only buckle the wheels.’

Laura was in a very happy frame of mind when she came in from work. She never stopped talking as they were eating their meal, her eyes shining and her arms waving. ‘It’s the gear, Dad, and the women are smashing. Dead friendly, they are.’

Stan was happy to see the change in his daughter. This was how she should be. How he wanted her to be. ‘What exactly do yer do, love?’

‘The cigarettes are in packets when they come to our bench, and we have to put them in cardboard boxes. There’s
a supervisor keeping an eye on us all the time to make sure we pack them properly. Her name’s Miss Birch and she’s got the eyes of an eagle, but she’s nice. And as long as we get on with our work we can talk as much as we like.’

‘Don’t tell yer Auntie Amy that,’ Mary laughed, ‘or she’ll be applying for a job. She’d be in her apple-cart getting paid for talking.’

‘She wouldn’t be able to work there, ’cos ye’re on the go all the time and she’s too fat.’ Laura was looking down at her plate and missed her mother’s expression change. ‘Besides, she isn’t me real auntie.’

‘I’m sure Mrs Hanley is delighted she’s not yer real auntie.’ Mary wasn’t going to sit and listen to her best friend being run down by her own daughter. ‘And as for being too fat, she’d run circles round you, any day of the week.’

Laura smirked. ‘Aye, in her sleep.’

‘That’s quite enough now, Laura. Yer’d be advised to keep a civil tongue in yer head.’ Why does she have to go and spoil things, Stan asked himself as his heart plummeted. ‘Amy Hanley is one of our best friends and yer’d travel a long way to find a nicer woman.’

‘Yeah, she’s all right, I suppose.’ Laura pushed her plate away and swivelled sideways on her chair. ‘I’m going up to Cynthia’s to see how she got on in her job.’

‘Stay right where you are,’ Stan ordered. ‘It’s bad manners to leave the table until everyone has finished eating, and yer mam hasn’t finished. And before yer buzz off out, yer can help with the washing up.’

‘Ah, ay, Dad! I’ve been on me feet all day. Let our Jenny help to wash up.’

‘Oh, I suppose yer think yer mam’s been lounging on the couch all day reading, do yer? I wonder who made the beds, cleaned up, did the washing, and after that went to the shops and came home and made the dinner? D’yer think a fairy with a magic wand did all that?’

‘I’ll do the dishes, Dad,’ Jenny said, hoping to calm things down. ‘It won’t take me long and I don’t mind, honest.’

‘Let her go up to her mate’s, if that’s what she wants.’ Mary nodded her head in Laura’s direction as she collected the dirty plates. ‘The mood she’s in, she wouldn’t wash them properly, anyway. Me and Jenny will see to them.’

Laura didn’t wait to hear what her father had to say, she was off the chair and out of the door like a flash of lightning. ‘Yer should have made her stay, love. Yer told me off for spoiling her and now you’re giving in to her.’

‘I’m not spoiling her, Stan, just fed up with her. If she can’t see for herself how selfish she is, then there’s no use making her do anything against her will because it would be done grudgingly.’ Mary smiled at Jenny. ‘Come on, sunshine, you and me will have them done in no time.’

‘I don’t need you to help me, Mam, I’ll do them on me own. You sit down and tell me dad about Auntie Amy and the rabbits.’ Jenny took the plates from her mother. ‘Go on, give him a good laugh.’

Stan was laughing already. ‘What’s she been up to now?’

‘Don’t you ever repeat to Ben what I’m going to tell yer.’ Mary sat down, rested her elbows on the table and laced her fingers. And while she told the tale, she giggled at the memory of Amy’s face, while Stan roared his head off.

‘She’s a caution, she is,’ he said, wiping his eyes. ‘Ben wouldn’t be upset over that, he’d be the first to see the joke.’

‘That’s not all she got up to today. She had Billy Nelson pulling his hair out.’

Jenny came running in, water dripping from her hands. ‘Yer didn’t tell me about that, Mam, so the dishes can wait for a few minutes. Go on, tell us.’

‘Well, I’d been served and Amy asked for five pound of potatoes. She stood there and watched Billy weighing them out, and never said a dickie-bird. Then, when he was emptying them into a piece of newspaper she pointed, and
said, “Yer can take those little ones out, I don’t want them. Me knife’s a bleedin’ big thing, like what the butcher has, how d’yer expect me to peel those fiddling little things with it? Anyway, by the time they’re peeled there’ll be nothing left of them. Me hand will be cut to ribbons, blood running down me pinny and making a pool on the kitchen floor, and the only thing in me hand will be fresh air, the bleedin’ potato will have vanished”.’

Mary’s shoulders were shaking. ‘I can see Billy’s face now. He didn’t know whether to laugh or throw the potatoes at her. But he kept his cool, and asked, in a very quiet voice, “Amy, why didn’t yer ask for big ones?” And yer know how she squares her shoulders when she gets in a huff – well, she did that, then looking like a little angel, she said, “I’ve kept this secret for years, Billy, but now I’m going to open me heart to yer. I know yer fancy me, ’cos I can see it in yer eyes every time yer look at me. And I want yer to know that I feel the same way about you. Nothing can come of it, lad, because we’re both married, so yer’ll have to control yer emotions. But that doesn’t mean we can’t love each other from afar, does it?”’

Stan reached into his pocket for a hankie to wipe his eyes. ‘She’s a corker, all right. What happened next?’

‘There was no sign of a smile on Billy’s face when he asked, “What’s all that got to do with potatoes? Or am I missing something?” And with a hand on her heart, me mate says, “It bought me an extra five minutes in yer company. I’ll dream of yer tonight in bed and go over every precious word yer’ve spoken. I’ll even dream of yer picking those fiddling little potatoes out and replacing them with decent-sized ones. And, my secret love, I’d be grateful if yer’d put a bleedin’ move on ’cos I haven’t got all day to stand here listening to you yapping. They say women can talk, but by God, they’ve got nothing on you”.’

Mary stretched out an arm. ‘Lend me that hankie, love.’ She shook her head as she conjured up the scene in her
mind. ‘Billy’s face was a picture, I can tell yer. He said, “I haven’t spoken a dozen flippin’ words! It’s you what’s done all the yapping.” And me mate just grinned at him. “That’s why I love yer,” she said. “I’ve always fancied the strong and silent type. Yer remind me of Gary Cooper, except yer haven’t got no horse”.’

‘How does Auntie Amy think of all these things?’ Jenny asked. ‘She’s not just funny sometimes, she’s funny all the time.’

‘Ah, but Billy had an answer for her. He said, “What d’yer mean I haven’t got no horse? How d’yer think I got these bow legs? I certainly didn’t get them sitting on a twenty-two tram. No, I got them riding the range on me faithful steed, Silver”.’

‘Did Amy appreciate the joke?’ Stan asked. ‘I bet she laughed her head off.’

‘Oh, she did more than that, did Amy Hanley. Yer know what she’s like for having the last word. She gave me a dig in the ribs, and said, “We’ve seen his horse, girl. It’s the one what pulls our coalman’s cart. It’s a dirty beggar, Billy Nelson, yer should train him proper. Every time he stops outside our door he decides he wants to go to the lavvy. I wouldn’t mind so much if we had rose bushes to put it on, but the ruddy horse can see we haven’t. Why doesn’t he wait until he’s outside a house with a garden?”’

‘These shopkeepers don’t take her serious, do they?’ Stan asked. ‘I mean, they must know every time she opens her mouth she’s having them on.’

‘Of course they know she’s having them on! They look forward to her coming because they know they’ll get a laugh. And they’re as quick off the mark as she is. As we were leaving the shop, Billy shouted after her, “Why don’t yer put a sign up outside yer house, Amy, saying USE OF
TOILET
1d? Yer could make yerself a few coppers, ’cos lots of people get caught short when they’re out, not only horses”. With that me mate marches back into the shop, shakes a fist
at Billy, and says, “Not bleedin’ likely! Me first customer would be that nosy cow from next door, Annie Baxter. She’s been trying to get into my house for the last ten years. Then she’d tell her mate, Lily Farmer, and before long there’d be a queue a mile long outside me house. Nah, that’s a stupid idea, Billy Nelson. In fact, it’s fair put me off yer. My feller’s got more brains than you have. He’d be smart enough to up the price to tuppence if they wanted paper thrown in”.’

Jenny was smiling as she went back to finish off the dishes. She could hear her parents laughing and felt a warm glow spread through her body. Now she was getting older she was allowed to stay up later and she was seeing more of her dad. They were getting to know each other and were closer than they’d ever been. She knew Laura had always been his favourite, but perhaps that was only natural as she was the firstborn and that made her special.

They were sitting around the fire when Laura came in, and as soon as Mary saw her daughter’s face as she sat on the arm of Stan’s chair, she knew she was after something. And it wasn’t long before she was proved right.

‘Dad, can I go up to Cynthia’s on New Year’s Eve? She can’t go to the Moynihans’ so there won’t be much fun for her with just her mam and dad.’ Laura neglected to say that her friend had invited two lads she’d met in work. ‘Go on, say I can.’

Stan looked at Mary and raised his brows. ‘What d’yer think, love?’

‘I don’t mind, as long as we know where she is.’

‘I’ll only be in Cynthia’s, honest! She is me mate, and we can keep each other company.’ Laura twisted a lock of her dark hair around her finger then let it spring back into place. ‘Me and Cynthia have been talking about next week, when we get our first week’s wages. How much will I have to give me mam out of me wage-packet, Dad?’

Mary opened her mouth, then decided not to voice an
opinion until she’d heard what her husband had to say.

‘Yer’ve got it the wrong way round, Laura,’ Stan said. ‘You hand yer mam yer wage-packet and she gives you pocket-money back.’

Laura’s eyes flashed. ‘That’s not fair! They’re my wages, I have to work for them.’

‘I pass my packet over to yer mam, and you’ll do the same. She’s the one who has to run the house and that’s the way it should be.’ Stan’s voice was stern. ‘So let’s have no argument over it.’

‘I don’t see why I should hand me packet over, not when I’ve worked for the money,’ Laura said, her face sullen as she put an arm around her father’s neck. ‘Cynthia’s not handing hers over, Dad. She’ll be getting seven and six a week, same as me, and she’s giving her mam four shillings out of it.’

‘That’s very big of her, I must say!’ Mary laced her fingers together and pressed tight to remind herself to keep her temper under control. ‘But I wonder how much say her mother had in it? From what I’ve heard, the poor woman doesn’t have a say in anything, she’s treated like a skivvy.’

‘Forget Cynthia, and her mother. What goes on in this house has nothing to do with them.’ Stan moved Laura’s arm away from his neck. She was trying to worm her way into his good books but he wasn’t being soft-soaped, not this time. ‘Me and yer mam will decide how much pocket-money yer get, not you, or yer mate Cynthia.’

Jenny stood up and stretched her arms. She didn’t want to hear any more arguments, nor see her mother get upset. ‘I’m going to bed, Mam, I’m dead tired.’

‘I’ll come with yer, sunshine, I’m tired meself.’ Mary stood at the door and gave Stan a look that said he could sort this out. Then, as she climbed the stairs behind Jenny, she could feel tears stinging her eyes. She’d always done the best she could for her girls, gone without things herself so they always went to school looking neat and tidy. She hadn’t
minded wearing second-hand clothes from the market, as long as her daughters were all right. And it hurt her to think that now life could be a little easier with Laura’s money coming in, every penny she got would be begrudged to her.

Standing on the tiny landing, Jenny put her arms around her mother. ‘Good night and God bless, Mam. And don’t worry about our Laura, she doesn’t always mean what she says. She acts tough, but she’s not, really.’

Mary managed a smile. ‘I hope not, sunshine, because sometimes she sounds as tough as an old pair of leather boots.’ She kissed her daughter’s cheek. ‘Good night and God bless, sunshine. We’ve got the party to look forward to – that should cheer us up.’

Seamus Moynihan was very well organised. Five minutes after the Nightingales and Hanleys arrived, they were sitting with glasses in their hands, and within half an hour the party was in full swing. They all joined in as Seamus and Molly sang ‘Danny Boy’, then came the ‘Bonnie, Bonnie Banks O’Loch Lomond’, followed with gusto by ‘She’s A Lassie From Lancashire’.

Then a halt was called to refill the glasses. And while the men were busy pouring, Mary crossed the room to where Amy was sitting, her legs dangling six inches from the floor. ‘I’ve been watching you, sunshine, and I’m getting worried.’