The Earth Hums in B Flat (26 page)

Angharad jumps up from the grass and begins to run up the field. ‘I can hear the Rowlands van coming,' she says.

‘Oh, no, Gwenni,' says Catrin.

I lift Catrin to her feet and stand up myself. I hold her hand tight. ‘Come on,' I say and I run up the field, pulling Catrin behind me. ‘Let's see if we can fly.'

‘But it's the wrong way, Gwenni,' says Catrin. ‘It's the wrong way to fly away.'

And so it is.

The Rowlands van lurches and sways across the field to the house. It isn't a very big van into which to pack all their lives.

Mrs Evans is at the door watching her sister show the driver where to go. ‘Catrin,' she says. ‘Come here quickly. Give this to Gwenni from you and Angharad. I think she'll like it.'

Catrin lets go of my hand and runs to her mother and takes the brown paper bag from her and opens the top to peek in. ‘You will like it, Gwenni,' she says.

Mrs Evans pushes Angharad towards Catrin. ‘From both of you,' she says. So Catrin holds the bag and pulls Angharad along with her to bring the bag to me. I take it from her. ‘Can I look now?' I ask Mrs Evans.

She smiles and nods. The bag smells of her scent when I open it, and here inside is the blotter rocker with the pretty violet painted on the knob. How did she know I wanted it so much?

‘A keepsake, Gwenni,' she says. ‘Don't forget us. Keep us in your heart.'

I nod. I hug Catrin hard but Angharad slips away. I turn and run past the Rowlands van as it backs up to the front door and I don't stop until I get to the road and then I huddle down on the grass verge among the damp and cottony leaves of the cornflowers and hold my stomach tight. It hurts so much I can hardly breathe.

33

Mam grabs me by the wrist and squeezes hard. ‘Where have you been all afternoon?' she says.

‘Walking,' I say.

‘That's not what I heard,' Mam says. ‘Get in that house.' She lets go of my wrist as she flings me into the hallway and I stumble against the hat-stand. Mam's gripped my wrist so tightly it has red weals all round it and I rub at them to ease the pain. This is worse than the Chinese burns Bethan used to give me when I was little. Mam pushes me through the living room door until I crash into the back of Tada's armchair.

‘What's happened now?' Tada folds the
Daily Herald
and puts it under his chair cushion as he gets up. ‘What's the matter, Magda?'

Mam ignores him and flounces into the scullery, her mouth a thin red line cutting into her face.

‘Mam's cross because I went to Brwyn Coch,' I say.

A crash comes from the scullery as Mam drops something into the sink, then the furious noise of water running from the tap.

‘She told you not to go there again,' says Bethan from Mam's armchair.

She did. But I didn't promise I wouldn't go, did I? ‘I took something for Catrin and I thought Mrs Evans might need help. She always said it was a great help to have me looking after the girls,' I say to Tada. ‘I wasn't there for long, and then I went for a walk.'

‘You mean well, Gwenni,' says Tada. ‘But you should do as your mother tells you.'

‘Give us all a quiet life,' says Bethan.

‘Bethan,' says Tada.

‘Well, it's true,' says Bethan.

I promised I wouldn't say anything about Mrs Evans and Angharad and Catrin going to live with Miss Cadwalader. But by tomorrow everyone will know that they've gone away from Brwyn Coch. ‘They were leaving,' I say. ‘Going away.' I rub my thumb along the blotter rocker in my pocket. I won't tell anyone about it. Mam would probably throw it on the fire, like the dead fox. I take my mackintosh off and hang it up; later, I'll put the blotter in the box under the bed.

Mam comes in from the scullery, her face tight and red as her thin red mouth. ‘About time, too,' she says. ‘This place doesn't need a woman like that.' The water in the kettle she's carrying slops out of the spout. Tada takes it from her and sets it on the fire. He doesn't say anything.

The Toby jugs lean forward to watch Mam walk back to the scullery. And now that she's closed the door, Tada says to me, ‘I expect Mam was worried about you, not knowing where you were. What with a murderer on the loose. It's got quite late, you know, Gwenni.'

‘I thought Guto did it,' says Bethan. ‘I thought he was the murderer. Anyway, Mam wasn't worried about that. She was doolally because she knew where Gwenni was, not because she didn't. Kitty Hawk saw Gwenni going up the hill.'

‘We all know Guto doesn't have it in him to do something so terrible,' says Tada.

That's what Nain said, too. But I know he has it in him. I remember the way he killed a rabbit that had been hurt and was screaming in pain. Guto picked up a stone and hit the rabbit on the head and when it was dead, he cried. Mrs Evans said he put the creature out of its misery, and it took courage to do that when your nature was as gentle as Guto's. But what if he thought he was helping Mrs Evans and Angharad and Catrin by killing Ifan Evans?

‘And don't speak about your mother like that, Bethan.' Tada says. ‘Now, how about laying the table. We're late with supper tonight. We'll have to listen to
Calling Gari Tryfan
when we're eating, Gwenni.'

‘Why do I have to do it?' says Bethan. ‘Gwenni should do it. She's the one who's misbehaved, not me. She's the one that should be punished.' She turns over a page of the
School Friend
she's holding. My
School Friend.

‘I'll do it,' I say. Tada passes me the tray from the sideboard and I put it on one of the chairs. I spread the tablecloth over the chenille cover; I put the least stained part next to where I sit so that I don't get the family stomach when I'm eating. Then the knives and forks; the special sharp knife for Tada that he had in the army and Bethan's silly spoon with the rabbit on it. A big plate each for our food. The pepper and salt pots. The bottle of brown sauce for Tada. Cups and saucers for us all. A big bowl of sugar; Tada likes two spoonfuls in his tea. The small milk jug that I like with the forget-me-nots around the rim like the china Mrs Evans used to have on her dresser. Don't think about that. The chipped brown teapot with the tea in it, ready to be filled once the kettle has boiled. The bread board and the bread knife, the Hovis and the butter, the blue striped plate. Mam is too quiet in the scullery. Better make sure everything is set out right.

‘What are we having?' I ask Tada.

‘Corned beef, and cold potatoes from dinnertime,' he says. ‘And an early lettuce from Lol's allotment. She likes her rabbit food, your Aunty Lol.'

Corned beef makes my stomach turn over. I couldn't eat the faggots at dinnertime either. I'll never be strong like the lion.

The kettle starts to boil over the logs and Tada leaps to take it off the fire. The water hisses along the wood in little balls, bringing a smoky smell with it. Bethan waves the smell away with my
School Friend
. She looks just like Mam as she sits there in Mam's chair; her skin is smooth and pink and her face round and her hair yellow. But her eyes are dark brown.

‘I think Mam should cancel Gwenni's
School Friend
to punish her for disobeying,' she says.

‘You've got punishment on the brain tonight, Bethan,' says Tada.

‘You wouldn't be able to read it then, either,' I say.

‘I can read Caroline's,' she says. ‘She gets
Girl's Crystal
as well. And Richard gets
Hotspur
. Every week.'

I know Richard gets
Hotspur
. Yesterday, at school, he said he would lend it to me. To make up for running away the night before.

The scullery door rattles open and Mam brings in a plate with the sliced corned beef and the potatoes, and the lettuce broken up in the salad bowl she and Tada had for a wedding present that I have to be careful with when I'm washing up. Tada jumps up from his chair and takes the dishes from her and puts them on the table. Mam cuts the Hovis into thick slices, spreads butter on them and slaps them on the blue striped plate.

‘You've forgotten the fork for the meat and spoons for the potatoes and lettuce,' she says to the living room and Tada and Bethan and I look at one another and Bethan shrugs and turns another page of my
School Friend
. I run into the scullery and take the fork and spoons from the cutlery holder and try not to see all the eyes in the distemper watch me. I take them into the living room and Mam snatches them from my hand and lets them clatter on the table.

‘Let's get Gari Tryfan on so we don't miss him,' Tada says. I like
Calling Gari Tryfan
, too, he's a good detective. Tada fiddles with the wireless knobs. Howls and whistles come from the set and stuttering foreign voices. Tada finds the right station just in time. He grins at me, his bright teeth glittering. No one has to talk about anything if we listen to Gari Tryfan's adventures. And the Toby jugs settle back on their shelf and close their eyes.

Tonight, Gari Tryfan is rescuing a villain he was chasing who has fallen and been hurt on the Wyddfa. ‘No idea, these people,' says Tada as he forks corned beef onto his plate. ‘No idea how dangerous the mountains are.'

I try to choose the potatoes that haven't touched the corned beef but Mam picks up the plate and pushes some onto my plate from right next to the meat. Her mouth is still thin and red.

‘I like corned beef,' says Bethan. ‘I'll have Gwenni's if she doesn't want it.'

‘Shush,' says Tada as Gari Tryfan climbs down a treacherous rock to arrest the injured man. How will he get him away?

Tada and I are waiting to see if Gari will reach the man without falling on the steep rock; Tada has his fork suspended halfway to his mouth with a big lump of potato on it. Gari slips and Tada gasps and there's a loud bang that I think is Gari falling but I realise it came from our back door as Nain rushes through into the living room. Gari is fighting to find a foothold as Tada stands up.

‘What's the matter, Mam?' he says. ‘What's wrong?'

Nain peers around the table. Her spectacles are perched on top of her head. ‘Is that you, Gwenni?' she says. ‘Thank goodness you're safely home.' Nain's out of breath. She looks at Mam, then at Tada. ‘Haven't you heard?'

‘Heard what?' says Tada. ‘What's happened?'

Gari Tryfan is hanging off a ledge by one hand; his life is in the balance. The villain is taunting him but I don't know who he thinks will rescue him if Gari falls.

‘Elin Evans,' says Nain. ‘Eric's just been round to see Lol about some Silver Band business, we heard it from him. The news is spreading like fire through bracken. I'm surprised you haven't heard.'

Mam is on her feet now as well. ‘We don't talk about that woman in this house,' she says.

Nain looks surprised. ‘Well, if you really don't want to know . . .' she says, backing to the door.

‘We know,' says Bethan. ‘They've left Brwyn Coch. This afternoon.'

Nain shakes her head at Tada. ‘Bigger news than that, Emlyn.'

‘Go on, Mam,' he says. ‘What is it?'

‘Wil the Post saw a big black car with Sergeant Jones and those policemen from Dolgellau in it going up to Brwyn Coch and coming down again with Elin Evans in the back.' Nain pauses as if she's in a play on the stage at the Memorial Hall.

‘But why?' I say. Perhaps Guto didn't kill Ifan Evans. Perhaps Mrs Evans had to identify someone else at the police station. ‘Have they found the real murderer?'

‘They've found the real murderer all right, Gwenni,' says Nain. ‘They've arrested Elin. Arrested her for killing her own husband.'

‘Jesus Christ,' says Tada.

Mam's thin red line of a mouth becomes a red cavern as she screams and laughs until Nain goes over to her and slaps her face and she begins to cry instead.

The Toby jugs rock with the shock on their high shelf and John Morris races from under Tada's chair into the scullery.

‘They've made another terrible mistake,' I say, but no one is listening to me or to Gari Tryfan.

34

‘No Chapel this morning, then?' says Nain as she opens the back door to let me in.

‘Mam's too ill,' I say. ‘Tada said Bethan and I didn't have to go on our own.'

‘So where's Bethan?' says Nain.

‘Gone to see Caroline,' I say and manoeuvre my way around the ironing board in the living room. ‘She doesn't go to a chapel or anywhere. Bethan says Mr Smythe's an atheist. Because of the war. He was an aeroplane pilot and he bombed people.'

‘Fancy that,' says Nain.

‘It means he doesn't believe in God,' I say. ‘I looked it up in the dictionary at school.' I looked at
S
words last for my list of words from the dictionary; my favourites are
serendipity
,
sidereal
,
sonorous
,
stellar
. . . They move like music in my mouth.