A Cuppa Tea and an Aspirin (7 page)

She quickly loosened her wet shawl from her head, and, with one elbow, pushed open her own door. She bumped into little Number Nine who was apparently bent on escaping into the court.

He looked up at her with a tear-stained face, and said thankfully, ‘Mam!' as he hid himself in her skirts.

She pushed him off and shoved the pram over the sill. She hastily backed it through her own doorway and then heaved it forward to slot it into the hall recess. As the raucous racket within rose in intensity, her expression became grim. With great
care she picked up the containers of soup; their comforting warmth penetrated her blouse.

Out of the corner of her eye, through the open door of her room, she could see that a full-scale fight was in progress between her daughter Bridie and Mary Margaret's Dollie.

‘Jaysus! What's up?' she exclaimed, as she paused to get a better picture of what was happening.

Tommy, Martha's eleven-year-old, had hold of Dollie round the waist and was trying to pull her off a recumbent Bridie, to make her loose a chunk of Bridie's hair and stop punching her in the face. Joseph and little Ellie, behind Mary Margaret's chair, were clutching each other and screaming in unison. The two younger Flanagan girls cowered behind them, apparently paralysed at the sight of their bigger sister's ferocity.

Martha's eyes narrowed as she slowly slid the soup containers to the floor by the door.

Mary Margaret, grey-faced, stood holding onto Martha's only chair with one hand, while with the other she clutched her sewing to her. She was shrieking, ‘Dollie, let go of her!'

‘She cheated,' screamed Dollie, and hit Bridie squarely on the nose.

As her nose began to bleed, Bridie roared in fury.

Martha flung off her shawl, and waded in. With all the weight of her thin, muscular body behind it, she gave Dollie a resounding slap across her face. She swung her other hand and gave an equally heavy slap to Bridie's bloodied face.

‘Stop it,' she snarled, ‘or I'll put the boot to yez.'

Dollie let go of her antagonist and clapped her hands to her stinging mouth. She reared up and tumbled backwards over Tommy and brought him to the floor. He let out a curse which would have done credit to his father, and kicked her in the bottom. Beside herself with rage, Dollie turned on him.

Martha leaned over her and grasped her round the waist. She lifted her bodily off the boy, turned round and shoved her out of the open front door of the house, into which the sleet was blowing steadily. She slammed the door shut on her and turned the key, in the comfortable belief that the shock of the cold would sober her. Her father's sister, Auntie Ellen, who lived on the other side of the court, would probably take her in, listen to her and send her back home when she had sobered up.

Bridie began to splutter to her mother a defensive explanation of the quarrel. Mary Margaret sat down suddenly on the chair and reeled in a faint.

Impeded by all the smaller children hurling themselves towards her for comfort, Martha ignored Bridie.

‘Catch her, Tommy,' she shrieked, pointing to Mary Margaret as the angry boy got up off the floor.

She pushed roughly through the panic-stricken children towards her friend.

‘Now then, shut up, the lot of yez,' she roared. ‘There's your poor mam in a faint, now. And where's our Kathleen in all this? Isn't she home from school yet?'

A muffled, scared voice from the top of the staircase outside said, ‘I'm here, Mam. I'm doing me homework.'

‘Well, forget it and get a cup of water for your auntie. Quick. Make yourself useful for once.'

Quaking because she was certain that, as Martha's eldest daughter at home, she would be blamed for the uproar, Kathleen tucked her exercise book and pencil into a corner of a stair. She scrambled down and hastily did as she was bidden: the water pail with a cloth over it was kept close against the staircase wall, so that it would not be knocked over. She dipped a grubby enamelled mug into it and handed it, dripping, to her mother over the heads of the whimpering younger children.

Except with regard to Bridie, who was using the front of her frock to wipe her bloody nose and whose anger was reduced to a wail for attention, order was being restored. Even Dollie's hammering on the outside door was easing off.

Tommy had half lifted Mary Margaret so that she was leaning back in her chair. He was now doing his best to keep her from sliding down off it. He was so afraid that she would die that his face was nearly as colourless as that of the woman herself.

He thankfully gave way to his mother, and retreated to sit on the stairs out of her way. He ignored Dollie's slowly lessening pounding on the locked front door. Let her rot.

Martha cooed gently to her friend, as she proffered the water, ‘It's all right, Mary, love. Take a sip of water. I got lots of soup for you.' She glanced at the fire which was low, but still glowed. ‘I'll heat it for you and you'll be all right, love.'

She snatched a rag out of a basketful already neatly folded for the market, and dipped it into the water. Gently she dabbed Mary Margaret's face.

She yelled to Tommy over her friend's head. ‘Come back and pull the mattress down from the wall. We'll lay her on it, near the fire here.'

Tommy slid back into the room. He called, ‘Mind out, everybody!' and the children scattered, as
he heaved the sagging mattress onto the bare floor.

Mary Margaret showed signs of coming round, and, with Tommy, Kathleen and Martha's help, she was gently laid down.

Martha knelt by her and tucked her skirts and shawl around her, while she hissed in Kathleen's ear, ‘How could you let them get into a fight like that? You're the eldest, you should know better; and you know your auntie's ill.'

Kathleen, thirteen, emaciated, with a death's-head face out of which peered huge, red-rimmed pale-blue eyes, looked back at her mother sullenly. She knew she could not win. Since her fourteen-year-old sister Lizzie had gone to be a kitchen maid in a house in Princes Road, she had not enjoyed being promoted to eldest and, therefore, responsible for all her siblings' misdoings.

Resentment in every line of her, she started to cry. ‘Sister Elizabeth was angry with me and says I must do me homework and she give me a pencil and book to do it in.' Her voice faltered, as she remembered the biting remarks of her teacher. ‘The kids was all right. They were playing “I went to the market and I bought…”'

Her mother grunted and her mouth closed in a tight line. ‘Doesn't Sister know you're the eldest
and you got other things to do besides homework?' she snarled, as she again dipped the rag into the mug of water and absently continued to wipe Mary Margaret's face with it.

Kathleen swallowed a sob. ‘It's only happened just now. I heard Dollie say Bridie had missed one item – and I think Bridie had – I heard her – but she wouldn't admit it. And in no time at all they were at it.' She looked imploringly at Martha, as she added, ‘I thought Auntie Mary Margaret would stop them.'

‘Don't you start,' Martha ordered through gritted teeth, as the tears ran down the child's white cheeks. ‘Your auntie needs all the help she can get.'

She looked towards the fireplace, and asked, ‘Is there any tea in the pot?'

Kathleen got up off her knees and reached for the teapot keeping hot on the hob by the fire. She weighed it in her hand. ‘There's some,' she said doubtfully, and sniffed back her tears.

On the mattress, Connie and Minnie, their grubby faces greyer than usual, knelt near their mother's head. They whimpered hopelessly, ‘Mam, Mam.'

Exhausted, Mary Margaret ignored them. She had, however, heard Kathleen being scolded. She slowly raised herself on her elbow, as she whispered
to Martha, ‘I'll be all right in a minute. It's not Kathleen's fault.'

‘You stay right there, love. Kathleen's going to get you a cup of tea. Then I'll feed everybody.' She turned to look for another daughter.

When Martha had knelt down by the mattress, her younger son, Joseph, had picked up Number Nine and was now trying to make him laugh. He was promptly instructed, ‘Joe, you give Number Nine to Tommy – he looks as if he wants to pee. Then bring a few bits of coal over from the box there, to get the fire going.'

Since the room was so crowded, Tommy had retreated again to the bottom stair, and was listening to the scene without much interest; he was, however, relieved that Mary Margaret was apparently showing signs of life.

He obediently came in and took Number Nine to show him, yet again, how to do pee-pee in a bucket without spraying the floor.

When the child had finished, Martha told Tommy to bring in the rest of the food from the pram, ‘Before anybody from upstairs gets ideas about it!' she added savagely: petty theft was always a problem which had to be guarded against.

Feeding everybody was going to be a loaves and fishes job, she worried. Patrick had not returned
at midday so she hoped that he was working. She must keep something in reserve for him and for Brian. Mary Margaret would want to do the same for her Thomas.

January 1938

Supported by Martha's arm round her back, Mary Margaret sipped the promised tea. From long being kept warm on the hob, it was a bitter brew, its flavour unrelieved by either tinned milk or sugar: but it was at least hot.

As she regained her senses, Mary Margaret glanced vaguely round the room crowded with children, some of them still whimpering, and asked, ‘Where's Dollie?'

Martha explained Dollie's temporary banishment and that, by now, she was probably safe with her Auntie Ellen. ‘She knows how to look after herself, she does,' she said with a wry grin.

Mary Margaret sighed. ‘Oh, aye, she does. I wasn't quick enough to separate them – I didn't
want to drop me sewing on the floor – the ould fella gets mad if the hankies aren't clean when he comes to collect them.' She paused, and then went on more firmly, ‘But Bridie did cheat.' She took another sip of tea.

‘Oh, aye, she probably did,' responded Martha, eager not to start a quarrel. She looked up at blood-spattered Bridie, whose nose was still running red. ‘I'll deal with her later.'

At the implied threat, Bridie rubbed her dribbling nose on her sleeve and broke into a fresh howl.

‘Shut up,' shouted her harassed mother, ‘or I'll really give you something to cry for.'

Bridie feared another slap, so the howl was reduced to a whimper. She considered joining Dollie outside. Then reluctantly decided against it: Dollie had probably cooled off, but she might still be resentful enough to hit her again, a harder blow than her own mother would give her. Though the sight and smell of her own blood was scary, she rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, and held back her sobs.

Tommy had been to see what was in the pram. The situation eased as the children's attention was diverted when he brought in the brown bags.

Now, he inquired eagerly, ‘What you got in the bags, Mam?'

His mother actually smiled. ‘Something to eat,' she replied. ‘And don't you touch it – any of you,' she added, as her smile turned to a glare.

She poked Kathleen, standing uneasily beside her. ‘You and Tommy line up all the mugs – and your dad's bowl. And there's Mr Flanagan's bowl by the hob. Put that by your Auntie Mary Margaret.'

She turned back to the sick woman. ‘I got your jar filled with soup for you and a loaf of bread – and some spuds, ready-baked. Do you want to have it now – or will I put it up in your room for when your hubby comes home? It's cold already – from the walk home.'

There was an audible gasp of hope from her two little girls, as Mary Margaret hesitated. ‘Maybe we could make a fresh cup of tea, now – I've got a quarter of tea upstairs – and we could have some bread with it – and a bit of potato.' She looked at her expectant children, still kneeling by her on the mattress, and promised, ‘We'll get Auntie Martha to heat the soup when your dad comes home – and we mustn't forget Dollie, must we? And Mr Connolly and Brian.' She turned back to Martha. ‘I'll share the tea with you.'

Martha nodded agreement. ‘I got a tin of milk I was keeping for Number Nine,' she offered. ‘Instead, he can have some soup at teatime like the
others. Then we can use some of the conny-onny in our tea.' She got up off her knees, and was suddenly aware of how wet she was.

She kicked off her boots into the hearth and shook out her skirts, to which a nervous Number Nine was again trying to attach himself. Mother of God, how cold her feet felt. She smiled down at her baby, as she picked up her shawl from the floor and hung it on the oven door to dry. The coal added by a quietened little Joseph was beginning to catch, praise be, so she paused for a moment to warm her hands over the fire and let her feet be eased by the warmth of the hearth.

Still rubbing her swollen red hands, she turned to Kathleen and ordered her to fill the kettle and put it on the fire.

Mary Margaret asked Connie to get her precious quarter-of-a-pound packet of tea from underneath her camp bed upstairs.

‘And, love, take the jar of soup up for me,' she instructed. ‘Be very careful, ever so careful not to drop it!' There was a hint of laughter in her voice at this latter instruction.

The children caught her lighter tone and began to giggle. Even Bridie grinned slyly. Though she was sick hungry herself, she thought what fun it would be if Connie did drop the jar and break it;
then, surely, she would be slapped for clumsiness.

Bridie thought sourly that she had had it up to there with the Flanagans: Connie had backed up her sister Dollie in her accusation of cheating. She'd learn them, she promised herself.

As she watched in savage hope, she began to pick the drying blood out of her nose.