Mother’s Only Child (33 page)

‘Just down from the abbey.’

‘Plays card, does he, this man?’ Maria asked.

‘You’re surely not going to nag the life out of me over a few games of cards? You knew I always played cards.’

‘I worry about the money you are spending.’

‘When I ask for any from you, you’ll have that right,’ Barney said. ‘Till then, what I do with my own money and in my own time is my business alone.’

Maria sighed. ‘All right then, what have you done with the money for the boatyard? Surely that is half mine.’

The money was in the tin where Barney kept all the money from the raids in Dublin, but he had no intention of telling Maria that. ‘All your property became mine on your father’s death,’ Barney said, ‘unless he specifically willed anything to you—and he didn’t do that. So for Christ’s sake, will you stop bloody nagging me? You never let a man alone.’

Maria knew that once Barney shouted at her like that any reasonable discussion would be useless, so when he left the room, though she sighed in vexation, she didn’t bother calling him back.

Barney went out for a few pints about mid-morning and hadn’t returned by the time Sean came home from work. The lunch-time meal was eaten quickly so that Sean and the boys could head off to the match. Shortly after they had left, the two women fed and changed the babies. ‘Are you sure about this?’ Martha said to Patsy as she lay the drowsy Deirdre down in the pram.

‘Course I am.’

‘It’s just if they wake up together,’ Martha said. ‘Maria is leaving Sally in the bedroom, but they could still disturb one another.’

‘If they do, they do,’ said Patsy. ‘I’m a big girl and I will cope. Don’t worry so much.’

Really, thought Martha, Patsy was like a changed girl. She said as much to Maria as they travelled into the town on the bus.

‘It certainly was kind of her,’ Maria agreed. ‘I just hope the two of them won’t give her a hard time.’

‘Me too,’ Martha said with a laugh. ‘Then she might do it again a time or two. Maybe whatever ailed her has gone now.’

Maria could have told her that she knew what had influenced Patsy’s behaviour and that was Barney. He had told her that himself when she had tackled him about flirting with her. ‘God in heaven, woman, I can’t do right for you whatever I do!’ he’d exclaimed. ‘All right, I gave the girl a wink, made her smile, took the sulky look off her face. Tell you the truth, that look reminded me of myself about the same age—all at sixes and sevens, and thinking everyone hates you and is getting at you. I wanted to get on her side, tell her I sort of understood.’

‘Did she listen?’

‘Aye, aye, she did,’ Barney said. ‘I told her if she wanted Sean and Martha to treat her in a more grownup way, then she had to stop acting like a child, and a spoilt child at that. And you have got to admit it’s working.’

‘Aye, so far, anyway,’ Maria had to concede. ‘And I’m sorry, Barney, if I have made a big deal out of it.’

She didn’t tell Martha about Barney’s involvement, for she felt it not fair to do so. She was glad that she didn’t really have anything to worry about. Married to a man like Barney, she was finding life was often a whole catalogue of worry.

If she had been able to glimpse into the house a little later, worry would have been on high alert. Barney, as arranged, had come home from the pub early and Patsy was waiting for him.

‘Do you want a cup of tea?’ she asked.

‘No, bring a couple of glasses,’ Barney said. ‘I have brought a few bottles home with me.’

‘I’ve never had beer.’

‘Well, now is your chance to try it. Fetch the glasses, then come and sit here beside me on the settee.’

Patsy didn’t like the beer, but she covered her distaste and said it was fine because she thought that would please him. She hadn’t liked the odd puffs of the cigarettes he had given her a few days before either, but she thought she would probably get used to them and it did make her feel very grown up to light one. So when Barney proffered his packet, she took one without hesitation.

‘What would Sean and your mother do it if they could see you now?’ Barney asked. ‘Knocking back beer with the best of them and smoking.’

‘They’d have a fit.’

‘Right,’ Barney agreed. ‘And for what? We’re not hurting anyone, are we?’

‘No, we’re not,’ Patsy declared. ‘They’d like to keep me a child for ever.’

‘Ah, well, that’s where I differ,’ Barney said. ‘See, I wasn’t brought up like you. In fact, I was dragged up. My parents were either too sick, or sometimes too drunk to care what I was doing. I was often hungry and was dressed in rags and ran about barefoot, winter and summer.

‘They died when I was ten. I didn’t really miss them as my brother took me over. He was strict. I mean, I had to do what he said when he said it or he would take his belt off to me. Funnily enough, I didn’t mind that because at least he showed he cared. He always said it was daft to have ages when you can do this and that and he let me try everything—booze, fags, even sex.’

‘Sex!’

‘Aye, when he judged the time was right, and I was more than ready.’

‘I thought…‘ Patsy said hesitantly, ‘I mean we’re taught, aren’t we, that sex outside marriage is wrong?’

‘That’s what we’re taught, right enough,’ Barney said. ‘What do you think?’

‘I don’t know. I mean, I’ve never thought about it.’

‘I don’t believe that for a minute,’ Barney said. ‘At your age it was all I thought about, and I bet girls are
no different to boys. I can see you blushing. I’m right, aren’t I?’

Patsy nodded and Barney laughed. ‘Have you ever been out with a boy, Patsy?’

Patsy shook her head vehemently.

‘Let me guess. Sean and your mother wouldn’t like it?’

‘I suppose not,’ Patsy said. ‘They haven’t said. I mean, it’s just not come up. I don’t get much chance to see boys at the convent, you know. Mom did say I can start going to the youth club at the school hall at the abbey when I am fifteen in February. My friend Chloë will be fifteen two weeks before me and I think the parents have worked it out between themselves. I’ll probably see boys there.’ But it was said tentatively.

‘Course you will. What’s up?’

‘It’s just…I don’t know, really,’ Patsy went on. ‘I mean, I know girls who go and they say the boys play table tennis all night at one side of the hall and the girl all dance together. There’s none of that jitterbugging allowed either, and they’d be scandalised by this,’ she said, waving her glass aloft. ‘Nothing stronger than orange juice is drunk. Father Clancy is there to keep an eye on everyone.’

‘See you don’t leap on each other in a fit of rampant lust?’

Patsy laughed. ‘Something like that.’

‘Doesn’t sound the most exciting place in the universe,’ Barney said.

Patsy sighed. ‘No. It’s just better than staying in night after night—not much better, mind.’

‘Come on, Patsy, now that I am your friend, I bet
I can think up better places to go now and again, even if we have to hoodwink the parents to do it.’

Patsy felt warmed and comforted by Barney’s words. When he put his arm around her, she nestled against him. ‘I am so glad I have got you for a friend.’

‘Likewise,’ Barney said, placing a chaste kiss on the top of Patsy’s head. ‘Now sit up, drain that glass, and I’ll get us a refill and teach you how to play poker. What d’you say?’

‘I say yes, yes, yes,’ Patsy cried, aware, even as she spoke, that she would say yes to most things Barney might suggest.

Maria was following behind Martha as she led the way from the High Street down the hill to the Bull Ring. She’d been impressed enough with the shops, though horrified by the gaping holes and mounds of rubble that she saw in the streets everywhere. She would have liked to have lingered, but Martha would have none of it. ‘We can come again to see the city centre, what’s left of it,’ she said. ‘But we haven’t got long, and today I want you to experience the Bull Ring.’

It was soon apparent that the Bull Ring had not come through the war unscathed either. On the left-hand side of the incline leading down into it Martha indicated the sea of rubble. ‘These used to be shops once, bespoke tailors that would make up a suit for thirty bob, and another shop selling sweets and newspapers, side by side with a shoe shop and next to that a cafe and right at the end was a pet shop. There were always kittens in the window, and a large parrot sat outside on a perch in good weather. I used to be quite
nervous of him, despite the fact he was tethered so that he couldn’t fly away.’

Maria shook her head at the destruction. She looked down into the sea of people where the cries of the vendors vied with the noise from the thronging masses as they went down the hill and into the mêlée.

Either side of a large statue on a podium and surrounded by iron railings, barrows lined the cobbled streets, many with canvas awnings above them. Fruit and veg, rabbit and fish were for sale side by side with junk, and stalls selling baskets of odd crockery and battered pans. The amalgamated smells lingered in the air.

‘At least there’s more fruit now,’ Martha said, ‘more variety and more vegetables.’

‘Whale meat for sale’ said a board above one stall.

‘Whale meat—ugh!’ Maria exclaimed.

‘I still do that as a change now and again,’ Martha said. ‘I thought it quite expensive at two and six a pound, but the beauty of it was it was off ration. Believe me, when you are trying to fill up hungry children you’ll try anything. Rabbit is lovely, and I’ve even bought horse meat. I didn’t tell the children what it was, though. It tastes very like beef, except that it needs more cooking to make it tender. Whale meat has quite a strong flavour. I always find it better mixed with mashed potato and made into fish pie. It’s something else to eat on Fridays, anyway.’

Suddenly, Maria was aware of one strident voice rising above the others and she strained her ears to catch the words.

‘Carriers. Handy carriers.’

‘Who’s that?’

‘The old lady in front of Woolworths,’ Martha said. ‘Been here since the year dot and in all weathers. Everyone knows her. And this here is Lord Nelson,’ she went on, indicating the statue in front of them. ‘Before the war, flowersellers used to congregate all around here. But so much of the country was carved up to plant foodstuffs, flowers are not that plentiful any more. I reckon a lot of folk will be reclaiming the land back now, so the flowersellers might well be back by the spring. Come on, Peacocks is over here.’

Martha stood before the window, looking in. ‘When Mom used to bring me here when I was just a nipper, and even when I used to take Patsy before the war, this place would draw us like a magnet. The toys then—oh, they were wonderful: beautiful dolls of every size and shape; prams and cribs good enough to put a real baby in. There were train sets running around in the window, and inside the shop—not just going round and round, though, but winding through towns and villages and countryside. I could have stood for hours just looking. There were cars of every description and a large fort full of lead soldiers. Most of it was too expensive for my parents, though it was nice to see it all. But now…‘

Martha didn’t have to say any more. The shelves in the window were almost bare and Maria guessed there would be little in the shop to buy.

‘This must be one of the saddest sights,’ Maria said, ‘to have a toyshop without any toys.’

‘Aye,’ Martha said, ‘but I hope we can pick up some wee thing for Paul and Tony’s stockings at least. Their
wartime Christmases have been pretty lean. The only time they had anything worthwhile was when we had a parcel from America, delivered through the Churches.’ She smiled at the memory. ‘Poor little beggars were that excited, you’d think they had been given the Crown Jewels.’

‘I’m sure we’ll get them something,’ Maria said. ‘We’ll make it our mission today.’

‘OK,’ Martha said. ‘We can take a look in Woolworths as we are passing. We might be able to get a necklace or bangle for Patsy, or some ribbons for her hair.’

They did better than that. As well as the ribbons, Martha seized on a brush and comb set. The plywood model shop Hobbies was next door. Here again Martha told Maria how it used to be before the war when the window was full of yachts, trains and cars, with row upon row of kits inside so that people could make up their own.

She peered through the window into the near-empty shop and turned away sadly. ‘Tony would have loved to have one,’ she said with a sigh. ‘But there is none to be had now. It won’t matter so much if Sean can get them a ball. He has put in for one at the Dunlop shop, but then so have a lot of people and there are only so many to go around. I’ve no idea how they decide these things.’

Maria felt sorry for the children, who would wake up on Christmas morning to no presents, as presumably they had all through the war. ‘There must be something,’ she said, pointing to the other side of the street where she could see a building behind the barrows. ‘What’s that place?’

‘That’s the Market Hall,’ Martha said. ‘It has no roof now, courtesy of the Luftwaffe.’

It was a sorry sight. Maria could guess it must have been a fine building before it was stripped of its roof and had holes pounded into its sides. Arched windows were set on either side of stone steps and the whole building was supported by Gothic pillars. And once inside, such an array of things for sale.

‘There used to be a magnificent wooden clock on the wall,’ Martha told Maria. Carved figures—three knights and a lady—were on it, and they would all strike the bell on the hour. Burnt to a crisp now, of course. I always worried what happened to the animals. There were two pet places and probably the animals perished in the fire.’

‘Oh, look,’ Maria said, suddenly pouncing upon a yo-yo and a penny whistle.

‘Dear Lord, they will have us deafened with that whistle,’ Martha chided her gently, but she was glad she had found something to put in the children’s stockings.

‘We can’t go home until you have a peep in the Rag Market,’ Maria declared, leading the way down the steps of the Market Hall, across the cobbled street past the church, with a fringe of trees in front of it and, dodging the trams and dray horses, into the another large hall, which smelt a little of fish.