Читать книгу Cuckoo in the Nest - Michelle Magorian - Страница 5

Overture

‘No suicides this week,’ Auntie Win announced, laying the newspaper flat on the kitchen table.

Elsie sat with her small bony elbows on the table, picking her nose. ‘Any murders?’ she asked.

‘Elsie, you know what I’ve said about doin’ that. One day your brains will fall out.’

Elsie removed her finger.

‘Wouldn’t be able to tell the difference anyway,’ scoffed Harry.

‘You can talk,’ cried Elsie, swinging round. ‘The only reason you’re in Mr Woods’ class is because Miss Ferguson couldn’t bear to have you for three years.’

He grinned in good humour and gave a careless shrug. ‘I don’t care.’

‘Oooooh, Ellen, listen to this,’ Win exclaimed.

Elsie and Harry’s mother lifted up her head from the ironing and gave her sister a tired smile.

‘Next Wednesday at St Andrew’s Parish Hall there’s a demonstration of electric cooking. It’s at 3 p.m. You ought to go.’

‘There’s nothin’ wrong with that range,’ said Ellen.

Joan looked up from the film magazine she was reading. ‘There’s nothing right with it, you mean.’

‘It’s keepin’ us warm.’

‘Mum, can we have the wireless on?’ interrupted Harry.

‘You’ve already had Dick Barton.’

‘I know but . . .’

‘After supper.’

‘I don’t see why we can’t eat ours before John and Ralph get home,’ said Win with meaning.

‘We spent enough time apart in the war,’ said Ellen. ‘We’re all eating together.’

‘All getting indigestion together,’ muttered Win.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You can cut the atmosphere with a knife, when those two come in. It’s a wonder they don’t kill each other on the way.’

‘Oh, go on, Win, give ’em a chance. It’s not easy for either of them. John’s missing his mates and his unit, and Ralph is missing his school pals.’

‘I’m missing my friends too. He ain’t the only person in the universe what’s got demobbed. I’m finding civvy street hard as well. I was treated with a bit of respect in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Now I have to put up with some chit of a girl who can’t be more than seventeen criticising the way I serve a customer or the way I organise cardigans on a shelf.’

Elsie and Harry gave each other a glance. ‘We’ve all got our crosses to bear,’ they mouthed as their aunt gave voice to it.

‘Just because someone’s seventeen don’t make them stupid, you know,’ protested Joan.

Winifred gave a sigh. ‘I weren’t casting no aspersions to you.’

‘I’ve been working three years,’ Joan pointed out. ‘Longer than Ralph. But you treat him with more respect just because he’s got a posh accent.’

‘Oh, no I don’t,’ said her aunt. ‘I treat no man with respect.’

‘There you are,’ said Joan. ‘You called him a man, and he’s only sixteen. But that seventeen-year-old, that one you called a . . . a . . .’

‘Chit?’ put in Elsie.

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ agreed Joan.

‘Are you sure it was chit?’ added Harry.

‘Yeah,’ said Joan. ‘Don’t interrupt.’

‘I thought she said something else,’ said Harry grinning.

‘Harry!’ said his mother in a warning tone.

Elsie and Harry began giggling uncontrollably.

‘Oh, none of you take me seriously. You never listen to me, ever.’

‘I didn’t mean to call him a man. It was a slip of the tongue,’ said Winifred flicking through the newspaper. ‘Oh listen, there is a murder, right here on page three. Huh! Another bigamist.’

‘Does that mean he’s got a big Mrs?’ asked Elsie. She and her brother collapsed into laughter again.

‘Don’t be cheeky to your aunt,’ said Ellen.

‘It’s hunger,’ choked Harry. ‘It’s making me go off me ’ead.’ Ellen took the iron over to the range and swapped it for a hot one.

‘Kay has an electric iron,’ said Joan. ‘Her kitchen is just like a film star’s kitchen. It’s even got a refrigerator and it’s filled with so much food, she says, some days it’s difficult to close the door.’

Ellen said nothing. She turned over the leg of the trousers she was ironing and proceeded to smooth a nice knife-edged crease on to them.

‘If I’d been allowed to go out with Chuck, I might have been in a kitchen in America with a refrigerator.’

‘With no family around you,’ Ellen remarked.

‘I’d have a new one, wouldn’t I?’

‘You was only fifteen,’ she said firmly.

‘The other girls were fifteen.’

‘I promised your parents that if anythin’ happened to you I’d make sure you and Kitty was all right.’

‘Kitty’s only three years older than me. You didn’t stop her from going out with Frank and marrying him.’

‘Kitty’s a sensible girl.’

‘And I’m not?’

‘I didn’t say that. But a spell in the ATS helped her grow up a bit faster, that’s all. She’s a bit more worldly wise than you are.’

‘I’ve got a job which is more than she has.’

‘Frank doesn’t want her to work.’

‘Couldn’t we have the wireless on?’ said Harry imploringly. ‘Please.’

‘Elsie’s got to do her homework.’

‘I’ve got all weekend,’ said Elsie.

‘If you keep leaving it all till Sunday night you won’t keep up with the work. You don’t want to risk being chucked out in your first term.’

‘But Dad might come in.’

‘That’s why I told you to start earlier.’

‘I wanted to hear Dick Barton.’

‘You always want to hear Dick Barton.’

‘He should be proud of havin’ a daughter at a grammar school,’ said Win. ‘Any man worth his salt would be.’

‘Win, please.’

‘He’s afraid she’ll get all high and mighty like Ralph,’ said Joan.

‘He’s not high and mighty.’

‘He should stand up to his father,’ said Win.

‘His dad was lucky to get him work at the paper-mill,’ said Ellen wearily. ‘It’ll give him security for life.’

‘So why did you go to all that trouble to let him stay at the grammar school?’

‘You know why. Don’t go on, Win.’

‘To give him a better chance.’ She rattled the newspaper with relish as if scoring a point. ‘Of course, if John had been around he’d have stopped you, wouldn’t he? The green-eyed monster, that’s what it is.’

Harry stared at her as if she was mad. ‘There ain’t no greeneyed monsters ’ere. What you on about, Auntie Win?’

‘Jealousy!’ she said dramatically. ‘That’s what I’m on about.’

‘That’s enough, Win.’

Ellen put the iron back on the range and hung the trousers on a piece of string stretched across a wall above a makeshift bed in the corner.

Outside, the yard door gave a loud slam.

‘It can’t be that late, surely,’ exclaimed Ellen. Busily she removed the sheet and blanket from the end of the table. ‘For goodness’ sake, Elsie,’ she said urgently, picking up a small pair of spectacles. ‘Put these in your room, quick. If they get broken the school won’t lend you another pair.’

‘And you don’t want her dad to see them,’ said Win. She raised her newspaper to hide her face.

There was a resounding crash from the back door. ‘They’ve had another row,’ commented Harry.

‘I can’t hear voices,’ said Elsie. ‘I expect they’re still not talking.’

The door of the scullery was flung open and a blast of cold air swept into the kitchen. Standing in the doorway like a bull about to charge, stood a square-built man in his thirties with thick black hair and a red face.

He glanced round the room. ‘Where is he?’ he yelled. ‘Where is the little tyke?’

‘Who?’ said Ellen nervously.

‘Who do you think? Ralph!’

‘You’ve not had another misunderstanding, have you?’ Ellen began.

‘Misunderstanding!’ he roared. ‘Is he upstairs? I’ll tan his ruddy hide.’

‘Didn’t you meet him after work?’

‘If I had I wouldn’t be looking for him, would I?’

‘Well, he’s not here. He must be still at the mill.’

‘Oh no. He’s not at the mill. That’s one thing I know. That fancy education you wanted for him has got him the sack.’

‘No!’ said Ellen in disbelief.

‘I told him to keep his trap shut till he could lose that hoity-toity accent of his. If he’d just knuckled under . . .’

‘But Ralph’s a worker. Even in his school holidays he did farm work.’

‘Oh, he worked all right but he didn’t mix, did he?’

Winifred lowered her newspaper. ‘If he wasn’t supposed to open his mouth, how was he supposed to talk to them? In dumb-show?’

‘You keep out of this. It’s none of your business.’

‘Oh, yes it is. I’m family.’

‘And I don’t want her ending up with her nose in the air,’ he said, suddenly pointing at Elsie. ‘One sign of it and I’m having her out.’

Elsie jumped nervously. There was a sudden snap from under the table where her hands were hidden. She flushed and looked hurriedly at her mother.

‘Oh, no, Elsie,’ her mother whispered.

‘What’s that?’ her father said sharply.

‘Dad,’ said Harry quickly, ‘if Ralph’s got the sack, his apprenticeship will be going, won’t it?’

‘So?’

‘I could take it.’

‘You’ve got to stay at school until you’re fourteen,’ said Ellen.

‘I know but maybe Dad could persuade them to let me leave a couple of terms early, eh?’

‘After today I’ll be lucky to keep my job.’

‘But I don’t understand,’ said Ellen. ‘Why did they sack him?’

‘In a nutshell, backchat, being over-qualified and reading.’ He slumped down in the chair. ‘I told him not to let on about that ruddy School Certificate.’

‘How’d they find out?’

‘He took a book with him to read in his dinner break, I ask you. Worse than that it was one of those ruddy theatre books. French Without Beer or something.’

‘Tears,’ said Elsie quietly.

‘What?’

‘French Without Tears. It’s called a play.’

‘Don’t tell me what it’s called, young lady.’

‘She was only trying to help, love.’

‘Anyway, the other boys was teasing him, but instead of shoving the book out of sight, he starts answering them back. So, one of the men snaps at him and says he can’t read it. So your Ralph says, that’s because bits are in French and he starts telling them what it means in English!’

‘What’s wrong with that?’ asked Ellen bewildered.

‘It was the ruddy foreman who was looking at the book. Ralph showed him up, didn’t he? In front of the other apprentices, who then started calling Ralph a pansy.’

Ellen glanced quickly at Elsie and Harry. ‘So what did he do?’

‘Instead of socking them one, he turns to the foreman and says, “You don’t seem to be able to keep your charges in order.” In that posh voice of his.’

‘I told you he was hoity-toity,’ said Joan.

‘That’s what the foreman said. Anyway, they starts to take the piss out of the way he was talking. So Ralph apparently asks him what accent would be acceptable, and you know what he does?’

‘He didn’t hit him, did he?’

‘Oh no, he only does every accent in the entire universe and then asks him if any of those will do?’

‘And then?’

‘He’s handed his cards. And do you know what Ralph says? He says, “This must be one of the happiest days of my life.” And he walks out!’ He shook his head. ‘Well, if he can’t pay his way, he’s not staying ’ere. There’s boys who’d give their right arm to work in that mill. I had to eat a lot of humble pie to get him in. Especially him being so much older than the others. Ungrateful little so-and-so.’

‘But where is he?’ asked Ellen.

‘Lying low upstairs probably.’

‘We would’ve heard him coming in,’ said Win. ‘And we haven’t.’

‘How do I know you’re not protecting him?’

‘Why should I? He’s as bad as you are.’

‘Win, please,’ said Ellen. ‘You’re only making things worse.’

John glared at his sister-in-law. ‘You ought to be grateful you’ve got a home here.’

‘So you keep reminding me.’

‘John, don’t,’ said Ellen.

‘And I’d like to remind you I pay my way. Even though you ain’t got no carpets,’ she snapped, and she raised her newspaper again.

John pushed his way forcefully past the chairs and left the room. They listened to him stamping up the stairs yelling out, ‘Ralph! Ralph!’

Immediately Ellen rushed over to Elsie. Elsie lifted the spectacles. One side-piece had snapped off the joint. ‘The lens isn’t broken,’ said Ellen relieved. ‘We can fix that with some plaster. Now put them in your satchel. Quick.’

Elsie had hardly put them in the bag hanging from her chair when the door swung open and her father entered, his arms full of books.

‘What you doin’ with them?’ gasped Ellen.

‘They’ll keep us warm until he gets home.’ He marched over to the range.

‘No!’ yelled Ellen. ‘Some of them’s presents from the rector and his son.’

He opened the range with the tongs and threw one book in.

‘Stop it!’ screamed Ellen, flinging herself in front of him.

‘Get out of my way!’ And he gave her a shove. She fell backwards and her head caught the corner of the table.

‘Ellen!’ he cried. He flung the books to the floor. ‘Ellen. Are you all right?’

‘That’s what the Nazis did,’ said Win.

He swung round. ‘What you on about?’

‘They burnt books.’

‘You calling me a Nazi?’

‘Actions speak louder than words.’

‘I wish Ralph had stayed in Cornwall with that vicar,’ muttered Joan miserably.

‘Amen to that,’ added Win. ‘Males give you nothing but a headache.’

Elsie gazed anxiously at her mother. Her dad was helping her to her chair. ‘I’m sorry, love,’ he said. ‘I’ve had a hell of a day.’

‘And now we’re all having a hell of a night,’ commented Win.

‘Can’t you keep your mouth shut for a second, woman!’ he shouted.

Ellen gazed helplessly at John and her sister. She rubbed her forehead briskly as if trying to rub away the pain.

‘I know you all don’t think much of Ralphie,’ she said shakily, ‘but I do. And he’s family. And right now he’s out on the street somewhere by his self.’

‘On a Friday?’ Win quipped. ‘Don’t be daft. He’ll be heading where he usually goes on pay-night.’

‘He wouldn’t have the gall,’ whispered his father. ‘Not after being sacked.’

‘I forgot it was Friday,’ said Ellen relieved. ‘That’s all right then.’

‘Oh, what’s the ruddy use,’ he snapped. ‘I’m off.’

‘Where you going?’

‘To drown his sorrows,’ said Win sarcastically.

‘At least I’m welcome there.’

‘John, you haven’t eaten.’

‘Forget it. I’m not hungry.’ And he flung the door open into the scullery.

Ellen ran after him but the back door was already open and all she could see was the fog outside. ‘John, please!’ she yelled after him.

‘Auntie Ellen,’ complained Joan from the kitchen, ‘it’s freezin’.’

Ellen closed both doors and returned silently to the kitchen. No one spoke.

‘I know what would cheer everyone up,’ said Harry suddenly.

‘What’s that, love?’ said his mother in a monotone.

‘We could put the wireless on!’