A Little Bit on the Side by John W O' Sullivan Read Free Book Online Page B

eventually to be very pleasantly surprised.
    With no man about the house to help her with those occasional practical difficulties that require a young man’s strength, dexterity, or technical skill, Ada had increasingly availed herself of Jimmy’s jobbing services in preference to her sons, who were always going to pop round to fix it, whatever ‘it’ was but, constantly succumbing to the demands of their own families, never did.
    Jimmy, in return for the chores that he performed, which were neither onerous nor frequent, was rewarded with home-brew, cakes, pies from the best pastry cook in the village, and his pick of the choicest items from the veg plot, which the sons still gardened, but principally for their own benefit.
    And as Jim came to know Ada better he increasingly popped in from time to time to see how she was, and gradually came to realise that in some small way she was filling the gap in his life that should have been occupied by his mother.
    It was during one of these visits, as Jimmy sat enjoying tea and one of Ada’s buttered scones, that she raised with him the matter of his immediate neighbours.
    ‘Jimmy. I’ve been thinking over what the vicar had to say in church a few weeks ago. You know a bit about that Mr and Mrs Manning don’t you?’
    Jim confirmed that he knew them well, and added that he had found them to be a very pleasant and friendly couple.
    ‘And do you think they would mind calling in to see an old woman like me some time?’
    ‘I’m sure they’d love to Ada, especially as I’ve told them a little about you and Tom, and the way things were in the old days. They’re Jack and Kate, by the way.’
    ‘Well you ask Jack and Kate if they could call in with yourself and Celia next Sunday afternoon for a bit of cake and tea. About half-three would be lovely.’
    The invitation proffered and accepted, the four of them set off the following Sunday to stroll the half-mile or so to Ada’s house which stood apart from the village at the end of Goosey Lane, a roughly surfaced track off the Barlow Road.
    Despite the attractions of a fine Sunday mid-afternoon in early May, few were to be seen as they passed through the village. One or two men, engaged in some leisurely hoeing on their veg plots, took a few moments off for a word of greeting with Jimmy and a nod to Jack (in conformity with Barton hill convention the ladies were ignored) before returning to their undemanding labours. In the centre of the village all the shops were tightly closed, as was the Shagger, the Sunday lunchtime regulars having returned home for their dinner (nobody ‘lunched’ on the hill) before turning, some to the News of the World, others to international football or county cricket on the box, but the majority to sleeping their way through to a late tea, and then a return to the Shagger to forget for an hour or two the coming Monday and the following week of hard graft.
    Putting the vicar’s precepts into practice with a zeal that would have delighted him, Ada had been waiting impatiently for her visitors, and was out of the house to greet them before the garden gate had clicked shut. Intimate already with Jim and Celia from many earlier meetings, she spared them a quick smile, but making straight for Kate surprised her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek before a word had been spoken.
    ‘Hello my dear. Lovely to meet you both after all this while, though I’ve seen you about quite a bit. Should have asked you up to see me earlier.’
    Jack clasped Ada’s outstretched hand warmly, but ignorant of the Barton conventions in such matters, hesitated in the matter of a kiss on first meeting. His uncertainty was resolved when Ada quite clearly offered up her cheek.
    Despite being occupied with the warmth of Ada’s welcome, none of them had been unaware of the two shadowy figures shuffling about awkwardly in the gloom of the passage who were now called out by Ada to meet her visitors.
    ‘This is Ted, my eldest, and