A Whisper to the Living by Ruth Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page A

causing utensils to rattle and fly about. My mother pushed a lock of hair from her face, leaving a smudge of flour on the end of her nose and I studied this as she spoke.
    ‘Eeh, it’s a lovely house, Annie. Wait till you see it, just you wait. It’s got a back-boiler and a bathroom – well, a sort of bathroom, just like a big cupboard off the front bedroom. And we’re getting the electric in – proper lights and a cooker.’ She paused in her labours to look at me. ‘Listen, Annie. Your Grandad has give us the deposit – some money, like, to put down. Now that’s a secret and you mustn’t tell nobody, even your cousin Eileen, for Grandad can’t do it for everybody and we don’t want to cause no fights. Can’t you see what this means, love? We’re to have a mort-gage, a proper mort-gage instead of a rent book. It’ll be our house, not the landlord’s. Won’t you try to see I’m doing what’s best?’
    It was hopeless. I’d have been as well off talking to the wall, yet still I went on. ‘But it’s not what I want, is it? Nobody ever asks me about anything in this house. I just get told what to do – not asked – told. And if I don’t do it then I’m in trouble.’ I stopped for a second to draw breath. ‘You went and married him and I have to live with him. I can’t choose, I never get the chance to choose. Now you say I’ve got to leave my own house, my Dad’s house, and go piking off to live where you want to live. Well, it’s not fair. I don’t want to live up Long Moor with electric and a bathroom.’
    ‘Do you want to stop here with rats and cockroaches, then? Is that what you want, to stop in a filthy slum the rest of your life?’ She was waving the rolling pin in the air now. ‘Now you listen to me, our Annie. Six sisters I’ve got and every last one of them married to some no-good lump of an Irishman, every one of them up to their eyes in muck and kids they can’t feed. Well, I never married an Irishman, because apart from your Grandad they are the scum of the earth. Your Dad was a fine man, a Gordon Highlander and he would have looked after us if he’d lived, oh aye, your Dad would have done right by us.’
    She must have seen my lip quiver, because she continued in a quieter tone, ‘But he didn’t live, Annie. Get that into your head, will you? And now he’s dead, Eddie has took us on, both of us, and he’ll do his best now he’s on the mend. Oh, Annie . . .’ She came round the table and took my hand in hers. ‘All I’ve ever wanted is me own front door, me own bit of garden with a few daffs and marigolds. It’s got a bit of garden at the front, you know. And there’s fields nearby where you can play and the tram stops right outside the door to take you to school.’
    I wrenched my hand away. ‘You go then. You go and catch the tram, because I’m stopping here. I shall move in with Mrs Hyatt and Tom and Freddie. Tom’ll look after me.’
    My mother sighed deeply before saying ‘Tom won’t be there, love.’ My fists clenched into tight balls as I asked, ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Tom’s off to America soon, lass. He’s away to seek his fortune and I can’t say that I’m surprised . . . Annie . . . where are you going . . .?’
    But I was already off and down the lobby, into the street and hammering on Mrs Hyatt’s door. A startled Mrs Hyatt peered through the window, then I had to wait, hopping from foot to foot until she finally let me in.
    ‘Is Tom there?’ I gasped.
    ‘Aye, he’s just sat down for his tea. I . . .’
    I flew past her and into the kitchen. Tom paused with a forkful of food in his hand as he saw me standing breathless in the doorway.
    ‘Whatever’s the matter with you, Annie? You look like you’ve seen a ghost . . .’
    I swallowed hard. ‘Is it true?’
    ‘Is what true?’
    ‘That you’re going to America?’
    ‘By the hell.’ His fork dropped with a clatter and he pushed his chair back from the table.