An Orphan’s Courage. Cathy Sharp

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СКАЧАТЬ might have gone after Micky and thanked him then, but he was with some other lads and they were laughing and looking her way. She’d had the feeling they were laughing at her, probably saying what they’d like to do to her or naming her a whore like the girls had.

      Now she stared at him, wary and half-mistrusting as she noticed that he was no longer dressed in patched trousers and a jacket with holes at the elbows. He had on a pair of black drainpipe trousers, a blue cloth jacket with velvet on the collar and suede shoes with thick crepe soles. His white shirt sported a thin black tie, which was knotted and pinned with what looked like a diamond tiepin. Knowing that Micky’s father hadn’t worked in years, because of an accident on the Docks, and his mother went charring at several offices, Jinny wondered how he’d managed to become prosperous all of a sudden.

      ‘I haven’t seen you for a while,’ Jinny said. ‘Not since school …’

      ‘I’ve been busy,’ Micky said and grinned. He had black curly hair, swarthy skin and very dark eyes; his hair was long, nestling into his nape and he had dark sideburns, rather like those worn by Elvis Presley, the American singer. All Jinny’s classmates swooned over Elvis Presley and talked about his records and the Rock ’n’ Roll dances they attended on Saturday nights. Jinny couldn’t afford to go to the dances and she didn’t have many friends – she couldn’t ever take them home so she was never asked to their birthday parties – but Nellie had an old-fashioned radiogram and she liked Rock ’n’ Roll, too. Jinny had heard her playing Elvis over and over again through the thin walls that separated their terraced houses.

      ‘I seen ’im at the flicks and ’e’s a bit of all right,’ she’d told Jinny when she went next door for a slice of bread and dripping and a rock cake, as she did most days after school. Nellie had a picture cut from a magazine, which she’d stuck up on her kitchen wall, much to her husband’s disgust, but Nellie only laughed and said if she were twenty years younger she’d be off to America to join the girls who flocked about their new heartthrob. Of course she didn’t mean it, because she and her husband got on well and had two grown-up sons with families of their own, but Nellie liked to tease her long-suffering husband. Both of Nellie’s sons were in the Army and no longer lived in London, but she looked forward to their infrequent visits with her grandchildren, of whom she had three. Colin had two young boys and Brian had a girl of a few months. Jinny knew how much she missed them but she was a cheerful woman in her early fifties and never let on to them that she wished they’d come back home.

      ‘They’ve got good lives where they are. I was worried to death when they had that trouble over the Suez Canal last year, but it seems it’s all over now, and Brian’s in Ireland now …’ Nellie had told Jinny as they looked at photos the elder son Colin had sent from Cyprus where he was currently stationed with his regiment. ‘Why should they want to come back ’ere then? I know Harold Macmillan says we’ve never ’ad it so good, but ’e ain’t living ’ere in this courtyard, is ’e?’

      ‘What were you cryin’ for?’ Micky asked; a sparkle in his dark eyes that made Jinny aware that lost in her thoughts she’d been staring for too long. ‘Are you in trouble?’

      Jinny nodded, hanging her head, tongue-tied and ashamed. ‘It’s just one of Mum’s blokes …’ she said, because he expected an answer. ‘He tried to grab me … so I gave him one where it hurts with my knee – and he’ll half kill me when he gets the chance …’

      Micky nodded his understanding. ‘Jake Harding is a nasty piece of work. Your ma should send him packing. He’s a troublemaker down the Docks – if you knew what I know …’

      ‘Why don’t you tell me?’

      ‘Best you don’t know, but he’s in with a bad lot and one of these days …’ Micky shook his head.

      ‘He hits Mum,’ Jinny said and shuffled her feet. ‘He’s one of the worst she’s had – and … I’m frightened of him …’

      ‘No need to be,’ Micky said. ‘I’ll sort him for you if you want?’

      Jinny looked at him and smiled. ‘He’s a big bloke,’ she said. ‘It’s lovely of you to offer, but I don’t want you to get hurt for my sake …’

      Micky looked amused and touched his pocket as if it contained a secret only he knew. ‘Don’t you worry about me, Jinny girl. I can take care of myself – and I take care of my own too.’

      ‘I never thanked you for what you did at school …’

      ‘You didn’t have to,’ he said. ‘I don’t like bullies.’

      ‘Jake is a bully,’ she said. ‘He offered me money for a start but when I said no he tried to force me … he’s not the first to try. Those girls were right that day; Mum is a whore – but she doesn’t even get paid half the time …’ She raised her head defiantly. ‘I’m not like her and I don’t want to be.’

      ‘I know that, Jinny.’

      ‘How can you? Everyone thinks I’m like my mum and she’s a slut.’

      ‘Your mother was all right until your father went off and left her. I suppose she got lonely and desperate …’ Micky said and looked grim. ‘He was a bad ’un, your dad, Jinny. I don’t mind a bit of thievin’ if it comes to that, especially if something is just begging to be liberated – but your dad was a mean sort. He stole from his mates and he got punished for it, so in the end he didn’t have much choice but to clear orf – otherwise he might’ve been lynched.’

      Jinny felt the tears burn behind her eyes. She could recall only little things from the time when she’d had a father, but he’d been kind to her and her mother had been happier then, too.

      ‘You’re rotten to say that about my dad,’ she said resentfully. ‘I thought I could trust you, but now I see you’re like all the rest …’

      She turned and started to walk away, but Micky came after her and grabbed her arm, turning her to face him. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you, but it’s the truth. He stole from his works and he broke into houses, but he took from his friends too – and he took a reward for ratting on someone, letting him carry the can for what he’d been part of – and they don’t forgive that around here.’

      ‘Leave me alone,’ Jinny said and shook his hand off. ‘I don’t believe you – you tell lies …’

      ‘I do lots of stuff,’ Micky called after her as she walked swiftly away. ‘But I don’t lie to you and I’m still your friend. I’ll look after you, Jinny, and one day you’ll understand that you can trust me …’

      Jinny didn’t bother to look round. She knew that it was likely he was telling the truth about Sam Hollis, but she couldn’t bear to hear it. The only bright memories she had was of her dad giving her a pretty doll one Christmas and tussling her hair whenever he came home from work. He’d bought her sweets and told her she was his princess and she’d thought he loved her. To a girl who hadn’t had much love in her life that was precious and she wouldn’t easily forgive Micky Smith for ruining her memory of her dad.

      Jinny set out in search of Nellie. When she told her what Jake had done, her kind neighbour would offer her a chance of a bed with them, and this time she was going to take it. If her mother wanted Jake around she would have to take care of their home herself, because Jinny wasn’t going back while he was staying there.

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