Trilogy Collection. Julie Shaw

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СКАЧАТЬ only flecked with brown and blond too. It was odd seeing him with it, but it suited him. June couldn’t wait to take him down the Bull and show him off.

      She hurried into the kitchen to fill the kettle. He’d had a long journey: the train from Redditch, and then bus journey from the city centre, then the walk – it must have taken him a good five hours or so and, if she knew him, she didn’t doubt he’d have stopped along the way, too, to catch up with a couple of his mates.

      It had been a bit of a shock opening the door to him after so long away; watching him carefully set his case down, take off his immaculate new Crombie coat, smooth that silky-looking shoulder-length hair. She’d have liked to touch it, but didn’t reckon that would go down too well.

      Tea, that was the thing, she’d thought. Make him a cuppa. Let him settle. Josie’d be home soon – home like a bleedin’ whippet, June knew – she was that desperate to see him. Jock too, she thought, even though his only comment before he headed off to the bookies earlier was to say that he hoped his idiot son would keep his fucking nose clean from now on.

      Which was a bit rich, coming from him, given how they’d spent their summer. She smiled to herself then; she couldn’t wait to show Vinnie the piece from the Telegraph & Argus. See where all those fivers came from – see where that smart coat had come from, for that matter.

      ‘Tea won’t be long, love!’ she called through to the living room, her face wreathed in steam as she poured.

      Vinnie was watching TV when she went in with the cups, sitting in his dad’s chair, elbows on knees, leaning forward, intent on it, ignoring her.

      ‘What you watching?’ she wanted to know. ‘Here you are love –’

      He took the proffered cup without speaking.

      June sat down on the sofa, feeling ignored. ‘Turn that off, will you? I want to talk to you!’ There was a silence. He was really glued to it. ‘Vin!’ she said more insistently. She didn’t do being ignored. ‘You’ve only just got home, for fuck’s sake!’

      Now he did turn towards her. ‘Shush, Mother!’ he said. Then he stood up and went over to turn the volume up a bit. ‘Look!’ he said, pointing. ‘Bombs! Bombs’ve been going off in London!’ He shook his head. ‘I fucking knew it. I knew they weren’t lying, the little fuckers. I knew it!’ He grinned at June as he sat down again, this time next to her on the couch.

      ‘Bombs?’

      ‘The IRA, Mother. They haven’t declared it yet, or owt, but they will do. Just you wait.’

      June studied the screen. It was a station. King’s Cross. It looked bad. She turned to Vinnie. ‘How would you know about that, then?’

      ‘I was locked up with a couple of them, wasn’t I? Mad fuckers, the pair of them. Call themselves ‘political prisoners’ apparently. Looked just like any other fucking mad Irish to me.’

      ‘And they did that?’ June nodded her head towards the TV.

      Vinnie shook his head. ‘Not them, Mam. Their “brothers” – that’s what they call their mates – they were the ones planning it. We weren’t supposed to know, or owt, but one of them got stoned one night and blabbed.’ He shook his head again and laughed. ‘And they fucking have!’

      June felt her stomach clench, seeing Vinnie so excited. There they were, watching folk being led out of the station, bleeding and terrified, and her son was laughing – her son seemed to actually find it funny. There was blood and glass everywhere, loads of injuries, people shaking, people crying. She might not be perfect, she thought, but laugh at that? At all those innocent people hurt and – yes, they were already saying so – being killed? There was nothing funny about that. Nothing at all.

      ‘Vin, mate,’ she said. ‘It’s nothing to laugh at. This is fucking terrible. Fucking IRA. Why’d you want to hang around with the likes of them?’

      Vinnie laughed again, and it sounded strange. It was a man’s laugh. No longer a boy’s laugh. ‘Mother, you have no fucking idea, do you? It’s fuck all to do with me anyway. I was just saying – they said they’d do it and they did do it. You’ve got to think of it differently anyway. You’ve got to think of them as like soldiers. That’s what they are – soldiers. Fighting for their cause.’

      ‘They don’t look like soldiers to me,’ June said. ‘I’ve known plenty of soldiers, your own uncles included. Let me tell you, they don’t go around killing ordinary people going about their business.’

      Vinnie got up again and switched the telly off, then slurped his tea. ‘Anyway, enough of that. What’s been happening around here, then? What have I missed?’

      That was better. A change of subject. Maybe she’d feel a bit less on edge then. She leapt up and grabbed the cutting from its home on the mantelpiece. ‘Have a read,’ she ordered, passing it to him. ‘You’ll piss yourself laughing.’

      And he duly did. ‘You mental bastards!’ he chuckled, shaking his head. ‘And you wonder where I get it from! And only a fine – how d’you manage to pull that off? You’re lucky you didn’t end up banged up yourselves!’

      ‘Not that lucky, really,’ June said. ‘I almost had a coronary when the bloody judge or whatever it was sentenced us. Right twat, he was. He read it out as though we were all going down for six months, then, right at the end, after a pause to make us sweat, the evil bleeder, he finally tells us that it’s “suspended”.’ She shook her head. She still blanched at the memory. ‘My life was flashing before me eyes, son, I can tell you.’

      Vinnie laughed. ‘Oh, mother – how I wish I’d been there to see your silly face! But what about Titch? She wasn’t in on this, surely?’ The idea seemed to concern him.

      ‘You’re kidding,’ June reassured him. ‘She’s no different, son – still a goody two-shoes. Fuck knows where she gets it from – must be your dad’s side.’ She giggled. ‘Shivering bleeders, the lot of them.’

      ‘She’s alright, Mam,’ Vinnie said. ‘We’ve just all babied her, that’s all. And maybe that’s a good thing. When’s she home anyway? I’ve got to get on. People to see, places to go.’

      June’s face fell. ‘You’re not out already are you? I was thinking we’d nip down and get some take-outs from the pub. I can pay him on Friday, and we’ll have a bit of a party to celebrate, eh?’

      Vinnie shook his head. ‘Sorry, Mam, but I’ve got things I need to do. I’ve got to earn some money and I’ve got a couple of people I need to catch up with. Brendan and Pete, you know? They’ve been in touch and they promised me they’d sort me out when I got home. I’m meeting them in the Bull in a bit.’

      ‘Tonight?’ June tried again. ‘Can’t it wait till tomorrow? Little Robbie can’t wait to see you – been rabbiting on about you non-stop, he has. He even did you a picture. Another picture,’ she added, looking at him pointedly. She hadn’t intended to bring it up, but where letters and gifts were concerned it had all been a bit one-way fucking traffic these last months.

      Vinnie gave her a look that seemed about to be accompanied by a rebuke, but he obviously thought better of it. Good, thought June. She wasn’t having him trying to throw his weight around. She was still his mam and her say-so was her say-so.

      ‘You СКАЧАТЬ