Crystal's Song (13 page)

“Bare Lady?” asked Etta.

“It’s a big oak tree just this side of the Eastern General Hospital wall. There’s a rope swing there – has been for years – and now the bark is aw worn and white.”

“But,” argued Etta, with incredulity in her voice, “that’s railway property. Trains pass by twice a day.”

“Aye,” replied Sam, “and the train drivers ken us aw and they just wave to us and blaw us a tune on their whistle.”

“Och, but you could be killed,” Etta pointed out.

“Naw,” replied Sam, “look, there’s enough room for three football pitches before the railway line – and just look at the height and breadth of that embankment behind the field.”

“Okay,” Johnny interjected, “but what guid would it be for Senga to get to the Bare Lady?”

“Well she could hide oot in the gang hut we built just ahint the tree last year.”

“But how would she know it was there?”

“Because my eejit sister Carrie took her there last week.”

Etta was now climbing up on the dyke.

“Where you going, Etta?” asked Sam.

“To this gang hut, because I just
know
she’s there.”

“Naw,” replied Johnny. “I’ll go. You go hame and tell oor Mammy and Daddy where I’m going and where we think Senga and Joe are hiding oot!”

When Etta arrived back at Restalrig Circus she quickly imparted the news that the most likely whereabouts of Senga and Joe could be the gang hut over by the railway line. Now in possession of this possible answer to their problem, they all decided that they would go and find out.

“Well,” exclaimed Etta, “if we were to go over the dyke on Restalrig Road, none of you Grannies would make it – in fact, even if we went round and climbed over the Restalrig Crescent way it’s going to be hard going,” she continued, failing to explain how she knew that.

Undeterred, everyone was determined to go where Senga was supposed to be holed up.

The residents of Restalrig Crescent were treated to a truly unique spectacle as they witnessed the heaving of the grannies, especially of overweight Patsy, up onto the railway wall and then being unceremoniously pushed over the other side. After that, they were amused to see everyone else follow, even Dinah – who had sensibly removed her high heels.

Once over the wall, Etta directed them along the well-worn path at the top of the embankment. All those who had never been there before were astonished that, once past the sand pit, they were faced with a panoramic view of lush green pasture bordered by yet another embankment. At the end of the small green glen and looking towards the top of the embankment, they saw the trees – tall majestic trees that looked as if they had stood there since time began. To reach the small glen, however, they had to climb down the first embankment. As was to be expected, Patsy and Mary held on to each other but they inevitably lost their footing and rolled together to the bottom.

Once everyone was down the hill, Tam, followed by Tess, Elsie and Dinah, raced ahead until Patsy, who was helping Mary to her feet, shouted, “Wait for us. We’re family too!”

The group now changed from running to walking until the two grannies finally caught up.

“Where’s this gang hut now?” asked a breathless Patsy.

“Up there somewhere … I think,” came Etta’s none-too-confident reply.

“You mean we’ve got to climb up that blooming mountain?” moaned Mary as she surveyed what looked to her like another Arthur’s Seat.

Etta nodded and they began to climb but nearly stopped when they heard a noise of an approaching train. “Quick,” shouted Etta. “Lie down in the long grass.”

“Why?” asked Dinah.

“Because it’s an offence to be here. It’s railway property and you could end up having to pay a fine … or worse.”

All managed to get down into the grass except Patsy but when the train passed the driver gave her a wave, a toot on his hooter and then hollered, “Nice night for a stroll.”

Patsy waved back and replied, “Sure is. I’ve lost my dog and I’m just looking for him.”

By dint of pulling and pushing the two grannies, they all eventually arrived, none the worse, at the top of the steep brae. Then Tam hesitated. He just wasn’t certain which way to go until Etta pointed to the Bare Lady and said, “I think it’ll be somewhere just beyond that tree.”

Etta was right and soon they were all gathered at the entrance to a makeshift gang hut.

“You in there, Johnny?” shouted Tam. The sack curtain that was acting as a door was pulled aside and then Sam, followed by Johnny, crawled out. “Senga and Joe in there too?”

“Aye, Mr Glass,” replied Sam, “but they’re no coming oot until proper terms, that I’ll negotiate, hae been agreed.”

Along with Dinah, Tam, who wondered who this young upstart of a laddie was and what right he had to arbitrate, went to push past Sam who held up a warning hand. “Did ye no hear what I said? Negotiations first.”

“What blinking negotiations? We want them hame and that’s all there is tae it,” fumed Mary. “Noo, get oot of my way, you bloody naebody!”

“Language! Language! Mind yer language – there’s a wee laddie in there!” warned Sam as he pointed his finger at Mary.

“Okay,” Tam conceded. “Could Dinah and me sit doon with you and Senga and work something oot?”

Sam sniffed and drew in his cheeks. “Aye, just ye twa, because that’s aw there’s room for, onyway.”

Tam and Dinah entered the gang hut and, peering into the gloom, saw Senga sitting on an old carpet holding Joe on her knee. Relief seeped into them both. In fact, the whole scene looked so absurd that Dinah found herself having to choke back her laughter.

“Now,” began Sam, “Senga here has certain conditions that hae to be met afore she leaves this place o’ sanctuary.”

“Sanctuary!” exclaimed Tam, looking around the squalid structure.

“Aye. Number one is that naebody is to kill wee Joe here.”

“That was just an expression uttered in time of stress,” defended Tam diplomatically.

“And twa, he’s to stay at Restalrig Circus, where Senga promises she’ll look efter him.”

“I agree to no killing him but I think it wuid be best if he stayed with Granny Patsy.”

Senga shook her head.

“If that’s yer last word,” Sam spat, “then aw I’ve got to say is that we’ll adjourn this meeting until tomorrow when, nae doot, ye’ll hae changed yer mind.”

Tam now turned and spoke directly to Senga. “So if I don’t let him stay at Restalrig Circus, you won’t come home?” Senga nodded. Tam pleaded, “But why?”

“Because I love him and if he’d been a bran scone that was a bit mair fired than the others you’d aw hae been fighting who was gonnae hae it.”

Tam tried hard not to laugh at her simple reasoning. “Look,” he said. “All I want is for us all to be family again but he’s not mine – not my own flesh and blood.”

“But he cuid be,” interrupted Sam. “Aw ye need ti dae is adopt him and he’d be a right bargain ’cause, believe me (and I ken sic things) he’ll be a richt braw wee fitballer yin day. Just loves to kick a baw so he does.”

Sam bent over and took Senga’s hand and squeezed it. She felt a surge of love and admiration for him race through her – feelings that would never leave her. But she thought, “Why would he ever look at me? He’s handsome and brave and I’m more than a year older than him and just plain and stupid.”

Tam looked at Senga and Sam. He knew he was beaten and so the terms laid out by Sam were agreed, to everyone’s delight – even a third condition that hadn’t been negotiated, that they all adjourn to the chippie in Restalrig Road and have their tea. Naturally it would be fish suppers all round!

After that they all went home. Tam suggested that Joe should sleep with Johnny as three girls in one bed was quite enough.

“No,” replied Senga, who was still not sure that everything had been worked out to her satisfaction. “He sleeps with me.”

Tam shrugged and indicated with a nod of his head that he and Dinah should go to their room.

Senga was the last to retire as she had to wash Joe and then get him ready for bed. When finally she slid beneath the bedcovers, still firmly holding on to Joe, she noticed that Elsie was sitting bolt upright. “Listen,” whispered Elsie. “Do you hear that? What’s Daddy doing to Mammy now? Should we not go in and save her?”

The thumping of the bedstead against the wall grew in speed and noise and Senga gave a little laugh. “No need to worry, Elsie. I used to hear that noise before Daddy went to war – and know something? The louder the noise and the panting, the better Mammy would sing the next morning.”

“Hmm,” retorted Tess, lifting her pillow to put it over her head. “Well, if that’s the case, after tonight’s performance she’ll be singing the Hallelujah Chorus in the morning!”

Dinah was busying herself in the kitchen. The family would all be home for the special dinner they always had at exactly one o’clock on a Saturday. Hot Scotch pies, sausage rolls and bridies were invariably bought by Senga from Dickson’s renowned Home Bakery in North Junction Street. Senga didn’t seem to mind the wee detour on her way home from Bond Nine where she worked. How could she deny the weekend treat not only to the family but to herself as well?

The pies, after a little reheating in the oven, were served straight but the sausage rolls and bridies were laid out in the large frying pan and a tin of Heinz beans was poured around them before they too were given a nice gentle warm-up on a gas ring.

This Saturday afternoon, all except Tam had assembled and taken their allotted places at the table, the aroma of the heated delicacies only adding to everyone’s pangs of hunger.

“Can we no start noo?” asked Johnny, who was anxious to be fed immediately. “I’ve got a gemme at two o’clock.”

“We’re waiting for your Daddy. And by the way, since the two of you work in the shipyards thegither, why did he no come up the road with you?”

“We just got oot the gate and that guy …”

“What guy?”

“Och, let me finish, Mammy, before you butt in.”

Dinah was now over at the cooker giving the frying pan a good shoogle. “Blast! The beans are drying up,” she huffed, before going on: “You were saying, Johnny?”

“That guy Dad was a prisoner of war with …”

“Eddie Gibson?”

“Oh Ma, my stomach thinks ma throat’s cut so will you just gie me ma bridie and beans and then I’ll be better able to tell ye about the guy.”

With a sigh, Dinah started to set out the dinner and handed the first plate to Johnny who smiled before attacking his bridie and beans with such vigour that the sauce dribbled down his chin. After he’d wiped the dripping relish with the back of his right hand he licked that too.

Dinah was about to remind Johnny that he’d still to tell her about the man his Daddy had met when the door opened and in strode Tam. “Where the devil have you been?” Dinah demanded. “I held the dinner back for you. The bairns were nearly eating the table they felt so hungry.”

After ruffling Elsie’s hair, a smiling Tam took his seat and Dinah placed a plate with two Scotch pies in front of him. Putting Dinah out of her agony, Tam began to answer, while reaching over for the HP Sauce bottle. “Andy Young met me at the yaird gates. Had some information for me.”

Flashing her gaze towards to the ceiling, Dinah moaned, “Oh, no! And what does Mr Chips think you should be doing noo?”

“Well,” responded Tam, slapping the bottom of the sauce bottle so hard that a large dollop landed on Elsie’s plate – which caused Elsie to wail that she didn’t like brown sauce and all the more so when it was flung at her.

“Well,” began Tam afresh, “Andy says that noo I hae my City and Guilds certificate, he’s spoken tae a pal up at the Heriot Watt College – in Chambers Street, ye ken – and he says they’ll accept me to dae an ONC in Building Construction.”

“And how’ll you do that and what’ll it do to put bread on this table?” Dinah demanded, rapping the table and giving out a deep sigh of exasperation, which she hoped would signal to Tom that she was utterly fed up with his teacher pal, Andy Young, who kept putting such grandiose ideas into her husband’s head!

Tam finished his first pie with obvious relish before answering with a chuckle. “The ONC isn’t much by itself but it’ll take me on to the HNC which,” and he put up his hand to emphasise the next point, “I don’t really need to get me into Moray House Teaching Training College but it would stand me in good stead – and get me used to studying forbye.” Dinah just sat and shook her head. “Mind you,” continued Tam, “the other thing is that while I’m getting on with the qualifications at the Heriot Watt, I’ll be able to keep the day job and go to evening classes three nights a week.”

Dinah realised she would need to try another tactic so she wheedled, “But Tam, won’t working all day and all this studying at night school no be too much for you?”

“No,” said Tam, taking her hand in his and squeezing it. “Thanks to you, I’m fit enough now. And when I do get my HNC, I’ll still be young enough to get on this special Post-War Emergency Training Scheme. Honestly, they’re so short of teachers – and they specially want to promote technical subjects to get the economic recovery going – that they’ve got to do something,” he bragged, while giving Dinah a knowing wink.

“But Tam, you’re doing well enough, specially with all the overtime. So why …?”

“Look, I’m tired of being a naebody. See, when I graduate from Moray House, I’ll be a professional. Andy says he knows I can do it. And the twa years at Moray House I ken will be the hardest for us because we’ll hae to get by on a grant.”

“What grant?”

“The one they gie you because I’ll be full-time at the college, Dinah. Andy says it will be enough for us to live on.”

“Andy says!” yelled Dinah. “And has your blessed Andy tried supporting five bairns for two years on a measly grant?”

“You know fine he’s no married. And we’ve only got Elsie and …” Tam swallowed as he always did before adding, “wee Joe to be kept now.”

“
I
keep wee Joe,” Senga protested. “That’s why I work in the Bonds.” Senga knew the fact that she was a Bond Lassie irked her father. He’d wanted her to get a
nice
job in an office or at least in a shop like Tess. What Senga had never told anyone was that she’d tried to get a job in the élite Jenners Department Store on Princes Street as a trainee window-dresser but had to give up that dream. They did train you right enough but that was all – no pay, just the prestige of being able to say you’d been trained in Jenners. She had also attended for interview at Binns at the West End of Princes Street and at Patrick Thomson’s on the Bridges but the requirement that both legs should be straight prevented her from being offered a position. Senga was also aware that her Daddy, though he tholed Joe, was still not comfortable with him. So, in order to cause wee Joe the minimum of resentment, she’d taken the job offered to her in Bond Nine because the money was good. It paid far in excess of posh jobs!