Crystal's Song (19 page)

Mary didn’t need to finish as the door opened and in walked Tess. Instead of handing Davina straight over to her mother she placed her on the floor. Tess went over and stood by her mother’s makeshift bed on the settee. Then she held out her arms to Davina, saying, “Come on now. You can do it.”

Without any further bidding Davina staggered across the floor and flung herself into her mother’s arms. “Whenever did she start walking?” Dinah crooned.

“Remember last week when Frieda and Johnny were trying to make her take a few steps?” They all nodded. “Well, when she got home she took four faltering steps and then got such a fright that she just flopped down. But would you credit it? She just wouldn’t walk for her Dad. But he believed me and reckoned she would be taking twenty steps by today.” Tam and Dinah exchanged a knowing look before gazing up at the ceiling. Unaware of their reaction, Tess continued, “And you know, my clever husband was absolutely right!”

For the next five minutes little Davina was treated rather like a performing seal, being bribed into walking to Patsy for a square of chocolate, to Mary for a biscuit, and finally to Tom for an orange drink.

“You know, I do like it when the family gets together,” Dinah said, glancing all around the room. She had just uttered the words when Crystal and Joe came in.

Joe immediately blurted out, “Dad, have you told Mum the secret yet?”

“Joe! I’m just in the door.”

“But, Dad, it’s at the front door. Crystal and I saw it. And Dad,” he added breathlessly, “Crystal’s bet me that Mum won’t believe it’s yours.”

“Believe what’s yours?”

Tom took up a position in the middle of the floor and, looking staright at Dinah, he announced, “I’ve bought a car.”

“A what?” gasped Dinah, and began patting her chest. “But you can’t drive …”

“I
can
drive. Passed my test last week.”

“Now, just a minute. Am I having a nightmare?”

Tom went over to the settee and took hold of Dinah’s hand. “I’ve not been truthful with you of late.”

“That so?” replied Dinah, pulling her hand away from Tom’s.

“No. You see, when I told you I was taking night classes on two nights to get a bit of spare cash when I was finished at Norton Park School, Andy …”

“Now, how should I have not guessed that Mr Chips would have something to do with all this?”

Tom ignored his wife’s remark and went on. “Andy gave me driving lessons in his car. He told me I was quick on the uptake, so I passed my test first time last week.”

“Okay,” Dinah said curtly, “but that doesn’t explain the car …”

“A Ford Popular it is at that,” chuckled Tom.

“A car!” Dinah continued. “An American car that there’s a three-year waiting list for?”

“Only two years, now that they’ve started to manufacture them down at Doncaster.”

“A car that costs about three hundred and fifty pounds?”

“Ah. But our car is five years old. Belonged to a friend of Andy’s, it did, but he was buried last week so he’s got no further use of it.”

“But what about his family? Don’t they want it?” asked Patsy.

“No. There’s only his wife and she doesn’t drive. However, she was adamant that it had to go to a good home – you know, to someone who would be good to it and not abuse it.”

“So that’s the sob-story. But how much siller did you have to cross the grieving widow’s palm with before she let it go?”

Tom took a deep breath before whispering, “A hundred and fifty quid!”

“What?” exploded Dinah, sitting bolt upright on the settee and then bringing her legs around to allow them to rest on the floor. “Are you telling me that we’re now up to our eyeballs in debt to the tune of one hundred and fifty quid? Some bloody grieving widow!”

“We’re
not
in debt. I’d already saved up fifty pounds – which included Crystal pitching in her ten bob overtime every week for the last three months. But when Andy’s pal died quicker than we thought he would, Andy, the good pal that he is, offered to give me a no-interest loan for the hundred pounds I was short. I’ll pay him back at a pound a week. And that’s only ten bob each from Crystal and me.”

No one said a word. They all knew Dinah was seething. Tom always did what Andy thought he should be doing and they agreed with Dinah when she demanded, “But why does Andy want to help you like this?”

“No me. You!”

“Me?”

“Aye. You see, when I told him how much you were missing getting out and about, he thought that if I could first learn to drive and then get my licence he would lend me his car to take you anywhere you wanted to go. He said that under the circumstances you wouldn’t want him to be chauffeuring you.”

Dinah’s was not the only head to bow in embarrassment. Mary, her mother-in-law, had also thought there was something not quite right about the relationship between Andy and her Tam, so she too felt more than a little sheepish.

Tom had tried to explain it to them, but they just didn’t understand, that during those five long years in captivity, when they had always had to look out for one other, to share with each other – or die – a bond had grown up between the two men. And it would always exist. Especially for Andy, who had never married because the lassie he would have married had been killed on active service in France.

“So the car is to take me out for wee trips, is it? How many does it seat?”

“Officially – four. But we’ll be able to squeeze in six if two are bairns.” He now looked at Patsy and Mary, who he could see were wondering whether they were to be included in these trips and so he added, “Or
like
bairns!”

Dinah was now smiling. She rose and slipped her arm through Tom’s. “Suppose we’d better have a look at this limousine before I wake up and I find it’s all been a dream.”

The whole family piled out into the street. Proudly, Tom took up residence in the driver’s seat, with Dinah in the front passenger seat. All the others, not to be outdone, took it in turns to sit in the back. Patsy was delighted to shout over to Tom: “That’s me, your Mammy, Myra and Joe all in, and we’re quite comfortable.”

Dinah chuckled, “They’re no able to breathe but they’re quite comfortable. Just as well Elsie’s out with her pal – or should I say a lumber?”

“So you like it?”

“Aye. Where’ll we go to first? I’ve only been back and forth to the blooming hospitals these past few months.”

“How about after tea we go on a Mystery Tour?” suggested Mary.

“Aye, let’s go to North Berwick and I’ll pay for the fish and chips when we stop at Port Seton!” crooned Patsy.

Tom and Dinah exchanged an amused look. Of course! Where else would a Mystery Tour take you to but North Berwick?

When the car set off on its inaugural mystery drive, Joe was sitting on Mary’s knees, as she didn’t sport the ample stomach of Patsy, who had Myra on her lap. This arrangement had come about because Dinah thought that, since Crystal had stumped up for the car, so that her mother could be taken out, she’d every right to be included in the first trip. Accordingly, Crystal was now securely crushed between her two grandmothers.

While the others were all busily getting ready for the jaunt, Dinah had time to talk to Crystal. “Thought you might have had other things to be saving for – forbye the car,” said Dinah, patting the space beside her on the couch.

Shaking her head, Crystal obediently sat down beside her mother. “Not really.”

“Thought you and Bing might be … you know.”

“He’d like us to get engaged … och, but I’m not sure. He’s nice and he’s comfortable to be with but …”

“You still carrying a torch for Sam Campbell?”

Crystal’s face fired. “No. I don’t really care that he’s coming home in September.”

“No,” Dinah thought to herself, “but you cared enough to find out when he was due home. She looked at Crystal, the plainest of all her children and yet the one you could always depend on, and she wished her daughter would stop longing for a Prince Charming – who, to be truthful, very rarely ended up with Cinderella!

The run to East Lothian proved a great success. Everyone on board was more excited than a child on its birthday. North Berwick was so very beautiful. Tom and Dinah had sat on a bench and looked out over the picturesque sea, marvelling at the mystical Bass Rock that sat serenely a few miles off-shore. “How many artists do you think have painted this scene?” Tom asked Dinah.

Dinah just shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t really care. What mattered to her was that she was out in the wide world again. That she was free. That she could see once more the wild and romantic sea that had always mesmerised her. That she would get safely back home. Right back home to their own front door – and all courtesy of the car.

All too soon it was time to head for home – to pile into the vehicle again and make for the little fishing village of Port Seton where newly landed fish would be expertly fried in batter and served up to them with golden crunchy chips. The scrumptious feast would then be washed down with Red Cola.

Having left Port Seton, Tom thought he would give them a treat and take them for a run around East Lothian. Somehow, because Tom really didn’t know the district, they landed up in Haddington. On leaving Haddington, they headed towards Tranent and had just left there when Tom realised that he would have to tackle a winding downward road that was unfamiliar to him. At the bottom of an incline, the car suddenly shuddered. The engine stuttered. Then the car ground slowly to a halt.

“Oh, blast!” was the cry from Tom. “Now, Andy did say that it sometimes does this. Don’t panic. No need to worry. Right, Crystal. You and Granny Patsy get out and start pushing from the back and I’ll get out and push, with the door open, from the front. When the car engine roars into life again – and it will – you must run as fast as you can and jump in.”

“Jump into a moving car? Who do you think I am? Yon flying Dutch woman, Fanny what’s her name?” moaned Patsy.

“Look, it’ll be quite all right, Patsy. You just make sure you push from the back on the left-hand side. Because that’ll mean you’ll be jumping back into the car ahead of …”

“Mugsy! And what’ll happen to me if I don’t get round fast enough or Granny’s ample rear-end blocks the door?” demanded Crystal.

“The two of you have to be really quick. Because once I’ve got the car running again I can’t stop. Here,” Tom now pulled a sixpence from his pocket and handed it to Crystal, “If anything goes wrong – but it won’t – you can catch a bus home at Levenhall.”

“Levenhall! But that’s miles away.”

“Will you all stop whining? You’re upsetting your mother and the most important thing is that we get her home in time for her medication.”

Patsy and Crystal took up their stations behind the car. Joe, who was in charge of keeping the back door open for Patsy and Crystal to jump in, was much more interested in what his father was busy doing and therefore was holding the door only half open.

Tom shouted the command for Patsy and Crystal to start pushing, while he steered, shoved and sprinted forward. Of course, Tom had no experience of the roads in East Lothian and was quite unaware that the road out of Tranent was steep and winding. Quite suddenly, he panicked as the car went round a bend. Before he could straighten it up, he was faced with another bend – then another – and yet another. Each time they turned a corner, the car went faster and faster. It had now gained such momentum that he could hardly keep up. Reluctantly he decided the best solution was for him to jump back in and yank the brakes on. Just as he was about to leap in, the engine roared into life. “Run for it now,” he shouted as he leapt aboard and slammed his door shut as the car raced away.

Unfortunately, it was all too much for Patsy and when Tom shouted, “Run for it,” she stopped to get her breath back. A belated attempt to jump led to her falling face-down in the road with Crystal landing on top of her. All they could then do was wail in anguish as the car disappeared from view round the next bend.

The pair of them had been sitting there for no more than a couple of minutes when they heard the clip-clop of hooves and along came a horse and cart. “You could easy get yourself killed sitting there,” warned the farmer who was driving. “It’s hay-time, you know.”

Crystal nodded. “Our car broke down and when it got going again it went off without us.”

The farmer looked bewildered. “Drove off on its own, did it?”

“No, my Dad was driving but he’s just learned and once he got the car going again he was too frightened to stop.”

“So he left you and your mother to get on with it?”

“She’s not my mother. She’s my Granny. Look. Could you please give us a lift to a bus stop?”

“That’s no problem.”

“Thank you.”

“But, Miss, the real problem is that there won’t be a bus until tomorrow morning!”

“You’re joking!”

“No. Now, if you could get yourselves to Musselburgh – though that’s a long, long walk – you could get a bus there.”

Crystal started to realise that she would have to get on this man’s good side, so she wheedled, “Look, Mister, my Granny’s
very old
and she has the rheumatics. Could you maybe let us sit up on your hay bales and take us to Musselburgh?”

“Suppose I could,” drawled the man. “Especially if you was to make it worth my while.”

Crystal held out her sixpence. The man shook his head and chewed on a piece of tobacco before proposing, “But if you, the young one, were to promise to come back this weekend and help me and the missus on the farm, I could …”

Crystal didn’t wait for him to finish. “Done!” she shouted as she began to hoist Patsy on to the cart and then jumped up herself.

All the women seated round the table smiled with relief when the power was switched off and the noise in the bottling plant ceased. Break times were always so welcome in the Bond. Times when you could have a ten-minute break. And what was even more appreciated was the thirst-quenching cup of tea from the tea trolley.

They’d all collected their tea from the trolley and were now back chatting when Ina Stewart, her mouth full of biscuits, said, “Here, Crystal, think I’ve won my bet?”