Live the Dream
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He joined in, then assumed an apologetic expression. ‘Look, I’m sorry, but we’ve had such a rush on, I didn’t have time to find you a present.’
‘Aw, never mind, love.’ Marie was philosophical. ‘You’ve brought yourself home and that’s all that matters.’
He gave her a kiss. ‘You’re a very understanding woman,’ he said gratefully. ‘There’s not many men can say that about their wives.’
Marie gave him a little shove. ‘You go and get your wash,’ she said, ‘while me and Amy get the dinner on the table.’
When he was gone into the scullery, Marie gave Amy a knowing wink. ‘I’ve learned to be crafty as him over the years,’ she whispered.
Amy whispered back, ‘What d’you mean?’
In answer, Marie tiptoed to her husband’s jacket and, dipping her hand inside it, withdrew two small packages.
Just then, Dave shouted for a towel. ‘Hurry up, Marie. I’m dripping wet!’
‘Here,’ handing Amy the two small packages, Marie instructed mischievously, ‘hide ’em, quick!’
Dave’s frantic voice sailed in from the scullery, ‘MARIE!’
‘All right, all right, I’m on my way!’ And off she went, chuckling at their innocent deception.
A few minutes later, washed and changed and ready for his dinner, Dave returned to the parlour. ‘By! A feast fit for a king!’ he said, his hungry eyes roving the table. Right in the centre was the deep-dish meat pie with a brown crusty pastry and a wash of egg to make it shine.
There were two earthenware bowls: one filled with roasted potatoes, the other brimming with quartered parsnips. For Dave there was a welcome jug of beer, a glass of stout for Marie, and a tumbler of home-made elderberry wine for Amy.
‘Well, don’t just look at it!’ Marie told him. ‘Sit yourself down and eat.’
‘One minute,’ he said, reaching into his jacket pocket. ‘I’ve summat here for the pair of you …’ Chuckling, he confessed, ‘I were just winding you up when I said I hadn’t got you a present.’
Marie feigned excitement. ‘So you brought us one after all? Oh, sweetheart, I knew you would.’
The grin on Dave’s face faded as he felt in the pocket for the third time, fumbling this way, then that. ‘They’ve gone!’ he cried. ‘Some thieving bugger’s ’ad ’em away!’
At the look of horror on his face, Amy couldn’t bear it. ‘Here they are, Dad.’ Collecting them from behind the clock on the sideboard she handed them to him.
When his mouth fell open with surprise, Marie laughed. ‘It serves you right for teasing us. Come on then, let’s see what you’ve brought?’
Marie’s present was the prettiest brooch, shaped like a butterfly and made out of enamel. ‘Aw, Dave …’ She gave him a hug. ‘It’s lovely … you’re lovely!’
Grinning like a Cheshire cat, he seemed embarrassed, though he enjoyed her fussing round him. ‘You know how I like to give you nice things,’ he said proudly. ‘It’s only what you deserve.’ He glanced at Amy. ‘Come on, lass … open your present.’
Amy was thrilled with hers too. The necklace was a tiny heart, shaped in silver, and when she put it on, both Marie and Dave said how pretty it looked on her.
‘Thanks, Dad.’ She too gave him a fond hug. ‘But you shouldn’t spend your money on us like that.’
Indignant, he asked sombrely, ‘If I can’t spend it on the two most important people in my life, who can I spend it on?’
There was no answer to that, except for Marie to say, ‘Let’s eat our dinners, afore they go cold!’
As they ate, the three of them chatted and laughed, and Dave told of his latest disaster.
‘For the life of me, I don’t know how it happened,’ he began excitedly. ‘Soonever I was given the address, I knew straight off there were a good many narrow little streets in that area, some of ’em virtually impassable, especially with a lorry that size. The new foreman assured me there was no problem as the road widened out at the end and I could drive straight through. But when I got halfway down, I knew some bugger had been playing silly devils with me, ’cos instead of the road getting wider, it got narrower. In the end I couldn’t go forrard and it seemed there were too many twists and turns to go backards.’
‘Sounds frightening.’ Against all odds, but urged on by Daisy, Amy had once secretly considered learning to drive, but the tales her dad came home with had put her off altogether. Dave had a little car, his pride and joy, but now Amy couldn’t envisage being one of the pioneer female drivers of Blackburn.
‘Aye, it were frightening an’ all, lass!’ Rolling his eyes he groaned. ‘In fact it were a bloody nightmare!’
Marie was horrified. ‘So what did you do?’
‘Well, I had no option, did I? All I could do was to feel my way back inch by inch. Unfortunately I badly scraped the side of the wagon and almost demolished a wall on the way.’
Once he got into the swing of it, Dave could tell a tale as well as any man, and on this particular occasion he had a riveted audience.
‘Not content with that, soonever I got the back end out I swung my front round to avoid a lamppost,’ he continued. ‘I missed the lamppost all right, but knocked down two bollards in the process, and ran over some poor bloke’s bicycle.’
Amy could see it all so vividly in her mind, she couldn’t stop laughing. ‘You’re a one-man demolition party!’
‘It weren’t my fault,’ Dave protested, indignant. ‘The buggers should have had more sense than sending me there in the first place!’
‘But that poor man … what did he have to say about his bike?’
‘Well, he weren’t too pleased, I can tell yer that. Yelled and shouted he did – went bright red in the face; said as how I should be locked up for my own safety, the cheeky article! On top o’ that, he wanted me to pay for a new bike, but I told him, I said, “If you’re daft enough to park it by the kerbside, you expect to get it run over.”’
Marie was curious. ‘And was he content with that?’
‘Were he buggery! Threatened to fetch the police if I didn’t pay up, but I’m no pushover. I stuck to my guns.’ He puffed out his chest. ‘As you know, I’m not a man who’s easily threatened!’
‘So what did you do?’
With a defiant look, he explained, ‘Well, what d’yer think I did? I paid him half what he said. I mean, what else could I do under the circumstances? I had no intention o’ paying him the full whack, I can tell you that. But y’see, I didn’t want no police on the scene. They’d have only made me later coming home to you, my darling.’ The expression on his face was a picture. ‘And we couldn’t be having that, could we now?’
All three laughed at his antics. It had been a good day, and an excellent meal, and as Dave went for his evening ‘constitutional’, Marie and Amy cleared away the dinner things. ‘It’s good to have him home,’ Marie said, and Amy agreed. Such contentment – she had envisaged such a marriage for herself, but she knew, even so, that she was fortunate to share in her parents’ happy lives. After all, what would Daisy give for this much love?
Dave returned just as Amy came down the stairs, having gone to get ready. ‘By! You look lovely, lass.’ He beamed with pride. ‘Off somewhere nice, are you?’
‘Me and Daisy are going to the pictures.’ Amy blushed at his compliment, but then she had taken a lot of trouble to look especially nice.
The long dark skirt had been a birthday present from her mother, and to go with it, Amy had bought a pale blue blouse and close-fitting jacket of darker blue. With her small-heeled ankle-strap shoes and the pretty spotted scarf at her throat she looked and felt good.
‘Your dad’s right,’ Marie agreed. ‘You look beautiful in that outfit.’
Aware that she was no beauty, but grateful for their compliments, Amy kissed her parents cheerio and promised not to be too late home.
‘And mind them roads!’ Dave warned. ‘It won’t be long afore the motor vehicles outnumber the horse and carts. Mind you, some of them drivers couldn’t even control a dog on a lead, let alone a thing with an engine in it.’
‘You worry too much,’ Amy chided as she hurried out the door. ‘I’ll be fine.’
Marie waved her daughter off at the door, then returned to the parlour and her beloved husband. ‘She’s a good lass, don’t you think?’
‘Aye.’ He smiled and nodded. ‘She teks after her mammy.’
Winking meaningfully, he patted his knee. ‘Look here, lass. There’s a sizeable lap going begging,’ he said invitingly. ‘All it needs is a pretty woman to plonk her bare bottom on it, and I’ll be happy as a pig in muck.’
Softly laughing, she went to him. ‘You’re a randy old thing, Dave Atkinson,’ she said, nibbling his ear.
‘And who can blame me, eh,’ hugging her tight, he kissed her full on the mouth, ‘when I’ve got the best-looking woman in the whole o’ Lancashire?’
Marie laughed, and as her smile met his, there was no doubting her love for him. ‘Are you after my body?’
‘What do you think?’
Marie smiled softly. ‘I think the same as you,’ she whispered. ‘What’s more, I think we ought to do summat about it.’
He kissed her again. ‘A woman after my own heart, that’s what you are, Marie Atkinson.’
A moment later the two of them went up the stairs together.
With Dave away all week it seemed such an age since they had made love.
Chapter 4
A TRIP TO THE pictures was always a treat, and tonight was no exception.
‘Am I glad to see you!’ Daisy was already waiting in Blackburn town centre as Amy disembarked from the tram. ‘I’ve been waiting here for ages.’ Linking arms with her friend, Daisy was talkative as usual. ‘You should have seen this good-looking fella just now,’ she sighed. ‘He weren’t nearly as handsome as our Tuesday man, but I wouldn’t mind having him for a sweetheart.’
Amy laughed. ‘How do you know he hasn’t already got a sweetheart?’
‘I expect he has,’ Daisy groaned. ‘I expect every decent, good-looking man has already been claimed.’ The long-drawn-out sigh came from her very soul. ‘I can see I’m destined to grow old and miserable and never know what it’s like to have a fella of my own.’
Something in Daisy’s voice and manner told Amy things weren’t right. ‘What’s the matter?’ Drawing her to a halt, Amy asked gently, ‘There’s something wrong at home, isn’t there?’ She remembered Daisy’s barely concealed unhappiness at the café last Tuesday morning.
Daisy lowered her gaze. ‘How do you know that?’
Amy always knew. ‘Well, for one thing, I got here at the time we arranged, and yet you said you’d been waiting ages for me.’
Daisy nodded. ‘Well, if you must know, there’s hell going on at home,’ she admitted in a trembling voice. ‘That’s why I came out early, to wait for you.’
‘Have you had anything to eat?’
Daisy shook her head.
‘OK!’ Glancing about, Amy was relieved to see the hot-potato stand was here as usual. ‘The first thing we do is get you something to eat. Then we’ll skip the pictures and find a quiet little place where we can sit and talk.’
Daisy was emphatic. ‘I don’t want to talk.’
‘So, what do you want to do?’
‘Go to the pictures, like we said.’
‘Are you hungry?’
‘I might be.’
‘Well then, we’ve time enough, so it’s hot potatoes first, then the pictures. All right?’
In fact everything was ‘all right’ to Daisy whenever she was with Amy. It was only when she was home with her parents that life was unbearable. The sound of their angry screaming voices still rang in her head. No, she’d make an effort; she wouldn’t let them spoil her evening. Pulling her shoulders back, she straightened her coat and tossed her auburn curls. ‘All right,’ she grinned.
Linking arms again, the two of them went towards the hot-potato stand.
‘Evening, girls.’ A short, round little man in a grey coat, the stallholder resembled one of his own potatoes. ‘Off to the pictures, are you?’
While he served them, he chatted about the weather and told them how pretty they were and flirted outrageously. Daisy responded in a like manner and earned herself an extra large potato, while Amy laughed to see her friend determined to enjoy herself.
Amy paid for the two bags of hot potatoes smothered in salt, and butter, which dripped from the bottom of the bag. ‘Mind it doesn’t get on your coat,’ she urged Daisy, who was tucking in as she walked. ‘You’ll have a terrible job getting it out.’
Seating themselves on a nearby bench, they sat and enjoyed their meal; though Amy was full to bursting, having already had a good dinner. Still, she didn’t confess that to Daisy. Instead, under Daisy’s watchful eye, she ate every bit of her delicious potato.
Delighted to see how Daisy wolfed her food, Amy laughed at the way her friend puffed and blew and complained about how hot it was – ‘It’s burning my bloody mouth!’ But she soon devoured it, skin and all.
Afterwards, with Daisy seeming more content, the two of them took off for the picture house and, feeling too full for words, Amy was thankful for the brisk walk across the square.
The Roxy was a grand-looking place, with plush red seats in the auditorium, thick carpet underfoot, and a man softly playing the organ at the front.
‘There’s two seats along there.’
The usherette shone her torch along the dimly lit row, and carefully as she could, Amy led the way, while behind her she could hear chaos unfolding. When she glanced back it was carnage, with everyone they’d passed bending forward, clutching their poor mangled feet where Daisy had trodden on them.
The silent, hateful glances that followed hastened them to their seats, and Amy, for one, was thankful to sit down.
‘Clumsy devils!’ The last poor man they’d passed appeared to be in agony. ‘If folks would only get here in good time, there’d be none o’ this!’
‘Oh, stop moaning, you miserable sod!’ Giving him a withering glance, Daisy flicked down her seat and almost fell on the floor when it sprang back up. ‘Damned thing!’ By now, Daisy was ready to take on the world.
Amy held the seat down while Daisy plonked her backside on it. ‘Sit down and behave,’ she chuckled, ‘unless you want us to get thrown out.’
Then all was quiet. For the moment.
As always the picture house was full. There were little old folk at the front, families in the middle and sweethearts at the back.
Once or twice Daisy glanced at the sweethearts kissing and canoodling, and twining themselves round each other. ‘Look at them! It’s disgusting!’ she said. But Amy knew how much Daisy would have loved to be seated at the back with a sweetheart wrapped round her.
‘Ssh!’ The woman behind wagged a finger at Daisy. ‘Be quiet!’
Daisy fell silent and for a moment she seemed to be deep in thought; though Amy suspected she was thinking about her parents and the way it was at home.
Luckily, the organ music soon swelled in a crescendo and the film started.
To Amy’s relief, Daisy was soon tapping her feet along with the master of dance, Charles King, and as the film progressed, her whole mood changed. Her eyes shone and her whole body twitched to the music, and for a time she was content and happy in a different world.
Amy too enjoyed the film. It was fast and furious, and all too soon it was the interval.
‘What d’you want, lass?’ Standing up ready to queue for refreshments, Daisy waited for Amy’s answer.
‘Nothing for me, thanks,’ Amy told her. She was still full to bursting.
Daisy shrugged, ‘Suit yourself,’ and off she went, leaving another trail of broken toes and complaining voices as she made her way through.
Having stood in the queue for what seemed an age, Daisy was next to be served. ‘A bag of popcorn please, gal,’ she told the usherette.
‘No popcorn, sorry.’ Grim-faced and fed up, the young woman had no interest in her work. As it happened that very morning, she had been turned down for a job as train-driver. Consequently, she was not in the best of moods.
Brought down by her own problems, Daisy was ready for anything the other woman had to throw at her. ‘So what have yer got then?’ she demanded impatiently.
Adjusting the strap round her neck so as to relieve the weight of her tray, the usherette ran both hands through the array of goodies, muttering as she searched, ‘No popcorn … and I’ve just sold the last of the chocolate bars.’ Wiping her nose with the back end of her cuff, she said wearily, ‘There’s only ice cream left now.’
‘Haven’t yer got no nuts?’ Hopeful, Daisy peered into the tray. ‘I don’t fancy ice cream.’
Angrily making another quick search of the tray, the usherette shook her head. ‘Ice cream. Take it or leave it.’
‘Are you sure there are no nuts in the back-room?’
Laughing aloud at Daisy’s suggestion, the usherette told her, ‘The only “nuts” in there are the manager and his fancy-bit.’
She leaned forward. ‘I don’t think they’d thank me for barging in … if you know what I mean?’ Her sly little wink left nothing to the imagination.
‘Lucky them!’ Daisy laughed.
‘HEY!’ The angry voice sailed up the queue. ‘The damned picture will be started soon! Cut the chatter and get on with it, will you?’
Fearing for her job, the usherette demanded of Daisy, ‘So do you want an ice cream or not?’
Daisy held out her loose change. ‘Go on then, gal. If that’s all there is, I’ve got no choice, have I?’
Clutching a tub of ice cream, Daisy fought her way back, amused to see how, in the ten minutes since she’d joined it, the queue was now snaking along the aisle.
‘So, it’s you who’s been holding up the queue, is it?’ Lolling on the back of a seat, the brash young man turned Daisy’s heart over with his winning smile. ‘Can’t make up your mind what you want, eh?’ Fair-haired and of small build, he had a wiriness that made her think of a terrier.
Returning his cheeky smile, Daisy held up the ice-cream tub. ‘I wanted popcorn,’ she said, ‘but this was all she had left.’
‘Got a hankering for popcorn, have you?’ He moved an inch or two closer, but not so far that he might lose his place in the queue.
‘I might have.’ Touching the tip of her nose with her finger she gave him a haughty glance. ‘Though it’s none o’ your business.’
Undeterred, he shifted back into the queue. ‘With your boyfriend, are you?’
Daisy smiled. ‘I’ve not got no boyfriend at the minute.’
The young man licked his lips. ‘All alone then, eh?’
‘No.’
‘Oh?’ Disappointment coloured his voice. ‘Who’ve you got with you then?’ He glanced about, but quickly returned his attention to her. ‘Not your mam and dad, is it?’ he asked warily.
Daisy bristled. ‘I wouldn’t even cross the street with them two!’
‘Is that so?’ As the queue shifted, he went with it. ‘Like that, is it?’
‘Like what?’ On the defensive now, Daisy didn’t care for the way the conversation was going.
‘Looks to me like you don’t get on with your parents.’ Taking hold of her arm, he held her there, a gleam of mischief in his small, bright eyes. ‘Been a naughty girl, have you?’
Daisy shook him off. ‘Like I said, it’s none of your damned business!’
When she hurried away, he tried to follow her, but the picture was starting and the dispersing queue blocked his path. ‘Wait for me at the main doors,’ he called after her, and, secretly thrilled, Daisy pretended not to hear.
She returned to her seat, irritated by the medley of voices threatening to have her chucked out. ‘You’ve mangled my toes once too often!’ cried one irate woman.
‘If you shifted your bloody great feet out the way,’ Daisy snapped back, ‘I wouldn’t be able to “mangle” ’em, would I?’
Throwing herself into the seat, she was horrified when the randy old codger in the next seat stroked her knee suggestively. ‘Take no notice of them,’ he urged.
When she glared at him, he leered at her. ‘You’re a pretty young thing,’ he whispered, curling his fingers tighter about her thigh. ‘What say you and me leave for a while, eh?’
Daisy smiled her best, at the same time spilling her tub of ice cream all over his trousers. ‘Whoops!’ Digging Amy in the ribs, she said, feigning innocence, ‘Oh dear, look what I’ve just done to this poor old man!’
Unaware of what had gone before, Amy was astonished to see the man leap out of his seat, his trousers dripping ice cream, and a wet patch forming round his flies.
‘YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE!’
He caused such a fuss that the usherette came running. ‘What the devil’s going on here?’
‘Ask him!’ Grabbing Amy’s arm, Daisy forced her way past. ‘You should be careful who you let in here,’ she informed the usherette. ‘The dirty old git needed cooling off. A dollop of ice cream round his old what-not seems to have done the trick, though.’
Outside, the two girls collapsed laughing.
‘Did you see the look on his face?’ Amy chuckled.
‘Serves him right!’ Daisy replied. ‘Filthy old sod.’
‘I hope you’re not talking about me?’ It was the young man who had tried chatting up Daisy earlier. He was leaning against the wall, another man, of about the same age, with him.
‘No, I didn’t mean you.’ Her ready smile told how she was pleased to see him. ‘Some randy old bugger and his wandering hands. I had to teach him a lesson!’
‘So it was you causing all that fuss?’
‘It was.’ In truth she was quite proud to have dealt with the matter so efficiently.
‘Put him in his place, did you?’
Daisy grinned. ‘I dropped a tub of ice cream in his lap … that cooled him off all right.’
The young man laughed. ‘I’d best watch my p’s and q’s when you’re around.’
‘That’s right … you had.’
He sidled closer. ‘Are we on for a date then?’
Daisy decided to play it casual. ‘We might be.’
He persisted. ‘Well, are we or not?’
Daisy glanced at his mate. A quiet man with lean figure and intense gaze, he seemed well taken with Amy. ‘Who’s your friend?’
‘This is Jack …’ beckoning his friend forward, he introduced him, ‘… Jack Tomlinson. We work together and we’re good pals.’ He half smiled. ‘Jack never has much to say, but he thinks a lot. Not like me. I take things as they come.’
His gaze fixing Amy, Jack stepped forward. ‘Pleased to meet you …’ he hesitated, ‘… I don’t know your name.’
Amy held out her hand. ‘I’m Amy.’ Ever cautious, she saw no need to elaborate on that, at least for now.
Holding her hand for a moment longer than she would have liked, he smiled down on her. ‘Pretty name.’
‘Thank you.’ He seemed a nice enough fella.
‘And I’m Roy.’ The sharp little man stepped forward, addressing himself to Daisy. ‘Let me guess … you’ve got to be a Joanne … or mebbe Ruth, am I right?’
She giggled. ‘I’m Daisy. Pretty as a flower.’
Feeling uncomfortable about the way the young man was eyeing Daisy, Amy intervened. ‘Lovely meeting you both, but we’ve a tram to catch.’
Daisy, though, was already infatuated. ‘Oh, Amy, we’ve time to find a chippie first,’ she protested. ‘Don’t forget we left the flicks early, so we’ve got some extra time.’
Amy, horrified at the idea of yet more food, was about to disagree, but the young man called Roy pounced on the idea at once. ‘I know where there’s a good chippie!’ Grabbing Daisy by the arm, he suggested, ‘We could have fish and chips, then find a quiet place to talk … if that’s what you’d like?’
Before Amy could say anything, Daisy had agreed and the four of them were on their way, in the direction of the docks, being led by Daisy and her chatty companion.
‘They seem to have hit it off together, don’t they?’ Bringing up the rear, Jack walked at a more sedate pace with Amy. ‘I wish I was more like him. He makes friends so easily, while I’ve always found it difficult.’
Amy smiled at that. ‘Daisy’s the same,’ she said, adding cautiously, ‘Is he all right though, your friend?’
‘How d’you mean?’ Jack gave her a curious glance.
‘He won’t take advantage of her, will he?’