‘Wouldn't it be
good to have someone nice in that place, 'stead of an old misery as treats us
all like dirt. There's few enough folks around here. Why did we have to get
stuck with her?'
Joey was
unwrapping the parcels. 'What's for dinner, Mum?'
'Sausages.'
'This ain't
sausages.'
'No, that's a bit
of summat special for yer Dad, to get his strength back so he can go to work.
Been hanging about the house for long enough, he has, getting under my feet.'
'Mum -' Jinny
said, smiling as she tipped the vegetables into the rack.
'Yes, love?'
'I've been
thinking
'That's
something!' said her father with a spurt of laughter.
`Don't joke, Dad.
I've been thinking about Miss Coker. Miss Johnson says it's being lonely makes
people act cranky, 'cos it's unnatural for humans. Humans are social animals.'
`I'm fed up with
that Miss Johnson,' Bert bellowed. `If that's what she's been telling yer she
ought to know better. Animals is animals and people is people.'
`I was saying,'
Jinny continued, `that if somebody was to do something for that old lady, only
nobody ever does -'
'Such as what,
then?'
`Well, like
fr'instance, if Dad was to hang the shed door for her. She might be different.
She might talk to us sometimes.'
`Catch me putting
myself out for the silly old faggot after the way she took on at me. Door can
rot afore I'll hang it.'
`Yes, but, Dad -'
`That'll do now,'
said Mrs. Reece amiably. Her irritability had passed. One more in the family
wouldn't make much difference. Be nice to have a baby in the house again.
Joey was
giggling. After dinner, on the pretext of fetching a bucket of coal, he ran to
Miss Coker's gate. From here he threw a clod of earth at her sitting room window
and shouted, `Silly old faggot, silly old faggot!' In the absence of any visible
reaction he repeated the phrase, jumping up and down and adding an invention of
his own.
`Silly old
faggot, face like a maggot!' Then he ran away as fast as he could.
The performance
was wasted, for Miss Coker had not yet returned from the village. The exertion
of pushing her bicycle all the way up the lane in such intense cold had brought
on an attack of faintness. It came over her in the post office and she was
obliged to ask for a chair to sit down on. Miss Mayberry, the postmistress,
hurriedly brought a stool from behind the counter and helped her on to it.
`There, dearie -
just put your head down atween your knees till I get the smelling bottle.'
The fumes of
ammonia were so strong that Miss Coker's eyes watered and she could hardly get
her breath. But almost at once she began to feel better and tried to get up.
Miss Mayberry pushed her down again.
`You sit there
and rest awhile, dearie, you won't be in my way. I'll be glad of company. You'd
never credit it, but there's not been another soul come in all morning. It's
this Post Early for Christmas appeal, you see. Everyone's bought their stamps
and sent off their parcels days ago.'
She rattled on
while Miss Coker itched to escape. But the difficulty was she could not produce
any urgent reason to go. Her character and circumstances were too well known.
Since she neither paid calls nor received them, had no friends and no
occupation, she could hardly plead pressing business to attend to.
Miss Mayberry was
one of the few people in the village who felt some sympathy for Miss Coker. A
lonely woman herself, she knew what it was to need someone to talk to. What she
could never have understood was that anyone would deliberately choose to live as
Miss Coker did, neither seeking nor wanting companionship. Her mind running on
these lines, she asked suddenly,
`Did you ever
think of getting a dog? Or even a cat? A cat can be rare good company - and less
trouble than a dog. Miss Weekes was telling me there's a little stray down your
way that would be glad of a home.'
'I don't care for
pet animals of any kind,' Miss Coker said.
'Ah well, that's
a pity, that is. I wouldn't be with out my old Ginger. But you know best what
you want. And what you want this minute, by the look of you, is a drop of
brandy. That'll put you right. It's a grand pick-me-up, a drop of brandy is.
I'll run and get it.'
`Please don't
trouble. I never touch it.'
Miss Coker made
another attempt to get up off the stool and this time succeeded. Miss Mayberry
still tried to detain her.
`How about a bar
of chocolate then? Nourishing and sustaining. Helps to keep out the cold.'
`All right. I'll
take a bar.'
`Plain or milk?'
'One of each.'
At last Miss
Coker escaped. She quickly wheeled her bicycle away. But she was still not
feeling very well and stopped outside the Stores to lean against the wall. This
was unfortunate for she was then within earshot of the carpenter's yard and
could hear the regular swoosh-swoosh of a plane. The sound stabbed through her
with an almost physical pain, bringing back the image of her father.
Mr. Coker's hobby
had been carpentry and woodwork. He had fitted up a little workshop in the
cellar of their house and on most weekends was to be found, shirt-sleeved and
ankle deep in shavings. The new smoothing plane had been her last birthday gift
to him. He never wanted anything but tools and bits of wood.
Miss Coker closed
her eyes and tried to blot out the memory. But it would not leave her. When she
looked at the window display at the Stores she clearly saw, among the tins of
soup and packets of cereal, her father's beaming face speckled with sawdust.
The faintness came over her again leaned heavily over her bicycle.
`Are you all
right, miss?' asked the delivery boy, coming out at that moment with a carton of
groceries.
`Yes, of course I
am. Perfectly all right,' she snapped, adding sharply, ‘You forgot my
raisins last time. Can't you ever get the order right?'
`Sorry, miss.'
`Didn't you check
it?'
`Yes, miss.'
‘You couldn't
have done. It's always the same. Always something forgotten.'
'Trust you to
find something to moan about,' the boy muttered as he went off -'Never miss a
trick, you don't.'
Miss Coker rode
home in a rage. She put her bicycle away in the shed, looking to see if the
kitten was still there and noting with satisfaction that it was not.
WHAT'S
NEW? 