Part 20 (2/2)

”The road's full, I can't get up there. Anyway, you don't want to go into that row, do you?” His face and voice showed concern, and she looked at him in amazement as she said quickly, ”It's Mrs. McBride. Ah, Tony.” She paused a moment, then changed her tone into a coaxing wheedle as she realised that it was a chip of Mr. Lord she was dealing with and not just Tony, for the set look on his face told her that he was not going to drive into the row. ”Aw ! come on, take me up. Aw ! come on, Tony. I won't ask you to do anything else . . . ever, honest I won't. Just this once. Aw! come on.”

Tony looked at her, shook his head slowly, drew in a breath, and accelerated just the slightest. The car moved slowly up to the outskirts of the crowd, and as he shut off the engine Mrs. McBride's voice came booming to them, yelling, ”Kicked her in the s.h.i.+ns, did he. Well, she's lucky he didn't kick her in the backside an' all ! I would've done, and you an' all, me fine lady. And let me tell you, you lay a finger on him and beG.o.d ! you'll wake up and find yourself a corpse. And it's me that's tellin' you.”

Tony found himself with a ringside view of the fight. He saw a thin woman standing in the roadway, her face contorted with temper. He did not know her, but he did recognize the fat old woman on the steps. And so angry and flaming was her countenance that he warned Mary Ann sternly as she made to get out, ”Stay where you are.”

What! She turned quickly and looked at him. Stay where she was and a row going on. She sensed that he was afraid for her, and she laughed within herself at anyone being afraid of mixing up in a row, especially in Burton Street, and more especially when one of the combatants was Mrs. McBride. No harm could ever come to her if she was under the banner of Mrs. McBride.

”I've told you, you're not getting out. At least not yet.” His hand was firmly holding her arm.

”Aw! man, nothing'll happen to me. It's Mrs. McBrideshe's at Mrs. Flannagan. Her there.” She pointed. ”Mrs. me Bride always beats her. Aw ! Tony, leave go, it'll be over in a minute.”

”It's over now. Look, she's seen you, she's coming down.” He nodded to where Mrs. McBride was

descending the steps, her chin up in the air, and shouting to the children as she reached the pavement, ”Out of me way! Out of me way! Out of me way, the lot of you.”

”You see.” The look Mary Ann bestowed on Tony was not without satisfaction; it told him he deserved

all he was likely to get, for now the car was encircled with children and all crying, ”It's Mary Ann.”' ”Hullo, Mary Ann.” ,. ,<v ”hullo,=”” mary=”” ann.”=”” .;;=”” .=”” .-*=”” ,-.*”.”it's=”” mary=”” ann.”=”” .,.v=”” ,=”” ;;i.t”eeh!=”” mary=”” ann.=”” is=”” this=”” your=”” car?”=”” :=”” :”eeh!=”” by,=”” mary=”” ann.””oo=”” ...=”” ooh!=”” mary=”” ann.=”” ooh!””out=”” of=”” me=”” way.”=”” mrs.=”” mcbride's=”” face=”” filled=”” the=”” open=”” window,=”” her=”” smile=”” breaking=”” up=”” her=”” anger.=”” ”why,=”” hullo=”” there,=”” hinny.=”” what's=”” brought=”” you=”” this=””></v>< p=””>

”h.e.l.lo, Mrs. McBride.” Mary Ann smiled widely back at f.a.n.n.y. ”I came before. I brought you a chicken from me ma and some eggs.”

”A chicken did you say? and eggs. Well!”

”Did you hear that?” f.a.n.n.y withdrew her head from the car, and looking over the top of it sent her

piercing gaze towards her enemy, repeating, ”A chicken and eggs. Did you hear that? Sent to me from

me friend.”

Her head popping into the window again, she now addressed' Tony, nodding to him and saying, ”Hullo, there, lad.”

”h.e.l.lo,” said Tony.

Both in his manner and voice it was evident that Tony was slightly nervous and somewhat at a loss.

Quant.i.ties like Mrs. McBride needed getting used to, especially when they were in their battling form.

”Aren't you coming in for a drop tea, the pair of you?”

Mary Ann looked swiftly at Tony, and her disappointment was great as he said, with some slight

emphasis, ”No, thank you. 218 You see I'm on an errand.” And aiming to temper his refusal, he added, ”It's for Mike-some hinges.”

”Oh!” The exclamation swept over the street, which Mrs. McBride now addressed, rather than Tony. ”Grand news I've been hearing about Mike. Running the whole show he is now. Well, haven't I always said he had it in him? Aye, the just shall be rewarded.” Her head was bouncing over the top of the car towards Mrs. Flannagan again, and the prim lady, not being able to stand any more either of her enemy or of the other thorn in her flesh, now preening herself in the car, turned away, marched through her front door and banged it after her. It was evident that she had, for the moment, forgotten about Sarah, who made no move to follow her mother but stared fascinated at the car, and at Mary Ann seated on the far side of the nicelooking young lad.

Acutely embarra.s.sed, Tony was telling himself that he must get out of this, for now converging on the car from all sides, slowly, and somewhat tentatively but nevertheless insistently, were the neighbours, all apparently anxious to hear Mary Ann's news. So when f.a.n.n.y put her head once again through the window he said quickly, ”If you'll excuse us, I must get back.”

”Certainly, certainly, lad. I understand. And give my very best to Mike. And ” Mrs. McBride's podgy and none too clean hand came in and grabbed at Mary Ann's, and she muttered, somewhat softly now, ”And thank your ma, hinny, for me. Tell her G.o.d bless her.”

”I will, Mrs. McBride.” Mary Ann's face was agleam. She was the benevolent lady bestowing chickens and eggs right and left. At this moment she would have loved to have a lorry piled high with chickens and eggs, the former, of course, inert, to distribute among the entire population of Burton Street-with one exception, naturally, the Flannagans.

”Goodbye, hinny.”

”Goodbye, Mrs. McBride.”

As Tony started the car and was edging it forward, Mary Ann made a plain statement. ”You can't get out at the top, you'll have to turn here,” she said.

With an intake of breath, he slowly turned the nose and backed, under shouted dictions from Mary Ann inside the car and from Mrs. McBnde outside, and he was openly sighing his rehef and about to take the car swiftly forward when Mary Ann's grip on his hand almost turned the wheels into the kerb What are you doing! Be careful!” He braked, looking and sounding angry as he did so. g ;;Stop a minute ... oh, just a minute. Just a tick, Tony.” Look here, Mary Ann!” He was talking to her back for ttllisTgirr gmg Ut th WindW addriinS a ZM^> There was no lad now with Sarah Flannagan and no motherhe stood unprotected, her face not now tranquilly lost in th ,, throes of first love, nor yet grinning under the protection of her > SreeV ' it, 73S 8nC-Mary AM dld n0t COUM the * / ^ /f C n ?C Pavement- A*d once before she had / addressed her enemy from out of the window of this very same ^r she now repeated the process. Her tongue going twenty-five rieS ”Yoei7 an,f F t0 ^ k 3l1 ” bere he Started P> Icried, You thought was coming back to your school, d dn't you you and your ma ! Well, I'm not, see-I'm going to another ;>?** *”” ^ ^ ^ ^ ' ^ This news made no impression whatever on Sarah's counten11 ”rf ' ””S rTned %ht' hr CyeS narrW' her f- -erall very grim. Mary Ann was naturally, therefore, forced to do something to break this indifference. So quickly' she ted to a sublet that had been very much in her mind of late-lads And you re not the only one who can have a lad see ! ” Thk was accompanied by a deep bounce of her head. i'vc got one and a better one than you>1, ver h , e one thumbed in the direction of Tony, and not only did sh Indicate him with her thumb, but with her eyes, too Sarah's widening gaze as she took 'in the young man was ike a draught of heady wine to Mary Ann/and'stTmulaTed byt nothing could prevent her from going the whole ”And me ma says I can go out when I'm fifteen and be married when I'm nineteen, so there!”

From its expression of amazement Sarah's face now turned to one of open scorn and disbelief, and this had a sudden dampening effect on Mary Ann. She knew she had gone beyond the bounds even of fantasy, and nothing could prove her right but a declaration from the horse's mouth itself. So quickly she turned her face to Tony. He was looking at her with very much the same expression that Sarah had been wearing, which filled her with irritation, and if she'd had time to dunk about it she would have thought along the lines of Mike and would have said, ”He's not quick off the mark about some things.” And when a person isn't quick off the mark, he has to be prompted. ”Aren't I going to be married when I'm nineteen?” That her advanced thinking had definitely stunned Tony for die moment was plain to be seen, for he made no response, until a jab of her blocked and, therefore, quite hard toecap in his ankle brought him to his senses, and he explained over-loudly, ”Yes, yes-that's so ”

The rest of his mumbled words was lost on her for she was now half-way out of the window. It seemed diat she couldn't get near enough to Sarah as she spurted the remainder of the fantasy at her. ”So you see. And he buys me ” she was going to say bullets, but her mind quickly rejected this as common and changed it to sweets. But even this word in a split second was discarded for something more glamorous, and she ended, ”Chocolates. Big 'uns, in a box, like you have at Christmas. So there . . . you see!”

There was a sharp burr as Tony's foot struck the pedal, and her words were whipped away on a gasp as she was pulled inside the car, plumped on to the seat, and for a second held within the circle of his arm as he pressed her to his side. He was laughing now, laughing so much that she could not hear the sound of her own voice as she cried, ”Give over. Aw! give over, man. What you laughing at?”

When they reached the main road Tony was still laughing, he was laughing so much diat the tears were running down his face, and she was becoming a litde irritated. Perhaps it had been funny, but why was he keeping on? And she said again, ”Aw! give over.” She didn't like being laughed at so much. She liked to make people laugh but not them to laugh at her and keep on. Now he was looking down at her, his face more bright and alive than she had ever seen it, even after the morning he had come from Mr. Lord's, and in an imitation of her own voice, he demanded, ”Can't a lad laugh at his la.s.s?”

Her head slowly drooped from his gaze, and she moved primly on the seat, trying to suppress a smile. He had said she was his la.s.s. Suddenly, she had visions of herself being escorted back down Burton Street by him, but on their feet-cars, for the purpose she had in mind, moved too quickly-and they would be walking, of course, under the wilting gaze of Sarah Flannagan. And still with the eyes of her enemy upon her and bulging with envy, she saw herself walking up the aisle of the crowded church in her best clothes followed by her escort . . . and, finally, going to the pictures. But on this thought her reason leapt at her and i said flatly, ”Don't be daft. You won't be able to do that for ages and ages.”

She slanted her eyes and glanced at Tony. He was still smiling, but he had returned to normal and was driving with his whole attention on the wheel. A feeling of owners.h.i.+p took hold of her, as strong as any feeling she'd had for Mr. Lord.

She was only nine and she had a lad!

end.

<script>