Cat walked briskly along Benares Road until she reached No. 29. This is it, she thought, opening the gate and walking along the path to the front door. When she knocked, the hollow-sounding echo suggested to her that the house was empty.
Standing on the doorstep as it began to rain, panic gripped her. Everything rested on the promise of accommodation with Louis’ sister, Eliza.
She drew Louis’ letter out of her bag and re-read it. He had assured her she could go to his sister, but the letter had been written a couple of months ago! There was only one thing to do she decided, and looking round to make sure no one was watching her, she pushed the letter box open and peered through.
The hallway was empty; there were no signs of life and the coat hooks on the wall were bare, so she went to look through the front-room window. Cupping her hands against the glass she saw the room was completely bare.
Perhaps the people next door may know something she thought, so slipped through a gap in the hedge. As there were children in the garden playing ball, she asked them if their mother was in.
‘Mum!’ one of them bawled out, ‘someone to see yer.’
A woman appeared wiping her hands on her pinafore, looking annoyed. She eyed Cat up and down.
‘Yers, can I ’elp you?’
‘Yes. I’m sorry to bother ye, but I was wonderin’ if ye knew where the family next door are; only I’ve just arrived and was expectin’ to stay with them?’
‘They moved yesterday.’
A wave of panic washed over Cat and tears filled her eyes. She stood helplessly before the woman, wondering what on earth she was going to do now, but after a moment or two the woman spoke again.
‘They aint gorn far, ’cross the common to Roydene Road. Number seventeen.’
‘How do I get there?’
‘Walk! Like I says, just ’cross the common.’ She nodded her head in that direction. ‘Straight over and second on the left. Easy ’nough to find.’
Cat looked in the direction of the common, and then turned to thank her only to find the woman had begun closing the door. Before she shut it though Cat heard her grumble. ‘Fucking Irish!’
Shocked, Cat stumbled out of the gate with her bag and headed for the common. The grass was sodden and it wasn’t long before the hem of her skirt was soaked. She hobbled across the uneven ground lugging her bag of clothes.
The enormity of leaving home and arriving at a stranger’s house to beg for accommodation suddenly hit her. What if she got the cold shoulder from his sister? She had taken for granted that Louis’ letter meant the invite was from both him and his sister, but was it? All manner of doubts now crowded her thoughts filling her with uncertainty about what to do. She continued staggering across the common weighed down by her bag until at last she reached the other side and was able to leave the wet grass.
When Cat found the house, knocking on the door seemed like a major step to her and she hesitated. But then thoroughly soaked, she had no alternative than to get on with it.
She knocked on the door and waited. No reply. She knocked again; then heard distant sound of children’s laughter from the back of the house. She rapped a little harder, and then from around the corner of the house a boy of about ten emerged. He had a mop of straw-coloured curly hair, cheeky blue eyes and rather crooked overlapping front teeth.
‘Hello,’ she said, ‘is your mammy in?’
‘No. She’s out.’
Her heart sank.
‘Is yer mammy Mrs. Eliza Collis?’
‘Yes, I think so. Only everyone calls her, Lize.’
‘When will she be home?’
‘Soon.’
‘Well, can I come in and wait for her? Cat asked.
‘If you want. My nan’s here.’
‘Well, that’s good. Will ye tell her I’m here then?’
The boy nodded. ‘Yes. But what’s your name?’
‘Miss Delaney.’
He disappeared around the side of the house and soon Cat heard footsteps approaching the front door. A small woman of about sixty opened the door with the boy close behind her.
‘Yes?’
‘I’m a friend of Louis’,’ Cat explained.
‘Yes?’ she repeated.
‘Well, actually, Louis wrote and said his sister may put me up for a while if I were to come over.’
‘Did ’e?’ She sounded disinterested. ‘Well you’d better come in outa the rain.’ She stood back from the door to allow Cat inside. ‘Shut the door after yerself,’ she said and marched off down the hall.
Cat called after the woman. ‘Is it all right if I leave my bag here?’
‘’Spect so,’ came her distant reply.
Cat thought she sounded exactly like the woman she had spoken to across the common and just as indifferent, but she had no option other than to put up with the woman’s attitude. She put down her bag and went along the hallway to the kitchen where she discovered the woman had seated herself at the kitchen table and was drinking tea. Cat stood in the middle of the kitchen until the woman looked at her.
‘S’pose you wantacupoftea?’
Cat hesitated, trying to translate what she had said. ‘Thank you. But don’t go to any trouble on my account.’
‘I won’t. It’sallreadyinthe pot.’ She sniffed and got up to get a cup and saucer from the dresser, but something attracted her attention in the garden. She opened the window and bellowed at the boy Cat had just met.
‘Put that bleeding rake down, Reggie! And both of yougetinoutathe rain!’
‘Ye must be Louis’ mother,’ Cat said as the woman poured out her tea.
‘No! I’m Lize’s Mother-in-law, formesins. Mrs. Collis is me name,’ she replied waving cat into a chair. Mrs. Collis sat down opposite Cat and lapsed into silence reading the newspaper she had spread out on the table. Cat wondered whether she should talk or remain quiet.
In the heat of the kitchen, Cat’s woollen coat began to steam, giving off a distinct and unpleasant odour of damp wool, so she undid it and slipped it over the back of the chair along with her headscarf. She picked up her cup and sipped the tea. It was very bitter and there was hardly any milk in it. The mud-coloured liquid slid down her throat scalding it, but she just didn’t feel she could ask her for more milk. Cat decided Mrs. Collis didn’t seem the sort of woman she could ask for more of anything.
In the silence, Cat felt she was making horrible swallowing noises, but Mrs. Collis didn’t appear to notice; it was as though she had completely forgotten she was there.
It felt like an age before Cat heard a key in the lock of the front door and a voice calling out to the children.
‘Reggie. Iris. I’m home.’
Thank Heavens, Cat thought, at least the voice sounded cheerful! Then simultaneously, the boy she had met before, followed by a flaxen-haired, blue-eyed girl of about seven, burst in through the back door just as the owner of the voice entered the kitchen pulling off her headscarf. Cat stood up.
‘Hello, who’s this?’ Lize asked her mother-in-law.
‘FriendaLouis,’ Mrs. Collis grumbled without lifting her eyes from the newspaper. Then she folded it shut and looked up at Lize. ‘Think she’s Irish. Yer later than you said you’d be and now I’m late meself.’ She stood up. ‘I’llbeyoff.’
Cat was trying hard to understand what Mrs. Collis was saying and as she was just deciphering the last sentence, Lize spoke. To Cat’s relief she understood every syllable Lize said as she had a very clear and slow way of speaking, in much the same accent as Louis.
‘Yes, I’m so sorry I got held up Mother.’ She turned to look at Cat. ‘You must be Cat,’ she said stretching out her hand. ‘Pleased to meet you. You’re very welcome. Very welcome indeed. Please, sit down and finish your tea.’
Cat sat with a fixed grin on her face, searching Lize’s face for any resemblance to Louis. Her hair was mousy brown and she was very thin. She had a distinctly hooked nose and blue eyes. She didn’t look like him at all and Cat felt strangely disappointed.
The children stared at Cat until Lize noticed.
‘Iris, Reggie, stop staring. Where are your manners? Go on now, sit up at the table, it’s time for tea.’
They scrambled up to the table and Cat, feeling awkward, wondered if she would be asked to join them. She hoped so, as her growling stomach reminded her that she had not eaten all day.
‘I’m so pleased to meet ye, Lize. I hope ye don’t mind me arrivin’ like this, but I did write. Ye may not have got the letter though.’
‘Oh yes I got it,’ she laughed. ‘But I just did not have time to reply, what with the move and everything. You know how it is. It went clean out of my head. Sorry.’
‘Well is it all right if I stay here for a bit?’
‘Yes of course. It’ll be company for me. My brother said you were a nice person, so you come with good recommendation.’ Lize smiled and started putting fish and chips on the plates.
Mrs. Collis put her coat on and began buttoning it up. ‘Well I’m off now Lize. D’ya want me to come tomorro' to help finish the unpacking?’
‘No, that’s all right. I can manage now thank you, Mother.’
Mrs. Collis said no more but turned on her heel, marched through to the hallway and left, slamming the door behind her. Reggie and Iris looked at each other, then at their mother.
‘She didn’t say goodbye,’ Reggie said
‘Who is she?’ Lize asked, ‘I think you are referring to your grandmother. Is that so?’
‘Yes, I’m sorry, Mummy. But grandmother still didn’t say goodbye.’
‘Don’t be cheeky and eat your food,’ Lize said and clipped Reggie round the head with her hand.
Cat thought the boy was right. The woman had just gone, and not even given the children a kiss. What a strange sort of grandmother she must be or perhaps this was just the English way. Well one thing was certain, she hoped she didn’t have to meet her too soon or too often.