Chapter 27
Edward Stubbs was awarded a scholarship to a grammar school, the first boy ever from his area. For one son to gain a scholarship was a cause for celebration, but for a second son also to pass gave rise to suspicion and jealousy, and set both boys apart from the children of the neighbourhood.
In their identical uniforms the boys travelled to school together, always together. Already closer than most brothers, they grew even more so. Eddie and Alex were both tall for their ages, well-built and athletic, excelling at all sports. In the classroom, however, although Alex was bright, he fell short of his brother’s academic brilliance. Edward was the dominant one, and Alex accepted life in his brother’s shadow without jealousy. Edward was his hero.
Unemployment was as high as ever. Dole queues were long and money short, and for the workers and their families times were hard in the reign of King George.
Proud of her boys, Evelyne Stubbs worked constantly, and kept her head above water while all around her others sank. Freedom worked at the docks most weeks, and when he was laid off he busied himself making rabbit hutches in the back yard and selling them. Occasionally he would disappear for a few days to visit his friends, and those were the times Evelyne dreaded. He would return surly and bad-tempered, and found it difficult to get back into the day-to-day routine.
Rawnie had died of consumption, and Jesse had lost his fairground through gambling. He was serving a sentence for robbery in Durham gaol.
Miss Freda and Ed were in financial trouble and had taken in more lodgers. They now had a married couple and two single girls. The girls, it was suspected, were ‘on the game’, but Freda wouldn’t hear of it. To her they were simply youngsters trying to make their way.
Ed’s brother’s family were even worse off, and although their kids were working they still lived on the breadline, always in debt. They invariably owed money to Evelyne, whose moneylending business was growing. Freedom collected the debts for her, and the boys helped him at weekends. The Stubbs family was secure, and the brothers went from strength to strength with their school work.
Evelyne later tried to pinpoint the turn of events, to recall exactly why things went wrong. She had to try to blarne someone, but she knew in her heart that the trouble was within her own home.
Freedom was the perfect father when the boys were small, attentive and fair, and they obeyed him. But he couldn’t make head or tail of their homework, he was so far removed from them academically that his frustration turned to anger, and they in turn realized that their father — the man they had always looked up to — was illiterate. They were too young to be understanding about it, to help him, and they turned against him and looked increasingly to their mother for guidance. The resulting bitter arguments usually ended with Freedom storming out to the pub.
Evelyne had cleared the table, tidied away the boys’ books, and was about to start on the weekly wash when there was a hard rapping on the door. A policeman informed Evelyne that Freedom had been arrested for brawling outside the docks. He had knocked out the manager who was pressing charges for assault.
Ed and Evelyne hurried to the police station and found Freedom sitting gloomily in a cell. The fight had started because Freedom, who always expected to be given work, had been rejected for three days running. He had not told Evelyne, pretending he had been taken on. But on the fourth day he had been offered work, and that was the cause of it. One man who was turned away muttered something in Freedom’s hearing about black bastards getting work before whites, and when the manager had tried to break up the fight Freedom had knocked him senseless.
At the hearing the magistrate reprimanded Freedom severely — a man with a history of professional boxing should never resort to fighting in the streets. Freedom was given a three-month suspended sentence. Evelyne never said anything, but her reproachful looks and above all her silence tormented him. If he had felt inadequate before, now things were far worse. Evelyne had arranged for a lawyer and paid him, and the more Freedom thought about it the more frustration he felt.
The appearance of Jesse on their doorstep was the kiss of doom. Recently released from prison, he was as cocksure as ever, with rings on his fingers and gold chains around his neck. He offered Freedom the chance to go into business with him, buying and selling furniture. Evelyne tried to persuade Freedom to have nothing to do with him. They were sitting at the kitchen table where the two boys were doing their homework. Evelyne tried to keep her voice calm, not wanting to get into an argument in front of them. ‘He’s no good, Freedom, he never was. You and I know just how far he will go. Don’t go with him, please, you can do my debt-collecting full-time, we could do it together.’
Freedom banged his fist on the table and Edward’s inkwell tipped over, spilling its contents on his exercise books. The boys scrabbled to pick them up and mop them, fussing around.
Freedom couldn’t take it any more and he roared. ‘Will you get out from under ma feet. mun. take yer readin’ out of here, better still, go get work like the other lads around here.’
Edward stood up to his father, just as hot-tempered, but cocky and self-assured. He gathered his schoolbooks up and hurled them across the room. ‘Right, I’ll go out now and join the dole queue, just like you and every other sucker round ‘ere. You call that work, do yer?”
Freedom struck him so hard that he sprawled on the floor. Alex sprang between them, trying to protect Edward. ‘Dad, no, don’t, don’t hit ‘im no more.’
Freedom lashed out at Alex in fury, trying to grab Edward, and now Evelyne pushed between her sons and Freedom. With her arms out she faced her husband.
‘You’ll have to hit me first, Freedom, I mean it. Just stop this nonsense right now or so help me God I’ll take the rolling pin to you, I will.’
Freedom backed away. The three of them were against him, and he knew then that Evelyne would choose her sons before him. She was like a lioness with her cubs, glaring at him so fiercely … He turned and beat his fist against the fireplace.
Evelyne shooed the boys from the room, but Edward held on to her. She shook her hand free. ‘Get out, the pair of you, leave us alone. Go on, nothing’s going to happen.’
They slunk out and closed the door behind them. Freedom gave her such a helpless look, filled with guilt and remorse. It was the first time he had ever struck his sons, and his voice sounded choked in his throat. ‘I’d never have struck thee, Evie, God help me, never.’
She held him in her arms and comforted him, whispering over and over that she knew, she knew it. She felt remorseful herself, it was becoming obvious that she put the boys before Freedom. ‘I’m sorry too, Freedom. I should never have gone against you. Sometimes Eddie needs a firm hand. Will you forgive me?’
They kissed,1 it had been a long time since they kissed as lovers, and she sat on his knee by the fire. ‘What is it, my love, what’s hurting you so?’
He buried his face in her chest, and she stroked his hair.
‘It’s the debt-collecting, Evie. It’s hard for me to face them that owes you, going to them with me hand out for their shillin’s. Some of ‘em have nothin’, and to stand there frightening the life out of them, wantin’ money paid over, knowing they’ve not got it to give — it’s no job for a mun, I can’t do it no more.’
Evelyne forced herself to keep her mouth shut, although she could have asked how he thought she felt. How did he think they could have lived so well for so long without her moneylending business?
‘Just don’t do anything against the law, the boys are doing so well and I don’t want people talking.’
That did it. He pushed her away from him and grabbed his coat.
‘Always the boys, always them, when do you ever think of me? When it’s too late!’
He slammed out of the kitchen.
Eddie came downstairs and slipped his arms around his mother, kissed her and patted her head. ‘Maybe he’s right, Ma, I’m fourteen, I could get work.’
She grabbed him and held him, shook him roughly. He was shocked by her tone, her expression. ‘You think I like collecting money I lend out? Do you? Why do you think I’m doing it, working myself into an early grave, why?’
