“What public house?”
“The one we just walked past. Why? Do you like drinking? Do you leave your kids hungry?”
Derek was about to say he didn’t have children, but he did. Or at least he would have if Sally took him back.
“No, lad. Right, this is where I live.”
“Cor blimey, this is one house?” Mikey stood staring at the building. Derek tried to see it as the child did. It was large, but to him it was a prison and he couldn’t wait to get rid of it.
“Yes, it is. Come inside.” Derek pushed open the front door waiting for Mikey to follow him. Mikey was too busy staring at everything to move. “Come on lad, Sarah, our cook, will have something in the kitchen. You can take some back to your mother and sister too.”
“Are you Santa Claus or something?” Mikey asked him. Derek didn’t get a chance to answer, as his mother shrieked.
“Good heavens above, Derek? What are you doing with that… that…? What’s he doing in my house?”
“This is my friend Mikey, mother and I invited him to my house. I’m glad you’re up. We have a meeting at the solicitors this afternoon.”
“Impossible. I have plans.”
“Cancel them. You’re expected and the Will reading will go ahead regardless of whether you are there or not.”
Derek didn’t wait to see his mother’s reaction. “Come on Mikey, let’s go down to the kitchen.”
He saw Mikey poke his tongue out but didn’t say a word. He didn’t blame him. Mother had been rude.
“Mikey Brennan, what are you doing in here?”
“Sam. You live here?” Mikey’s eyes grew wider.
“Sam, you know Mikey?” Derek asked, stating the obvious.
“Sure, I do, I fought alongside his grandfather. A better solider you never did see, ain’t that right Mikey?”
Mikey agreed before pointing at Derek.
“He told me to come here and get a football. Then he said I could have some food and bring some home for Ma. I asked him if he was Santa Claus.”
Sam burst out laughing as did Sarah. Sarah took out a bowl and filled it with soup. She put it on the table along with some bread.
“There you go lad, eat up. I have apple-pie for afters.”
Mikey didn’t need asking twice.
“Sam, could you help me find Roland’s old football?”
“Can show you exactly where it is, Derek. Come this way.”
They left Sarah and Mikey happily chatting in the warm kitchen.
42
Derek followed Sam up to the attic. Once they were out of earshot, he asked him.
“What do you know about Mikey?”
“He’s a good lad but given how desperate things are for his family, he’ll fall in with the wrong crowd, soon enough. His Ma, Dee, is from Ireland. Mick her husband is a bad ’un. He came back from the war worse than he left. He beats her and the young ’uns too. Heard she’d go back to Ireland if she had the money. Has family back there.”
“Mikey says his dad is always in what he called the boozer.”
“That would be right. Only time he isn’t there is when they shut the doors and kick him out.” Sam pushed the door to the attic open. “There you are.”
Derek tried the light switch, not expecting it to work, but it did. He whistled, as he looked around. It appeared nothing had been given away or thrown out since he was a child. In fact, some things looked old enough to have come from his mother’s family. Mother having grown up in this house.
“Sam look at all this stuff. There must be two or three of everything. Grab that ball will you, Mikey will like that. Now, what could we give him for his sister? This?”
Derek picked up a train set.
“Won’t stay in her hands very long. Mick will sell it. Dee would be better off with some food, cans of something or other.”
Derek scowled and put the train set back.
“Sam, how well do you know Mikey’s mother?”
“I told you, I fought with her father in the war. He was the best there was but the gas got him. He died not long after we came home. Your father gave the family some money. I’ve tried to look out for Dee and her kids ever since.”
“Would she go to Ireland?” Derek couldn’t stop himself from helping the woman. Mikey was about ten or eleven, a victim of the war, like Tom.
“You mean, run off?”
“Yes. I can’t think of any other way to keep Mikey safe. The streets are no place for a boy and his mother, well she seems overwhelmed and tired.”
“Worn out she is the poor woman. I think she’d go but being Catholic they don’t agree with divorce.” Sam fell silent.
“What are you thinking?” Derek prompted.
“She’s got brothers back in Ireland. She told me they would kill Mick if they lived nearby.”
“So, maybe if we got the family to Ireland, we could leave Mick to her brothers.”
“You’d have to buy the tickets and give them to Dee. If you gave anything to Mick, he’d sell it.”
“You can do it. I don’t think Dee would take it from me.”
Sam’s eyes glistened as he turned away, his voice funny. “You’re a decent man, Derek. Your father would be right proud of you.”
Derek wasn’t at all sure his father would be proud, given what Derek had done and said to Sally but that was going to change. He took the football down to Mikey, told Sarah to pack up a basket of food and they would drop it off on the way to the solicitor. Mikey rubbed his face on his shirt a couple of times. When they dropped him at his home and he handed the basket of food to his mother, he surprised Derek by giving him a hug.
“I wish my Da was a man, like you.”
“Maybe in time Mikey, your Da will learn to value you and your mother. But, remember you are not him. You don’t have to end up like
