Family Drama 4 E-Book Bundle (49 page)

Kevin was in prison, serving a fifteen-year sentence for robbery with violence, and had refused to allow her to visit him. She had no idea why, but then, to her joy, he had at last replied to one of her letters. The first thing she'd noticed when she went to see him was that Kevin's eyes now burned with religious fervour and it was as though her son had been reborn. He wrote regularly now, his letters full of his plans to help others when he was released, and though until then she hadn't had much time for religion, Dolly had gone down on her knees and thanked God for her son's religious conversion.

At last Dolly heard the sound of a car pulling up outside their cottage which sat on a quiet lane on the outskirts of a village near Southsea in Hampshire. They had no close neighbours, though that didn't bother Dolly. Nowadays she preferred seclusion. She had once owned a café in Battersea, London, and ruled the roost. No one had dared to cross her, but her world collapsed when Kevin had been arrested. There had been so much gossip, the story reaching the newspapers, and she'd been brought low with shame.

However, many long years had passed since then and pushing the memories to one side, Dolly flung open the street door. Her husband Bernie had taken to gardening with a passion and some of the daffodils were in bloom, but Dolly only had eyes for her grandson as he walked up the path.

‘Hello, Gran,' John said, briefly accepting a cuddle before pulling away.

Dolly flinched, upset that he wasn't more affectionate with her. Kevin had once rejected her too, and now his son was doing the same. No, stop it, stop being silly, she told herself. John was nearly thirteen years old now, no longer a little boy who wanted hugs. She had to control herself, had to stop imagining slights where none was intended. Briefly touching John's shoulder, Dolly ushered him inside.

‘You took your time,' she said huffily to Bernie.

Bernie frowned and for a moment he looked at her intently. ‘You seem to forget it's a two-hour round trip to Winchester and back.'

Dolly didn't want Bernie to realise that she hadn't been taking her pills. ‘Sorry, love,' she said meekly. ‘It's just that I couldn't wait to see John and the time seemed to drag. I expect you could do with a cup of tea?'

‘Yes please,' he said, ‘and I might as well tell you now that Pearl wants John back by four. They're having a bit of a do.'

Dolly's lips pursed at the mention of Pearl. She had no time for John's mother, never had. It didn't matter how many years had passed, she refused to talk to her and even sacrificed calling John on the telephone in case it was Pearl who answered it.

Pearl had been a naive sixteen-year-old when Dolly first met her. She had been a thin, nervous, mousy little thing with huge brown eyes that seemed to take up much of her face. However she'd blossomed, ensnaring Kevin by becoming pregnant with his child. Dolly tried to prevent the marriage, to prove Pearl a tart, but then Kevin admitted she'd been a virgin. With no other choice, they had married, but Pearl then turned Kevin against her – his own mother. Dolly would never forgive her for that.

‘Dolly, did you hear what I said?' Bernie asked.

‘Yes,' she said, dragging her thoughts back to the present. ‘Why is Pearl having a bit of a do?'

‘It's her mother's fiftieth birthday.'

Nobody had made a fuss when it was
her
birthday, Dolly thought. Not only that Pearl's mother, Emily Harmsworth, got to see John every day, not just once a month, and now even this visit was being curtailed. It still rankled that when Pearl had divorced Kevin she'd been granted sole custody of John, and from the start she had laid down the rules. There was only one that Dolly agreed with: that John should be told only that his father was in prison for robbery and the rest kept from him.

Dolly forced a smile as she tousled John's hair. ‘I'd planned to cook you a lovely dinner, but never mind,' she said, pretending acquiescence to Pearl's demand for his early return, ‘I'll do us a nice lunch instead.'

‘Smashing,' said John, grinning.

Dolly led him into their sitting-cum-dining room which was overstuffed with heavy, mahogany furniture. It had come from their previous home, but looked a bit out of place in this low-beamed cottage.

‘Sit down, love,' she said to John, thinking that though Pearl held the upper hand now, things were set to change. Kevin had been turned down last year, but he'd written to say that he was sure to get parole this time. Yes, Dolly told herself, of course he would, and as soon as the prison gates opened for her son she'd be ready to act. If Bernie dared to stand in her way she'd show him who was boss again, and if Pearl and Derek Lewis, her second husband, tried to stop Kevin from seeing his son, they'd have her to deal with.

 

Bernie looked at Dolly as she went through to the small back kitchen. She was fifty-five years old now, her brown hair greying, yet even when she had been young there was no way that Dolly could've been described as pretty, or even attractive. Far from it. She was tall and big-boned, with a broad, plain face over wide shoulders.

Of course, Bernie thought, he was no oil painting either. He was shorter than Dolly, with a paunch, and at fifty-six years old, almost bald now. Their marriage couldn't be described as a love match: it had been forced on them by their respective parents when Dolly had been three months pregnant. From the moment she'd given birth, Kevin had been the centre of Dolly's world, and Bernie had hardly been allowed a say in the boy's upbringing.

Bernie's lips tightened. He'd been unhappy with the situation, with the way Dolly ruled him, but too weak to do anything about it. He'd stuck it out, because though divorce was commonplace now, in his day it was unheard of. Not only that, Dolly had held the purse strings and kept him short with a paltry few quid a week. Of course, Bernie reflected, that had been in the distant past and things were a lot different now – he was the one in control of their finances.

‘I saw a jay last week, Granddad.'

‘Did you now?' Bernie said as he sat down opposite John. ‘They're lovely birds.'

Dolly appeared in the kitchen doorway, saying, ‘Do you both fancy macaroni cheese for lunch?'

‘Sounds good to me,' Bernie said and John agreed with him.

Bernie was unwinding after the long drive, yet found himself thinking back to when Dolly had her breakdown. For the first time in their marriage she had turned to him. He had seen another side of her, her vulnerability, for a short time, but then she had lost it completely and had been sent to a psychiatric hospital. The electroconvulsive treatment Dolly had received seemed to shrink her, and she'd developed a stoop along with a shuffle when she walked. He had seen his once formidable wife diminished, and after each session Dolly appeared disorientated. It had affected her memory too, sometimes temporarily, yet there were other things she'd forgotten permanently.

‘Here you are,' Dolly said as she placed a cup of tea in front of him, along with a glass of orange juice for John. She then went back to the kitchen and returned with a plate of chocolate biscuits. ‘Don't eat too many or you'll spoil your lunch.'

Bernie winked at his grandson. ‘I've got a sweet tooth so dig in or I'll scoff the lot.'

They munched companionably while Bernie's thoughts drifted again. Dolly had forgotten that when Kevin had been sent to prison, the thought of losing her grandson too when Pearl left, had turned her mind. John had been just a baby when Dolly had run off with him, and it was only thanks to Pearl's largesse that she hadn't been charged. Instead Dolly had been admitted to the psychiatric hospital and when she finally came home, it was again thanks to Pearl's kindness that they saw their grandson regularly.

Bernie's ears pricked up when Dolly spoke to John.

‘Did you know that we once had a café in Battersea?' she asked.

‘Yes, Gran, you told me, and my dad used to live in Battersea too. He ran a boxing club.'

‘You're talking about Derek Lewis and he's not your real father,' Dolly snapped. ‘You seem to forget that your name isn't Lewis – it's Dolby.'

Bernie tensed. There was something different about Dolly lately. For one thing she was standing straighter and at times, like now, she seemed almost argumentative. Of course it could be that she was stimulated by John's visit. That could explain it, and there was the added excitement of Kevin's letter to say that his parole was likely to be granted.

Or was it that her medication needed adjusting? Worried now that Dolly was becoming psychotic again, and remembering the woman she had once been, who had thought nothing of laying into him with her fists to get her own way, Bernie decided to keep a closer watch on her. If she didn't quieten down, he'd ask the doctor to increase her medication.

 

John was used to his gran being a bit unfocused, but today she appeared more alert than usual, her dark brown eyes brighter than he'd ever seen them before.

She'd been annoyed that he had called Derek his dad, but he was the only father he'd known. Derek was great, but despite that John was curious about his real father and said, ‘Gran, can I look at your photograph album again?'

‘Yes, of course,' she said, her tone milder as she took it from the sideboard drawer.

John turned the pages, struck as always by the similarities as he looked at the grainy black and white snaps of his real father. ‘I look just like him, Gran.'

‘You certainly do. You're a chip off the old block.'

John peered intently at his father's face and said, ‘I wish I knew more about him.'

‘Kevin was a good lad, and when he left school he became an apprentice engineer. When he got his papers he worked in an engineering factory for a while, but then he got in with the wrong crowd. They led him astray and that's how he ended up in prison.'

‘I'd like to see him, but I'm not allowed,' John muttered.

‘I know and it's disgraceful! You should tell your mother that you have every right to visit your father if you want to.'

‘That's enough, Dolly!' Bernie chipped in, sounding annoyed. ‘You know Kevin gave instructions that he didn't want John to see him while he's in prison.'

‘Did he? But I don't remember that!' she cried, pulling at her hair. ‘Why can't I remember? What's wrong with me?'

‘There's nothing wrong with you, Dolly. You get a bit confused now and then, that's all.'

John was nervous of his gran's behaviour, but as his granddad took a bottle of pills and shook one on to his palm, he said calmly, ‘It's all right, John, don't look so worried. Your gran's a bit under the weather, but she'll be better soon.'

Dolly took the pill without argument, and shortly after John saw a familiar distance in his gran's manner.

‘Why don't you come and give me a hand in the back garden?' his granddad suggested. ‘Leave your gran to rest for a while.'

This was something John loved to do, and when his gran nodded, her smile sweet, he flung on his coat again. It was chilly outside, but soon the two of them were so absorbed that they hardly noticed, John learning more and more about the plants and fauna.

‘See that?' his granddad said, pointing to the bird table. ‘It's a chaffinch.'

‘And there's a blue tit.' John shared his granddad's love of birds.

‘I could hear a woodpecker in the woods yesterday, but though I got my binoculars, I couldn't spot it.'

‘I remember the first time I saw one. It was bigger than I expected,' John said as he eyed the dense woods that started where the back garden ended. They stood quietly for a while, watching the various small birds that came to feast on the seeds and nuts his granddad put out, then they went back to work on the garden.

When they were called in to lunch, John saw that his gran had rallied a little. Later when it was time to leave, his gran hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, leaving him to wonder what was really wrong with her.

Pearl was sitting beside Derek in the car as he drove her to see Bessie Penfold. She didn't like going to Battersea, and rarely went. It was a place that held so many bad memories, but Bessie was special to her, a woman who had taken her in when she had fled from her first husband, Kevin Dolby, and his terrifying mother.

She saw that nothing much had changed. The stalls still lined the High Street with the costermongers shouting out their wares, and as Derek looked for somewhere to park he said, ‘While you're visiting Bessie, I'll go to see my gran.'

‘All right,' she agreed. Derek had lost his mother when he was still a child and it had been his gran, Connie Lewis, who raised him. Connie didn't like her, but Pearl felt she deserved the old woman's anger. She had been going out with Derek, had agreed to marry him, but then been mad enough to fall for Kevin Dolby. She'd been such an innocent at the time, unworldly, and had been helpless to stop what happened. When she had found that she was pregnant she had married Kevin and they had moved in with his parents, but Pearl had been so ashamed of herself for breaking Derek's heart.

When Kevin went to prison, it took several years before her divorce was granted, and during that time Derek came back into her life. Then, when he'd asked her to marry him, she had gladly agreed.

‘I'll stop off to buy Gran some of her favourite sweets,' Derek said.

‘I still can't believe she agreed to go into an old people's home.'

‘Even my gran had the sense to see that with her hands and knees riddled with arthritis, she was no longer capable of looking after herself.'

‘We've been married for nearly ten years, but she's never softened towards me. I don't suppose it helped that you gave up the tenancy on her house.'

‘I knew you wouldn't agree to live in Battersea again and, anyway, it's just as small as your mother's cottage.'