‘What are we celebrating?’ Nancy asked, when her father handed her a glass.
‘Roger has a wonderful surprise for you, don’t you, Roger?’ Donald replied, with a stupid grin on his face.
Nancy’s eyes lit up when she saw what the tickets were for and the date on the front. ‘Oh my God! T-Rex! Marc Bolan!’ she screamed, as she threw her arms around Roger’s neck.
Donald was elated by his daughter’s response and display of affection towards Roger, and he treated Mary to one of his I-told-you-so smiles. The smile was soon wiped off Donald’s face though, when his daughter announced that she was going to take her friend Rhonda with her.
Mary, Margaret and Derrick all flinched as they realized that Nancy had got the wrong end of the stick.
Clocking the embarrassed look on his father’s face, Christopher decided to take the bull by the horns. ‘Roger is going to accompany you to the
Top of the Pops
studio, Nancy. He has got the tickets for you to go with him.’
Appalled by the very thought of Roger accompanying her anywhere, Nancy knew she had to stand her ground. She was truly poxed off with her father’s cumbersome match-making skills, and now she had met Michael, was damned if she was going to put up with it one minute longer.
‘Where do you think you are going, young lady?’ Donald yelled, when Nancy ran from the table and grabbed her jacket.
‘Out! I am quite capable of finding myself a husband, thank you, so in future, just keep your noses out of my bloody business.’
Red-faced with embarrassment as Nancy slammed the door, Donald turned to Roger and his parents. ‘I am so sorry for my daughter’s rudeness. I really don’t know what’s come over her.’
Vinny was fuming. Not only had his brother Roy turned up at the party two hours later than promised, he also had his Irish tart in tow.
Watching his mother and aunt fawn all over Colleen, showering her with compliments like they always bloody seemed to, Vinny ordered Roy out into the back garden.
‘Look, I’m sorry about not turning up for work last night, but I’ll make it up to you, I promise,’ Roy said, holding his hands face upwards.
‘We run a fucking prestigious nightclub, Roy. Not a chip shop,’ Vinny replied cuttingly.
‘Yes, I know that. Look, why don’t you take the next couple of nights off, Vin, and let me and Michael hold the reins. It’s ages since you did that, and we all need a break at times. Perhaps we should start a rota?’
‘So, why did you take last night off, Roy? You know Saturday is our busiest night,’ Vinny spat.
Even though he knew his brother wouldn’t be happy with his reply, Roy couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. ‘Because I got engaged.’
Vinny looked at Roy as though he had completely lost the plot. ‘You did what?’
‘I asked Colleen to marry me yesterday, and she said yes.’
Vinny crouched down and put his head in his hands. Roy had changed so much since he had met Colleen that Vinny knew if Roy married her, he would all but lose his brother for good. Vinny was jealous – not of Roy’s actual relationship, but of the hold that Colleen had over his brother. The reason being, that hold used to belong to him. Even as kids, Roy would always dance to his tune, but since he’d met that Irish slag, he had stopped bloody dancing. Yvonne Summers had once had a hold over him, and Vinny would hate Roy ever to suffer the heartbreak he’d been through. Colleen was just a gold-digger.
‘You OK, bruv?’ Roy asked, worriedly.
Vinny stood up with a smile on his face that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He was well aware that Roy was none too keen on his friendship with Ahmed. ‘You treat him more like a brother than you do me these days, and I don’t trust the bastard as far as I can throw him,’ Roy had said in a hissy fit only last week. Well, from now on Vinny would make sure Ahmed spent even more time at the club than he already did. Two could play at Roy’s game.
Nancy was just about to take her tea-break when Rhonda dashed towards her waving her arms like a lunatic. ‘What’s up with you?’ Nancy asked, bemused.
‘It’s that Michael! He’s just walked in the shop!’ Rhonda exclaimed, unable to contain her obvious excitement.
‘What shop?’ Nancy asked, dumbly.
‘This shop, you div! He’s up by the till. I said I was coming to find you.’
‘I can’t talk to him now. What am I meant to say? What do you think he wants?’ Nancy asked, her heart beating wildly in her chest.
‘He wants you, you daft mare. And you will speak to him. Come on,’ Rhonda said, linking arms with her pal and dragging her towards the till.
Michael smiled as Nancy walked towards him. ‘No need to be so nervous. I don’t bite,’ he joked.
‘What do you want?’ Nancy asked, staring at her sandals. She was far too nervous to look Michael in the eyes.
‘I wanted to know if you would be kind enough to accompany me to the pictures tonight?’
‘Yeah, ’course she will, won’t you, Nance?’ Rhonda said, nudging her friend who was currently standing there like a stuffed dummy.
‘Er, all right then. I’ll meet you at Ilford station at seven, if that’s OK?’ Nancy mumbled.
Michael grinned. Nancy had been quite shy when he had met her at the fair the other day and seemed even more reserved in her work environment. He hated loud girls, and found Nancy’s obvious awkwardness rather endearing. ‘Sounds perfect. See you at seven then, darling.’
When Michael strolled out of the shop, Rhonda jumped up and down excitedly. ‘He really likes you, Bren, I can see it in his eyes. I bet you end up marrying him.’
Vinny smiled as his son fed the ducks the last of the loaf of bread. ‘Shall we have a sandwich ourselves now, boy? Bloody starving, I am.’
‘So am I, Dad. Where shall we park our arses?’ Little Vinny said, putting his hands in his trouser pockets as he walked next to his father.
Vinny chuckled. His son seemed to have a memory like an elephant and remembered every saying going. Parking one’s arse was one of Vivian’s favourites. ‘Right, let’s sit here, shall we?’
When his son flopped down on the grass next tohim, Vinny handed him a ham sandwich, then decided to get the little talk out of the way before he ate himself. ‘Now, I don’t want you to think I’m telling you off,boy, because I’m not. Just think of it more as a bit of fatherly advice. I know you was excited yesterdaybecause it was your birthday, but you really can’t go through life punching, kicking and pushing people like you do.’
‘But you told me to stick up for myself when I started school. You said if anyone hit me, I was to hit them back,’ Little Vinny reminded his father.
‘If somebody hits you, you should hit them back, boy. But, you shouldn’t hit people for no reason. Look at yesterday for instance, when you pushed that little boy and cut his head open. If you behave like that at school, you won’t have many friends, and you’ll get in trouble with the teachers.’
Used to his father worshipping the ground he walked on, Little Vinny’s lip began to wobble. ‘I didn’t push Jacob. He fell over and cut his head,’ he insisted.
‘Do not lie to me, boy. I saw you push him, so did your Uncle Michael.’
‘No, I never.’
Furious at being lied to, Big Vinny grabbed his son roughly by the arm, put him across his knees and gave him a good clump on the backside. ‘Don’t you ever fucking lie to me again, do you hear me?’
Thrilled by Roy’s engagement, Queenie and Vivian had been busy discussing his forthcoming wedding. Queenie liked Colleen. She was good for her Roy and as a couple they were extremely well-suited.
‘Where’s Brenda? Is she talking to you yet?’ Vivian asked. Brenda and her suitcase had turned up on the doorstep at twelve o’clock last night and Queenie had given her daughter a bloody good wallop for worrying the life out of her by coming home so late.
‘Nope. Still in her room, the obnoxious little mare. Who the bleedin’ hell is this?’ Queenie looked out of the window to see who was knocking on her door. ‘Oh Jesus, it’s the police. I hope one of the boys haven’t been nicked,’ she said, panicking.
‘I’ll answer the door,’ Lenny shouted, running down the stairs.
‘No you won’t, nose ointment. You let Auntie Queenie do it,’ Vivian ordered her son.
‘What’s up?’ Queenie asked, when she opened the door. There were two officers standing there looking rather sombre.
‘Is Vivian Harris here, Mrs Butler? I’m afraid we have some rather bad news for her.’
‘Whatever’s wrong?’ Vivian asked, running into the hallway followed by Lenny.
‘I’m afraid it’s your ex-husband, Mrs Harris. Unfortunately, Mr Harris was involved in an incident outside the Brewery Tap public house in Barking late last night. He suffered a stab wound to the chest and even though the ambulance got there extremely quickly, I’m afraid he couldn’t be saved.’
‘Is my dad dead?’ Lenny asked, bursting into tears.
Vivian clouted her son around the head. ‘Shut up. We didn’t even like the old bastard.’
When the two officers glanced at one another, Vivian smiled at them. ‘Well, thank you for popping round to tell me. You can go now.’
After dropping his son off, Vinny headed to the club. He and his brothers had got the upstairs looking like a palace now and all three of them lived there together. ‘Where’s Michael?’ Vinny asked Roy coldly. He still hadn’t forgiven his brother for springing such a surprise on him yesterday.
‘You ain’t still got the hump because I’ve got engaged, have you? Just because I plan to get married, doesn’t mean that I won’t still be dedicated to the club.’
Vinny gave a sarcastic half-laugh. ‘Dedicated to the club! Don’t make me chuckle. Colleen had you under her thumb even before you stuck a ring on her finger. You’ll have to ask her permission to have a shit now you’ve popped the question.’
‘Don’t talk bollocks, Vin. Colleen ain’t like that. She’s a good girl who understands how important our business is to us. Surely it must have occurred to you that one day I would want to settle down and in time have children? It’s what most men do, so can’t you just be fucking happy for me for once?’
Vinny unwillingly shook his brother’s hand. ‘Congratulations. Now, where’s Michael?’
‘Gone out. All ponced up he was in his best suit. Reeked of aftershave an’ all. Gotta be another new bird on the scene if you ask me.’
Vinny snarled. ‘Well, it better not be who I think it is, because if Michael has disobeyed my orders, there will be big fucking trouble.’
Queenie had just put the dumplings in her rabbit stew when the doorbell rang. Vivian had taken Lenny back to her own house, Brenda had gone out, so Queenie ordered her grandson to open the door for her.
‘Who are you?’ Little Vinny asked the tall, glamorous dark-haired lady.
‘Who is it?’ Queenie shouted out.
The woman crouched down so she was at eye-level with Little Vinny. Unable to stop herself, she stroked his rosy cheeks.
‘Get off me,’ Vinny said, pushing her hand away.
Queenie ran to the front door, ordered her grandson into the lounge, then glared at the woman. ‘Who the fuck are you?’ she asked.
‘Look, I don’t want no trouble, but it’s breaking my heart not being able to see him,’ the woman replied.
‘Not being able to see who?’ Queenie asked, expecting the woman to say one of her son’s names.
‘My son. I’m Vinny’s mother.’
Nancy felt sick with anxiety when she spotted Michael leaning against the station wall smoking a cigarette. He had a smart dark-grey suit on and looked so stunningly gorgeous, she felt like turning around and running back to the safety of her home.
Michael grinned as he spotted his date. She looked amazing in her lime green halter-neck catsuit. ‘You look really beautiful, Nancy,’ he told her meaningfully, before he kissed her politely on the cheek.
‘Thank you,’ Nancy replied coyly.
‘Look, I was thinking, and please feel free to say no if you don’t want to, but seeing as this is our first date, I thought it might be nice if we went for a meal instead of the pictures? I thought we could chat in a restaurant and get to know one another a bit better. What do you say?’
‘OK. But can we go to a different area? My parents are local shopkeepers and I can do without being interrogated by their customers.’
‘’Course we can! Let’s jump in my car and see where it takes us, shall we?’
Amazed that Michael owned a car, Nancy smiled. ‘Yes, I’d like that.’
After receiving the phonecall from his mother, Vinny shot round to her house like a bat out of hell. He couldn’t believe after all these years that Karen had the nerve to show her face. He’d paid her good money to stay out of his son’s life, so how dare she turn up like a bad penny?
Vinny had ordered his mother to send Little Vinny upstairs to his bedroom, then invite Karen in and keep her there. When he let himself in with his own key, he was dismayed to see Karen sitting on the sofa next to Little Vinny who was happily showing her all his birthday presents. ‘Take Vinny upstairs now, Mum. I need to talk to Karen alone,’ Vinny barked.
‘You said my mum was dead. You’re a liar too, Dad,’ Little Vinny said accusingly.
‘Just get upstairs, boy. I’ll explain everything later,’ Vinny demanded.
‘No,’ Little Vinny replied. He was ever so confused. He had always wanted to have a mum like all the other kids at school had, and this mum who had turned up today seemed quite nice.
‘Get up them fucking stairs now,’ Vinny bellowed, grabbing his son’s right arm and yanking him off the sofa. He hated being disobeyed at the best of times.
‘Don’t do that! You’ll hurt him,’ Karen said, appalled.
‘Come upstairs with Nanny,’ Queenie urged, trying to pick up her grandson.
Little Vinny wriggled out of his nan’s grasp. ‘I wanna see my mum,’ he sobbed.
Seething with Karen for upsetting his little boy so much, Vinny decided to let his son know exactly what she was really like. He crouched down, grabbed Vinny by the hand and pointed towards Karen. ‘That woman there isn’t good enough to be a mother to you, boy, and do you want to know why?’
Little Vinny nodded.
‘Because she sold you to your daddy. That’s how much she wanted you.’
Karen was crying now. ‘It wasn’t like that, son. I had to go away. But, I’m not going away any more, I promise you that much.’