‘So the bulk of our profit comes solely from the booze. We buy that for peanuts off a guy called Ted, and in return, Ted gets treated like royalty every time he sets foot in here, which is most weekends,’ Vinny explained.
‘So, what will I actually be doing then?’ Michael asked, his voice devoid of any enthusiasm. He still thought his brothers were bang out of order.
‘You’ll just be doing the same as me and Vin. All we do of an evening is chat politely to the customers, keep an eye out for trouble, and generally make sure the place is ticking over nicely. My mates Pete and Paul work on the door making sure that only members come in. Don’t look so glum, Michael, you’ll love it when you get in the swing of it. It’s the good life, bruv,’ Roy said.
Sick of his brother’s lack of enthusiasm and sullen expression, Vinny stood up and grabbed Michael by the lapels of his new mohair suit.
‘What you doing, Vin? Leave him be,’ Roy ordered, when Vinny pushed Michael roughly towards the wall.
Vinny ignored Roy’s advice and gave Michael some home truths. ‘You are one ungrateful little cunt, has anybody ever told you that? It is about time you started acting your age and pulling your weight for this family like me and Roy have had to for years. Who do you think supports Mum, Brenda, Auntie Viv and Champ, eh? It ain’t our useless fucking father, that’s for sure. You owe it to us to chip in and that is what you shall do, so the quicker you put a smile on that miserable fucking face of yours and show a bit of spirit and gratitude, the better.’
When Vinny let go of him, a shocked Michael sat on a nearby sofa and put his head in his hands. Nobody argued with Vinny, including him, so there was no way out of the situation. He knew he was going to hate his new job, but he would just have to grin and bear it. What other choice did he have? ‘I’m sorry, Vinny. I’ll work hard for you, I promise,’ he said, meekly.
Feeling a bit guilty for obviously frightening his younger sibling, Vinny walked over and ruffled his hair like he used to when he was a child. ‘We don’t need you back here until tonight, so why don’t you shoot home, take your suit off and go out on your moped, eh? You’ve got your test next week, so you need to get some practice.’
Grinning falsely, Michael thanked his brother and left the club.
Mary Walker wasn’t having the best of days. She had got two customers’ orders wrong, dropped a plate of food and then scalded her hand with boiling-hot water.
‘Why don’t you have a sit down and I’ll bring you over a nice mug of tea?’ Shirley offered.
Mary smiled.When Shirley had asked for a job on Friday, the café had been that busy that Donald had asked her to start immediately. Shirley only lived a few minutes’ walk from the café, and therefore knew most of the punters really well. ‘OK then. I could do with resting my feet for ten minutes. I shall be a bundle of nerves until they get home, you know,’ Mary said, referring to her children’s first day at a new school. Christopher hadn’t been too bad this morning, but she had overheard Nancy crying in the bathroom, which had worried her terribly. The junior school that Christopher was attending was only five minutes from Nancy’s new school and the children had been adamant that they wanted to walk to and from school together. Mary had wanted to take them, but both children said it would make them a target for bullies if they turned up with their mother in tow.
Mary plonked herself down at a nearby table and was just about to start reading the newspaper when Queenie and Vivian Butler walked in with little Lenny.
‘Hello, sweetheart. How long you been working here?’ Queenie asked Shirley.
Pretending to read the paper, Mary carried on ear-wigging. It soon became obvious to her that Shirley knew Queenie and Vivian very well. Furious when somebody gave little Lenny money to put in the jukebox because it left her unable to hear the conversation properly, Mary scuttled out the kitchen to tell Donald the latest.
When Judy Preston got a bee in her bonnet, she found it very hard to shift it and the more she thought about Vinny and Roy Butler turning up at her house and barging their way in, the more irate she became. Her brother Johnny had been livid when she had told him and he was going to sort out Vinny and Roy for her. That wasn’t enough for Judy though, which is why she had decided to pay Albie a visit in hospital and give him a piece of her mind as well.
‘Come on, Mark. Get in your pushchair,’ Judy urged her son.
‘We going Nanna’s house?’ Mark asked excitedly.
‘No, we are going to see the cowardly tosser who has impregnated me.’
After having lunch in the café, Queenie and Vivian went to visit their mum in nearby Bow Cemetery, then parted company on the way back because Queenie felt it was her duty to visit Albie.
‘I would say give the old bastard my regards, but you know I don’t mean it,’ Vivian said, putting her headscarf on to stop the drizzle getting to her hair.
After telling her sister that if she hadn’t have suffered the misfortune of marrying Albie, she wouldn’t be visiting the old bastard herself, Queenie waved goodbye, then made her way into the London Hospital. As she reached her husband’s ward, she heard his name mentioned and her ears pricked up. Pretending to go through her shopping bag as though she was searching for something, Queenie surreptitiously looked out of the corner of her eye. There was a young blonde girl with a child in a pushchair, asking the nurse for directions to Albie’s bed. Wondering who on earth the tart could be, Queenie cautiously followed her into the ward.
As usual, being the miserable old bastard that he was, Albie had the curtains drawn around his bed. Queenie crept up to the neighbouring bed and put her forefinger to her lips to warn the senile old Mr Perry not to say anything. Surely her Albie hadn’t found himself a young bit of fluff? Queenie hadn’t fancied the dirty, disgusting old drunk for years, so how could anybody else?
Albie had been fast asleep until he felt a violent prodding on his right arm. Expecting it to be Queenie, Albie nearly had a cardiac arrest when he locked eyes with Judy Preston. ‘You can’t come here! What do you want? My Queenie’ll be here soon. You’re gonna have to leave,’ he said, his face twitching with anxiety.
‘Well, you should have thought of that before you got me pregnant, then sent your sons round my house to threaten me in front of Marky,’ Judy spat.
Unable to stop her legs from buckling, Queenie took a tumble and fell on top of old Mr Perry.
‘Get your hands off me chopper! Nurse, nurse,’ the stick-thin fragile ninety-four-year-old wailed, as he put his right hand on his private parts to protect them.
Pulling herself together, Queenie took a couple of deep breaths, picked up her umbrella and flew through Albie’s curtain like a bat out of hell. ‘You dirty fucking old bastard,’ she screamed, as she began to smash her brolly over her cheating husband’s head.
Judy stood rooted to the spot. Queenie was a typical, no-nonsense, hard-faced East Ender and just by taking one look at her, Judy knew she would rather fight Vinny and Roy together than her.
‘Get off me, woman. You’re hurting me. I’m sorry. I’m a weak man and I made a silly mistake. It’s you I love,’ Albie swore, covering his already throbbing head with his hands. If he hadn’t had two broken legs, he would have bolted out of the ward as fast as a greyhound coming out of its trap at Walthamstow.
‘A silly mistake! I’ll give you silly mistake, you dirty, disgusting old toad,’ Queenie yelled, continuing her violent assault.
Old Mr Perry clapped his hands on his knees with joy when the nurse pulled back the curtain. He hadn’t had this much excitement for years. ‘Yee-haw,’ he shouted in glee.
‘Whatever’s going on?’ asked the appalled nurse, as she tried to stop Queenie hitting Albie with her umbrella.
Realizing that her son was screaming blue murder and not wanting to be Queenie’s next brolly victim, Judy decided to make her getaway.
Queenie had eyes like a hawk and immediately clocked Judy slyly trying to depart the fracas. ‘And where do you think you’re going? You brazen little hussy. I ain’t even fucking started with you yet,’ Queenie said, chasing Judy up the ward.
‘Yee-haw,’ Mr Perry yelled again.
‘Look, I’m really sorry, but please don’t hit me in front of my son. He’s frightened enough as it is. I know I shouldn’t have got involved with Albie, what with him being a married man and all that, but I swear to you it is all over between us,’ Judy said, with tears in her eyes.
Queenie put her brolly and bag on a nearby chair, then stood with her hands on her hips and studied Judy Preston. She was bit tarty-looking, but was certainly not ugly, and how she could ever fancy Albie, Queenie would never know. ‘Oh, you’re welcome to him, darlin’. I’ve had years of putting up with the drunken, potless bum. But what’s all this about you being pregnant and my sons paying you a visit? And don’t fucking lie to me, ’cause I’ll smash you all around Whitechapel with this brolly if you do.’
Judy lowered her eyes through guilt. She had never once given Queenie a thought when she had been screwing the arse off Albie, but now his wife was standing in front of her, Judy felt terrible about the whole thing. ‘It is true that I’m pregnant and your sons Vinny and Roy did pay me a visit. They ordered me to get rid of my baby and even left me money to pay for an abortion, but I can’t do it. I am willing to bring the child up with the help of my mum and brother. I don’t want your Albie or anything from him. I just want to keep my child and my Marky to have a little brother or sister.’
The thought of Vinny and Roy knowing about their father’s deceit and keeping it secret from her made Queenie feel more sick than Albie’s affair itself. She had never really loved her husband, not in the way she had loved her precious children, and she couldn’t believe her two eldest sons had betrayed her in such a way.
‘Are you OK? Shall I get you some water?’ Judy asked, when Queenie all but fainted onto a nearby chair. The woman looked deathly white and Judy was suddenly scared that she might die on her.
Lip curling into a snarl, Queenie managed to find the strength to stand up again and point her scrawny forefinger in Judy’s face. ‘You can have Albie. When he is discharged from here, he can live with you, but I forbid you to have that baby. I will not have my sons and daughter having no half-brother or -sister. You get rid of that unborn brat, or else. Now fuck off. Go on, fuck off.’
Petrified by the deranged look on Queenie’s face, Judy grabbed the handles of her screaming son’s pushchair, and legged it down the corridor.
Unable to relax all day, Mary Walker was relieved when Nancy and Christopher came home from school with beaming smiles on their faces. ‘Donald, they’re home,’ Mary shouted out.
‘Well, how did you get on?’ Donald asked, wiping his hands on a teatowel.
Both excited about meeting new friends, Christopher and Nancy spoke over one another and neither could be heard properly.
‘One at a time. You first, Nancy,’ Donald ordered.
‘I have a new best friend. Her name is Brenda and she is really nice. My teacher was lovely as well, but she is really fat,’ Nancy explained.
Mary chuckled. ‘Well, I wouldn’t be saying that about your teacher at school, darling. What about you, Christopher? Did you meet any new friends?’
‘Yep. Tommy is my new best mate. He wants to be a policeman just like me,’ Christopher said proudly.
Donald grinned and ruffled his son’s hair. Christopher had only had the fixation about becoming a policeman for the past few weeks. Before that, it was an airline pilot, then prior to that, a racing-car driver.
‘Can me and Christopher go out to play? My friend Brenda only lives five minutes away and Christopher’s friend Tommy lives in the same street. We all want to play hopscotch together,’ Nancy said, her voice brimming with excitment.
‘No, not today. Your mother and I haven’t met these friends of yours yet and we would like to ensure they come from good families before you go off street-raking with them,’ Donald said, in his usual prissy manner.
Her husband generally wore the trousers in their household, but for the second time just lately Mary felt compelled to put her foot down. ‘Don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud, Donald. It’s wonderful the children have made new friends on their first day at school and if they want to go out and play with them while we tidy up in here, then they shall.’
Donald wasn’t used to being undermined. ‘OK, Mary. But, I want them back by five for their tea and if they get themselves into any mischief, be it on your head.’
Vivian was busy scrubbing her doorstep to ensure it looked more pristine than anybody else’s, when she heard a terrible howling noise coming from behind her. Wondering what on earth it was, she stood up and was amazed to see Queenie clinging to the gatepost. ‘Whatever’s wrong?’ Vivian asked, dropping her brush and getting up off her hands and knees.
‘It’s Albie. Something terrible’s happened,’ Queenie sobbed.
Having had it hard for most of their childhood and adult lives, neither Queenie nor Vivian ever really cried. The last time they had done so was when their dear old mum had died but, bar that, Vivian couldn’t ever remember her sister shedding tears since girlhood, other than those of joy, when her children had been born. ‘Oh Queenie. Let’s get you inside. Has Albie died, love?’ Vivian asked, silently praying that he had.
‘I wish the old bastard was dead,’ Queenie spat, as Vivian sat her down on the sofa.
Pouring Queenie a large glass of brandy, Vivian listened in bewilderment when her sister explained exactly what had happened at the hospital.
‘I know it’s hard to swallow, but you’ll be far better off without him, Queenie. After the initial shock of finding out about my Bill’s affair, I’ve never been happier since I slung the old bastard out. You don’t need Albie. He’s a drunken fucking bum and I’m gobsmacked that he even managed to pull himself some young bird. I wouldn’t want him if he was the last man left on earth.’
‘I ain’t worried about fucking Albie. That dirty old goat can rot in hell as far as I’m concerned. It’s my boys lying to me that has cut me to pieces. I’ve no idea if my Michael knew as well, but Vinny and Roy most definitely did. How can they keep something like that from their dear old mum, eh? After everything I’ve done for ’em as well. Broke my fucking heart they have, Viv.’