A Start in Life Read Online Free

bastard!’
    â€˜What’s going on?’ said Alfie.
    â€˜He knows,’ she said, tight-lipped and scarlet.
    â€˜I only asked if she’d got a sister I could be introduced to,’ I said. ‘But I know when I’m not wanted. You can keep your tea and sandwiches. I hope it gets cold and stale while you get stuck into your hearthrug pie and can’t get out. I won’t stay where I’m not welcome.’
    From the scullery door I added a bit more, and Alfie hovered in a worried fashion, trying to get a word in, while his girlfriend stood with her face even tenser, as if feeling guilty already at any falsehoods I might throw into their den. ‘Another thing,’ I added, staring at Claudine so that Alfie turned pale. ‘As far as I know I’m not the only bastard in this room, and maybe not the only dirty one, either.’
    â€˜Shurrup,’ Alfie screamed, pushing me out so hard that I turned and pushed him back half across the room. I went of my own accord, slamming the door with less force than either of them expected.
    I forgot about her in the next few days, because I was hard at it trying to get a date with one of the shopgirls at work who’d caught me reading a book in the warehouse and, on seeing what it was, thought I might be interesting enough to get to know. So one Saturday morning as I was walking up Wheeler Gate in the sunshine, I saw Claudine coming down the same side of the street, and I greeted her as if we were friends from long ago.
    â€˜What do you want?’ she snapped, stopping nevertheless. She wore a purple summer coat and thick red lipstick, dark stockings, and a hairstyle puffed high.
    My wanting her came back, and the fact that this might have been because she was Alfie’s steady girlfriend didn’t bother me a bit. ‘I’ve been hoping I’d bump into you,’ I said, ‘to say I was sorry for running out on you the other night.’
    â€˜Is that all you’re sorry about?’ she said.
    â€˜If it comes to that,’ I answered, ‘maybe you ought to apologize to me as well, for what you called me.’
    â€˜What did you expect, shoving your hand up my clothes like that. I just came right out with it.’
    â€˜I didn’t know what I was doing.’
    â€˜P’raps next time you will.’
    â€˜I hope so. I’m not usually a dirty beast. Only sometimes.’
    â€˜That’s too often for me,’ she said.
    â€˜Not according to Alfie,’ and I watched her go so red I didn’t notice the coat or lipstick any more. ‘Did I say something wrong?’ I added, as if trembling for my sinful way of talking. ‘Alfie and me are old pals, right from birth. We talk a lot to each other. It don’t mean much, duck.’
    She got out a few words at last: ‘He said he’d stopped seeing you, after that night. He swore he’d never talk to you again.’
    â€˜You know how it is,’ I said, ‘we’re old mates. It ain’t so easy for him. Maybe he meant to break it off bit by bit. Don’t think Alfie’s a liar. He’s one of the best.’
    â€˜I’ll tell him a thing or two.’
    I asked her not to: ‘It ain’t worth it if you’re going steady. Why break it up for a thing like this? Let’s go into that Lyons on Long Row for a cup of tea.’ She looked around, as if to find her mother there and ask if it would be all right. ‘Everybody talks about everybody else,’ I said, ‘but nobody thinks any the worse. I could tell you a few things that happen at the place I work at, but I’m sure you’ve heard it all before, so why bother?’
    Over a cup of tea, she said bitterly: ‘I suppose Alfie told you everything about me?’
    â€˜Only that you were going steady, and that that made it all right, whatever you did between you.’ I was anxious to get off this topic, because though it had served