Southsiders Read Online Free Page A

in the oven for you. Cliff, will you get your man something to eat?”
    â€œSure thing,” Cliff said, turning round and grabbing a pair of oven gloves. “Pie and chips all right for ya, Ray?”
    It might have been if it hadn’t looked like it had shrunk and dried out in the middle of the plate and if the gravy on the pie hadn’t solidified into a brown crust.
    Cliff used his free arm to sweep a newspaper from the table and put the meal down in the clear space. He plonked down a knife and fork and pulled out a chair for Ray.
    A generous application of ketchup solved the problem of the pie’s flavour. Not that it would have mattered much. Ray hadn’t eaten since breakfast and the food was exactly what he needed to help settle his nerves.
    As he mopped up the filling with the last of his chips, Cliff winked at him as if they were playing on the same team. “Swallow that lot and we’ll be off to the pub.” Ray hadn’t finished chewing and decided it might be better not to answer until Izzy had given the OK.
    She was busy juggling, putting down the bottle and trying to get the baby upright at the same time. “Don’t leave me, Cliff. Not by myself with the baby all night. Please.” Her voice was feeble. The look on her face told a story Ray didn’t want to know.
    The baby started to cry. It was a little outburst at first, but it soon grew into a call of the wild. “Please, Cliff.”
    Cliff didn’t seem to be listening. He was too busy putting on his coat and wrapping a scarf round his neck.
    Izzy managed to get the baby over her shoulder, rubbing her back to release any trapped bubbles of air. The infant just kept up the noise, shouting for all she was worth.
    The noise pierced Ray’s skull and zapped him in the middle of his brain. He couldn’t stand it. Over he went, gently wrapping his fingers around the baby’s ribs and picking her up as carefully as he could manage. She was tiny. Weighed next to nothing. He tightened the blanket around her, took her into his chest, nestled her into his shoulder and began tapping her back. His body took on the rhythm of the baby’s heartbeat as he bobbed quickly up and down. In no time at all, the crying slowed and quietened until it had soon disappeared altogether. He whispered hushing noises and felt completely at one with the world for the first time in an age. It was just like the early days with Jesse, only without the music in the background. “You could try having some tunes on. Bairns like that kind of thing,” he told Izzy.
    Izzy wore a relieved smile that seemed to come from some great depth inside her.
    â€œWhen you’ve finished doing the woman’s work, Ray, let’s be getting down to the pub, will we?” Cliff emphasised the need to go by putting his hand on Ray’s shoulder and turning him ever so slightly in the direction of the door.
    â€œYou’re a magician, sure you are,” a grateful Izzy declared. She reached out and took her daughter back, cradling her into the nape of her neck.
    It was a pretty nape, Ray thought. If a little pale.

Heartbreak Hotel
    ––––––––
    I t wasn’t the local pub that Ray had expected to camp out in, but a hotel a ten-minute walk from the house. He managed to tell his own story in a matter of minutes, leaving out one or two of the major details, like how he’d been under the whip for as long as he could remember and how he’d lost his old self since the last time they’d been together. Thinking about it made him sad. Had him wanting to phone home to see how things were. To check up on Paula and make sure Jesse was OK.
    Cliff didn’t seem to notice. He had no trouble spoiling the peace with his own sagas. How trying for a baby had turned sex into a duty. How Izzy had been unravelling since Rose had been born until all that was left was the shell of the woman he’d met. How his job at the Titanic Exhibition