The Street and other stories Read Online Free Page B

around here did? Answer me that?”
    “Nobody did, but some got it harder than others, and Lily was one of them, so she was. Sure you know that yourself, Aggie. You saw the way she was brought up. Her poor mother didn’t get much help from oul’ Davy.”
    “She couldn’t keep him out of the bloody pub!”
    “And was that her fault? Was it? Aggie, sometimes you get on my wick! You’d think the rest of us married saints, so you would, to hear the way you talk. Let oul’ Davy rest in peace. He did more harm to himself than he did to anybody else, and even if he did spend a lot of time in the pub we know that he wasn’t on his own. There was always plenty there to keep him company, so there was. Drink was his problem all right, but one thing I’ll say for him: drunk or sober he never lifted his hand to her or the children. How many could say that about their man these days?”
    “Maybe that’s what Lily needed. Spare the rod and spoil the child. That’s a true saying if ever there was one. No man ever hasthe right to lift his hand to any woman, but a child needs to be taught wrong from right, so it does. I’m not saying anything about oul’ Davy or Missus Caldwell, God rest their souls. Or Lily either for that matter. I’m only making the point that there was no excuse for the way Lily got on when she was young. To look at her today you’d think she was somebody.”
    “Ach, I wouldn’t say that.”
    “That’s ’cos you don’t know the half of it. You were always too soft, so you were. You look back on things now and you see them all nice and rosy. Well, it wasn’t like that, Maisie, so it wasn’t, as you should know.”
    “Nobody knows it better. Do you think I’m doting? I was here, Aggie, so I was. I could write a book about it. I don’t need to be told how tough things were. I’m trying to forget the hard times. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, if you went round all the time thinking of all the things wrong in this world you’d go mental. You want to be more positive, so you do. You need to get a good grip on yourself, Aggie love.”
    “Ach, I’m all right, Maisie. It’s just that I met that Lily one down the town the day, so I did, and she walked right past me as if I wasn’t there.”
    “Maybe she didn’t see you!”
    “Oh she saw me, she did. Says I to her, ‘Hullo, Lily,’ and says she to me, ‘Hullo, Aggie,’ and that was it. Before I could get another word out she was gone. She had a wee grandson with her: he was in her arms. She nearly knocked me down to get by.”
    “Well, maybe she had other things on her mind. There’s many a time I be walking about in a trance thinking or worrying about this, that or the other thing, and if the Angel Gabriel himself appeared to me I swear I wouldn’t take him under my notice. Maybe that’s the way Lily was.”
    “That’s you all over, so it is. Making excuses again. You’ll never change, Maisie. Especially as far as Lily’s concerned.”
    “Aggie, look, hang on a wee minute. You seem to have a bee in your bonnet over Lily Caldwell. Well, maybe I know a wee bitmore about Lily than most people, so if you houl’ on till I pour the two of us this wee mouthful of tea, I’ll soon give you the gist of why I’ve a bit of time for her.”
    “You could tell me nothing I don’t already know, Maisie. The whole world knows she was fond of a bit of the other and that’s the height of it!”
    “Is that right now, Aggie? That shows how much you know, so it does! Here, take this cup off me. I’m scalded, so I am. There … that’s better. Will you have a wee piece of cake? I’ve nothing in. You should have come next week. That’s my pension week; this is my bad week. Here, take a piece.”
    “No, Maisie, no: I’ve to make me dinner when I get home. A cup in my hand is just lovely. Have you got your own?”
    “Aye, Aggie, now where was I? Aye! You were wanting to know about Lily. Well, me and her were very close as you know. She was a few years