There was a car to get into, so they rounded themselves up without trouble. ‘Listen to the seagulls.’ Sam snatched at his sister’s machine-gun which was pointed at their noise. ‘Don’t shoot ’em!’
‘We’ll go to the flat first,’ Tom said. ‘Not much opens till midday.’
The children settled in the back with Judy. ‘I want to see the sea,’ Hilary called.
‘It won’t run away,’ Tom said, ‘not very far, that is.’
Sam leaned forward, and said into his ear: ‘You mean that the tide’ll be out. How far does it go?’
‘We’ll look at a book of tables that tells you all about it.’
‘I want to be a sailor,’ Hilary said. ‘Will you take me on a ship, Tom? I want to go to Australia on a ship with sails.’
He laughed. ‘They have engines now.’
‘With an engine, then.’
‘Women don’t go on ships,’ Judy said. ‘Unless you whore yourself out to the captain, or work on a liner as a skivvy.’
‘You’ll get sea-sick,’ Sam jeered.
She screamed into his face: ‘Yah, yah, yah – and I’ll spew all over you!’ She unclipped the magazine, and ammunition thudded on to the floor. Her legs in the air were reflected in Tom’s rear mirror, shaking around while she found the bullets. Then she came up, fitted them in, and levelled the gun at a car behind. ‘I don’t want to whore. I’ll dress up as a man. I’ll borrow your trousers, mum.’
‘Maybe by the time you grow up it’ll be different.’ Tom was encouraging. ‘A woman could do any job on a ship if she was trained.’
It amused him to imagine a crew of women and men, and said so.
‘I expect there’d only be as much fucking around as there is with an all-man crew,’ Judy laughed.
‘Less,’ Sam said, looking at the seafront.
Hilary lowered her gun. ‘More, I’d say.’
‘What do you little mistakes know about it?’ Judy asked.
‘You haven’t lived,’ Sam told her solemnly. ‘I go to school, don’t forget.’
‘You’ll go to a fucking orphanage if you don’t shut your fat little trap. I didn’t come down here to bicker with kids on the facts of life. Just look at the wind and listen to the sand, then you might learn something.’
The boy groaned. Hilary laughed, but they sat quietly. Tom winced with disapproval at her swearing. She would make a rough sort of captain, he thought, and no doubt keep any crew in order.
Hilary ran up the stairs with the gun, inspired by the liberty of being able to enter an unfamiliar building. Sam followed, and it seemed to the adults coming behind as if they were a storming party to get terrorists out. ‘They eat too well, and too often,’ Judy said when milky coffee and a plate of cakes were set before them. ‘The town won’t be safe today.’
The dining-room table had five places laid. Yesterday had been for shopping, and today getting the meal ready. A soup was to begin, and a trifle to end. Tom peeled potatoes before breakfast, scrubbed carrots, cut cauliflower, and washed for three different salads. A piece of beef was on a low light. He bought cakes, bread, chocolates and half a dozen cheeses, enough to feed twice as many. The larder and refrigerator were stocked as if they were on a ship about to steam across the world, or as if a catastrophe would force a long siege on them.
He wondered how long it had been since the noise of such mayhem had bounced from wall to wall. They leapfrogged up the corridor and down again, and chased each other in and out of the kitchen. Probably never. There had been no children here except himself as a boy on parole from the orphanage, and his voice had never been audible from more than a few feet. He had a vision of himself as a trapped insect, afraid even to jump. Shameless. He rubbed it away.
Judy sipped black coffee. ‘I hate the sight of ’em, though I wouldn’t be without ’em. You might not believe it, but they’re doing well at school, after I gave ’em a good talking to. “If you want to beat the system,” I told them, “pass your tests and exams better than anybody else. Do it for me. Learn all you can. If you don’t work for me, I won’t work for you. You’ll have to live on bread and water then”.’
She expected to be complimented on her determination and sagacity. ‘You’re a good mother,’ Pam said.
‘Not really, love. I’m only their guardian till they’re big enough to fend for themselves. Then, it’s out into the snow – the deeper the better.’
Tom thought they were lucky. Judy knew that life was a battle, and was teaching them to fight in a world which, contrary to what everyone thought, got harder and rougher. But everything had its price, and the contest seemed to be wearing her out. He only hoped that her philosophy of living off the land didn’t encourage such bright children to go too far, and get into trouble with the police.
He led her and Pam into the main bedroom, and showed them the wardrobe of Clara’s clothes. Judy stood back at the heavy taint of mothballs, then went forward and ran her hand along the dresses. ‘They look gorgeous.’
‘She was about your size, in her heyday,’ Tom said, ‘so help yourself.’
‘You mean it?’
He nodded.
Hilary pushed through: could she have a skirt and a blouse? Judy held her. ‘Maybe I’ll get a stall, and sell them on the market.’
He had intended throwing them out, he said. ‘But if you can make some money on them – fine.’
Judy looked at Pam with an expression hard to fathom, a smile that was an invitation. To what, Pam didn’t know – unless it was simply to be without the kids for half an hour, a desire she could well understand. ‘Why don’t you take the children to the beach?’ she said to Tom. ‘Then Judy can try one or two dresses on. I’ll stay with her.’
He got his overcoat, scarf and hat. Why not? Get the kids off their hands. And took up his binoculars. ‘I’ll do my best not to get them drowned, or run over, hauled off to the clink, or otherwise missing presumed glutted on ice-cream.’
‘Not as easy as you might hope,’ their mother called.
A wind blew, cold and sharp, and Hilary played at being thrown back inside the door, till Tom and Sam were half-way down the square, and then she followed. Sam went in front, sliding himself by parked cars, using the handle of each door to draw himself along, but putting on a pressure to find out whether or not the doors were locked. He would not, Tom felt, go inside and take anything at the moment. It seemed more like a practice run for when he was on his own. He called: ‘Come here!’
Sam turned, pale and scared. ‘You mean me?’
‘And quickly. Run!’
He walked towards him, upright but as if expecting to dodge a punch.
‘Listen to me,’ Tom said. ‘And stand still! While you’re out with me, I don’t want to see you trying to open car doors. Do you understand? If I catch you at it again I’ll knock your head off, and then hand you over to the police station. And what’s more, I don’t want you to do it even when you’re not with me, because sure as hell somebody else will haul you off. Do you hear?’
‘Yes.’
‘Never, at any time. Not only will you be for it, but your mother will get it in the neck as well. And you don’t really want to hurt her, do you?’ Damn, the poor kid was about to cry. But he had to put the fear of God into him. It’s not his fault, because he sees his irresponsible mother getting up to stunts that can only land them in trouble. When they go back tonight I’ll put them on the train with tickets, to show it must be done. He held his arm, and spoke quietly. ‘We’re going to look at a ship, and if it’s ten miles away these binoculars will bring it down to a mile. Do you want to try?’
He nodded.
‘We’ll have a good time. But don’t forget what I told you.’