Coming Home to the Four Streets by Nadine Dorries (best books to read for success .txt) 📕

Mr Keeble nodded understandingly. ‘Oh, I know that, you weren’t the only one. You see, she had a way, did Mrs Doherty, and whatever she promised Mr Heartfelt, people delivered, so he trusted her. Is there anyone else you can take with you? I’m not allowed, or I would offer…’

Peggy shook her head. He understood; no one liked others to know they were behind with the rent, it was an excruciating shame.

‘Look, you go down there with a plan, tell him how you can manage it, but do yourself a favour, don’t go telling him your husband has a bad back, he’s heard that one plenty of times.’

Peggy smiled gratefully. ‘I’ll try,’ she said. ‘Thanks for the cigarette, Mr Keeble.’

Peggy felt strangely dizzy, she still hadn’t eaten.

‘I’ll phone him now, Mrs Nolan,’ he said as turned to leave the office.

A trainee cashier, who had overheard the conversation, said loud enough for Peggy to hear, ‘I’m sure he’ll put the kettle on and plate up a fancy for her!’ He laughed loudly at his own joke.

‘Now, now,’ said Mr Keeble sharply, ‘I can tell you that the last thing Mrs Nolan wants to be doing right now is heading off to see Mr Heartfelt.’

Peggy had heard them and her face flushed. Mr Keeble looked apologetic and she heard him whisper something sharp in tone to the apprentice who wrinkled his nose. That made it obvious to Peggy what he thought of her. He was all of fifteen and yet, because he was well fed, in a job and wearing clean, ironed clothes, he thought he could speak to Peggy as he would to a dog. She walked out of the rent office to make her way down the dockers’ steps to the administration building, dumb, deflated and debased.

*

Callum had never wanted to see the tall wooden gates of Walton Jail ever again, or hear the jangle of the keys, the turning of the four locks followed by the sliding of the four bolts. He’d felt sick to the pit of his stomach as the small door opened and Jimmy stepped out into the bright sunlight. Callum was filled with shame at the memories of the time he had spent there. Since he’d got out, Jerry Deane had been like a father to him, had showed him that hard work paid and it was his fervent wish to ensure that Jimmy turned over a new leaf, that he had walked out of those same doors for the very last time too.

Seeing his brother, Jimmy’s face lit up and he ran across the road to greet him.

‘Hey, did Mam send a butty? I haven’t had any breakfast yet.’ He slapped his brother across the back of his shoulders and sides and Callum couldn’t help himself; he grinned as he thumped his brother back.

‘She did, but you’ve just flattened it.’

Both boys laughed out loud as Callum removed the bacon sandwich from his jacket pocket. Jimmy ripped off the paper and bit deep into his breakfast. ‘Oh that’s good, I’ve missed Mam’s cooking.’ The squeak of the bus brakes could be heard in the distance. ‘Where have you been, Callum? I was in there a whole year and you never got brought in once. I told the guards, when our Callum gets here, you can put us in the same cell.’

Callum pushed his hands deep into his pockets. ‘I’ve kept out and that’s the way it’s staying. I’m never going back in that place again.’

Jimmy stopped chewing and gave his brother a quizzical look. ‘You must have been practising the running, or you’ve got smarter at not getting caught!’

Callum looked at his brother with interest, his identical twin, his complete other half, his mirror image. Inseparable, they’d been; five minutes had divided them at birth and yet it felt to Callum as though a million miles separated them at that moment.

‘I’ve been too busy to be caught at anything, Jimmy. I’m earning an honest living down on the docks. Jerry Deane took me on, and if you talk to him, tell him you want to go straight, he’ll give you a chance like he did me. You don’t want to be back inside that hellhole again, you said so yourself.’

Jimmy looked at his brother as though he were speaking a foreign language. ‘I don’t,’ said Jimmy. ‘You’ve only been on the docks, that’s all you’ve been doing? You’ve gone straight? I thought Mam was just holding out on me, keeping secrets.’

Annie had never missed a prison visit to see her son, but Callum had refused every invitation, though she pressed him.

‘Callum, do you not want to be seeing your brother, just for five minutes?’ she would say. ‘’Tis shocking and shameful if you don’t, and I’d gladly give up one of my visits so that he could see his brother for a change. There’s no news I have that he is interested in, but you, you have it all.’

Callum was resolute. ‘I’ll see him when he’s out, Mam, and not before. I will never walk through those doors again.’

Annie knew better than to push Callum, and besides, she really did not want to relinquish even one visit to her son. ‘I suppose it’s just as well; no one can tell you two apart and they might keep you in, thinking you’re our Jimmy.’ At this point, Annie would chuckle to herself, but there were no smiles from Callum, just a shiver that ran down his spine.

‘You want me to work down on the docks? Where Da died?’ Jimmy said now. ‘You think I’m going down there to wait for a crane hook to knock me on the head? Are you mad? I’m not working down the bleeding docks, now or ever. It’s a death sentence.’

The sound of the bus pulling into the bus stop turned their heads.

‘The bus, quick,’ said Callum.

‘I’ll race you,’ said Jimmy, grinning.

Callum let him win and they leapt onto the platform and swung around the pole, just as they always