Page 1 (1/2)
To Alice
They ca tracks and lanes and roads, across fields, down the long low hills which led to the slow pull of the river, down to the open gateways in the city walk, the hours and days of walking showing in the slow shift of their bodies, their breath steaht fell away at their backs They caainst their ankles, the pat and splash of the hs andconversation as the sa the lines Here we are now Nearly there Just to the bottoarettes were lit, hundreds of cigarettes, thin leathery fingers expertly rolling a pinch of tobacco into a lick of paper without losing a step Cigarettes were cadged, offered, shared, passed down to nervous young hands eager for that first acrid taste of adulthood, cupping a mouthful of it in the windshield of their open fists in i as it burnt down into their untested young lungs, the spluttered-out s with their cold clouded breath as they es and cowslip-heavy banks, doards the city walk They wore suits, of a kind, all of them: woollen waistcoats and well knotted neckerchiefs, thick tweed jackets orn elbows and cuffs, moleskin trousers with frayed seaer ones carried bundles of clothes, brown paper parcels fastened with string, slung across their shoulders or clasped to their chests, held tightly in their daather pace, pulled down the hill by the sight of the city, by their eagerness to be first and by the i in fro walk the day before, but forgetting all that as they came to their journey's end
Fro that last long doard traipse, the city looked quiet and still, wrapped in a pale Mayprolinetic pull of hopes and opportunities But as those firstto staround, ere opened and curtains pulled back, and the city began to wake Sleepy children peered fro of feet signalling the start of the day they'd been looking forward to, calling to each other and pulling faces at the children in the houses across the street Landlords opened the doors and shutters of their bars, sweeping the floors and standing in their doorith brooms in their hands to watch their custo their pitches around the edges of the square, keeping an eye on the suards by the steps of the nen hall And fro in froe to the west, fro the river to the south, the ar excites to friends not seen for the past sixafter health, and farew bigger, and noisier, and fathers began to lay hands on the shoulders of their youngest sons, keeping the to the snatches of conversation echo back and forth, looking out for the far for the business of the day to begin
Mary Friel stood with her father and brothers, watching, her youngest brother To her hand You okay there To, a look of annoyance on his young face, and pulled his hand away
Soon, as if at soan to befor work son? the s down How much you after? And the older boys, the ones who knew their price, or the ones who could say they were experienced, stronger, would get ht, nine, ten pounds, while the younger ones, who knew no better or could ask no more, said seven or six as they'd been told Deals wereover of the brown paper packages, an instruction toor two to keep the boy busy for the day, sometimes not; sometimes the father taken for drinks to smooth over the aardness of the scene, sometimes not
This was the first ti fair She'd only ever watched her father setting off with her brothers before; stood in the low doorway to wave the on to both their hands, their ht and saying no ti around all day now She'd had an idea of what it would be like fros he ca while he talked in a low voice to theirfire But she hadn't been expecting quite so many people, or so ht ahead when a gentle for a job?
They left the square as soon as the price had been agreed, telling Toood, to work hard and to do what the man said, and to meet them back here at the next fair day in six h the toards the river, Mary, her father, her two older brothers ere past the age of hiring now, out to the docks to catch the boat across to England She listened to her brothers talking to her father as they sat waiting for the boat, talking and joking about their ti of stones, the early htly apart fro up into the hills on the other side of the river, feeling the i brother's hand across the pal over frorain and crates of wool, talking about where they'd heard the as that year Following the harvests from Lancashire up to Berwick and all t
he way on to Fife Waterworks round Birow, Manchester, Coventry, Leeds Talking of the best ways to get there, the cheapest places to stay, the names to mention to stand a better chance of work at the end of the trip So what shewho she ith, until their gaze was interrupted by her father's hard glare
They were going over the water early this year The weather had changed sooner than usual, and the field was dug and planted, the turf cut, before fair day caed for Mary, in London, and so their father had announced that they would all o on her own, is it not? he'd said, and herup slices of cake for their journey, taking out the brown paper from its place beneath the bed
On the boat, the four of them found a place in a quiet corner and settled the her head on her father's shoulder, his heavy coat laid over them both It smelt of damp soil and turf s It smelt of him and she concentrated on the smell as she drifted into an uncomfortable sleep, broken by the tip and slide of the boat, by the shouts of other men, by the hard wooden deck beneath the both
In the , in Liverpool, they put her on a train down to London They stood on the platfor her put her bundle up on the luggage rack, watching her smooth out her skirt as she sat down by theHer brother Willia in to wish her a good journey, telling her to say hello to Cousin Jenny and the rest of that shower, telling her to tear up London town, laughing as he ran his hand across the top of her hair and pulled it out of its carefully pinned place She reached out to catch hi down and slauard blew the whistle with his flag raised high Her father and her other brother had already turned away
She spoke to no one on the journey, as she'd been told, and waited under the clock at Euston station for her cousin, who ca up to meet her a half hour after the train had arrived Sorry I'm late, she said, out of breath and a little red in the face The bus depot was boood crossing?
The house was in Hah to the Heath to see the tops of the trees froe front door reached by a broad flight of stone steps she was never allowed to use Her room was at the top of the house, squeezed in under the rafters at the back soutters The rooh for a bed, and for a fireplace that was never lit, and for a small chest under the bed where she kept her clothes and a biscuit tin for her wages, ready to be taken home the next summer But the size of the room was unimportant because all she ever did was sleep in there If you were awake you orking, she said when she told so out fireplaces, scrubbing pots and pans and boots and steps, washing and drying and ironing the clothes, lighting the fires in the family's roo the bruises on her knees and shins and the angry red chilblains on her fingers, sleeping, looking out of the so if she dared to leave the house
She lived in the attic and she worked in the baseet fro observed You want to be neither seen nor heard, Cousin Jenny had told her, standing at the wide stone basin scrubbing potatoes and carrots that first evening And you want to not see or hear anything neither Mary nodded, pushing her paper-white cap back where it kept falling down over her eyes She learnt how to tih the finely panelled roo downstairs before the fa back up, or for the evenings when they sat together in the drawing room She learnt how to tip her head a little if she ever didaway