‘Hello, Dad, I was sort of expecting you’ Anthony Knowles hugs his father as he steps into the hall, keeping one arm around him while he stretches to push the door closed.
‘You were?’ Ernie asks fearfully
‘Had mother on the phone chewing my ear’
‘Oh’
Anthony smiles reassuringly and ushers him into the sitting room.
His daughter-in-law gets up from the sofa and walks towards him with her arms open ‘Welcome to the naughty corner’ she laughs and kisses him on the cheek.
‘The naughty corner?’ Ernie looks totally confused.
‘Isn’t that where you put children that won’t do as they are told?’
‘Eh?’
‘Stop teasing him, Mel.’ Anthony sits down in a winged fireside chair and crosses his legs, grinning as his wife leads Ernie to the sofa. ‘Bad that we are, we refused to refuse to have anything to do with you’
‘You did…didn’t…did….which one is it?’ Ernie looks dazed.
‘We were instructed not to have anything to do with you. We told her to sod off’ Mel explains simply.
‘You did?….But….but surely…. after what she told you…’
‘Thing is, Dad..’ Anthony peels the band from a slim cigar and lights it ‘We already knew’ He blows a casual plume of smoke towards the wide inglenook fireplace.
‘You did?’ Ernie groans in a strangled whisper, putting his hand to his chest and wincing.
‘Dad?’ Anthony drops the cigar into an ashtray and rushes to his side crouching next to him, as Ernie seems to fold onto his hand.
‘It’s alright…I’m alright’ Ernie puts out a hand to ward off his concern ‘Just summat I ate’
‘God! I thought the shock of me knowing…’
‘It were…it is…but it ain’t that’ Ernie belches and groans. ‘Sorry’
‘Shall we start again?’ Melanie smiles with relief. ‘Shall I make some tea…or could you do with something a bit stronger? You will stay, won’t you?’
‘Just hang on a minute, gal. Let me get sorted first. You might not want me here when I tells yer what I gotta tells yer’
‘But we know’ Anthony rocks back on his heels ‘I’ve known for years’
‘I’ll ask yer how in a minute a two…there’s summat else…Your mother don’t know what I’m about t’tell yer. I were going to but she didn’t seem to care none….on’y about herself’
‘Nothing changed there then’ Melanie mutters.
‘That’s why we told her to get lost’ Anthony smiles grimly ‘If there are any sides to be taken, it’s yours we’re on’
‘I don’t want yer taking no sides….she’s still yer mother’
‘I’ll try and remember that’ Anthony says sarcastically and getting a stern look from Ernie, apologises ‘Sorry but that’s the way I feel’ he gives a not so apologetic shrug.
‘Go on, Dad’ Melanie urges, seeing Ernie hesitate.
‘C’n….c’n I see our Tony on me own?…..Just fer a minute’
‘Mel stays. Whatever it is, I’ll only be telling her anyway’ Anthony butts in.
‘Please? I don’t want yer pretending nothing…you might if she was here’ Ernie touches Melanie’s cheek with the tips of his trembling fingers ‘Not that I don’t think the world of yer, gal, but this is summat I got t’do wi’just me an’ im. It’s important to me’
‘No worries’ Melanie gets up and lays her hand on her father-in-law’s shoulder ‘I’ll go put the kettle on’ She drops a kiss on his head.
‘So?’ Anthony takes the seat next to his father ‘What’s up?’
Ernie sits with his head bowed, massaging his forehead between the fingers and thumb of one hand.
‘Are you ill?’ Anthony asks ‘Are you dying, is that why all this has come out now?’
Ernie shakes his head.
‘Then do what you’ve always told me to do, just spit it out’
Ernie hesitates a short while longer. ‘My lady was called Eleanor….Ellie’ he begins in a whisper ‘It weren’t some sordid affair like I ‘spect yer mother’s told yer, we was together almost forty years……and I loved her. We lived together….in same way as me and yer mother did….We got a nice house….I went to work. It were the same work….but when I was away at the other depot, I was at the other house and vicky versy’
Anthony nods ‘Yeah…I guessed it worked something like that’
‘How did you get t’find out? Best I ask now…’
‘You don’t really want to know, do you?’ Anthony says and grimaces.
Ernie looks at him curiously ‘Not if you don’t wants t’tellus’
‘Shall we just say wrong wallet or the wrong jacket?’
‘You were stealing out a me wallet?’ Ernie frowns with disappointment in him.
‘I wasn’t looking for money.’ A blush rises to the tips of Anthony’s ears. ‘I was young, ok? I needed what I thought every man kept in his wallet’
‘Oh’ Ernie gives a brief chuckle, his face gaining some colour for a short while ‘I see’
‘You let me borrow the car…the jacket was on the back seat. I thought it’d save me going into town. No way was I going into the chemist in the village’
‘Was I any help?’ Ernie asks, the humour of the situation temporarily making him forget the purpose of their talk.
Anthony’s grin broadens, eliciting another smile from Ernie. His face grows serious again. ‘There were other things in there…with a different address on…and a little note. It was signed ‘E’ but it wasn’t mother’s writing and there was no way she would put kisses at the bottom’
‘But you never told your mother?’
‘Why should I? Even at that age I knew how miserable she made you most of the time…and I was just starting out…falling in love every other week and all that…so I knew it had to be making you happier than you would be otherwise…so I left it’ he shrugs ‘You were still my Dad…still the great Dad you always had been. If you’d got another woman or a ton of women, it was making no difference to me and Belinda, so what?’
Ernie starts to sob. ‘But that weren’t all there was t’know’
‘No?’
‘No’ Ernie hesitates again and draws a long shuddering breath ‘Me and Ellie…..we had a baby’
‘Oh God!’ Anthony splutters ‘That wasn’t my fault was it?’
It takes a few moments for Ernie to realise what Anthony has said. He lifts his head and stares at him uncomprehendingly.
‘I mean to say…I nicked your condoms! …..Well, only the one…..but it could have been THE one, couldn’t it?’ His contrived solemnity cracks and his face is suddenly wreathed in smiles ‘I’ve got a half-brother? But that’s bloody brilliant!’
Ernie covers his face and sobs again.
18 Lancaster Mews, Hendabury
Chapter Five
