Kitty Neale - A Family’s Heartbreak

A narrow door next to Queenie’s shop opened onto stairs that led up to Dennis’s flat. At the top, Jenny rang the doorbell. Thelma, his mother, answered it. She was a skinny woman with a deeply lined and drawn face. Jenny had never seen her without a cigarette hanging from the side of her mouth, and her black hair was always in curlers, covered with a scarf. She seldom cracked a smile, and when she spoke her voice was hard.

‘I guessed you’d turn up when you heard.’

‘Gloria left a note saying she was here. Is she in?’

‘Yeah. She’s just like your mother, that one, as bold as bleedin’ brass. I told her I don’t want her here but the pair of them are in Dennis’s room and taking not a blind bit of notice of me. Come in. You can try talking to her. I hope she’ll listen to you, but I somehow doubt it.’

As Jenny stepped inside, Craig behind her, Thelma asked, ‘Who’s this then? Your boyfriend? I’ve heard talk that you’re living together.’

‘Er, yes, but it’s not like that. We share a flat but sleep in separate rooms.’

‘It doesn’t matter to me what you do. It ain’t none of my business and all I care about is getting that sister of yours out of my house. Go on through there, second on your left.’

Jenny and Craig stood in the hallway outside Dennis’s door as Thelma disappeared into another room. Jenny tapped nervously, then waited.

‘Go away,’ Dennis shouted.

‘It’s Jenny … I’d like to talk to Gloria.’

‘Tough. She doesn’t want to talk to you.’

Jenny looked at Craig, but he couldn’t hear what was being said through the door.

‘Gloria … please open the door. We need to talk.’

She heard some muffled giggles and frantic whispers, then the door eventually opened. Gloria stood there, her chest pushed out defiantly as she said, ‘I’m not coming back with you, so if that’s all you’ve come to say, forget it.’

She went to close the door again, but Jenny pushed against it and pleaded, ‘Wait. At least listen to what I’ve got to say.’

There was a pause, then Gloria prompted, ‘Go on then, spit it out.’

‘I know it’s not easy, the six of us in a small flat, but we’re working hard to change that. We think we’ll have enough money saved for a deposit on a bigger place soon, maybe even a house. Please, Gloria, come home.’

‘No way. I’m happy where I am.’

‘But you can’t live here. You’re not married.’

‘That’s rich, coming from you,’ Gloria sneered. ‘You and Craig are living together too.’

‘That’s different and you know it. Craig and I don’t share a bed.’

‘No, you’re too bloody prudish for anything like that!’

Jenny heard Dennis snigger. ‘You can’t stay,’ Jenny insisted, ‘Anyway, Thelma doesn’t want you living here.’

‘Well I do, so tough,’ Dennis said as he came to stand next to Gloria.

Jenny ignored him. ‘Please, Gloria, come home. You can help me to find a nice house and Dennis can start courting you properly.’

Gloria laughed. ‘Listen to yourself. Courting! Next you’ll expect to be our chaperone.’

‘Don’t be silly. It’s a bit late for that.’

‘Yeah, it is, and I’m staying put, so see ya!’ Gloria snapped as she slammed the door in their faces.

Jenny banged on it again and again, but Dennis just shouted for them to bugger off. She felt Craig’s hand on her arm and then he said, ‘Come on, love. She’s not going to come back with us, so we might as well go home.’

As Craig led her along the hallway, Thelma appeared, leaning against a doorway. ‘Waste of time then?’ she asked.

‘Yes, but I had to try. I’ll see you at work tomorrow, Thelma.’

‘Yeah, whatever.’

Once they were back outside, Jenny found herself having to fight back tears. She felt she’d failed her sister and worried about the girl’s future. Her own reputation was probably ruined, and now Gloria’s would be too. She had to do something. ‘Gloria won’t listen to me, but maybe she’ll take notice of my mum,’ she said.

Craig looked surprised, then asked, ‘Do you know where she is?’

‘No, but if she went round my dad’s to see the boys, he’d have told her we’ve all left home. You’d have thought she’d look for us, maybe wait for me outside the factory to find out where we’re living.’

‘Perhaps she hasn’t been round to your dad’s.’

‘It’s possible. When she gets a new boyfriend my mother becomes too wrapped up in him to bother about us. She’s probably shacking up with one now, but I’ll find her,’ Jenny told him, determined to do just that and keep her family together.

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