David Storey - Saville

His face was lined by tears. He blinked them back, waiting now for Colin to answer.

‘I went to the pictures.’

‘Do you go by yourself?’

‘Yes,’ he said.

‘What happened to your girl-friend?’

‘She’s gone away.’ He waited.

‘Ian said she’d gone off with Stafford.’

‘Yes,’ he said.

‘Did you mind her going?’

‘Yes,’ he said.

Reagan regarded him with increasing interest. He pulled down quickly at the peak of the cap and for the first time stepped away from the wall.

‘Where are you teaching?’ he said.

‘Rawcliffe,’ he said. ‘I believe I mentioned it before.’

‘Wasn’t that where your father used to work?’

‘Yes,’ he said.

More than anything now Michael reminded Colin of Mrs Reagan, the gaunt figure that he’d known before; there was the same almost mechanical earnestness he’d associated with her in the past.

‘Had you thought of moving from the village? Into town, or to some other village perhaps?’

‘I had thought of it,’ he said.

‘I’ve thought of moving,’ Reagan said. ‘I’ve never been happy here, you know.’

He stepped into the road, paused a moment, as if even now he were tempted to walk off in the opposite direction, then turned slowly towards the village.

‘You’ve heard that my father’s been ill?’ he said.

‘Yes,’ he said.

‘I don’t think he’ll ever get out again. Not like he used to in the past.’

‘I see him sometimes,’ Colin said.

‘He tries to get out. His mind wanders. He keeps asking for his hat and gloves.’ He measured his strides slowly, as if, the closer they got to the village, the more determined he was to turn back. ‘He sometimes thinks he’s in the office and keeps on about the wages. He was always arguing about money with the men. He even argues with my mother sometimes. He thinks she’s one of the men, and starts on about the deputies, how they’ve measured off the coal, and that.’

‘I haven’t heard you playing the violin,’ Colin said. ‘Not for some time,’ he added, ‘at least.’

‘No.’ Reagan shook his head. There was a calculated air of absurdity about him now, as if his coat and the cap were some disguise he’d deliberately adopted. He glanced over at Colin and shook his head again. ‘I’ve given it away, you know.’

‘Who to?’ he said.

‘Oh.’ He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. My mother gave it away, as a matter of fact. I’ve given up going to the office, as well. They gave me two weeks’ notice. I should have had a month. The doctor said I needed a rest, so I suppose it’s worked out all right in the end.’

‘Did they ever find out’, he said, ‘who stole the money?’

‘Oh, it was Batty,’ he said. ‘Though naturally I couldn’t tell. Batty and Stringer, and two other men. They’d been at the club, you see, that night. I always had the takings with me on the Saturday to put in the bank on Monday morning, then I paid out the staff the following week. They’ve closed it down, as a matter of fact. I thought of taking it for classes, you know. In the afternoons, for old-tyme and modern dancing, for children, you know. But the fees I don’t think would have covered the cost. I might start the Saturdays up again when I feel a bit better.’

He’d begun to talk more quickly now, as if Colin wasn’t there, his stride lengthening, his gaze, beneath the peak of his cap, more abstracted. The tears had dried on his face, leaving dark smears on either cheek.

‘Or again, I could always go in for orchestral work. There’s a great demand, at the moment, for orchestral players. So few were trained, you know, during the war. There’s a whole area I could turn to there. It wouldn’t need much adaptation. Even Prendergast recommended that, you know, some years ago. He was quite disappointed in his way that I went in for band work. There seemed more opportunity in that field, of course.’ He paused, stopping in the road. The first houses of the village had appeared; lights glowed from the windows, beyond them the vast, dull glow of the pit itself. ‘The pendulum seems to have swung the other way.’

Colin had paused.

Reagan was undecided which way to turn, his gaze transfixed, abstracted, his hands clenched loosely together. Tears appeared once more on either cheek, his eyes half-hidden beneath the shadow of the cap.

‘I think I might go back to the bridge. I was thinking of something there. I’ve forgotten what it was.’

Yet he remained, as if suspended, in the middle of the road.

‘I’ll go back with you,’ Colin said.

‘There’s no need to,’ Reagan said, speaking so quietly again that he scarcely heard.

‘I don’t mind going back,’ he said.

‘I’d prefer to go on my own,’ he said, his voice acquiring some of the correctness which characterized his conversations at the ballroom.

‘Why not come back home?’ Colin said. ‘You could come in, if you like, and have some tea.’

‘Oh, I never go in people’s houses,’ Reagan said.

‘Why not come up to the house, in any case?’ he said, yet already Reagan had turned and set off back along the road, walking with lengthening strides, quickly, as if he had some appointment to keep which he’d suddenly remembered.

Colin watched him go down the hill; he reached a bend in the road and disappeared, in the gathering gloom, towards the station.

For a moment he thought of following him; then, having set off, turned and went on towards the village.

‘Isn’t your name Saville?’ the taller of the two teachers said. He was a well-built, fair-haired man, scarcely older than Colin himself; he had large, bony features, the cheeks red and bronzed slightly by the sun. The other teacher, an older man by the name of Callow, he’d met when he first arrived: he wore a corduroy coat and flannels and a check shirt, his face pallid and square-featured, his mouth broad and thin – he came forward now and said directly to the taller man, ‘Of course this is Saville. I told you when he came. I’ve never discovered his first name, though.’

‘Colin,’ he said.

They were standing just outside the school where, normally, he waited for Stephens for a lift into the village. Callow also taught English in the school, and though he’d occasionally seen the other, taller man, he’d never discovered his name. Children flooded by on the pavement on either side.

‘This is Gerry Thornton,’ Callow said. ‘He was telling me he knew you the other day, though in what circumstances he never did explain.’

‘Aren’t you a friend of Neville Stafford?’ Thornton said.

‘Yes,’ he said.

‘Do you ever remember working on Smith’s farm? Oh, years ago now,’ he added. ‘I remember seeing you one morning cutting thistles in one of the fields. Then after that, do you remember three boys with one of those collapsible dinghies playing in that pond when you were stooking?’ He waited, smiling, for Colin to reply. ‘There was Neville, my brother, and myself.’ He laughed simply, watching Colin’s expression. ‘I’m going in the forces in two or three weeks,’ he added. ‘I got deferment and seem to have been left on the shelf. I thought I’d put in one or two weeks here.’ He gestured round, vaguely, at the school. ‘Not much, but enough to be going on with, I suppose.’

He saw Stephens in the distance, emerging from the school. Colin waved him on, and as Stephens pulled up, the scarf wrapped firmly round his face, he said, ‘I’ll walk down today.’

Stephens shrugged: he glanced at the other two. ‘Do you want a lift?’ he said to Callow, lowering the scarf.

‘Oh, I’ll walk down as well,’ the teacher said, glancing at the pillion seat and adding, ‘Is it safe?’