Page 15 of Little Wing
‘He did it again! He sworeandused the “S” word.’
‘Oi! ’
There were days like these when everything seemed to teeter precariously on a brittle edge. Most customers patiently turned a blind eye and a deaf ear but today, there was less tolerance and two in the queue left. Nell saw it as part of the job, to manage this. Usually, she let it all wash over her; she’d trained herself over the years, to employ a type of personal Teflon against which discord and altercations had no purchase. But today she found it all a bit tedious. So when Debbie returned with Nell’s package and Nell was mobbed by the group begging to help open it, she said no way guys – package-opening privileges are suspended until normal behaviour resumes. Danny tried to reason that none of them were normal – he said he was DannyDownsie, remember. He said they were allspecials– and, though this worked on Nell at other times, today she stuck to her resolve. They asked her if she even knew what it was inside and when she said yes, it’s a plate and a saucer, they all lost interest anyway.
‘Open it, then,’ said Frank. The birds had been fed their walnuts and his meal was warming in the oven. He was wearing an orange cardigan with oversize brown buttons over a yellow shirt and his golfing trousers though he hadn’t played for at least a decade. ‘If it arrives in one piece, I’ll eat my hat,’ Frank said, helping Nell unwrap the items. ‘And if they’ve sent you what you thought you were buying – I’ll eat a walnut.’ He was enjoying this. ‘Buying off The eBay? Madness. It’s all a scam.’
‘Well – they’ve packed them well,’ said Nell, giving the bubble wrap a pop.
‘We don’t knowwhatthey’ve packed, as yet,’ said Frank. ‘Could be anything or nothing.’
‘Look!’ Nell was delighted as the bright blue edge of the plate appeared with a glint of gold detailing. They examined the china with quiet fascination. Fancy that, Frank kept marvelling, fancy that.
‘They produced them with green detailing too, you know,’ Nell told him. ‘You see, eBay isn’t all bad – you learn a thing or two as you browse.’
‘I prefer the blue.’
‘Me too. Did you have anything like this, Frank? For the Coronation?’
Frank thought about it. ‘I didn’t even get a day off work – that I do remember. The second of June 1953. I was working at the printers; we had the special to rush out. Your mum’ll be made up, Nell, made up.’
‘I hope so.’ She paused. ‘Sometimes – well, mostly – it’s difficult to tell, really.’
Frank handed her the saucer and patted her arm. They sat in companionable silence for a few moments. Over the years, Frank never knew if the subject was a no-go area, always taking his lead from Nell. ‘Terrible thing. Terrible. I’ve told you I was orphaned at four years old?’
Nell observed a glaze come over his eyes and Frank slumped a little. Like a child, Nell thought, and it made her sad. He was all papery skin and gammy hips now and his life was a long arduous shuffle from one side of an overheated room to the other, but Frankhadbeen a boy once upon a very, very long time ago. He had been someone’s little boy, even if for just four short years.
He tapped her arm again. ‘You’ll shoot me, won’t you dear, if my marbles go? Or poison.’
‘Stop it, Frank,’ Nell said. ‘Anyway, it’s not the same with my mum – she’s always been a bit – different. Always. She’s always inhabited two different worlds, if you like. It’s just, it’s getting progressively worse. It’s getting very bad.’
‘Can’t be easy for you, love,’ said Frank.
‘I just wish I believed that she still knows it’s me.’
‘Must’ve been hard when you were a nipper, just you and your mum?’
‘It was fine,’ Nell muttered. ‘My father left when I was three. I didn’t know any different.’ She paused. ‘Anyway, having a nutty mum makes for great popularity at school. She was so entertaining – almost exotic – to my pals. Children see bonkers as a quality.’
‘Well, that’s a shame in itself, isn’t it,’ said Frank. Nell shrugged. There was such kindness to his voice, and yet she felt irritated by his judgement. So she dished up his meal, checked the window latch, bagged up the rubbish, assessed the toilet roll situation, made her excuses and left.
Nell returned to the shop on Trinity Street. The cup was still there and Nell picked it up, triumphant.
‘I came by a couple of weeks ago? And you told me about the trio – that originally it would have been a set of three?’
‘Ah yes – I remember. Well, you can still have the cup for eight quid.’
‘You said a fiver!’ Nell laughed.
‘Inflation.’
Nell wasn’t sure if he was joking.
‘Go on then, I’ll take five.’
Nell took a breath and beamed. She’d been looking forward to this part. ‘Well – look what I found!’ From her bag she produced the saucer. She held it out to the shopkeeper who took it to scrutinize.
‘What do you want for it?’
