Full House [Quick Read] (2 page)

‘Maybe you’d bring it upstairs to me, Liam,’ Dee said. At least in their bedroom they could talk.

He nodded and put two mugs on a tray.

She didn’t even wait to unpack her shopping. So what if the yoghurt should go straight into the fridge, the bread into the big airtight tin. The biscuits should be put into the plastic box where they would remain for the next ten minutes until someone downstairs wanted one.

Upstairs in the bedroom that looked out on the street, they sat in the two little chairs with the round table between them. When Dee was young her mother had said that a table with a cloth over it was the height of class in a bedroom. Especially the Master Bedroom. People still used that word to describe the front bedroom. Dee and Liam would laugh at it. Nothing very masterful about their room.

There was a big bed with built-in cupboards on either side. There were suitcases for holidays that they didn’t take any more, and Dee’s salsa dress for dance classes she didn’t go to nowadays. She was too tired for one thing and they were too dear for another.

On the wall was a poster of Taormina in Sicily where they had spent their honeymoon and a Spanish hat they had bought in Majorca when they had the family holiday there long ago. It always made them laugh.

Today they didn’t laugh as they sipped their tea. They both looked troubled.

‘What is it, Liam?’ Dee asked eventually.

‘It’s Mash. He’s gone. The whole thing is over.’ His face looked bleak and empty.

‘Mash Macken in trouble? I don’t believe it. Hasn’t he a load of work?’

‘Had. But people aren’t paying him. Because of the downturn. You know those fourteen townhouses we did?’

‘I do, weren’t they marvellous?’

‘Yes, but not any more. The guy who developed them is skint. He ran off to England and left a letter for Mash saying he was sorry. Sorry? That was what we were all relying on.’

‘Didn’t Mash get any money in advance, like a deposit? Or anything?’ Dee felt a cold lump beginning to form inside.

‘You know the way it is. Mash told us straight. This guy put so much business his way and always paid up before. It would be like spitting in his face to ask him for a deposit.’

‘And now look what’s happened. Will he be letting people go, or giving short hours to everyone?’ Dee searched his face for the answer. But she didn’t need to search any longer.

‘He’s paying us off tonight, and he’s going to sell whatever stuff he has around the yard and divide it up. It won’t get much, nobody’s building now. And then he’s off to live with his daughter in Australia.’

‘And …?’ Dee could barely speak.

‘And we’re all on the scrap heap, Dee. As from tomorrow I’m unemployed.’

Chapter Two

‘Mam and Dad are a long time upstairs,’ Helen said as she looked up from her brochures.

‘They’re probably at it,’ Rosie said, sighing with disapproval.

‘Rosie!’ Helen was horrified. ‘Come on! They’re much too old.’

‘Men never think that, they want to do it every single night.’ Rosie spoke with the voice of authority.

‘But Rosie, it’s not the same. Ronan is young, but Dad … I mean, can you imagine Dad …’ Her voice trailed away.

‘I don’t want to imagine it but, believe me, that’s all that men think about.’ Rosie was firm.

‘I’d say they’re just talking.’ Helen was hopeful. ‘What do you think, Anthony?’

Anthony as usual had heard nothing because he had his earphones in and was listening to music on his iPod. He knew he was being spoken to from their faces.

‘Fine, it’s all just fine with me,’ he said agreeably.

The sisters exchanged weary glances.

Josie found to her surprise that her husband Harry was already at home. No jobs tonight, he said, a big reception where he was going to play had been cancelled.

‘It’s the downturn,’ Harry said as he poured out two glasses of a very rough red wine. ‘It’s all due to the economy. There’s no money for big receptions any more and, if there is, they don’t have enough to pay a band.’

‘Isn’t it a bit early to be getting into the wine?’ Josie asked mildly.

‘It is – and it isn’t. I don’t have any gigs for the next three weeks so we’ll be living on your earnings. That won’t amount to many treats. Let’s enjoy this.’

‘I’m sure it’s not as bad as all that,’ Josie said.

‘It is and worse,’ said Harry. ‘I met Liam Nolan on the way home, he got his cards today. Mash’s business has gone belly up.’

‘Liam’s lost his job?’ Josie was shocked.

‘Yeah, he’s probably in the process of telling Dee now. That’s not going to go down well.’

‘It’s certainly not,’ Josie agreed.

‘Still, haven’t they a great rake of children, two girls and a boy, all grown up? They’ll bail him out all right, won’t they?’

‘I wouldn’t bet money on that …’ Josie didn’t think that Rosie, Anthony and Helen contributed much to the Nolan household.

‘Well, they’d hardly be living there and paying nothing,’ Harry said, savouring the terrible wine.

Things were very simple in Harry’s life.

In a dark bar, Mash Macken was trying to do a deal with the owner who was busy polishing glasses.

‘I’m having a few lads in here tonight,’ he began. ‘I have to give them a bit of bad news. I wonder, could we have something to eat, like maybe sausages and French bread and a bit of cheese?’

‘Are you laying them off?’ The man behind the bar had seen it all and knew it all.

‘Yes, that’s the situation,’ Mash agreed gloomily.

‘I’d say you’d need to push the boat out further than a few sandwiches,’ the man said, still polishing the glasses. ‘If it were me I’d think in terms of a few large brandies.’

‘I’ve paid all their stamps, they’ll get benefit.’

‘Yeah, that’s going to be something to look forward to,’ said the barman.

Mash wondered had the fellow always been like this or was it just working in a bar that made him this way?

Dee had been tired already but now she felt totally exhausted. She sat on the bed and stretched out her legs.

Liam pulled his chair up beside her. He stroked her hair.

‘Poor Dee,’ he said. ‘I wanted a better life for you, I really did.’

‘Don’t I have a great life?’ she managed.

‘But this … what will we do?’

‘Will there be no one else hiring?’ she asked, though she knew the answer. Mash had been living on borrowed time as it was.

‘Not a whisper. I could try getting little cards printed like you have and set up as “Liam Nolan Electrical Repairs”.’ He smiled for a moment thinking about it, then his face changed. ‘Along with a thousand others,’ he added lamely.

‘Whatever happens, Liam, we’re not going to get down. We’re not going to get into some black hole of depression over it. Do you hear me?’

‘I hear you, but you
have
your job, Dee …’ He looked beaten and sad.

‘But that’s all it is – a job. Yours is a career, a profession, a trade. Don’t give up on us now, Liam, I beg you. I love you so much, I couldn’t bear to see you all down.’

‘I love you too.’ He stroked her hand.

‘Well then, aren’t we luckier than a lot of people.’ She had convinced herself by this stage, and her energy was coming back. ‘Come on, Liam, let’s go downstairs now and tell the children about it all.’

Dee got off the bed and looked at herself in the mirror. She ran a brush through her hair and put on a little lipstick. ‘Here, smarten yourself up a bit, Liam. Don’t let them see you defeated.’

‘I
am
defeated, Dee.’

‘Only if you let yourself be,’ she said.

‘Do you think we should leave telling them tonight? Maybe I’ll get something else. No point in worrying them and upsetting them,’ Liam said.

‘We’re a family – they must know. They are going to help us get through this.’

‘But
gradually
, not in one big announcement. You know, I don’t want to go down and say that I’ve lost my job, show them I can’t keep a roof over their heads. I don’t want to say it yet, Dee, not until we’ve looked at everything. Why involve them at this stage?’

‘We can’t protect them from this, Liam, it’s too big. It’s going to affect all of us. And they are all grown-ups now, they’re in their twenties. They’re not babies and we can’t treat them like infants. They can all contribute to the running of the house. We’re not driving them away, after all. Although if they did move out, we could maybe rent out their rooms … You and I had our own homes at their age …’

They went downstairs.

Nobody looked up.

Rosie still scanned her face in the mirror, Anthony smiled to himself as he sought and found further musical excitement on his iPod. Helen still worked on her plans for the school trip. She had almost assembled now the sheet of paper that she would show to the school principal as her final plan.

Nobody had opened the bag of shopping that Dee had bought so carefully in the supermarket, hunting down bargains all over the store. The bag stood where it had been left, leaning against the table. The question of supper had not been considered by anyone, any more than the matter of clearing up after lunch. The bundle of clean, dry clothes stood by the washing machine as it had done at four this morning.

Dee felt a huge tiredness across her shoulders, the kind of tiredness that might never go away. How had it got to this? Was she responsible for their selfishness? Was it her fault they contributed nothing at all to the running of the house? Was it Liam’s fault?

‘Here we all are,’ Liam said to his three grown-up children. ‘A full house, that’s what I like to see …’

Anthony raised his eyes from the tiny screen he was watching. ‘Great!’ he said enthusiastically and went straight back to the screen.

Rosie put on more lip salve and made further faces at her own reflection.

Only Helen showed any interest. She looked at the faces of her parents, from one to the other and back.

‘There’s nothing wrong is there, Mam? Dad?’

‘Well, nothing we can’t work out together,’ Liam said.

‘Bad times for all of us. Your dad and I were just talking about it. Mash Macken’s business has gone under. We thought he was safe but it turns out none of our jobs are safe.’

‘Oh, isn’t that
terrible
!’ Helen said.

‘What’s terrible?’ Rosie asked.

Dee said nothing.

‘Dad and Mam were saying that things are bad for Mash Macken, no jobs are safe,’ Helen explained.

‘Tell me about it, there’s no work out there,’ Anthony agreed.

‘But it may not be as bad as it looks,’ Liam said soothingly.

‘Or of course it could be even worse than it looks.’ Dee was clipped.

‘Why, Mam? Why do you always see the bad side of things?’ Rosie had a particular sort of whine that must have contributed greatly to the serious marital difficulties that she and Ronan were going through.

Something had got through to Anthony. He had not put his earphones on again, and was looking from one face to another to catch up.

‘Will we have enough money?’ he asked simply.

Dee looked at him in wonder. He had always been an easy child to rear, dreamy, in a world of his own. He was always willing to help, if reminded half a dozen times. He always hoped that there would soon be recognition of his musical talents, and fame and world success would follow. Then he could have a big comfortable house for his parents, a home by the sea. But he still looked at his father’s impending unemployment from his own point of view.

‘Would we have enough money?’ was all he wanted to know. Nothing about how he could go out and earn some money – nothing from any one of the three of them about that.

‘Did he pay your stamps, Da?’ Rosie enquired.

‘Yes, he did, and if—’

‘Ah well, you’ll be fine then.’ For Rosie it was a problem solved.

‘You get an income and no need to go out to work? Won’t that be great altogether, Da? I’d love that on a Monday morning,’ Helen said.

Dee looked at her. At least she was the only one of them who did have a proper job. But she had never contributed a cent to the house where she lived. The thought had never crossed her mind. When Dee had mentioned it to Liam, he had always said,
nonsense, it was her home
.

But Dee felt she must explain unemployment benefit more fully.

‘Your father paid in to his stamps, just like Mash Macken did. So he’ll get around half his week’s wages, his entitlement, do you understand? He is entitled to that money.’

‘Keep your shirt on, Mam,’ Rosie said.

‘There’s no problem then.’ Anthony loved things to be sorted.

‘Don’t always be bringing Dad down,’ Helen pleaded.

Dee snapped. ‘You are three great selfish lumps! Look at yourselves, just sitting there, letting me wait on you hand and foot. It’s time you lot woke up – there are going to be some changes around here. Yes, I thought that might shock you. But if you’re going to carry on living here –
if
you’re going to keep on living here – you’re going to have to contribute to the household just as much as you would if you were living anywhere else.’