Albatross by Evelyn Anthony

Author:Evelyn Anthony
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media

6

‘I’ve cleaned up for you,’ the boy called Ronnie said. ‘And I got some sausages and stuff for supper.’

Humphrey looked round at the bleak little sitting room. It was spotlessly tidy, as it had been when he left for the office that morning. Ronnie stood waiting for approval.

‘It looks very nice,’ Humphrey said. ‘Thanks for getting the shopping for me. It’s a nuisance buying food on my way home. Usually I don’t bother,’ he admitted.

‘I’ll cook up something,’ Ronnie offered eagerly. ‘I’m not too bad at it, used to help Mum when we were all at home. You sit down. Like a drink?’

Humphrey nodded. He looked at the smiling young face and felt a sense of warmth and comfort he had never before known. Such a genuinely nice boy, grateful for everything, anxious to please. He had never had anyone to look after him before.

‘That would be nice, Ronnie. Sherry please – and have one with me. Thanks. Now tell me, did you go to the job centre today?’

‘I went as soon as I’d tidied up,’ was the answer. ‘There was a job as a washer-up in a café up Pimlico way. I saw the manageress, but she was a right old cow. The pay was twenty quid a week, for six nights, seven till twelve o’clock.’

Humphrey said sharply, ‘You didn’t take it, I hope?’

The boy looked awkward. ‘Well I did, starting tomorrow. I can’t sponge off you much longer.’

Humphrey said firmly, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Twenty pounds a week wouldn’t feed you, let alone anything else. It’s slave labour, that’s all. Besides, if you worked in the evenings, we’d never see each other.’

Ronnie glanced up at him; he looked shy. ‘No, we wouldn’t. I did think about that. What shall I do about it, then?’

Humphrey finished his sherry. Ronnie was on his feet at once to get him a refill. ‘You go back to the exchange tomorrow,’ he said, ‘and tell them that the job was quite unsuitable. And don’t worry. Something will turn up so long as you keep going. And you know you’re welcome to stay here as long as you like.’

He had the most infectious, guileless grin. It spread over his face and made Humphrey smile a little too. ‘You’re good to me,’ he said. ‘I was dreading that job. She was such an old bag, that woman.…’

‘Forget it,’ Humphrey advised. ‘You don’t want to work for someone like that anyway, whatever they pay you. After all,’ he said it quite casually, ‘if you want pocket money while you’re looking for something, I can manage that. You keep the flat tidy, see to the shopping and that sort of thing.…’ He didn’t look at the boy. He didn’t want him to see the anxiety behind the offer. He didn’t understand how he could mind so much about Ronnie getting a job and going to live somewhere else.

But he did. He didn’t care if he never found work, so long as he stayed in the flat and gave him something to look forward to when he came home.

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