Blood Ties by Julie Shaw

Author:Julie Shaw
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2015-12-04T05:00:00+00:00

Her dad and Irene were up in the flat, poring over the account books. She hating talking to them then, being reminded how tight money was. Being reminded by Irene how lucky she was to have a job, when so many others had nowt.

But her dad looked up and smiled and said, yes, of course, love. Go and fetch some. And Irene, who’d obviously downed a gin or two at lunchtime, didn’t even raise her head to comment. There was a difference in her now – a kind of distracted, glassy-eyed way about her – and Kathleen wondered if, now she’d had the satisfaction of seeing Terry off, she’d nothing between her and her grief.

She pocketed the money and ran back downstairs, the music from the bedroom blaring as she went.

Monica was still caterwauling as Kathleen reached for her raincoat, now about how short life was.

And, Kathleen thought, short and extremely uncertain. The Beatles were right; fussing and fighting were a waste of what little time you did have. She thought of her dad, and of Irene, and how they’d set up ‘home’ together, and how much fussing and fighting had gone on as a consequence.

She wanted better. She understood, and the knowledge was helpful – it made her realise that life could throw all sorts of stuff at you, and that you couldn’t know how you’d deal with it till you were actually in the midst of it – but at the same time, she knew she wanted better.

She also wished she didn’t feel so lonely. She missed out all the time, working nights most of the week – missed out on parties and pub nights and just being with her friends – but mostly she missed what she’d only just found, the business of being with a lad – well, a man – and having a special someone to talk to.

She opened the door a little and the wind blew it the rest of the way, bouncing it back again, against its hinges. It was probably the worst time to walk all the way to Woolworths, but in her perverse frame of mind, it was also the best. Like Jane Eyre crossing the moor after leaving Mr Rochester, there felt something very appropriate in stomping out into the teeth of a gale.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.