Jessie's Journey by Jess Smith

Author:Jess Smith [Smith, Jess]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857901781
Publisher: Birlinn

19

THE LIVING NIGHTMARE

That was a braw summer’s jaunt in the old bus. Why the others were hankering after a house beats me. Back at Crieff, though, this is all the family spoke about, apart from Chrissie. The lad she left in the spring has returned with a yearning look in his eye, and Mammy thinks her second eldest is falling in love.

Daddy, as he’d planned earlier in the year, set about finding out the ways of spray-painting. The events this set in motion unfolded themselves into a living nightmare, though it began so well. He busied himself during the summer months offering his services to paint farm sheds, barns and the farmer’s house if so desired (one eccentric wife had her farmhouse painted a bright pink, but that’s another story). Soon he’d lined up several good jobs, but without the right equipment to take on such a task he was neither here nor there. So, unable to buy new, he bought second-hand.

Did he know that the compressor, spraying guns and pipes were stolen?

‘I never knew,’ was what he swore on the good book that cold morning standing in Perth Court accused of reset! The judge didn’t believe him.

Now, this travelling-people hater of a judge decided, on that misty Monday morning in October, that an example should be made: ‘Six months for reset.’

‘God in Heaven, that’s richt steep for a first offence,’ said Daddy’s brother Wullie, who along with Cousin John went to the court with him.

Before my father was led away to serve his sentence, he glanced across the River Tay from the courthouse window, and leaning over at his brother he said, ‘If I’m still in the stardy come next summer, take the lassies on the river for a wee bit pearl-fishing and make sure Jeannie knows how sorry I am for putting us in this pitiful state. Tell her I’m sorry about her house. I’ll make it up to her when I get home!’

Mammy’s anxious wait for the verdict was soon over. When she saw Cousin John drive the Fordy home she knew that she and her Charlie had hard times facing them, but how to keep us weans from learning the truth about him being in jail was more important.

‘When he gets back we’ll all pile in to build your house, Jeannie. Six months will fly by, don’t you fret.’ Cousin John was always a faithful friend to my folks. He took a sip of tea, then added, ‘That is, if he minds his tongue and doesn’t get extra time for his trouble.’

My mother wrung her hands tight and reminded John, ‘He’s an ex-soldier, he can take orders, aye, and give them too. He’ll keep his mouth shut, for that’s a place not even a dog would want to linger in. As for this house of mine, well, it’s a pipe dream, all in my head. My Charlie could never be happy trapped between four walls. No, the road is to be our way of life. Most important is that the wee ones don’t find out where their Daddy is.

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