Never a Hero To Me by Black Tracy

Author:Black, Tracy [Black, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780857203304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2011-05-11T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

A MAN WITH FRIENDS

Billy Stoppard was one of my dad’s drinking buddies. I don’t know how much deeper that link went – but I was about to find out part of it. He was a big man, physically imposing and in a different regiment to my father, although he was a proper soldier not an impostor like Dad.

One day I came back from school and my parents were sitting in the living room chatting to another couple. It was Billy and his wife, Chrissie. Mum knew Chrissie from bingo and that’s what they were chatting about. I heard Billy say, ‘Fancy going out tonight?’ and Chrissie replied by asking him where he was taking her. He laughed and said, ‘No, I’m working – why don’t you have a night out with Valerie at the bingo?’

Chrissie said she had no one to look after their three kids, who were only little and not at school yet. Billy looked at my dad and smirked. ‘That’s a shame, love – isn’t it, Harry?’ He paused. ‘Here, Harry – don’t suppose you’ve got any ideas, have you?’

My dad smiled too. ‘Well, Tracy’s a big girl now, isn’t she? Would you like her?’

‘I think that would be absolutely perfect,’ retorted Billy. ‘What do you think, Chrissie?’

I was quiet and tall for my age. I looked like the sort of kid who could take on responsibility, so Chrissie had no reason to worry. ‘It’s only for a couple of hours I suppose,’ she said. ‘Is that all right with you, Valerie? The kids will be sleeping anyway.’ My mum shrugged, probably wondering why anybody would want to spend time with me if they didn’t have to, and Dad sealed the deal. ‘Sounds good to me,’ he said to Billy. ‘She could do with a bit of pocket money, so make sure you pay her.’

‘For her services!’ Billy laughed.

I wasn’t sure about it but I was keen to make some money and Dad said I would get ten Deutschmarks for my trouble. There was a school skiing trip coming up which I really wanted to go on and Dad had said if I could save the money up by myself, I could go. This had seemed like quite a concession from him. It had only been a couple of days before, and I now see he was softening me up for Billy’s approach. By planting the seed in my mind that if I could get the money I could go on the trip, he knew I would see the babysitting as a means to an end.

Later that night, he said he would walk me round to Billy and Chrissie’s while Mum got ready for bingo. ‘Now, you must be a good girl for him, OK?’ he warned me as we approached their house. ‘You be really, really good.’

I didn’t pay attention to Dad; I was just glad to get the night away from him. Chrissie put the kids in bed before she left and said she’d

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