The Memory Cage by Ruth Eastham

Author:Ruth Eastham [Ruth Eastham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781911342571
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing
Published: 2017-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

– CHAPTER 11 –

THE GRANDFATHER CLOCK

In the hallway. 5:35 p.m. A ticking off.

“Take your father’s advice,” Great-Aunt Mildred snapped. “Stop stirring up the past.”

She pointed her stick at my fist mark on the paintwork. “And you can stop that destructive behaviour right now, boy.” She spoke slowly and loudly, as if I were hard of hearing and didn’t know English. “We don’t do that sort of thing in civilized countries, you know.

“I let myself in, seeing as the front door was open,” she said. “I’ve got better things to do than wait on your front step in the pouring rain knocking and being ignored, and with all the din going on and the clattering about in the kitchen, it’s no wonder nobody heard me.”

Nosy Old Bat, I thought. What’s wrong with waiting in the porch? But then I realized our unfriendly fake Great-Aunt Mildred must know something about Grandad’s time during the war. She had to. And there wasn’t any time for polite chit-chat. I plunged in with my question.

“What happened to Grandad’s brother, Tommie?”

Great-Aunt Mildred looked at me hard and made a clacking sound with her false teeth. “Ah, now, there’s a story,” she said. “There’s a real drama.”

Couldn’t she give me a straight answer?

“That’s what you want to know about, is it? After all these years …” Great-Aunt Mildred looked around to check nobody was about. “I promised your father I wouldn’t say anything.” She glanced towards the closed door of Dad’s study.

“But you go raking up the past and you get what you deserve, young man.” She licked her lips, like she was on the beach about to open a packet of ham sandwiches that she’d been really looking forward to.

“Just tell me about Tommie,” I said. “Please.”

She leaned on her stick and eyed me.

“At first your grandad William didn’t go to war at all. He pretended to have principles.” She turned her nose up at the word. “He wasted his time on photography instead.

“Then he lured Tommie over to Dunkirk and got him killed.”

I flinched. Two different people saying that Grandad had got his brother killed. Did that make it true? I imagined Great-Aunt Mildred gossiping over her garden hedge to her neighbours, spreading lies. That’s what they were, weren’t they? Big fat lies from people with nothing better to do.

“William even got a medal for bravery,” Great-Aunt Mildred scoffed. “Can you believe that? The soldier who recommended him must have been bribed! Either that or he had shell shock!”

She gave out a short, dry laugh.

“William got everything, he did, once Tommie was dead. The house and everything in it.”

What was she saying? That Grandad deliberately planned to get his brother killed so he could inherit the house?

Great-Aunt Mildred scowled. “The house wasn’t the only thing he got his hands on.”

She waddled down the hall and tapped her stick on the door of the grandfather clock. “Did you know that was a wedding present from your grandad to your grandma? Did you know that?” I shook my head and she puckered her lips.

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