CHAPTER 38
We finished off our drinks, and after a quick nod of thanks to Jim we set out for the Club. Rachel was smirking.

“That was clever of him”

I had to ask, and she explained.

“Look, we’re off somewhere else, yeah?”

“Yeah…”

“Licensed premises, that have lower prices than his pub, yeah?”

“Well, aye”

“And he’s just put the obligation onto us by buying the first round”

Mam started to laugh. “To sort of quote the lad, just cause he’s a Geordie doesn’t mean he’s daft!”

We were still laughing as we went through the doors of the club, and Mam took control, using her stick as a badge to clear the way to a table big enough for us. Unfortunately, there was a singleton drinker sat there.

“How, Raafie!”

“Hello to ye, Mrs Carter”

“We’s are all here to have a bit dinner, like, so can Ah ax ye to share the tyebbel?”

Will turned to me, together with the two girls, and asked “What the fu…?”

Ralph nodded. “Aye, Norma, ne problems. Whe’s aal these wi’thee?”

She paused for a second, and when she spoke again, it was clear she was enunciating for the benefit of the group.

“Whey, Rob and Neil you know. This is Rob’s lass Larinda, and his friends Rachel and William. No, bloody hell, Raafie, they are friends of Rob’s, not friends like that, ye daft sod. Rachel, Will, Larinda, this is Raafie Elliott, a friend of Rob’s dad”

Ralph smiled. “And of yours, Norma, ye knaa that. Now, Rob, Ah thowt ye had some Welsh lass, aye?”

“Raafie, Will is her son, like. Didn’t work out, but Will’s a canny lad, and he’s looking at Newcastle University. He’s stopping with us for a while, interviews and that”

Just then, Will’s phone went, and he looked at the display.

“It’s Mam. Shush all, please…hiya, Mam, here in one piece, gone out to a pub for tea, yeah? Bit noisy…No, no problems with the flight…yeah, got my luggage OK….no, I don’t think they want ties, Mam…yeah, love you too, I’ll call, they’re just bringing my food over. Bye!”

We sat down by the old man, and he gave Will a sharp look. “So, that Welsh lass and thee aren’t on the best of terms, like. She doesn’t knaa he’s staying at thy Mam’s?”

He was doing his best to speak clearly enough for the others, which was sweet, I thought, followed by the realisation that I had just thought of one of my Dad’s old drinking buddies as ‘sweet’.

“Aye, that’s the score. We’ll look after him for the weekend, get the college bit done, then show him around, let him know what a superb place we live in”

Ralph snorted. “Aye, better than that London, ah owe!”

Will finally spoke up. “I don’t live in ‘that London’, it’s Hampshire, and I’m Welsh!”

“How, bonny lad, anywhere south of the Tees is that London, but Ah’ll own Wales is a bit different, like. Seriously, lad, ye’ll like it here. There’s a hell of a lot mair than pits and dole queues. Rob, where’ll ye tyek ‘im?”

“Ach, after the session at the college we won’t have that much of the day left, so I thought just Tynemouth and Marsden, then come back in for a few beers the night”

Ralph snorted. “What, the Bigg Market? Put him reet off!”

“Na, Haymarket, mebbes, and Quayside. Bit more sensible, like. Then off back the Sunday”

Larinda pushed something into my hand, caught my eye, and smiled sweetly.

“Belly thinks me throat’s been cut, love, so hurry up and order. Rach and your bro have gone for the drinks”

The menu.. She smiled innocently at me. “Just remember, Carter, that after this weekend the gloves are off. Healthy mind, healthy body”

Ralph snorted. “Noo, Ah prefer an unhealthy mind, mesel. More fun, like”

Mam slapped his arm. “Wor lad was bad enough, but now I see exactly where he got it from”

“How, Norma! It was your lad that corrupted me! Ah was aal sweetness and light, before then!”

“Raafie Elliott, ye were a matelot, and I know for a certain fact it was ye who showed him round Bugis Street when he were a lad, aye?”

The old man grinned happily. “Memories….varry, vary unhealthy minds they had there, Ah owe!”

Will was still gobsmacked by their conversation.

“Larinda, if you listen, very carefully, and they speak slowly, it’s still incomprehensible. Rob, do they all talk that way up here? Do I need language lessons before I come?”

I had to laugh out loud when I saw the twinkle in Ralph’s eye. “Will, it’s just a wind-up. He can speak English as well as you can, he just enjoys his bit tease, aye, Raafie?”

“Whey aye, Rob. Bit difficult being a CPO if you can’t”

“That’s Chief Petty Officer, folks. He met Dad when he was on tour in Singapore., back when they both still had hair”

“Cheeky hoit that ye are, Rob! Howay, sit yerselves doon, aye? Will, indulge an aad man, like, and tell us what ye want to study”

Larinda interrupted. “Food order first, please? I think better when I’m not running on fumes”

That was quickly done, and once we were through with the order, Will started to explain, as he always did, the why as well as the what. Ralph was nodding in understanding.

“Ah was on a submarine tender, lad, for a while. Ye end up in aal sorts of places, including way, way out in the middle of the oggy. Normally, ye see nowt, cause there’s all lights and stuff where people are working, but some of the watches, like, ye get a bit shelter, and then there’s the sky…and it’s summat that landsmen hardly ever get to see, aye? So much of it, and it’s like, ye knaas, like ye could read a book just wi the starlight. So, young Will, aye? Myek an aad man a promise, like”

Will was clearly intrigued. “Promise you what, Mr Elliott?”

“Raafie, son, Raafie. If ye’re aad enough to sup, ye’re aad enough to use me nyem. So gie’s a promise, Will, that ye’ll nivvor, ivvor, lose that sense of what the stars can be just by finding oot what they actually are, like. Promise?”

Will grinned, and I realised that he understood immediately what Ralph meant. There was beauty in the world, and an education should help you see it more clearly, not rip the joy from it. Will just nodded and gave his promise, then turned to me.

“Rob, I think I am definitely going to like it here! People talk sense, even if I can’t understand it most of the time”

Larinda was shaking her head at that. “Another one lost…”

“How, Will?”

“Er, aye, Raafie?”

“Ye got a lass yersel, doon that Hampshire?”

I could see Will’s mood puncture, and to no great surprise I saw that Ralph had picked up the signals himself. He lowered his voice, pausing as the food was delivered, and glancing at my brother.

“So, ah suppose ye’re another’un like young Neil here, aye? Means nowt to me, like. Nelly’s been a good marra, looks after his Mam, aye? And ah larned a lang, lang time back…”

He paused, and took a slow sip of his pint, eyes twinkling. “The mair o yeez aboot, the mair lasses it leaves for us that prefers them!”

Rachel got that one almost as quickly as the locals, and she turned and grinned, first at Neil, and then at me.

“Yeah, and dykes, yeah, they do the same for me. Oh…”

Her own little act went on, with a voice full of woe and weariness she said, “So many men, so little time…”

I thought back to my last visit, to the delights of George Bell, and then saw Jim’s face overlaying Ralph’s. Two men, both of whom Dad had known, but one for most of his life. I had realised, that last visit, what I should have known without need of reminders, that my family had depth, and strength, and if my father had given out his friendship to other men they would have had to show him similar depths. Bell had sprouted in the dark like some sort of mould, dank and rotten to the heart, soiling whatever and whomever he touched, while Ralph had lived, experienced, seen; George had stayed in the playground and fought the same battles over and over again. A small mind had found no wider horizon than the next trip to the pub.

It actually gave me hope, for if I was to do something about my life, or lack of one, then there were people here that showed I could survive. Hope…bloody hell.

Larinda saw my change in mood, and whispered a soft “What’s up?”

“Nothing, love, just realising there are some diamonds about, aye?”

She just grinned, and tore into her food as Will prattled on about what Ralph had been able to see South of the equator, and Mam just smiled gently to herself and gave me the gift of a wink, just as the turn started up.

Now, those unfamiliar with working men’s clubs will need to understand that there is a whole world of entertainment that is encountered only in such places, but the precise meaning of the word ‘entertainment’ is open to personal interpretation and a very wide range of values. To put it another way, even Ralph winced at the singer’s voice.

“Bugger a hell, Rob, she’s new to the circuit, like, but ah divvent think she’ll get much older on it”

“Aye and you’re not wrong there. We were off to the Nev after the food, like. You fancy a quieter pint?”

“Aye, Ah’ll be generous and let ye treat an aad man to a drink. Sup up; an, ye knaa, Ah might just have some books for this lad, aye?”

He caught Mam’s look, and laughed. “No, ye daft besom, not THAT sort of book! A bloody star atlas!”

I lay in bed, hours later, listening to Larinda beside me, and thought about that word again. Hope. For me, for Neil, for Will. It was looking as if there were corners to turn at last.