Chapter 2

In the nurses’ office it was a little cramped so we took it in turn to get changed. One by one we took the uniform off for the last time and passed it to those outside to put with the other uniforms in the spare room. Ingrid was first, coming out in a shortish shift in the school blue, accentuated by a white belt and piping.

Jacquie had a full skirt and a plunging neckline with a black belt and trim. Paula took us all by surprise when she came out in a mid-calf sheath in the blue, as decided, but overlaid with sparkles. With the high heels, she looked like a film star. Angie appeared with a pencil skirt and a silk blouse, looking every inch the lady of the manor.

I had my blue cut-on-the-bias sheath, almost mid-thigh, with wide sleeves reaching below my elbows. It had been expensive but my mother insisted it looked too good to leave in the shop. We had the bags that we had carried in, so everything we wanted to take home went in easily. Carrying our bags, we walked back towards the small hall, heels clicking on the hard floor and all happy to be walking towards freedom and our new lives.

First, however, was the party, when we walked in through the door and put our bags by the wall for later, there was a smattering of applause. The newspaper photographer wanted more pictures of us. Pictures of each of us alone, posed with the bare wall behind us. Then it was as a group, or in pairs, then with our parents. Then it was pictures with the Headmistress and other teachers, and then with the Mayoress and other dignitaries. It was crazy for a while and then we could speak to our families, at least, for a short time, until food was served. It was a stand-up buffet and we tried our best to remain dainty and not spread crumbs over our new dresses.

We were each spoken to by the Mayoress and all of the school board, mainly congratulating us on our beauty matched with brains. One of the Governors was a partner in the firm where Mum worked and where I hoped to spend some time before University. He asked me about any office skills I had and, when I told him that I had spent a couple of summers helping out at the garage, he nodded sagely.

“I expect that you’re a competent typist and know your way around a computer?”

He looked at my father as I nodded. “I gather she did filing and some stock control?”

My father nodded. “I had my heart set on getting her into the office, when she was there it ran like clockwork and she has a way with the customers.”

“All right! You’ll be wasted doing office jobs with us.”

My heart lurched, was he going to withdraw his offer. Even Mum looked worried.

“When you come along on your first day, I want to see you looking smart. Your mother knows what I mean, the standard skirt suit and low heels because you may find yourself on your feet a lot. I will put you with our court team as a helper and trainee. You’ll spend a lot of time in court and, I think, get to meet most of those who run things there. By the end of summer, I expect that you could mount a case on your own, in fact, I think we may have you mirror a real case with the lawyer who will be acting for us and I’ll quiz you both on how you intend to present it.”

I thanked him. That was jumping in at the deep end, for sure. Mum gave him a smile, and gave my arm a squeeze. “We’ll have her looking like she’s been called already, thank you, sir.”

When the party wound up, and we were going home with Dad driving, Mum turned to me, sitting in the back. “You girls have done us lowly parents proud. Each one of you has made impressions that will last, today. As a group I saw why the other girls called you the ‘Fabulous Five’, together, you’re knockouts.”

That night, we went to a restaurant for a nice meal. Dad slowly coming to grips with the young lady who sat next to his wife. I think that he had never considered me as anything but a schoolgirl, until today. I know that Mum was starting to think about her life once I was off at Uni. It would be a bit lonely for her and I knew I would have to accept the fact that I was likely to get a lot of phone calls from her.

The next day was Saturday and the morning was set aside for a little shopping. Mum knew a salon where all of the legal profession shopped, both male and female, and we made a beeline there. Before long I had three skirt suits in black, grey and a dark blue with pinstripe. Those, teamed with the six blouses we found, would be enough to let me look the part in the courts.

The afternoon was a planned outing with Roddy. He had said that we might go to the seaside and to have a bikini with me. I was outside and waiting when he arrived. He wasn’t alone in the car, as there were two others already in the back seat. As usual, I had to open the passenger door myself before I could get in. I put my bag between my legs, not being able to drop it on the back seat.

He was pulling away while I was still getting the seat belt untangled.

“Hey, slow down, Rod, I need to get buckled in!”

“He’s been like this since he picked us up,” said a voice I knew from the back.

I looked around and saw Ed, sitting behind Roddy. Turning my head more, I was surprised when, instead of Angie, I saw Jacinta Bellows. Now, Jacinta, or Cin, as she liked to be called, was well known among my peers as the town bike. She went to the Council School, or did until they tossed her out for going all the way with a lad behind the bike sheds. If she was on this trip as Eds’ partner, things didn’t look very good.

I asked where we were going and Ed told me that they were going to visit his mate, Bert. That caused me more worry as Bert had a reputation as a dealer, although nothing had ever been proved. You know how schoolgirls chatter with the barest hint of truth involved. This trip was starting to look like no other outing I had been on with Roddy.

“So, Roddy, what’s this afternoon all about?”

“Livie, my darling, it’s all about you not being a schoolgirl any more. It’s about doing some adult things with other adults along for the ride.”

Cin cackled, “Ooh, yes, that Bert knows lots of ways to give a girl a good time!”

This didn’t look good. I sat as we left our town and went through some countryside. I delved into my bag for my lipstick but dropped it as we went over a bump. When I reached down and looked for it, I felt a plastic bag pushed under the seat. As I pretended to look for the lippy, I pulled it out far enough to see dried leaves in it. I pushed it back and found my lipstick, rolling around on the floor. I redid my lips and put it back in the bag.

I knew that, on the way to the coast, we had to go through a pretty big town, with several traffic lights. As we approached the town, I carefully used my thumbnail to prise the friendship ring that Rod had given me over the knuckle on quietly onto the floor.

I was lucky as we travelled through the main street. We were third in line as the lights went red and I quickly unbuckled the belt, grabbed my bag and opened the door. I didn’t even say goodbye as I got out, slammed it shut, and strode across the pavement into the Marks and Spencer shop we were next to. I had been here before and knew that there were exits out to the back and into another small shopping centre.

I didn’t even have time to feel sad. Roddy had already reached the use-by date, a little earlier than I expected. There was no way I would stay with them to have a drugged evening, one of two girls with three guys. The other girl already well experienced in kinky sex, or so I had heard. I did a little shopping before making my way to the railway station. It didn’t take very long for a train to arrive to take me home. It was long enough to be hit on by three guys.

On the train, I sat alone and called Angie. When she answered I asked her if she knew where Ed was.

“He said he had to go and visit his grandma.”

“His grandma is Jacinta Bellows and they’re on their way to see his mate Bert with a bag of weed in Rods’ car.”

“What!!! How do you know?”

“I was in the front seat for a while, being taken off for an ‘adult’ time now I’m no longer a schoolgirl. I bailed out while they were at the traffic lights.”

“Hang about when you get to the station, Livie, I want to hear the whole juicy detail. I’ll borrow dads’ car and pick you up.”

At the station, I got out and went to the café area, ordered a coffee and a cake, and sat outside where I had a good view of the entrance. It only took fifteen minutes and Angie was walking towards me with a look of pure anger on her face.

“I rang the bastard before I left, asking him if he could bring me back his grannies’ recipe for scones. I heard that Cin laughing in the background and he hung up on me. That’s it! He’s finished!”

We sat there for an hour until she had calmed down and we started to make arrangements to meet up over the summer. I had to find out when I had days’ off and she had not been given a schedule yet. I told her everything about my short car trip and she agreed that I had done the right thing. We both agreed that we needed to find a better class of men, but that might be unlikely until we were in Manchester.

On Sunday, Mum took me to see all of the places I was likely to find myself in. We went past the law firm and then looped around, past the courts, past the Public Records office, past the cafes that she told me were popular among my future colleagues. The last place we went by was the hospital, where Angie would be working, and I was shown, for the first time, where the door to the morgue was, just in case I may need to go there.

As Dad was busy with the sporting teams, Mum and I had lunch together.

“Olivia, you have made me extremely proud, with your great results. I’m looking forward to seeing the local paper when it comes out. How did yesterday go? You seemed to be home very early.”

I told her everything, assuring her that I would never find myself in a similar situation in the future.

“You can’t predict the future, Liv, it has a habit of taking unexpected turns. What you did yesterday showed great initiative and courage. As long as you have that, it’s unlikely that you’ll allow a boy to get under your skin the way that Rodney did. It’s hard to move past your first love, even harder to move on from your first lover.”

I sat there, totally amazed. She had known that we were having sex, probably knew the day I lost my virginity. She had allowed me to find my own path, sure that I was faithfully taking my pills. I just nodded, blushing as I did so.

“It’s all right, I knew the day after you had your first one. A girl has a certain air about her after sex. If it’s good, the feeling never fades. If it’s bad, I’m sure that you’ll cope with it as an adult. From tomorrow, you are going to see, and hear, things that would make a whore blush. Remember, everyone we are defending is probably as guilty as hell. We don’t make a judgement, that’s up to the court. Even the nicest person can be likely to stab you just because they feel like it. Stay close to your colleagues and never allow yourself to be left alone with a client. Use your head and you’ll do well. It would be fun to be your secretary when you come back as a fully-fledged lawyer.”

I had an early evening, spending time to make sure my outfit was clean and pressed. That night I had a dream about having kinky sex with Rod and Ed, waking up crying that I couldn’t take it and bathed in sweat. In the dream I heard Jacinta laughing and saying that I would make a good addition to the whores at the club, being such a great actress.

I went to the bathroom and gave myself a flannel wash, then got into a fresh nightie and, thankfully, had a dreamless sleep for the rest of the night. The dream worried me for a few minutes after the alarm had gone off. Was I a prude? Or could I be as much as a slut as Cin. That morning I realised that a person can be anyone, or anything, they want to.

I went into my first day of actual work with Mum, in her car. I was wearing my gray skirt suit with hose and low heels. She had given me a proper legal carry-bag to use and my personal things were in the front pocket. At the office, I was greeted by the receptionist and then the partner I had met last week came out and shook my hand, took me from my mother, and escorted me to an office to meet Frank Johnson, who was going to be in charge of me for summer.

“Frank, I would like you to meet Olivia Taylor, the girl I spoke about last week. She will be your responsibility for the summer. Show her everything and don’t hold back on the nasty stuff. She’s a bright girl and is already accepted by Manchester to study law.”

He turned to me. “I’ll leave you in Franks’ capable hands. He will report back to me as needed.”

I thanked him as he left the room and then looked at Frank, who returned my look with a grin.

“Don’t hold back on the nasty stuff! Well, well, the old boy wants you to see it all. That shows that he has already some faith in your abilities. About the nastiest we get are the domestic violence cases when it comes to volume. The murders are generally only nasty when you read the post mortem reports. In actual, in your face nasty, we have to speak to our clients, some in prison, some in remand and some at their homes. I always take another guy with me when I go to their homes.”

He pointed at a small desk, with a few items on it.

“You’ll use that desk when you’re here. The notepad is for show, mainly, should we need to take notes. Usually, you will sit back and take notes on that tablet. Make sure it’s charged up every day. That way, you’ll just have to rearrange the notes into a report and print them for me when we get back. The tablet is linked by wi-fi to the printer in this room only. Put them in your bag, we’re off to see a client in remand. He has been a naughty boy, breaking into an electrical store and stealing several video-disc players.”

With that, I was back out in the open air, getting into a Jaguar and being driven to the police station. There, I was processed as a member of the legal team and given a temporary badge. I was told that a proper one would be available on my next visit. We were waved through and Frank used his badge to open doors as we went further into the building.

We arrived at a room where our client waited for us. He certainly looked brighter as he saw me.

“Jock, this is Olivia, my new assistant. She will make notes of our discussion.”

“Hello, Olivia, you’re a sight for sore eyes, in here. I’ll try and remember how you look when they put me away.”

Frank sighed. “I really think they’re going to give you two to three, this time. It will teach you to go straight or, at least, look out for security cameras.”

Jock looked at me as he answered. “This will be the third, or is it the fourth, time I’ve been in court. The first and second time they gave me a severe talking to and community service. The last time I got a month. I really don’t want to go back inside, but I’ll just have to put up with it.”

I couldn’t help myself. “Why?” I asked.

Frank, unsure of the direction of the conversation, stayed quiet.

“Why, what, Olivia?”

“Why do you keep breaking into places? Why do you have to keep doing it?”

“It’s my Mum. She’s getting on and has to keep taking expensive drugs. I’ve never kept any of the stuff I stole, just got paid enough for them to buy her next round of treatment. I had a good job when I got nabbed the first time and they let me go because they didn’t want a con around the place.”

Frank then took over and went through the interview in regard to the upcoming trial. The main thrust of the talk was if Jock was going to plead guilty, or not guilty. If he pleaded not guilty, the trial would be with a judge and jury. If he admitted his guilt, it would be a simpler, and quicker, affair in front of a magistrate, who would simply hand down the sentence after the prosecution and the defence had their say.

Jock was happy to plead guilty. He really had no choice as there was CCTV footage of him in the shop. He had worn gloves and the police hadn’t found the stolen goods, but it was the CCTV that would bury him.

As we stood to leave, he looked at us with puppy-dog eyes. “Mr Johnson, would you allow Olivia to take some money that’s in my wallet and give it to my mother. They have my wallet in the cage. I’m sure Mum would be happy to see it and she doesn’t open her door to men.”

Frank looked surprised and then nodded. “We can do that, Jock. I’ve got your home address in the file. We can do the drop-off on the way back to the office.”

Jock was beaming as we called for the warder to escort him back to the cells. Jock told the warder what he wanted us to do and the warder got on to his radio to tell the Property Officer to expect us.

Frank stayed quiet as we walked back along the corridors. I wondered if I’d overstepped the mark, back there. The Property Officer opened Jocks’ box and took the notes out of the wallet, handing them to us after I signed for them, Frank letting me run with this.

We had a prisoner to see at the hospital. His name was Colin and he had been caught, breaking into a chemist shop, through the roof, literally. He had been discovered, on the floor, after crashing through the ceiling and setting off the movement alarms. He was only a lad, looking for the pills he needed. I was sad to see him, he reminded me of Roddy and Ed, but without the means to buy his happy pills. It did cross my mind that I had no idea how Rod and Ed could afford to buy weed and coke. There had been a lot I hadn’t thought about in my love affair. Today had opened my mind to another world, and it still wasn’t lunchtime.

The visit was quick and easy. We had been given the job to defend him by the roster system that looked after prisoners with no money. I took the notes and the lad signed the official papers with his good hand, the other in a cast. I had thought that he may have been handcuffed to the bed, but, I suppose the cast on one of his legs meant he wasn’t going to run off.

Frank told him that we would be pleading guilty to criminal trespass. He was sure the police would try to get a ‘with intent’ conviction but thought that this wouldn’t stick, seeing how much damage the lad had done to himself.

I took the notes as required and gave the lad a smile as we left. Next, I found out, was lunch. Frank took me to a good café where we had a light meal and he finally spoke about our morning.

“You know, I was about to stop you when we were talking to Jock. The question, however, was so far out of left field that it made him say a few things he’s never told us, before. I wonder if he’s just a worker, stealing to order. There’s been a spate of break-ins where small electricals have been stolen. His MO is suspiciously like a lot of others where no-one has been arrested. They’ve never found a single item that he was seen stealing, not even one in his home. I wonder if he was just doing it, as he told us, for his mother. When you deliver the money, I’ll wait in the car and you may be able to get her to give you more information. Jock may not have to spend as much time as we thought if there are mitigating circumstances. We done, back there, I’ve had juniors who were too scared to even breathe loudly in interviews.”

After lunch, we looped by the estate where Jock and his mother lived. It was a row of small terrace houses, the old-fashioned two-up, two-down places. He parked a couple of houses away and I walked back to her door and banged the knocker.

After a little while the door opened a crack, stopped by a chain.

“What do you want? If you’re selling I don’t want any.”

“Mrs. Macready, my name is Olivia Taylor and I spoke to Jock, this morning, at the police station. He asked me to bring you some money that he had in his wallet. He’s worried about you.”

“You’d better come in then, don’t flash any cash outside. You never know who may be watching.”

The door closed and there was a rattle as the chain was taken off. She allowed me to push it open as she went towards the back of the house, walking slowly and using a stick.

“Come into the kitchen, lassie, I’ll put the kettle on. How was my boy?”

“He’s fine Mrs Macready, just worried about going inside for a couple of years.”

“A couple of years! I never thought he’d get that long. Who knows, I may have had my hip replacement by then. On the other hand, I may have just keeled over from the pain.”

“Is that the reason you need drugs, to stop the pain?”

She took the now whistling kettle and poured water into two cups with teabags in them. I could see her working out whether to tell me something.

I sat and sipped at the black tea as if I drank it regularly, and then she made up her mind.

“Look, young lassie, you’ve no idea how much it hurts. I should have had the hip replaced a year or more ago, but I’m still on the waiting list while ‘more important people to the community’ get theirs done. My bloody doctor told me that, straight out!”

“So Jock gets you money to help with the pain? I’m thinking that what that allows you to buy doesn’t come from the chemist.”

“Damned right it doesn’t. His brother gets me a bag of pain-killer every now and then. I know Jock has done little jobs that Jamie has put his way to get the money. This thing with stealing electrical goods was, for me, a big surprise. I know he’d been to court a couple of times before, but he’d told me it was only high-jinks gone wrong.”

I asked her what Jock had done before he’d got into trouble and she told me that he was a motor mechanic.

“A damn good one when he was working. Those bastards at Armstrongs’ could have helped him when he got into trouble the first time but that ‘holier than thou’ family wouldn’t allow him to go back to work. If they’d done the right thing he’d not be banged up, now.”

We finished the tea and I wondered if I now had stained teeth, like hers. On the way out she showed me a picture of her and Jock, next to one of her and Jamie.

“You’ll be wondering why they don’t look alike, eh, lassie. Jamie has a different father. I was a bit wild back then. His surname is Murphy, after his dad.”

Marianne Gregory © 2022