got some brass neck coming here, Dad, after what you did. How could you pretend you were dying?’
‘I did it because I knew it was the only way I would get to see or talk to yous. I’m really sorry. It was a stupid thing to do.’
‘You can fucking say that again! Now, what do you want?’ Michael asked.
‘Well, obviously I want to know how Roy is? I’ve been ringing the hospital, but they won’t tell me anything. Worried sick, I’ve been.’
‘Roy’s in a coma. He’s very lucky to even be alive, so the doc reckoned.’
‘Do the doctors think he will make a full recovery?’
Michael shrugged. ‘Nobody knows until he actually wakes up. There was bleeding to the brain which might result in permanent damage. We just have to keep our fingers crossed. The quack we saw yesterday said that most patients in comas wake up within a month.’
Albie’s eyes welled up. ‘Why couldn’t it be Vinny lying in a coma instead of poor Roy? There’s something I need to tell you, Michael, and I want you to listen carefully to me.’
‘What?’
When Albie began to explain about Vinny’s evil plan to split up Roy and Colleen, Michael’s face went white and he leant his back against the brick wall for support. Part of him wanted to believe that his father was spinning another of his yarns, but in his heart Michael knew that Albie wasn’t lying. The pieces of the jigsaw seemed to fit too well. ‘So, what did you actually say to Colleen’s parents?’
‘Well, I started to tell them what Vinny had asked me to, but then I backtracked. Roy and Colleen look so happy, I just couldn’t go through with it, boy. Then Vinny came and threatened me, said if I didn’t do what he’d asked, he was going to jump up on stage and tell everyone I had lied about my cancer. Vinny ain’t right in the head, Michael. He has real problems and I’m worried he will start on you next. He won’t like you being with that Nancy. He doesn’t want to lose you and Roy, therefore will stop at nothing to get his own way. He wants to be in total control.’
Michael put his head in his hands and sank to his haunches.
Albie crouched down next to Michael, took a small bottle of brandy out of his raincoat pocket and swallowed a large gulp. He then handed the bottle to his son, who did the same. ‘You ain’t got to tell your mum, boy. I’ve written everything down in a letter for her to save you the task.’
‘Where is it?’
Albie handed him two envelopes. ‘The bigger envelope is the letter I wrote for you. Now I’ve told you all this, I think Vinny will try and finish me off. If I disappear or die, hand your one over to the police. Can I trust you to do that for me, son?’
‘Oh, don’t say shit like that. Vinny might not be your greatest fan right now, but you’re still his dad. He wouldn’t harm you.’
Albie took another swig of his brandy and screwed the top back on the bottle. ‘Do you remember that time I was in hospital with two broken legs and broken ribs?’
‘Yeah, ’course I do. You were mugged and it was while you were in hospital that Mum found out about that Judy Preston bird, weren’t it?’
‘Yeah. Your mother came to visit me and bumped into Judy. The thing is, I never got those injuries through being jumped. There was no mugging. Vinny beat me up.’
‘No! You’re lying, Dad.’
‘I swear I ain’t, boy. Roy knows. He turned up just after Vinny had nearly killed me. Your mum and Auntie Viv know too. Ask them if you don’t believe me. You and your sister were quite young at the time, so the truth was hidden from you.’
‘I weren’t that young. That all happened around my sixteenth birthday. I remember it clearly as when I found about about you and that tart, I went for a long ride on my moped to clear my head.’
‘Well, I don’t know why you wasn’t told. Perhaps it was because I was always closer to you than your brothers. You and Brenda were always the apple of my eye. Your sister wouldn’t even talk to me at her engagement party, you know. I tried to wish her good luck, but she all but told me to eff off.’
‘So, where are you living? I know you’re not at the bedsit as I popped round the other day and the bloke downstairs said you’d moved out,’ Michael asked, changing the subject.
‘I had to, didn’t I? That’s why your brother leapt on the stage and outed my lie. He knew I would never be able to stay in Whitechapel after that. You know what people are like around here. I’d have every bastard gunning for me and rightly so, I suppose. I’ve had to move back in with Pauline for the time being, but I can’t stay there for much longer. Once you give your mother that letter, I need to get away. I have to go somewhere where Vinny won’t find me.’
‘Dad, you know we were talking about that Judy Preston? Did she have your kid? Or, do you truthfully not know?’
‘On my life I don’t know, son. I swear I ain’t ever seen or heard a word from her since that day she visited me in hospital.’
Satisfied that Albie was telling the truth, Michael smiled at him. His father wasn’t a bad person. He might be a pisshead and do and say stupid things at times, but his heart was certainly in the right place, which is more than what Michael could say in Vinny’s defence right now. ‘So, where you gonna go? Do you need money?’
‘Yeah, I could do with some readies, boy. I was thinking of going to stay with Bert down in Ipswich. Ivy died last year and he’s rattling about in a house on his own down there now.’
‘Who are Bert and Ivy?’ Michael asked.
‘Your uncle and aunt. Bert’s my elder brother. You have seen him, but not since you were a kid. Your mother never had any time for my family. She reckoned they all had a screw loose.’
Michael put his hand in his pocket and handed his dad three ten-pound notes. ‘Take that for now so you’ve got some beer money. Then tomorrow, I will drive down to Pauline’s gaff and give you some money to go away with. I won’t give Mum the letter until after you’ve gone, OK?’
Albie nodded his head gratefully and pocketed the thirty quid. ‘Do me a favour, boy. I don’t want Pauline to know I’m leaving, so can you meet me at a pub with the dosh?’
‘Which one and what time?’
‘Meet me at the Royal Oak in Green Lane tomorrow at twoish. Pauline’s barred from there. I’ve only got a dustbin liner full of clothes, and I’ll pretend to her that I’m going to the launderette. How will I get to Ipswich by train, Michael? Do you know what station takes me there?’
For the first time in ages, Michael felt dreadfully sorry for his father. Having to leave London and never return because you were frightened of being murdered by one of your own kids was horrendous. ‘I’ll tell you what, Dad. Why don’t you let me drive you to Ipswich? I’ll get Nancy to take a day off work and she can come for the ride too. It will be nice to see Uncle Bert again, and also I’d like to know where you are living so I can pop down and see you from time to time.’
Choked up because one of his family was being so kind to him for
