hits you, you should hit them back, boy. But, you shouldn’t hit people for no reason. Look at yesterday for instance, when you pushed that little boy and cut his head open. If you behave like that at school, you won’t have many friends, and you’ll get in trouble with the teachers.’
Used to his father worshipping the ground he walked on, Little Vinny’s lip began to wobble. ‘I didn’t push Jacob. He fell over and cut his head,’ he insisted.
‘Do not lie to me, boy. I saw you push him, so did your Uncle Michael.’
‘No, I never.’
Furious at being lied to, Big Vinny grabbed his son roughly by the arm, put him across his knees and gave him a good clump on the backside. ‘Don’t you ever fucking lie to me again, do you hear me?’
Thrilled by Roy’s engagement, Queenie and Vivian had been busy discussing his forthcoming wedding. Queenie liked Colleen. She was good for her Roy and as a couple they were extremely well-suited.
‘Where’s Brenda? Is she talking to you yet?’ Vivian asked. Brenda and her suitcase had turned up on the doorstep at twelve o’clock last night and Queenie had given her daughter a bloody good wallop for worrying the life out of her by coming home so late.
‘Nope. Still in her room, the obnoxious little mare. Who the bleedin’ hell is this?’ Queenie looked out of the window to see who was knocking on her door. ‘Oh Jesus, it’s the police. I hope one of the boys haven’t been nicked,’ she said, panicking.
‘I’ll answer the door,’ Lenny shouted, running down the stairs.
‘No you won’t, nose ointment. You let Auntie Queenie do it,’ Vivian ordered her son.
‘What’s up?’ Queenie asked, when she opened the door. There were two officers standing there looking rather sombre.
‘Is Vivian Harris here, Mrs Butler? I’m afraid we have some rather bad news for her.’
‘Whatever’s wrong?’ Vivian asked, running into the hallway followed by Lenny.
‘I’m afraid it’s your ex-husband, Mrs Harris. Unfortunately, Mr Harris was involved in an incident outside the Brewery Tap public house in Barking late last night. He suffered a stab wound to the chest and even though the ambulance got there extremely quickly, I’m afraid he couldn’t be saved.’
‘Is my dad dead?’ Lenny asked, bursting into tears.
Vivian clouted her son around the head. ‘Shut up. We didn’t even like the old bastard.’
When the two officers glanced at one another, Vivian smiled at them. ‘Well, thank you for popping round to tell me. You can go now.’
After dropping his son off, Vinny headed to the club. He and his brothers had got the upstairs looking like a palace now and all three of them lived there together. ‘Where’s Michael?’ Vinny asked Roy coldly. He still hadn’t forgiven his brother for springing such a surprise on him yesterday.
‘You ain’t still got the hump because I’ve got engaged, have you? Just because I plan to get married, doesn’t mean that I won’t still be dedicated to the club.’
Vinny gave a sarcastic half-laugh. ‘Dedicated to the club! Don’t make me chuckle. Colleen had you under her thumb even before you stuck a ring on her finger. You’ll have to ask her permission to have a shit now you’ve popped the question.’
‘Don’t talk bollocks, Vin. Colleen ain’t like that. She’s a good girl who understands how important our business is to us. Surely it must have occurred to you that one day I would want to settle down and in time have children? It’s what most men do, so can’t you just be fucking happy for me for once?’
Vinny unwillingly shook his brother’s hand. ‘Congratulations. Now, where’s Michael?’
‘Gone out. All ponced up he was in his best suit. Reeked of aftershave an’ all. Gotta be another new bird on the scene if you ask me.’
Vinny snarled. ‘Well, it better not be who I think it is, because if Michael has disobeyed my orders, there will be big fucking trouble.’
Queenie had just put the dumplings in her rabbit stew when the doorbell rang. Vivian had taken Lenny back to her own house, Brenda had gone out, so Queenie ordered her grandson to open the door for her.
‘Who are you?’ Little Vinny asked the tall, glamorous dark-haired lady.
‘Who is it?’ Queenie shouted out.
The woman crouched down so she was at eye-level with Little Vinny. Unable to stop herself, she stroked his rosy cheeks.
‘Get off me,’ Vinny said, pushing her hand away.
Queenie ran to the front door, ordered her grandson into the lounge, then glared at the woman. ‘Who the fuck are you?’ she asked.
‘Look, I don’t want no trouble, but it’s breaking my heart not being able to see him,’ the woman replied.
‘Not being able to see who?’ Queenie asked, expecting the woman to say one of her son’s names.
‘My son. I’m Vinny’s mother.’
Nancy felt sick with anxiety when she spotted Michael leaning against the station wall smoking a cigarette. He had a smart dark-grey suit on and looked so stunningly gorgeous, she felt like turning around and running back to the safety of her home.
Michael grinned as he spotted his date. She looked amazing in her lime green halter-neck catsuit. ‘You look really beautiful, Nancy,’ he told her meaningfully, before he kissed her politely on the cheek.
‘Thank you,’ Nancy replied coyly.
‘Look, I was thinking, and please feel free to say no if you don’t want to, but seeing as this is our first date, I thought it might be nice if we went for a meal instead of the pictures? I thought we could chat in a restaurant and get to know one another a bit better. What do you say?’
‘OK. But can we go to a different area? My parents are local shopkeepers and I can do without being interrogated by their customers.’
‘’Course we can! Let’s jump in my car and see where it takes us, shall we?’
Amazed that Michael owned a car, Nancy smiled. ‘Yes, I’d like that.’
After receiving the phonecall from his mother, Vinny shot round to her house like a bat out of hell. He couldn’t believe after all these years that Karen had the nerve to show her face. He’d paid her good money to stay out of his son’s life, so how dare she turn up like a bad penny?
Vinny had ordered his mother to send Little Vinny upstairs to his bedroom, then invite Karen in and keep her there. When he let himself in with his own key, he was dismayed to see Karen sitting on the sofa next to Little Vinny who was happily showing her all his birthday presents. ‘Take Vinny upstairs now, Mum. I need to talk to Karen alone,’ Vinny barked.
‘You said my mum was dead. You’re a liar too, Dad,’ Little Vinny said accusingly.
‘Just get upstairs,
