things right and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
Jed O’Hara entered the church and stood quietly at the back. He held the hymn book in his hands, but couldn’t sing because he couldn’t read properly.
Jimmy O’Hara put an arm around his son’s shoulder. Jed was a good boy and had been determined to attend Jessica’s funeral, so he could keep an eye on Frankie. Not wanting his son to become raw meat in a starving lion’s cage, Jimmy had insisted on coming with him. Jed was worried about Frankie; she was carrying his child and he had every right to be there in her hour of need.
Jimmy knew what losing a child was like. His wife, Alice, had been pregnant up until a couple of weeks ago, when she’d suddenly miscarried.
As the hymn came to an end, Ronny Mitchell decided he was busting for the toilet. Being stuck in a wheelchair, he was unable to hold himself like other people could. Nudging his brother, Paulie, he urged him to take him outside.
‘I need a shit. I’ve gotta find a bog,’ he said in an extremely loud tone.
As Raymond stood up to give his speech, an embarrassed Paulie also stood up. Ronny was a nuisance with a capital N at times.
‘Jessica was the most wonderful sister a brother could wish for,’ Raymond began.
While Paulie wheeled his brother towards the exit, a nosy Ronny scanned the mourners. The church was full of villains, most of them mates of Eddie, his father and his uncle Reg. Spotting Jimmy O’Hara’s ugly mush, Ronny did a double take and slammed the brake on his wheelchair.
Because he was staring at the piece of paper he’d so carefully written, Raymond didn’t notice what was happening at the other end of the church and, with tears rolling down his face, carried on with his speech.
‘The day Jessica gave birth to her twins, Frankie and Joey, was the happiest of her life. Even though she was no more than a child herself, she quickly adapted to become the most wonderful …’
Raymond’s speech was stopped in its tracks by Ronny’s drunken voice. ‘Get out of here, you pikey cunts! Hit ’em, Paulie. Go on, fucking do ’em,’ he yelled.
Shocked by the commotion, every mourner turned around to see what was happening.
Jimmy O’Hara held his hands up. ‘Look, we don’t want no trouble. I’ve only come here to support my Jed. He has every right to be here. Jessica was his future mother-in-law and would have been grandmother to his chavvie.’
When Paulie lunged at Jimmy O’Hara, the vicar pleaded for order. ‘Can we stop this awful nonsense? Please respect the deceased and also the house of God,’ he shouted over the loudspeaker.
Uncle Reg eventually broke up the fracas and, with the help of Paulie and a couple of Eddie’s pals, they threw both Jed and Jimmy out of the church.
‘Frankie’s having my chavvie – we’re getting married. Tell ’em Frankie, tell ’em,’ Jed screamed, as he was roughly pushed out of the door.
Frankie went to run to her boyfriend’s aid, but Raymond put his arm out and stopped her. ‘You stay there. It’s your mother’s funeral, and you’re partly to blame for all this,’ he reminded her coldly.
Traumatised, Stanley and Joey clung to one another and, seeing their anguish, Joyce was unable to keep it together any more. Bursting into tears, she fell to her knees. ‘The least my baby deserved was a good send-off. Why us, God? Why?’ she screamed.
As a distraught Joyce was led from the church by Stanley, Raymond urged the vicar to round the service up. Jessica’s funeral had been completely ruined and the quicker it was over, the better.
Raymond sadly shook his head. Like most men, he was sceptical about the idea of life after death, but if by any chance it did exist, his sister would be horrified by what had just happened.
The vicar quickly wrapped up his speech with a prayer, then led the mourners outside for the burial.
Joyce had all but collapsed and was now sitting on a chair, sipping water and being comforted by friends and the curate. ‘I can’t watch my baby being put into that grave, I just can’t face it,’ she wept.
Urging Stanley to walk on ahead, Hilda and Rita crouched down either side of her. ‘You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, Joycie. Jess knows you’re here and that’s all that matters,’ Rita said kindly.
Jimmy and Jed had now disappeared, but Ronny was still there. Ray caught up with him and gave him a sharp dig in his shoulder. ‘Did you have to kick off in the middle of my speech? Ain’t you got no fucking sense? Why didn’t you wait till we all got outside?’
Looking remorseful, Ronny shrugged. ‘I know me and Paulie fell out with Ed, but he’s still me brother, Ray. When I saw them pikey shitbags there, I just lost it. How dare they fucking turn up?’
Raymond sighed. He felt the same as Ronny did himself. The difference was, he had a brain, so would have handled things better.
As Ronny held out his right hand, Raymond unwillingly shook it. ‘Look, no hard feelings, but I think it might be best if you don’t come back to the house afterwards. Me mum’s proper upset by what happened in the church and it ain’t fair on her.’
Ronny glanced at Paulie. He hated missing out on a free funeral piss-up. ‘I ain’t gonna upset your mum,’ he slurred.
Realising Polly had now caught up with him, Raymond linked arms with her and said no more. Ronny could have a full-scale argument with an ant, and Ray just wasn’t in the mood to row with him.
Joey broke down completely as his mother’s coffin was lowered into the ground. ‘I want her back, Frankie, I really want her back,’ he sobbed.
With tears streaming down her own face, Frankie cuddled him. ‘I want her back as well, Joey.’
Overcome by grief himself, Stanley led the twins away. ‘Let’s go and find your nan,’ he told them gently.
The mood in the hearse on the journey back to the house was extremely sombre. Annoyed with herself for breaking down inside the church, Joyce was the first to pull herself together. ‘Look, I know the service never went as well as we planned, but let’s see if we can give Jessica a good send-off back at home. It’s what she would have wanted, I know it is,’ she said brightly.
Admiring his mother’s strength, Raymond squeezed her hand. ‘I’ll second that. Let’s do our Jessica proud.’
Over in south London, Eddie Mitchell was also having an extremely difficult day. The knowledge that his wife was being buried and that he wasn’t able to attend had torn his heart to shreds. He had been in solitary confinement for five days now, serving his punishment for lashing out at the screws. In solitary, Ed had had very little contact with anyone, and the silence suited him just fine.
The other prisoners did
