Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 06:41:39 EST
From: Djedoric58@aol.com
Subject: THE BULL SINGER CHAPTER SEVEN

THE BULL SINGER

CHAPTER SEVEN

He had cut his hair!

That was it! The stupid boy had tried to make himself look like Billy, the
same long side fringe almost covering his right eye. For Heaven's sake,
why?

But that couldn't be; Billy's hair was straight, and Joey's was wavy.  I
was shaking so much I could not get my head together, and charges of child
abuse rang out loud and clear. How could I face the boy again, how could I
face Aunt Mabel? Dad would understand I had made a mistake but no one else
would. I saw my life in ruins just because of one stupid mistake.

I had to leave. There was no other way out of this. Pack up and go back to
Flixton, and throw myself at the mercy of Daley and the band and let them
heal me.

But if I did, who would be here for Joey? Already there were signs that
Dad's harsh words to Mz. Street had come to nothing. Those new bruises were
proof enough. Who would stand by him?

I had to get out of the house. Get back to the cottage at least.

I rose to my feet, moved to my bed and sprawled on it, and sobbed into my
pillow, and I roused to someone stroking my hair and calling my name in a
soft voice. I rolled over and found those dark eyes gazing down at me.

I jerked away from his touch." Don't, Joey. You can't be in here. Go
downstairs. Let me be."

Joey shook his head. "It's okay Mags. I think I understand now. Billy was
your boyfriend wasn't he? And I look like him. I'm sorry if I upset you. I
didn't do it on purpose, honest. This is how I normally have my hair. It
only goes wavy when it needs cutting, and I usually cut it myself.  I
suppose you want me to go home now. If I had my shoes I would."

"You don't have to go anywhere."  I said and sat up. "It's up to me to go."

Joey turned away from me and lowered his head. "If you think I'm going to
tell anyone what you did, I promise I won't. I liked it.  I know you kissed
me last night but I was too tired to do anything about it, and when you
kissed me in the bathroom, and put your arms round me, I thought, wow! No
one has ever held me like you did. For the first time in my life I felt
someone liked me. I guess I was wrong."

"You're not wrong, Joey. I do like you, and that's the problem. Billy was
sixteen, you're only fifteen."

"I won't tell."

"It's not that simple."

"Nothing is." Joey got to his feet and I suddenly realised he was wearing
clothes of mine Aunt Mabel had put away when I grew out of them. But no
shoes. I used to wear out my shoes till they were all holes and only fit
for the bin. "I liked what you did, and I'd like you to do it again."

He made to leave the room but I grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him
close. "Just tell me what happened, Joey. You didn't get those bruises by
falling, and you didn't lock yourself out of the house. If you want to tell
porkies and get away with it, you need to learn how."

Joey wrenched his hand free and stood glaring at his feet. "If you must
know, she's gone away and locked me out."

"In this weather?"

"So what's new?"

I stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I think it's time we had a
word with my Dad."

Two hours later, after making a pair of furious aunts promise not to raise
the roof with Social Services till we got back, I drove my BMW north
towards Rochdale with Dad in the front passenger seat. Joey sat in the
back, dressed once more in the shabby clothes he had been wearing when he
fell into the farmhouse hall. Dad was right; Mr. Chambers needed to be
shown exactly how his daughter was treating his grandson. The man needed to
see the bruises.

Marble House was situated five miles north of Rockdale and set in its own
grounds complete with a state of the art security system plus five bouncers
on duty at all times. If I had been on my own I would have turned round at
the gate and gone home. But Dad was just as determined to see Mr. Chambers,
as Joey was to see his grandfather. We were stopped at the door and made to
state our business. We were stopped again at the main door, a huge portico
affair of white marble, and eventually allowed into the foyer beyond. We
were made to wait there for another ten minutes and would have been there a
lot longer if Benjamin Roach hadn't chanced to come down the curving marble
stairs. Everything seemed to be made out of marble in this place.

As soon as Joey saw Benjamin, he hurried to him and was immediately
engulfed in a bear hug. Benjamin raised his eyes to look at us. "I take it
there is a problem. Come with me."

He turned to lead us to a double door at the back of the foyer, but a
bouncer stepped in his way. "I'm sorry, Mr. Roach. The boss said no
visitors."

"Mr. Chambers will see these people, Charlie. I will vouch for them."

"Who are they?"

"The boy is his grandson, Joseph Street, and this gentleman if Edward
Alton, an old friend of Mr. Chambers."

"And who's the other one?"

Dad said, "He's my son, as if it's any business of yours. You might not
remember me but I remember you, Charlie Breakwell. I pulled you out of the
gutter and put you on your feet when you were a snivelling little turd
begging for someone to give you their leavings. Now let us past or before I
recall that debt with interest."

I just stood there and gaped at Dad spouting all this tough talk, but when
I looked at Charlie he was gaping like a guppy in a fish tank. How could a
frail old man like my dad have such an effect on a huge bouncer?

"This way, if you please," Benjamin said, and pushed open the doors. We
walked through into an all white lounge with a huge picture window facing
onto a glass-enclosed patio and pool such as I had only seen on the French
Riviera.  A man in a white suit sat in a wheelchair by the window he was
old with a shock of white hair, and his clothes hung on him and I guessed
this was Elias Chambers. His body might have been in decline but his voice
was like a loud hailer when he roared, "I said no visitors, damn you,
Charlie. Get them out of here, now."

Dad indicated that Joey and I should stay when he shuffled forward with the
aid of his stick. As he neared the man, the chair spun round and Chambers
got ready to blast him, but Dad said, "Before you have us thrown out, Ly, I
suggest you listen to what I have to say."

Chambers leaned forward and squinted at Dad. "Edward?"

"That's right. Edward Alton."

"What the hell are you doing here? I told you I never wanted to see you
ever again. Get out of my house."

"I will after I show you something." Dad beckoned to Joey. The boy walked
forward to stand by his side. "Do you now who this boy is, Ly?"

"Probably another of your gutter urchins by the look of him. You always
were fond of offering crumbs to the down and outs."

"Well you ought to know, most of them work for you now." Dad pushed Joey
closer. "Look at him man. Look at his face. Who do you see?"

Joey was close enough for Chambers to reach out and grab his arm and pull
him close so he could peer into his face.  "No. It can't be.  And yet
he..."

"Your grandson, Ly."

"Joseph?"

"Yes, Ly, and look what your daughter has done to him, look how she treats
him. Take off your shirt, Joey and show him your back." The boy slowly
removed his shirt and turned round.

Elias drew his breath in suddenly as he surveyed the damage. Reaching out,
he yanked at the waistband of Joey's pants and drew them down till his
package was almost in sight. "Not my daughter. She wouldn't do this."

"Yes, your daughter. He wears rags and walks round shoeless. Show him your
feet, Joey." Joey hitched his pants back up and Elias leaned forward as
Joey raised his right foot and balanced on his left. "Everything he has,
she breaks. My son has seen the evidence."

"Angela wouldn't."

Dad went on, "Yesterday she threw him out of the house without a coat or
shoes, and went away with her friends. There was a storm down our way last
night, and he almost died of Hypothermia. He came to me for help. I've
talked to Angela myself. I don't know who beats him, but I told her that if
I saw one more bruise on him I would inform the authorities and have them
investigate her for neglect. If you don't want that to happen, I suggest
you do something about the situation yourself. I honoured my debt to you,
Ly. I gave your daughter and the boy a refuge. Now it's up to you to stop
burying you head in the sand and pretending they don't exist."

Elias just sat there, in his chair, as if carved of the same stone the
place was full of. At last, my dad sighed and turned to walk away. "Come
on, boy, we're done here."

I watched Joey walk away from Elias, his shoulders slumped, his face full
of hurt at being rejected.  As he passed me to follow Dad out of the room,
I turned to walk with him, and heard the roar behind me. "Wait! Come here
boy!" We both stopped, and Joey turned to face Elias. The man snapped at
us, "All of you, get out, I wish to speak to the boy alone. You too, Ben."

Benjamin ushered us out of the room and Charlie closed the door.

* * * *



JOEY'S STORY



I stared at Elias Chambers and wondered if I would ever stop hating him.
He said, "Well? Have you anything to say?"

"Yeah, "I snapped. "I have plenty to say, and the first is I fucking hate
you. You never once came to see me."

"I had my reasons."

"Oh yeah?  I know was what that bitch who calls herself a mother told
me. And until someone tells me different, that's all the information I have
to go on." I could feel the rage boiling up inside me, and was prepared to
let him feel it. "For the last ten years I've lived with hate in my heart,
for people who didn't want me. My mother dragged me from town to town,
living in bed-sits with no heating and no food, while the bitch went out
every night, leaving me alone, in the cold, and she'd come home with some
guy and they would lock me out o the bedroom. In the mornings I had to hide
from her temper. Anything went wrong? She took it out on me. I got used to
covering up the bruises at a very young age. She wouldn't tell me who my
dad was. My birth certificate said 'Father not known' and when I asked her
she laughed and said, what do you need to know for? He's a no body and
you're a no body. Get used to it. Then something happened and things
changed.

"Suddenly she had money to spend, and clothes to wear. We moved into a
better apartment and men started calling on her, but they weren't after
sex. They shut me in the bedroom while they drank and smoked and talked for
hours. But one thing didn't change; I was left on my own at night. As I got
older and learned there were people who stood up for kids like me, but she
said if I said anything she'd make me pay. So I learned to fend for
myself. I cleaned the apartment, I washed clothes, I cooked as best I
could, what little money she gave me, I learned to stretch it so I had at
least one meal a day."

By this time my eyes were full of angry tears. "Wherever we lived, she
enrolled me in school, not because she wanted to but because she wouldn't
have the school inspectors snooping around all the time, and I was out of
her hair during the day. I loved it, because I was away from her, and the
only times I was away from school was when I hurt too much, sometimes from
her boyfriends as punishment, or from the bitch herself. In the end I came
to hate you because you refused to acknowledge us. And now I'm standing
here in front of you and wishing I had a knife I could plunge into your
heart." At last I let the tears flow and I turned away from him, trying to
control myself.

 From the look of the place he lived in, and the lackeys he had about the
place, he had money to burn while I had nothing but dirt on my feet and
rags on my back.  But if this was so, if he truly was a monster, why did he
send Uncle Benji to see us from time to time? The first time I saw him I
was five and I screamed the place down, he was so ugly, but slowly he won
me over and I discovered he was just a soft teddy bear of a man with lots
of hugs and cuddles to give, something I never had off the bitch; and I
often wished he was my dad. For me, the visits were too few, and only
happened when we suddenly moved, mostly in the dead of night, to a new
place, and no matter where we went, Uncle Benji would find us. He tried to
tell me that my grandfather was not the bad man the bitch said he was, and
often left me money from him, which the bitch would take off me after
beating me senseless.

As these memories came back with the force of a tornado, I thought I heard
him calling my name. I looked up through cataract of tears and saw Benji
standing there, his arms opening. I fell into his embrace and began to cry
like a baby.

He held me for a long time, then he picked me up and carried me into
another room, and when I surfaced from my grief I found I was sitting on
someone's lap with my head buried on his shoulder. The coat under my cheek
was white.

*