Scrap CH THREE part 30

Scrap CH THREE part 30
Orla hears her daughter’s lorry bumping down the lane towards the yard. She opens the gates then goes back to the kitchen to make a fresh pot of tea. The young couple will be in need of a strong brew after a night’s work. After several minutes she looks out the window wondering why they don’t come in. There seems to be a heated conversation going on between them and she knows better than to interfere. Eventually they join her, Rosa sidling in with the baby in his carrycot and Danny lingering in the hall taking off his boots and boiler suit, which he leaves crumpled on the floor. The older woman senses trouble as an atmosphere of heavy gloom follows the family into the house. They exchange barely a word and Rosa takes young Jay upstairs while Danny accepts his mug of tea without grace sits at the table and opens his newspaper to block out his mother-in-law.
Orla waits a few moments before following her daughter upstairs where she finds her in the bathroom with her back to the door. As she turns round in alarm she reveals a swollen left eye, a bruised cheek and bloodied nose which she has been trying to clean up before her mother sees the worst of it. Closing the door and pushing the bolt home Orla hugs her little girl gently kisses her undamaged cheek and sets about helping to repair the damage. Guilt grips her, remembering how she pushed her to marry Danny, who seemed such a nice boy only eighteen months ago and wishes she had never set eyes on him.
They hear the man coming upstairs; he knocks on the door and says he needs to take a bath. The women quickly vacate, taking the baby with them. He behaves as if nothing has happened, which infuriates the older woman, as she makes a mental vow to pay him back for his brutality. With any luck he will soon be away again on one of his mysterious ‘business trips’ and peace will be restored.
Rosa can’t bring herself to tell her mother what Danny has done. The brute forced himself on her as he has done several times, laughing that ‘you can’t be done for raping your own wife,’ and leaving her feeling filthy and used. He knows that baby Jason is not his son and is determined to force his wife to bear him a child, figuring that will give him power over the strong willed woman. What he doesn’t know is that Rosa has been taking the Pill since Jay was a week old and has vowed never to endure the experience of childbirth again, and definitely not for Danny Casey. The man positively enjoys causing other people pain and the sooner she can rid herself of the demon the better. She just hasn’t devised a fool proof strategy yet, although she has considered many scenarios. She desperately wants to be free of him but cannot see how to achieve her goal as yet. Maybe she will have to enlist the help of a third party, but who can she trust?
Her brother has been busy in his own yard, preparing for the arrival of a skip lorry and four skips which he has purchased second hand from an auction. His driver Roy Jackson is bringing them on the low loader he has borrowed from College Smith. Things are moving fast for his business and he has already got bookings for two of the skips and an enquiry about house clearance which he will be looking into later. Bettina has surprised him with her knowledge of book keeping and most other office matters. For such a young girl she is proving to be invaluable and has already been awarded a pay rise. She doesn’t mind putting in extra hours when needed, which means almost every day, she runs errands in the little car he bought for her and makes an excellent cup of tea. He doesn’t realise it but Bettina has her mind firmly set on having him, slowly but surely making herself essential to his life.
The second hand pallet business is expanding nicely and Jay thinks he will soon need to get another lorry and driver. He hadn’t seen himself as an employer when he bought the yard, expecting to do everything himself, but he has had to hire a lad, 16 year old Neil Parsons, to man the spares department. He likes the sound of that: spares department, and plans to have a sign made up to fix over the door. He has shown Neil how to remove simple engine parts, clean them up, label them and store them where they can easily be found and they have a growing number of customers who need perhaps an alternator or distributor and can’t afford to pay a garage to fit a new one. He tries to keep the scrap yard separate from the haulage side and has to make regular trips to his dad’s old place to get rid of the car bodies and other bits he knows won’t sell.
He needs to make another visit this morning and has finished loading the two ton truck ready to go when the phone rings and Bettina pops her head out the window. ‘It’s your mum,’ she calls, beckoning urgently, ‘he’s just coming,’ she adds into the receiver. Jay sprints up the stairs and speaks briefly into the phone. ‘I’m on my way over,’ he says before replacing the hand set, adding to Bettina ‘I may be a while but if anything important occurs I’ll be over the way.’
‘Keep your voice down,’ says Orla as her son takes a seat at the kitchen table and accepts a mug of tea, ‘they’re asleep upstairs. He’s been knocking her about; she came home this morning with a shiner, won’t say what they were fighting over but she is very unhappy and I don’t know how to help.’
Jason’s blood boils as he imagines the hated Danny hitting his sister and his first instinct is to give him a good hiding but Orla says they will have to be careful, that they don’t want to start a family feud. Danny’s brothers are hard men and not the kind to be crossed. If they want revenge they will have to be patient and find the right time. ‘I needed to let you know, you can see that, but you mustn’t let on to Rosa that I’ve told you, okay?’ Jay knows when to keep his mouth shut but he is fuming as he drives back towards his own yard and almost collides with Frank Ridley, who is pootling towards him on the wrong side of the road. He winds down the driver’s window and apologises. ‘I was having a fag and it dropped in my lap,’ Frank explains. ‘What’s up mate, you’ve got a face like thunder.’
The two park up in the yard and find a quiet corner to discuss the latest problem. ‘I told my ma I’d keep it to myself but I know you won’t tell anybody. You gotta help me Frank: he’s knocking seven bales out of her and I can’t do a thing about it.’ Frank says he will sort it but he knows it will be difficult as the man is here there and everywhere so he will have to pick the right time and place. ‘He’s not the only one who can play dirty,’ he assures the young man, ‘he’ll get what’s coming to him and he won’t have the faintest idea. I can’t stand men who beat up women, especially not ones like Rosa.’
The conversation turns to a lighter subject as Frank asks if Jason wants to ride with him in the lorry this afternoon. ‘They’re doing up the trailer as a Hawaiian grotto,’ he smiles, ‘but don’t get too excited: all the beautiful young girls are stevedores in drag. Should be a laugh though and there’s a couple of crates of lager in the cab to keep us going.’ Jay brightens up at the thought and agrees he needs something to take his mind off Danny. He tells Bettina and Neil they can knock off for the day, locks up the office and workshop, and lets the dogs run free, chains the gates then hops in Frank’s car. ‘Come on mate; let’s have a bit of fun.’