your help. There’s a lot of heavy lifting and stuff to be done, and we need someone who can keep an eye on the place who we can trust. Jake ain’t as young and fit as you are, so you can do all the donkey work, while me and him run the actual gaff. There is no way we are employing any of them Spaniards, ’cause we can’t stand the greasy bastards, and if we employ a decent English bloke, he’s gonna cost us big bucks. So, like it or lump it, boy, you’re moving to Spain. Now, do yourself a favour and get that smacked-arse face of yours out of my sight before I give you what for, you selfish little fucker.’
Absolutely furious, Barry grabbed his door key and ran out of the house.
Stephanie was lying on her bed crying when Angela came into the room.
‘What’s up? Has Barry dumped you or something?’ Angela asked, hopefully.
‘No, it’s Mum,’ Steph replied, wiping her eyes with the cuff of her sleeve.
‘What’s she done?’
‘She won’t let Barry in the house no more because his mum’s back. It’s just so unfair when he ain’t done nothing wrong.’
‘Aah, that ain’t right, sis. Shall I have a word with her for you? See if I can get her to change her mind.’
Surprised by her sister’s unusual kindness, Stephanie nodded and hugged her. ‘I’m really glad we’re friends again. We musn’t argue no more in future. How did you get on yesterday when you bought Jason round? Did Mum like him?’
‘Yeah. Mum thought he was cool. His parents go to church and stuff and when Jase told her that she even let us sit up here in the bedroom.’
‘Did she?’ Stephanie asked, surprised. Her mother had forbidden her to sit upstairs with Barry. She had said it was unethical.
‘You stay here and I’ll go and have a chat with Mum now for you,’ Angela said, kindly.
Pam was in the kitchen peeling potatoes when Angela bounded down the stairs. ‘Don’t start driving me mad saying you’re hungry because dinner’s gonna be a good hour or so yet,’ Pam warned her daughter.
‘I wasn’t going to. Mum, you know that now Barry ain’t allowed in here no more, I can still bring Jase round, can’t I?’
‘Yes, providing you both behave yourself, you can.’
Grinning, Angela ran back up the stairs.
‘Well, what did she say?’ Steph asked her sister expectantly.
Angela sat down on her sister’s bed and squeezed her hand. ‘I asked her to change her mind, Steph, but I’m sorry, she still said no.’
Barry Franklin’s mind was all over the place as Wayne Jackman handed him another can of lager. ‘They can’t make you go if you don’t wanna go, Bazza. Ain’t you got an aunt and uncle you can live with or something? I would ask me nan and grandad if you could stop with us, but I know me nan will say we ain’t got enough room. She’s always moaning saying we need a bigger gaff as it is.’
‘My dad’s brother lives in Canvey Island, but he’s got four kids of his own. Anyway, you don’t know my mother as well as I do, Jacko. If she says I’m going to Spain, then I’m fucking going.’
‘You can always run away,’ Wayne suggested.
Barry rubbed his tired eyes. He could probably leave school and do some extra shifts with Steve, but he only got paid fifteen pound a day to keep look-out and that was hardly going to put a roof over his head and pay all the bills. ‘I can’t live on shirt buttons, Jacko. I think the only way out for me is to go to Spain, save the oner a week, then come back to Dagenham and get a place of me own.’
‘How long will you be away for? And what about Steph?’
‘There’s no point me coming back before I’m sixteen, mate. My muvver is a cunt, and if I scarper before that she will only come back to England and find me. If I toe the line and work hard, perhaps she will let me come back for holidays and stuff. I mean, a ton a week ain’t bad dosh, is it? I’ll be cakeo by the time I’m sixteen, if I’m careful with me earnings. Steph is bound to be pissed off, but I know she loves me and I’m sure she’ll wait for me. I’m fifteen next June, so she’s only gotta wait just over a year and a half and I’ll be back for good.’
‘A ton a week is proper money, mate, and if someone offered me that, I’d bite their hand off. Course Steph will wait for you and, while you’re gone, I’ll keep an eye on her and make sure she’s OK.’
Barry gave Wayne a manly hug. ‘Cheers, Jacko, you’re a diamond.’
Refusing to sit in the same room as her mother, Stephanie Crouch ate her plate of shepherd’s pie leaning over the kitchen top.
‘Why don’t you come and sit in ’ere with us? You can’t eat properly standing up,’ Pam shouted out.
About to throw a sarcastic reply her mother’s way, Stephanie was stopped from doing so by the shrill ring of the doorbell. Wondering if it might be Barry, she ran to answer it.
‘What’s a matter?’ she asked, as she clocked her boyfriend’s sad-eyed expression.
‘I need to speak to you, Steph. Not ’ere though. Can you come out for a bit? We’ll go for a walk somewhere quiet, where we can talk in private.’
Stephanie was immediately alarmed. Surely Barry wasn’t going to dump her? ‘Wait there while I get me key,’ she said. She didn’t want to have to tell him that her mother had barred him from setting foot across the threshold. He looked upset enough as it was.
‘You’d better have eaten that dinner, young lady, and you make sure you’re back ’ere by nine at the latest. You ain’t taking liberties like you did last week, coming in at half past on a bleedin’ school night.’
Ignoring her mother’s whingeing voice, Steph grabbed her door key and slammed the front door. She waited until she and Barry were a few minutes away from the house, then nervously asked the all-important question. ‘So, what do you wanna talk about?’
Saying nothing, Barry led Steph towards the park and was relieved to find it was relatively empty. ‘Do you wanna fag?’ he asked, as he gesticulated to her to sit down next to him on a bench.
Annoyed that Barry was keeping her in limbo, Stephanie snatched the fag out of his hand and glared at him. ‘Am I about to be dumped?’ she asked, bluntly.
With emotion seeping into his voice, Barry explained everything.
‘But you can’t go, Bal. What am I meant to do without you?’ Stephanie said, shocked to the core.
Barry held his distraught girlfriend tightly in his arms. This was even more heartbreaking than he thought it would be – he felt like blubbing himself. ‘It won’t be forever, babe. I promise you I will save every bit of dosh I earn and the day I turn sixteen I will fly straight back home. I can get a job then, on the market or something, and I’ll be able to afford me own place. If you like, you can even move in with me. You’ll be sixteen then an’ all, won’t ya?’
‘But that’s ages away. Please don’t go, Barry. Can’t you live back in Bethnal Green or with your sister and her bloke? I’m frightened if you go you’ll meet someone else and I’ll never see you again,’ Steph sobbed.
‘The only other option I’ve got is to run away, Steph, but apart from dossing on a mate’s sofa round ’ere or in Bethnal Green, I ain’t gonna be able to afford or get a proper place to live. My muvver can be a right bitch and I know she’ll tell social services I’ve done a runner. Then, I’ll get put in one of them fucking kids’ homes with all the waifs and strays of the world. Trust me, babe, if there was any other way out of this, I’d have thought of it by now. There ain’t, so I might as well save up the oner a week that Jake’s gonna pay me for our future together. Eighteen months ain’t the end of the world and I’ll be back before you know it. Look on the bright side,