Could Peggy find a way to repair Tom and Mikey’s father and son relationship?
BY VAL BONSALL
SEE you later, Michael,” Tom said to his young son as he set off in the early summer sunshine for work.
Peggy listened for a reply, but there was nothing.
The boy remained still and silent, apparently absorbed in the buttons he’d taken from her sewing box.
She’d had it out the previous evening to darn and repair anything that needed it prior to her midweek wash.
However, as soon as Tom had gone, Michael – or Mikey, as Peggy called him – was on his feet, clattering about and chattering.
The buttons that had seemed to so fascinate him just two minutes earlier were now forgotten.
She sighed.
The war was over and her husband was home.
Same as for many others, it had been the dream that had kept her going through the long dark years.
They’d be a proper family again.
Or, she corrected herself, a proper family at last – which was the problem.
She hadn’t known she was pregnant when Tom, along with other local men, had volunteered.
“The more of us who go,” he’d told her, “the sooner this madness will stop. I’ll be back afore you know it.”
Except he wasn’t.
For all Mikey’s short life, it had really just been the pair of them – him and Peggy.
She’d assumed he’d be thrilled to have his dad back, but instead he was wary and resentful of Tom.
In a way, you could understand it.
Who was this new person now sharing and playing a huge part in their life?
“Just give it time,” Tom kept reassuring her.
She was grateful for his patient optimism, but her heart was still breaking for both him and Mikey.
Gathering her washed clothes together, she went out to the communal drying area behind the terraced house they were renting.
Tom was working on the building project on the edge of their growing town, and they hoped that in due course they’d be allocated one of the new houses.
Mikey accompanied her.
She’d noticed that about his recent behaviour. He was clingier than he’d previously been.
She smiled as she saw that her neighbour Belle, from the house at the end of the terrace, was already hanging out her washing.
She liked talking to Belle, who was a cheery sort.
Today, though, as she got nearer, Peggy saw the scowl on Belle’s face.
Belle stopped frowning to make a fuss of Mikey but, w
