The Promise Page 2

  Georgie lifted her sister’s arm up from where Marnie had draped it over her chest, and placed it back down at her sister’s side. In doing so, she felt the clamminess of her sister’s skin. Wet, sticky to the touch.

  Full of dread, Georgie screwed up her mouth, becoming apprehensive as she reached down and felt around the mattress they were lying on, relieved to feel that it was dry and her sister hadn’t wet herself again. There was nothing worse than realising that she’d been sleeping in a pool of her sister’s wee, and the last thing she wanted to do right now was strip the bed and her sister bare.

  Last time, not wanting to wake their mother for fear of getting told off, they’d ended up having to sleep on the damp mattress with no covers.

  Marnie rarely slept in her own bed anymore; plagued with night terrors, she preferred to sleep with Georgie.

  Georgie didn’t really mind, if she was honest. Especially on the nights that their mother hadn’t been able to afford to top up the Gas Card, and the house was freezing cold.

  She and Marnie would both snuggle up together under the covers, and take comfort in each other’s body heat as they lay in the darkness together telling each other silly stories.

  The only downside was Marnie’s bed-wetting.

  Still, Georgie was grateful that tonight that wasn’t the case.

  Her sister was just hot; burning up, her perspiring skin sticking to Georgie’s.

  Georgie wondered if perhaps she was coming down with something.

  Throwing the covers off them in a bid to try and cool Marnie down a bit, she twisted herself away from her sister’s tangled limbs towards the edge of the bed.

  She stared over at Marnie’s empty bed. Just a few feet away, abandoned.

  She could try and sneak into it, but she knew Marnie would wake almost instantly, be distraught that Georgie had left her.

  Closing her eyes once again, hoping that sleep would soon come, Georgie counted to fifty.

  It didn’t work.

  She was wide awake now, forced to listen to the sound of her mother’s bed as it continued to bang rhythmically against the bedroom wall. Over and over again.

  Georgie pulled the bed sheets up over her ears in an attempt to try and block out the noise, but it was no use.

  Her mother’s loud, exaggerated moans were making Georgie feel physically sick but as she flinched, her movement woke Marnie.

  Sitting up in the bed next to her sister, Marnie wiped her eyes as she stared around the room. Still sleepy.

  ‘Is it morning time?’ she mumbled, her eyes seeking out the thin slither of a streetlight that crept in through the tiny gap in the curtains and reflected brightly on the bedroom wall.

  Outside, it was still dark. Marnie hated the dark.

  ‘I don’t want to get up yet; I’m still tired.’

  ‘Good, lie back down. It’s still night-time,’ Georgie whispered, pushing back the strands of hair that were stuck to the side of her sister’s face, encased with dried snot. ‘Go back to sleep.’

  Lying back down obediently, Marnie did what she was told, and Georgie pulled the covers back up around them.

  They were both wide awake now, lying side by side in the darkness. Both forced to listen to the noises: the bed butting against the wall; the grunts from their mother; the groans from one of their mother’s ‘friends’.

  ‘Are they doing the sexing again, Georgie?’ Marnie whispered, her voice tinged with fear as she slipped her hand into Georgie’s.

  Georgie bristled.

  Marnie was only five.

  She knew just how scared her sister was. Georgie had been that way too once. She was older now, twelve. She understood more, but that didn’t make it any better. She hated that this was their reality. That their mother had to do those things with men in order for them to have any money.

  Most of the time, Georgie tried to ignore her mother’s chosen vocation. She tried to block out the sound of her mother’s so-called ‘friends’, i.e. the men that frequented the house at night, but Marnie was getting older now. She was starting to ask questions about it ‒ and just hearing her little sister say the words out loud made Georgie feel hot with shame.

  ‘Cover your ears, it will be over soon.’ Unable to keep the irritation out of her voice, Georgie just wanted it to stop too.

  Those noises brought forth images of her mother doing disgusting things with the men her and ‘Auntie Mandy’ brought back here.

  ‘Sexing doesn’t sound very nice. Does it, Georgie? It sounds like Mummy’s friend is hurted himself?’ Squeezing Georgie’s hand tightly, Marnie’s voice sounded quiet, faint. She was clearly as uncomfortable with the noises as Georgie. ‘Is he trying to put his seed in her again?’

  ‘Who told you about seeds?’ Georgie turned to her younger sister, shocked that she would know about such things. She was seven years older than Marnie, and when she’d been Marnie’s age she’d been oblivious to everything around her.

  ‘Some of the other kids at school told me. They said about their mums and dads sexing each other so they can have a baby brother or a sister. Does Mummy want one of her friends to give us a brother or a sister?’

  ‘No,’ Georgie said, tensing up. ‘You didn’t tell them anything, did you? About our mother?’ she asked.

  Marnie shook her head firmly. She wasn’t really sure what she wasn’t allowed to tell people, but she hadn’t told anyone anything. ‘I just listened, Georgie. I didn’t tell, I promise.’

  ‘Good. The other kids wouldn’t understand, Marnie. They’ll just say nasty things and Mummy will get in big trouble.’

  ‘Do you want a brother, Georgie?’

  ‘No, I don’t,’ Georgie replied; then, not wanting to continue the conversation, added: ‘Shh now, Marnie, just go back to sleep, yeah?’

  There was silence. Until another loud series of moans echoed through the walls.

  ‘He sounds like a big grunty pig.’ Marnie giggled nervously.

  Georgie giggled too.

  Marnie was right.

  ‘He does, doesn’t he? A grunty fat pig like this.’ Nuzzling her nose into her sister’s neck, Georgie tried to make light of the situation. ‘Oink, Oink.’

  Her efforts caused Marnie to burst out laughing.

  ‘Here!’ Georgie said, quickly grabbing the corner of the duvet. ‘Stick that in your gob, so they can’t hear us.’

  Pushing the material into their mouths, the girls stifled their laughter as they heard one final loud groan. The loudest one of all.

  Then, silence once more.

  Georgie waited, still unable to completely relax. She knew how quickly the mood could change in their house. Especially with her mother’s friends here.

  Sometimes Georgie would hear her mother roar with laughter and chat noisily, then the bed squeaking would start all over again. Other times, her mother would fight and argue.

  Tonight, much to Georgie’s despair, it was the latter.

  Her mother started squawking. Bellowing loudly, she was shouting at the man she was with.

  The girls winced as they heard the thud of something heavy being flung at the wall. Her mother had clearly missed her target as the man roared with laughter. The sound was nasty, mocking.

  The bedroom door was launched open. Their mum and the man were both out on the landing now, right outside Georgie and Marnie’s bedroom door.

  ‘You’re a piss-taking bastard, Benny. Next week? I can’t wait until then for the money,’ their mother screeched indignantly as she tried to drag Benny back up the stairs so he couldn’t leave.

  The girls could hear the scuffle.

  ‘Why are they fighting?’ Marnie whispered, confused at how quickly the atmosphere had changed.

  Georgie didn’t answer. Instead, she wrapped her arm around her sister, again pulling the covers up around them both, just as their bedroom door suddenly burst open. The girls screamed with fright.

  The sight of a half-naked man stumbling into the room and landing in a heap in the
middle of their bedroom floor caused both Georgie and Marnie to scoot backwards, pressing themselves up against the wall behind them.

  ‘For fuck sake, Jos, you nearly took my head clean off,’ the man bellowed.

  Taking one look at his black silhouette lit up by the yellow hallway light behind him, Marnie became hysterical.

  ‘The Bogeyman, Georgie. It’s the Bogeyman.’

  Marnie was up on her feet, scurrying to seek refuge behind her sister in a complete blind panic. She began crying inconsolably.

  The man on the floor clambered to his feet, looking shocked at the realisation there were children in the house.

  ‘Who the fuck are these?’ Benny Taylor looked incredulously at Georgie and Marnie, then back to where their mother stood in the doorway wrapping her dressing gown around her naked body.

  ‘You’ve got kids?’

  Benny’s face was twisted, contorted with both confusion and disgust as he took in the two little faces staring back at him.

  Seeing the obvious judgement in his eyes, Josie Parker immediately got on the defensive.

  ‘My kids are none of your fucking business. You got what you came for; now pay me what you owe me and do one, Benny.’

  Josie was riled. The cheek of some men. Morals of a bleeding alley cat, yet they couldn’t help but look down their nose at her. Benny had already outstayed his welcome here, anyway, by trying to pull a fast one. There was no way she was going to let him get away with bad-mouthing her as well.

  ‘Oh, I’m going, don’t you worry,’ Benny said, turning back to look at the girls once more. The shock on their faces, their eyes wide with fear, it was like a slap in the face for him. Dragging his T-shirt on hurriedly, trying to at least cover himself up a little, he felt suddenly very dirty.

  He couldn’t even bear to think about what he and Josie had just been up to in the very next bedroom. The things he’d made her do, all the noises they’d been making, and the entire time these two kids had been in the very next room?

  ‘What sort of a mother carries on like that with her kids just a few feet away?’ Benny sneered.

  ‘Oh, do me a favour, Benny. Like you give two shits.’ Josie rolled her eyes, bored with Benny’s antics. ‘First, you try to underpay me; now you’re trying to make out that you’re some kind of holier than thou fucking saint. I didn’t hear you complaining five minutes ago though, did I?’

  ‘Five minutes ago, I didn’t know there were two little kids listening to us. You should be fucking ashamed of yourself. You’re fucking sick in the head. I ain’t paying you shit, Josie.’

  ‘You’ll pay me what I’m owed,’ Josie screeched, still fuelled with alcohol from earlier in the evening; her temper finally getting the better of her. Benny was using the girls as his get-out clause. Well, Josie wasn’t having that. Launching herself at the man, she didn’t seem to know or care that her dressing gown had come undone, exposing her bare breast as she lumped Benny repeatedly around the head with her closed fists.

  He did his best to put his arms up above his head in a bid to protect himself, but he soon realised that he was no match for Josie Parker. The woman was a first-class lunatic. As mad as they came.

  Raining punches at him, she caught him with a sharp hook in the eye.

  Benny stepped back, clenching his face, anger surging within him now at the woman’s futile attack.

  ‘You are a fucking nutter, Josie. How the fuck am I going to explain a black eye to my wife?’ he bellowed.

  Up until this day, Benny had never laid his hands on a woman but, right now, he could happily wrap his hands around Josie Parker’s throat and cheerfully throttle the woman.

  ‘Mummy?’ Marnie’s voice called out, wrenching Benny’s seething mind back down to reality.

  Turning to look at the two little girls in the bed again, he shook his head, as he allowed his gaze to sweep across the filthy room that the two children were sleeping in.

  His eyes resting on the greasy chip papers that lay discarded, scrunched at his feet on the floor. Strips of wallpaper hung from the damp, mouldy bedroom walls. Small chunks torn off in places. Probably by the girls. Something to do locked away in here, bored out of their minds while their mother entertained strange men in the next room.

  The acrid smell that lingered in the air was what hit him the hardest. His eyes watering at the bitter stench of piss, like that of a public urinal.

  Benny thought about his own two children, tucked away, safe, at home in their beds. The sudden pang of guilt consuming him as he thought about his wife. She did his head in, his old girl, but one thing he couldn’t dispute was that she was a good mother, his missus. She lived for their kids. Forever fussing over them both, making sure they had nice clean clothes to wear, a decent bit of food in their bellies.

  His wife was twice the woman Josie Parker was.

  What the fuck was he doing here?

  ‘Fuck this!’ he said at last.

  Grabbing the twenty pound note from his pocket, he launched the money at her.

  ‘Here, fucking have it,’ he spat. ‘That’s all you’re getting from me. Buy your kids something nice with it. They deserve that and a lot more with you as their mother, poor little fuckers.’

  Benny shot Josie one final look of contempt before he stormed out of the room, slamming the front door so hard as he left that he nearly took it off its hinges.

  The house was silent then, but going by the thunderous look on their mother’s face, the drama wasn’t over yet.

  Josie was still seething; angry with Benny for taking the royal piss out of her, and angry that the girls had just cost her most of a night’s earn.

  ‘Why aren’t you two asleep?’ she screeched. ‘Can’t you, for just once, do as you’re bloody told? Why do you feel the need to make my life so bloody difficult?’

  ‘Sorry,’ Georgie said, meekly, though she wasn’t sorry one bit.

  It was all Josie’s noise-making that had kept them both awake in the first place; only, Georgie knew it was pointless to argue with her mother when she was in one of her moods.

  The best thing to do was simply apologise, even if she didn’t mean it.

  Their mother had been worse than usual lately with her mood swings, and Georgie knew why.

  She was using again.

  Georgie had walked in on her mother sticking a needle in her arm just a few days earlier. Not only that, but she was drinking heavily too. Georgie had been praying it was just a one-off, a mistake, but she knew the signs well. She’d lived through it once before.

  Her mother had been clean for months. She’d been keeping on top of the housework, and getting Marnie to school on time. Things had been better. But now that she was using again, it would be all downhill again. Georgie knew it.

  ‘Sorry?’ Josie was incredulous, the sarcasm evident in her voice as she slurred her words. She was drunk. Unreasonable. There was no arguing with the woman. ‘Oh well, that’s okay then, isn’t it? If you're sorry. Makes it all all right that. Never mind that you both cost me most of my money tonight.’

  Josie was stopped mid-sentence by a loud ping as the house was suddenly plunged into complete darkness.

  ‘Oh that’s just fucking great. Now we’ve got no lekky either,’ Josie wailed, fighting the urge to cry as the electricity cut out. The emergency funds on the electric key had barely lasted them two days.

  ‘Can anything else go wrong tonight?’ Shoving the twenty pound note into her dressing gown pocket, she was beyond pissed off. She’d been counting on Benny’s money tonight so that she could go and see Billy Stackhouse tomorrow. Just thinking about scoring some gear from Billy tomorrow had been the only thing that had been keeping her going.

  Josie needed a hit. Something stronger than just a drink to tide her over for a while.

  Though she wouldn’t be getting that now.

  She’d have to sort out the bloody electricity.

  ‘Go to bloody sleep,’ she screeched. Tears stinging her eyes. She slammed the gir
ls’ bedroom door shut again and stomped back off to her bedroom to cry herself to sleep.

  Marnie started crying then too. Big, racking sobs that made her whole body shake.

  She was scared, and rightly so. They’d both seen this before. Their mother in her moods.

  She was getting sick again. Just like last time.

  Georgie knew the signs well. The mood swings, the crying. Her mother was spiralling out of control again.

  Pulling her sister in close to her, Georgie cradled her protectively in her arms.

  ‘It’s okay, Marnie, don’t cry. Please,’ she soothed. ‘Whatever happens, I’m going to look after you, Marnie. It’s going to be all right.’

  ‘Promise, Georgie?’ Marnie said, her crying subsiding at the reassurance of her sister’s words.

  ‘I promise,’ she whispered as she felt Marnie relax, as Marnie nestled into her. Her breathing slower now, calm, as she started to fall asleep.

  Georgie kissed her sister on the top of her head.

  She meant what she said.

  She was going to look after Marnie no matter what.

  Chapter Three

  ‘Mummy! I need a wee!’ Hopping up and down as they walked around the Co-op, Marnie’s constant whining was really starting to get right on Josie’s nerves.

  ‘I told you to go before we came out, didn’t I? You’re just going to have to wait now, Marnie. It’s tough luck!’

  Eyeing the bottles of wine that lined the shelf, Josie grabbed the cheapest one there and shoved it in her shopping basket.

  Walking around to the cereal aisle, she knew she was close to losing it.

  Her head was pounding.

  She’d stupidly thought that she was on top of it all, that she could handle a few hits again without getting addicted ‒ but her body was craving another fix. She was clucking.

  Josie remembered the signs well, how her body reacted when the heroin left her system.

  She was annoyed at herself for getting sucked in once again. She’d been clean for almost two months. Two fucking long, tedious months.

  She’d only wanted the occasional hit. Something to take her mind off all the mundane shit that she had to deal with in her life, but the heroin had somehow managed to get its unforgiving claws into her.