CHAPTER 2 : LIVERPOOL CALLING

On the Spring Bank holiday, Gawaine and Merlin were at loose ends, they'd spent the weekend at Merlin's and had finished their English project. Gaius and Hunith had decided to drive across the water into New Brighton, not particularly wanting to drag after them along the prom and have tea at some little cafe, Merlin had suggested that instead, Gawaine and he should start on their next project which was history and had to do with the founding of Liverpool.

Hunith warning the two of them not to get into any trouble, got into the car with Gaius and left as Gawaine said, "Where in heaven's name did you come up with that? I thought it was to be about the North West not Liverpool specifically."

"I just thought that we could spend a day wandering around Liverpool by ourselves."

Gawaine's eyes lit up, "Have you ever gone up the tower in Liverpool Cathedral?" Merlin shook his head so Gawaine continued, "That's what we'll do first. We've got our students cards so we should get a break on admission." They took a bus and were soon walking down from central Liverpool to the docks.

Liverpool Cathedral was huge, Britain's largest cathedral and world's largest Anglican Church. Merlin recognised its outline but he had never been inside.

There were other visitors but finally they got inside. Merlin was shocked, the interior of the church was set up for a huge banquet. All the chairs and kneelers had been removed and in their place were poshly decorated tables. They were later to find out that renting out the space helped defray the yearly expenses.

Merlin still found that the cathedral was wonderful and spent most of his time with his head tilted back looking at the stained glass windows and the organ. He also picked up a couple of pamphlets about the cathedral.

Gawaine was behaving himself even speaking in hushed tones. He said, "I like this traditional cathedral better than ours which is so modern."

"Do you know how much it would cost to build a church like this nowadays? My Mum told me that that is why the Catholic Metroplitan Cathedral's building plans had to be changed to make it smaller and modern."

"Yes but…" Gawaine said, "St. Edward's provides the choir for our Cathedral and that's better."

"Why?" asked Merlin.

"Because it is…" Gawaine was staunchly proud of his school's choir. Not that he belonged to it as no choir master needed to deal with the likes of Gawaine. Merlin laughed, he too was proud of the fact that some of the boys in their classes were choristers and had even been on TV when Masses were broadcast.

They made their way around the church to the tower and had to wait until they could get onto the lifts. Merlin noticed the condition of the tower. It was built from 1904 to 1978 and he noticed sections that were out-of-bounds. The ascent of two lift rides took you up and then you had to climb one hundred and eight stairs. Gawaine asked if they were safe and the security guard assured him it was as long as he followed the rules.

Merlin wanted to laugh as that was one of Gawaine's weak points. He decided he would keep an eye on him just in case he decided to show off. He didn't want his name to appear in the newspaper if Gawaine got hurt, for one thing his mother would be furious with him. He needn't have worried as Gawaine behaved himself.

Once up there, they had fabulous views of the area. They could even make out Blackpool Tower standing on the horizon around thirty miles to the north. "My Gran now lives near Blackpool." Gawaine said. "Miles of yellow sand…you can run until you drop and never reach the end."

Merlin liked the top of the fretwork on the balustrade around the tower with little stone finials on the top reminded him of a castle. He felt that he could reach out and touch the Cunard Building with its statues that were on the Liverpool Football Club Logo. To the south around eight miles away, they could make out the black castle like towers of the Runcorn Railway Bridge. To the south east the white modern structure of their Metropolitan Cathedral only half a mile way and to the West the Pennines, the hills of Wales. It was a clear day and using the information leaflets they were able to pick out all the places.

Merlin was impressed as was Gawaine who decided that one day they would go to the top of the Radio City Tower as well. "Will we have to climb stairs?" Merlin wanted to know.

They made their way downstairs and left the cathedral turning to the left to go through the tunnel to visit St. James Cemetery which was a stone quarry in 1825 and is below ground level in the shadow of the cathedral. Burials stopped being held there in 1936.

Merlin said, "It's like a sunken garden a bit spooky as it has been a cemetery."

They passed heads stones stacked against a wall. There were also catacombs in the East wall. Many of the walls were damp looking and covered in green moss. People has also chiseled the names of the deceased into the walls with dates from the 1700's. Merlin shivered and pulled his jacket tighter around him.

Gawaine decided to tell a story and they sat on a bench.

Gawaine started, "My grandma was a florist's apprentice and one of her jobs was to line the open grave with greenery and flowers before the funeral." He looked at Merlin's face to see that he was both impressed and horrified. "The plain earth walls of the grave were covered as the casket was lowered on ropes and straps held by the gravediggers."

"Do they do that now?" Merlin wanted to know.

Gawaine who had attended his grandfather's burial, shrugged his shoulders saying, "I guess the rich might but at Ford they used a carpet of fake grass to cover the sides and a machine to lower the coffin down into the hole and it wasn't done until we had left but Laurence said that in some places the family stands and watches the coffin going into the ground."

Merlin decided that he'd prefer to leave the coffin on top of the grave but then thought that it was more final if he stayed and saw the coffin into the grave. He said, "Guess things have changed over the years but keep going about your Gran."

"Because most of the funerals were in the morning," Gawaine continued, "my Gran said that the girls had to be there early leaving the shop on Bold Street just after six.

"If the florist's van was available they would pack the chicken wire, anchors and hammers into the van, with the evergreen branches and if the client wanted also the flowers, they would even weave flowers into the boughs of evergreen.

"My grandmother said that it was cold and damp because the cemetery was below street level," he pointed up and to his right and Merlin could see the tour buses above them on the road. "She also said that she had to wear gloves as the evergreen needles pricked her fingers and wellingtons as often the grave had water in the bottom of it. The worst time was in the winter in heavy rain, especially if they had to stand around waiting for the custodian to let them in.

"If the van was busy, they had to take the tram when all the people were going to work and they had rolls of wire, evergreen boughs and tools.

"Bet they were popular, Merlin!" Gawaine said sarcastically. "Can you see a bus driver today allowing them on with all that stuff during rush hour. Luckily they were able to borrow the gravediggers' ladders."

Merlin nodded as he couldn't see a tram driver allowing someone on with a ladder. He again felt a shiver run up his spine, "How much did it cost to have a grave lined?"

"All my Gran said was that they were burials for rich people. The florist where she worked was vey posh, she had a picture and all the sales ladies in the front of the shop wore black dresses and had a pair of scissors hanging from their belts.

"When they finally got into the cemetery, they went to the grave to line the whole thing with the chicken wire and attach it with hooks. My Gran said that the youngest apprentice usually went down into the grave. She used to laugh telling us about one time, she was in the grave and another apprentice lost control of the hammer and it fell into the grave but luckily missed her."

Merlin smiled and said, "They could have had a double burial!"

"Hey! That's my Gran your talking about."

Gawaine was soon striding across the grass towards a wall. He stopped and looked up, "See those stones that jut out, they make sort of a stairway up to the street."

Merlin stared at the wall, he couldn't see any staircase but Gawaine was already walking diagonally across the wall from stone to stone and finally Merlin saw what he meant. There were blocks of masonry which stuck out and he guessed they could be considered as steps.

Gawaine reached the top and disappeared over the wall presumably to land on the pavement. He then appeared again sitting on the wall looking down at, "Come on, it's your turn now. Make like a mountain goat!"

Merlin laughed and started up the wall, it was easier than he had expected as the stones were really like steps. He was more than halfway up when he heard a yell, "Oi! Git orf the wall, this ain't no bleeding playground!" He froze!

"Keep climbing!" He heard Gawaine say from above. He regretted ever starting up the wall but there was no way he was going to try to turn around and go down to the irate security guard. He had flashes of his mother's face as he was dropped off at home by the police for inappropriate behaviour on church property.

Even though he could still here the shouts from below he concentrated on Gawaine's voice and kept climbing. Finally, he felt Gawaine's hand on his wrist as he manhandled him over the top of the wall to land on the pavement where they collapsed laughing.

"My Mum must never know about this she'd have a heart attack."

"No trouble," Gawaine said with a grin, "As I can tell my Gran and she would help me line her grave with flowers."

Merlin grinned standing up to announce that he was hungry.

He later asked Gawaine if his Gran still talked about the graves. He'd shrugged saying that she didn't remember things very well anymore and she lived with his aunt in Lytham-St. Anne's and if they talked about graves all she would say was that it was cold work and she would rub her hands together.

He nodded, before she had died his grandmother who had lived with his great Uncle Gaius, used to tell marvellous stories about the Banshee and the Kelpies but she too had begun to forget things and it was his Mam who now told the stories. He had liked her and it was after her death that Gaius had moved in with them.

Gawaine was chatting away and then Merlin realised that he was talking about food and he tuned in. They passed a couple of food trucks and one offered real food like fish and chips, while another sold ice-cream. They were hungry and by pooling their money they were both able to get a portion of fish and chips and a drink. They sat on the wall and ate their lunch.

"Let's walk down to Albert Dock, there are always lots of girls there…" Gawaine said with a twinkle in his eye. Gawaine was careful when he was at school, he tried to stay away from the girls as it invariably got him into trouble. As his father had told him that he would have plenty of time to have female company when he had finished school. Therefore, he steering well away from them only nodding and saying hello to the sisters of the boys he knew.

Merlin smiled as he thought, 'Poor Gawaine, he wasn't the problem. It was the girls who were always after him and he often ended up as the scapegoat if there was a lot of fooling going on. He had to give him credit though as he just used to accept the criticism and lectures from the teachers with no hard feelings.'

He laughed as he had once heard a teacher say that it would be good for Gawaine to stand up for himself and declare that he had not been involved but who would believe him, he'd heard the other staff member had said.

One good thing was that many of his teachers were becoming to realise that Gawaine had finally found his strengths and was a good student after years of loafing around and doing nothing in class.

One day, the English teacher in Lower Six mentioned that Gawaine should start looking into further education as he had the brains and the motivation. The class clown had spluttered out, "Who, Sir, Gawaine?" hoping to get a laugh out of the class and the teacher had quickly turned on him saying, "Don't worry, Doyle, I won't be saying the same to you any time soon!" Looking at his hands, the boy couldn't face his friends who were now grinning at his expense.

Merlin had never had a girlfriend. He liked girls as people but he didn't see himself partnering off with one in the near future. He had a lot of things, he planned to do first.

Gawaine interrupted his thought as he said, "Wow! Look at her."

He turned to see a very nice looking woman crossing the road with a man. He said, "Gawaine, she's old enough to be your mother!"

"Maybe…but you have to agree she has a great figure is beautifully dressed and would look good on my arm at the next school dance. Anyway, I'm going to go to Albert Dock and get my Gran something nice in one of the gift shops. My Dad gave me a fiver as we are going to visit her next weekend. You should come too…maybe we could get her to talk about the graves again."

"Very kind of you to invite me but if it is a family visit, I wouldn't fit in."

"Sure you would, my Mum says that you are a hero as you finally managed to get me on the right track, something which no teacher over eleven years of schooling had ever been able to do!"

Merlin grinned, little did Gawaine know but he had saved him from being ostracised as a new boy in his first year at St. Edwards. He loved the school and got on well with most of his classmates and he had Gawaine's outgoing personality to thank for that.

Merlin thought that Gawaine's gift of a model of the Anglican Cathedral was an excellent choice of gift for his Gran.

As they took the bus back to Merlin's where his father would pick him up later on, Gawaine said, "We should do this again. I had fun and there are so many other places to visit in our fine city which by the way has the best football team in the world."

Merlin laughed ducking out of Gawaine's reach as he said, "Everton?"