Chapter 2

On the way into town, Hilda got Eddie to drop her at the club. She went to the old peoples place twice a week to keep up with the gossip and to get out of his hair for a while. She knew he would never say it; that he needed a break from her but he was young compared to her and it was sometimes, she knew, those we love the most we needed the longest break from.

Her Stan had taught her that.

But none of these thoughts were in her head as they drove along and she was for once grateful Eddie had so much on his mind. He was not taking a lot of notice of what she was doing because if he did then he would see she was obviously distressed.

The newspaper which had come through there letter box had been the bearer of bad news for her that day and she did not know what she was going to do about it; she only knew she had to do something for there was no way after what she had just read that she was going to be able to sit idle.

She wanted someone, anyone to come and tell her what she had just found out was untrue because if it was then for the first time twenty six years she had really just found out something which had the power to break her heart afresh.

There had been a tram crash on Coronation Street – her Coronation Street – and from the pictures that had bad been in the paper it did not look as if it had just been human casualties – there had been three of those apparently – and the cobbles which had suffered for it.

She knew it was cruel to mourn a house when people had lost there lives but at that moment it was the only thing she found she could think of...That it had gone into her number thirteen and now it was never going to be the house she had spent so many years in again. She knew that when Sally and Kevin would have probably taken it down as soon as they got in on their own for they were so young but – her muriel was gone as well.

It was all gone.

And that was the last house she had shared with her –

It had been the only house the two of them had ever owned and it had been more than a house to her; it had been a proper home where they had been able to sleep soundly together.

All her memories of the life they had shared together were there and it was only when she got out of the car and was told by Eddie he was going to be back to get her in a couple of hours that she knew what she was going to do.

What she had to do.

Eddie may well come back for her but she was not going to be there. Knowing that due to the fact he would want to protect her, he would never take her back to the street himself she got the cab to the railway station and caught the first train she could to Weatherfield.

She knew what she was going to find there was only going to upset her so there was not a lot of point to it but she felt as if one of her own had been injured or worst and so she had to go back.

She had too.

Her mind was teaming with thoughts and memories all the way back from Bury to the little town where she had been so happy if only for a time. She did not think she had rose tinted glasses on over it because she knew she had had some rotten times when she had lived in Weatherfield.

Loads of bad times; when she had had the break down and she had got lost in Liverpool; when Stan had been accused of being a pepping tom; when he had left her and when she had lost him forever.

She had still not got over the fact that she had let him go to hospital and she had been at home when he had passed.

She had always been at his side and she had tended is every need.

And so when she had found out the house where they had been king and queen was destroyed her guilt doubled. She did not know why and she did not think she was ever going too; for it was not her fault that the tram had come down was it?

But it felt as if it had been an end of an era for her all over again and as she got down off of the train she had to move the question to if she had done the right thing to the other side of her brain. She had to have done the right thing for she was there now.

When she got there she was able to get in a cab to take her to the street. No longer for her were the worries of past days when she had had to watch every penny. When she had been working for her good doctor she had been able to build up quite a nest egg and she was planning on leaving it to the children.

But she did not think they were going to miss a tenner.

"Are you sure you want to go there?" asked the cabbie.

The way he looked at her made her feel sad and she knew it was true. Her little street had been hit by terror and she knew anyone who was sane would not go there.

But the compelling feeling in her heart made her go on and she nodded.

"Please take me. I will pay you double to take me if need be," she told him sharply and he nodded.

"No need at all, lady," he said clearly uncomfortable at the thought of taking an old women's pension from her and so he started up the ignition and did as she had asked him too.

Hilda Ogden for the first time in twenty six years was homeward bound.

\/\/\/\/

Claire Peacock was distraught. Ashley was gone. After they had loved for so long and now he was gone. After all she had said about France. She knew they had not had the best of marriages and she had not been the easiest of wives but she had not expected to be a widow before she had hit her middle age.

She had not wanted to lose him – ever.

So when she saw an old woman looking up at her house mournfully she could not help but feel both annoyed and freaked out.

\/\/\/\/

When Hilda had got to the street, she knew even had she tried she would never have been able to prepare herself for the state of her beloved home.

She did not know why she had not been happy with her memories.

They had been good memories for the most part. She could still recall her leaving party when she had been wished as they had waved her goodbye. The mere memory made her eyes tear. It had been so unexpected...

And so why she had come back was to her a mystery.

The rubble which had once been her adored home broke her heart. It was like in the war when she had come out of the black out and she had seen just a few bricks still standing where a house had once been.

"By heck," she said to herself.

There were a thousand ways she could say it to herself but the fact remained when she looked at the house she only saw one thing.

Stanley.

The human lump of human uselessness himself. And she missed him.

She knew what they had said. That he had never been a comfort to her. But he had been. In his own way, she had to say and in a way no one else would have been able to understand. But he had been a comfort to her. He had been her best friend...as well as her worst enemy.

"Who are you?" a voice demanded of her.

She had not been spoken to in that time in quite some times she thought as she looked at the young woman who had dared to do so. She felt as if she was going to be scolded by her as if she had been some naughty school girl.

"Here for the show are you?"

"No, I am not!" she said insulted by the insinuation.

Some things never changed about the little street did they? There were obviously still gobby young women living on it.

The only difference was she wasn't one of them anymore.

"Then why are you here? To see how the crazy butcher's wife from number thirteen is going to cope now her husband's has gone?" she yelled at her and there were tears in her eyes and Hilda knew had things been different then she would have had a great deal of sympathy for the girl; and she did. She knew the pain she was going through after all. She had been there; she was a widow. But as it was she had not let Annie Walker talk down to her where she had been able to help it and she was not going to let this little madam.

"Now, you listen here you and you listen good. I am here to pay my respect to an old friend and nowt else. I'm sorry about your husband love, but if you are looking for an argument then let's go cause I can't say I have had a barmy I have really enjoyed in quite some while."

She was going to be damned before she played the frail old lady. She recalled how scared she had been in her last few months on the street – they were not happy memories but she felt she had regained her confidence since then and it was going to go nowhere.

"Claire, come on love," a voice said from behind the younger of the two grieving widows. Becky had been there for her more than ever since she had lost Ashley.

"No, she is here to stare at me as if I am some sort of old freak show."

Hilda shook her eyes sympathy and her eyes conveyed the sympathy she did have for her. "It is the house I came for – not you."

And as she looked up at what had once been her little end terrace she felt her age. She felt battle scared and weary. Not scared but ... tired.

Everything which had made up her old life when she had lived on this street seemed to be gone and it made her feel even older still.

The young women who had come to drag her friend away have her gave her the evil eye but she didn't care. She had not pussy footed about anyone except those she loved in her life. She was not going to allow anyone to talk down to her when she had done nothing to warrant it.

With one last look up at the rubble she told herself she was doing herself no good. It was three o'clock. Eddie had dropped her off at eleven and so he was going to have no idea where she was. And he was going to be worrying over her.

She should ring and let him know really. After everything that had gone on he did not deserve to go through this.

But as she was there she did not think she was able to resist going in to the Rovers for a swift one. The pub was opening – some things never changed. Stanley would be proud of her...

Going in to the pub which had once been her local she looked about it and saw looks of long faces, none of which she recognised. They looked as heartbroken as she felt.

"A brandy," she said as she got to the bar and the middle aged women who was standing there nodded.

"This one is on me love. Everyone who comes in here for a drink today from what I can see needs it."

"That's very generous of you."

"Well the pub is the centre of the community. And we have to keep going I guess. You from round here?"

"Aye chuck I am – or at least I was a long time ago."

"How long?"

"Longer than I care to remember," she said as she walked over to the empty booth to take five minutes for her own before she had to ring Eddie.

He had tried to get her used to one of those mobile phones. It hadn't worked of course and they had just kept on getting 'lost' to his annoyance. In the end, he had given up because he knew she knew her own mind and once she made it up there was no one else who could change it.

Sometimes, she thought he understood her a lot better than her husband ever had.

As she sat there in the pub, she could almost see Stan there at her side. He had spent a lot more time in here than he had back at number 13 when they had been going through one of their various rough patches.

At the time, she had felt she had had to fight her corner but when she looked back the only thing she could think was how stupid some of their rows had been.

She found for a time she had been able to move on but the elder she got the more she thought of him. And being there made her longing for him worst.

It was not the husband she regretted but it was the friend. Someone who saw life the way she did at the end of the day. Many a times they had argued about the means but they had agreed about the ends.

Yes, that was the way her marriage had been.

They had agreed when it had come to the most important things and the most important thing had been that they were always together.

They had been running together against the rain from day one.

\/\/\/\/

Sally felt like staying beneath the bed covers and never getting out of them. Not only was she worried over those who had been hurt when the tram had crushed she was once more nursing a broken heart – her own.

Kev had cheated. Kev had lied. Kev had had a child with another woman.

And when she had had cancer and he had been there telling her sweet nothings. Had it meant anything to him at all she had to wonder or had he been by her side out of duty?

When she had got ill and she had then got better, she felt as if she had been a given a new lease of life and she had wanted to share that with him because he had been the best husband to her when she had been sick.

He had been the very meaning of the word devoting and she had fallen in love with him all over again. When she had recovered he had made her feel young and beautiful and she had got all the conformation she had thought she was ever going to need that she had been right to marry him all over again. But now Natalie had come back to haunt her all over again in the form of Molly only she did not ever get the answers she needed from her because she had died.

She had died and she knew if she went back to Kev then they were going to have to look after that tiny baby; the reminder of everything she was so desperate to forget at that moment.

The one and only thing that made it easier for than when it happened before was that the girls were so much older and they knew what was going on.

Was it so much different to what she had done with Ian? Her head said no. Her heart screamed yes.

Kev had had a baby with another women and it was killing her.

For the first time in months, she did not want to get out of bed. She had not let anything get her down but then she had thought she had had a husband who loved her. It was as if her whole world had been changed and there was not a thing in the world she was able to do about her.

She had been lying there for quite some time when she felt a pair of arms wrap about her and she knew her daughtesr was there for her.

Both of them and Sian had come in to her room and all three had tears in their eyes. She knew she was still not entirely sure about what her youngest child and the girl felt for one another but Sian had always been a good girl and she had become part of the family since she had been living with them. She was so glad Rosie and Sophie both were with someone at that moment as it meant they had someone to rant too and Sally liked Jason just as much as she did Sian. She did believe he was good for Rosie deep down.

"Don't worry about me girls," She said as she sat up and took hold of her daughters hand and looked at Sian as she said it to make sure she knew she counted her as one of her girls as well. "I am going to be ok," She said as she sat up and looked at the clock.

It was half past two.

Ok, so she was not exactly fine – she had not yet even got up but she was going to be ok.

"Do you know what you are going to do yet?" Rosie said to her and there was no begging for her dad in her voice as there had been when she and Sophie had been kids. It was a question from one woman to another.

"I have no idea."

"You know what ever you say is fine by us, mum," Sophie told her with a smile.

"Thank you," she said as she kissed her cheek. Sophie may be fifteen but she was still her baby.

"We are going to be here for you no matter what Mrs. Webster," Sian chipped in as they shared a smile. She had been more of mum to her since she had come out than her own had been and she did not know how she was ever going to repay her for all she had done for her.

"Then I think we are going to be ok girls." She said as she threw off the duvet so that it encased Sophie. "I had better get up and get in the shower."

"Ok but I should warn you about you'll mobile mum."

"Packed from messages from your dad," she asked Rosie's whose nod confirm what she guessed she had known.

"You know if you two want to go and see him then that is with me don't you." She told them. She was not going to make them pick sides, it wasn't fair.

"And why would we?"

"Where is he? Do we know?"

"I think he is over at Devs." Rosie told her with a shrug.

"How is everyone?"

"Rita is home and at Emily's but there all saying Sean is not doing so well. Apparently Eileen is up the hospital with him and so Michelle. There just going to have to wait and see how he gets on."

"We'll send a card up to the hospital, eh girls?" They nodded. "See there are always people who are less fortunate than us lot. At least we have our health, eh?"

The two girls looked at one another. They had both always loved there mum but they had really only begun to know how great she was when the pair of them had nearly lost her to cancer and they had both turned into mummies girl in the year that had followed.

Stunned by the courage there mum was facing once more showing in the face of her life going to pot once more, they both burst in to tears and hugged her.

An hour later Sally knew she was ready to go out and face the world. Everyone knew what had happened but she had done nothing wrong and so she had nothing to be ashamed of; if any one said anything to her then she was going to have the courage to face it out.

She had said to the girls they were going to be ok and now she had to back up what she was saying with actions. So once they had all got changed she told them they were going to go the right thing and get out and show their faces. If she could do it, then so could they.

Please review!