Part Seventy-Nine
Yvonne smiled faintly when she looked at her calendar, to see that it was April 1st. It didn't hurt her any that this day was one where happy families would play harmless tricks on each other. The day had not meant a great deal in her past when Charlie was around. It would simply never have occurred to her, or anyone else, to play even a mild harmless trick on him. That would have threatened his sense of dignity and self-importance and on the rare occasions when that happened for any unrelated reason, he could and did hit back in a very dangerous and uncontrolled fashion. Humour to Charlie Atkins was always directed at someone else, invariably someone weaker, in a form where there was an underlying element of cruelty.
What was more cheering today was a walk round the garden now that the snowdrops were pushing their delicate white flowers through the rain blasted lawn. The buds on the trees and the pink apple blossom told her of the cyclical renewal of life which, who knows, she might be a part of. Her own life was picking up a little, or at least that large part that Lauren and Denny occupied in her heart. At least she didn't have to face the darkness in her room each bedtime worrying what either of her two or both of them might be doing. At least, there isn't any bastard screw who might be making their lives a misery. It meant that she had the mental time and space to consider her own life, just where she stood.
In that accepting frame of mind, she picked up the phone at about the eighth ring just when the consciousness of it fought through her meditations. The call was from Lauren.
"Hi Mum, it's me," Came Lauren's totally unnecessary slurred introduction pitched deliberately softly, obviously intending not to be overheard. The sounds of laughter in the background could only have come from Denny who was acting as lookout of sorts.
"And are you quite sure that Karen has only cut your weekly spends for the one week. I hope you weren't as stoned when you talked to her as you are right now? I can almost smell the stuff down the bleeding phone," Yvonne finally finished cross-examining her daughter, extracting what she needed to know from the rambling story that followed her first greeting.
"Dead sure," Denny's voice cut in from behind Lauren. "She was cool about the whole thing." "Gina was cool, too. We're the good girls around here and today doesn't count as its April fool's day. It was the screws who planted Monopoly money on Bodybag with a little help from the Julies." Yvonne shook her head in incomprehension at the meandering story that was coming at her from down the phone.
"In any case, we were told to not leave any traces of any stuff for tomorrow so we've been getting rid of the cookies in one go. It's not my fault that these are going straight to my head." When Lauren had rapidly run through that story, Yvonne laughed heartily until she could hear the rapid sound of the pips.
"Gotta go, mum. Give my love to Cassie, Roisin and the kids. Love you, mum." "Yeah love you, mum," echoed Denny till silence shut off the conversation. Lauren and Denny could sneak back to their cell while Yvonne grinned and searched for her house keys and car keys to set off for Cassie and Roisin's thinking affectionately of what she thought of as two naughty schoolgirls.
To Cassie's and Roisin's children, she was the warm hearted, incredibly maternal woman who spent all her undivided attention on them and with an inexhaustible supply of new jokes that they knew nobody else at school knew. They felt particularly safe with her while she was around and went to bed, happy and content.
The woman who crept down the staircase changed into that other woman who had recently slept with John, and had been in love with Karen. She shook her head to dismiss these thoughts and slumped back in the armchair, put her feet up and gratefully accepted the drink that was poured out for her.
"You two are lucky to have each other," Yvonne said in an admiring tone. "You look so good together." This remark came out of nowhere in the middle of a general chit chat. Cassie was nestling against Roisin with that inner smile of satisfaction and content which wasn't just that of the end of a hard day. Roisin's arm was wrapped round her shoulders and that glowing look on her face told of someone who was loved. Yvonne's generous side wished them well from what she remembered of what they had gone through in Larkhall, as their lives were anything but idyllic. They deserved their good fortune but a tiny voice inside her could not help but be aware of what was missing in her own life.
"How is life treating you these days?" Roisin asked in an apparently casual tone of voice while Cassie flicked a lock of hair out of her face with that habitual gesture of hers.
"Not so bad. Denny was going through a rough patch recently but I saw her in Larkhall and Lauren and me between us straightened her out. There's nothing at Larkhall that I have to worry about, what with……" Yvonne stopped dead at that point as she knew that she was on the verge of talking of the new governing Governor of Larkhall. "What's the matter, Yvonne?" Roisin asked gently. She knew enough that there was something troubling her but it would be another matter to get her to talk.
"Nothing, really. Things in my life are looking up now I know that Lauren will be out in less than a year if she plays her cards right. Even at my age, a mum's job never ceases, eh? I've got you two as good mates and all the rest of the gang that was in court out there somewhere." Yvonne tacked a smile in place on her face as she made a conscious effort to revive her spirits while Roisin looked on a little dubiously but maintained a tactful silence. "I was going to tell you about something that my Lauren just told me on the phone. She, Denny and the Julies cooked up some cannabis cookies and as an April fool's joke, slipped a couple each to Karen and Gina Rossi, you remember her from the trial. "Hey, Cassie's face broke into a wide grin. "That's a good one. Why didn't we think of it?" "And you think, Cassie Tyler, that Fenner, Grayling and Bodybag would have seen the funny side of that one? Things must be getting better at Larkhall as there was a lot that went on then that wasn't a joke." Cassie mentally sat bolt upright at Roisin's perceptive remark. That said it all. "So I take it that they weren't banged up for that?" Roisin pursued.
The expected reply from Yvonne's gift for storytelling did not materialise. She was staring into the distance as her attention was grabbed by something inside her that was bothering her.
"Eh, what were you saying?" As Roisin repeated her question, Yvonne was taken back to the here and now and finished the story and went on to raise general laughter about the story of the monopoly money. A small part of her was mulling over the sweetness of the night that she spent with John and that, day by day, it was rapidly receding into the past, all but the memory of it.
"You haven't said more about Karen than you can possibly avoid," She gently interposed.
"There's nothing much to tell," Came the short answer.
"Meaning that you haven't seen much of her?" "That's about it. She's bound to be even busier in her life than she used to be. She's got her life and I've got mine." "And that answers everything. You've only been half here all evening. Just trust us to say what's bothering you. You'll have to spit it out. You know how persistent I can be. That's quite bad enough for you without Roisin here as well." With a sigh, Yvonne gave way to the inevitable as she took in the grin on Cassie's face which softened the pill. For the first time this evening, she looked properly into their eyes and saw their expression of real concern for her.
"I'm a silly cow about Karen, I know. I can't argue or fight anything that went down with us that split us up after Fenner was killed. I know that I'll stay friends with Karen whatever. If anything happened to me, she'd be there for me somehow and I'd be the same for her….." Roisin and Cassie studied Yvonne as she pushed out the words from inside her. Automatically, she fumbled for a cigarette and blew the smoke out as she gained time to think. They kept a supportive silence as she paused, knowing very well that the slightest suggestion of crowding her would not help her.
"I slept with the judge, John, John Deed. He's a good man." Yvonne abruptly lunged into what she had to say, clumsily fumbling for the name of the man who she knew as the best male lover that she had known but the others had only seen as the august, if wise and kindly presence on his judgement throne in court. They did not ask any more questions of Yvonne about the judge, hearing him being given this very rare compliment. "Will that come between you and Karen?" Roisin said softly, gently coming to the point.
"It's more complicated than that. She slept with John once, at a time when he was having a relationship with Jo Mills, the same Jo Mills who moved heaven and earth to get Lauren's stretch in prison knocked down from life to a year. I'm scared to mess up something that's already bloody complicated when I owe Jo bigtime for what she did for Lauren." "Was anything holding him back that night?" "Nor more than there was for me," Yvonne answered with brutal honesty.
"Jesus, I didn't think that a judge's love life could be so complicated," Cassie said slightly in jest, shaking her head. Her mind went back to the man who had sent her down, who was a dried up old man with nothing to sustain him but his robes of office. She added hurriedly in case she had put her foot in it in the classic way that only she could do. "I mean, everything is out of your hands between all of them. You're not close enough to them where it matters. In the last resort, whatever happens between then, will happen no matter what you say or do. Nobody need know, not Karen, not George and not Jo if you don't say anything." Yvonne let out a huge cloud of smoke mixed with relief. That was what she had last said to John but it was nice to hear someone else say it. She didn't say anything but the way she nodded her head forcibly and the visible way that she relaxed into the armchair told her how tense she had been without her fully knowing it. "So if you happen to see Karen around sometime as a friend, there are no problems are there," Roisin said gently.
"No, there ain't," Yvonne reflected as she gained her freedom.
"So have you any more April Fool's jokes you've heard from Lauren. She doesn't do things by halves, does she," Cassie prompted.
A wicked smile split her face as the full humour of the stunt that was pulled on Bodybag flowed over her. This one was rich.
"The Julies got some of the screws to play a joke on Bodybag. This one is rich, I'm telling you….." Cassie and Roisin were all attention as they listened to the woman who told the most priceless funny stories and was at last in the mood to find it funny as well.
Yvonne smiled faintly when she looked at her calendar, to see that it was April 1st. It didn't hurt her any that this day was one where happy families would play harmless tricks on each other. The day had not meant a great deal in her past when Charlie was around. It would simply never have occurred to her, or anyone else, to play even a mild harmless trick on him. That would have threatened his sense of dignity and self-importance and on the rare occasions when that happened for any unrelated reason, he could and did hit back in a very dangerous and uncontrolled fashion. Humour to Charlie Atkins was always directed at someone else, invariably someone weaker, in a form where there was an underlying element of cruelty.
What was more cheering today was a walk round the garden now that the snowdrops were pushing their delicate white flowers through the rain blasted lawn. The buds on the trees and the pink apple blossom told her of the cyclical renewal of life which, who knows, she might be a part of. Her own life was picking up a little, or at least that large part that Lauren and Denny occupied in her heart. At least she didn't have to face the darkness in her room each bedtime worrying what either of her two or both of them might be doing. At least, there isn't any bastard screw who might be making their lives a misery. It meant that she had the mental time and space to consider her own life, just where she stood.
In that accepting frame of mind, she picked up the phone at about the eighth ring just when the consciousness of it fought through her meditations. The call was from Lauren.
"Hi Mum, it's me," Came Lauren's totally unnecessary slurred introduction pitched deliberately softly, obviously intending not to be overheard. The sounds of laughter in the background could only have come from Denny who was acting as lookout of sorts.
"And are you quite sure that Karen has only cut your weekly spends for the one week. I hope you weren't as stoned when you talked to her as you are right now? I can almost smell the stuff down the bleeding phone," Yvonne finally finished cross-examining her daughter, extracting what she needed to know from the rambling story that followed her first greeting.
"Dead sure," Denny's voice cut in from behind Lauren. "She was cool about the whole thing." "Gina was cool, too. We're the good girls around here and today doesn't count as its April fool's day. It was the screws who planted Monopoly money on Bodybag with a little help from the Julies." Yvonne shook her head in incomprehension at the meandering story that was coming at her from down the phone.
"In any case, we were told to not leave any traces of any stuff for tomorrow so we've been getting rid of the cookies in one go. It's not my fault that these are going straight to my head." When Lauren had rapidly run through that story, Yvonne laughed heartily until she could hear the rapid sound of the pips.
"Gotta go, mum. Give my love to Cassie, Roisin and the kids. Love you, mum." "Yeah love you, mum," echoed Denny till silence shut off the conversation. Lauren and Denny could sneak back to their cell while Yvonne grinned and searched for her house keys and car keys to set off for Cassie and Roisin's thinking affectionately of what she thought of as two naughty schoolgirls.
To Cassie's and Roisin's children, she was the warm hearted, incredibly maternal woman who spent all her undivided attention on them and with an inexhaustible supply of new jokes that they knew nobody else at school knew. They felt particularly safe with her while she was around and went to bed, happy and content.
The woman who crept down the staircase changed into that other woman who had recently slept with John, and had been in love with Karen. She shook her head to dismiss these thoughts and slumped back in the armchair, put her feet up and gratefully accepted the drink that was poured out for her.
"You two are lucky to have each other," Yvonne said in an admiring tone. "You look so good together." This remark came out of nowhere in the middle of a general chit chat. Cassie was nestling against Roisin with that inner smile of satisfaction and content which wasn't just that of the end of a hard day. Roisin's arm was wrapped round her shoulders and that glowing look on her face told of someone who was loved. Yvonne's generous side wished them well from what she remembered of what they had gone through in Larkhall, as their lives were anything but idyllic. They deserved their good fortune but a tiny voice inside her could not help but be aware of what was missing in her own life.
"How is life treating you these days?" Roisin asked in an apparently casual tone of voice while Cassie flicked a lock of hair out of her face with that habitual gesture of hers.
"Not so bad. Denny was going through a rough patch recently but I saw her in Larkhall and Lauren and me between us straightened her out. There's nothing at Larkhall that I have to worry about, what with……" Yvonne stopped dead at that point as she knew that she was on the verge of talking of the new governing Governor of Larkhall. "What's the matter, Yvonne?" Roisin asked gently. She knew enough that there was something troubling her but it would be another matter to get her to talk.
"Nothing, really. Things in my life are looking up now I know that Lauren will be out in less than a year if she plays her cards right. Even at my age, a mum's job never ceases, eh? I've got you two as good mates and all the rest of the gang that was in court out there somewhere." Yvonne tacked a smile in place on her face as she made a conscious effort to revive her spirits while Roisin looked on a little dubiously but maintained a tactful silence. "I was going to tell you about something that my Lauren just told me on the phone. She, Denny and the Julies cooked up some cannabis cookies and as an April fool's joke, slipped a couple each to Karen and Gina Rossi, you remember her from the trial. "Hey, Cassie's face broke into a wide grin. "That's a good one. Why didn't we think of it?" "And you think, Cassie Tyler, that Fenner, Grayling and Bodybag would have seen the funny side of that one? Things must be getting better at Larkhall as there was a lot that went on then that wasn't a joke." Cassie mentally sat bolt upright at Roisin's perceptive remark. That said it all. "So I take it that they weren't banged up for that?" Roisin pursued.
The expected reply from Yvonne's gift for storytelling did not materialise. She was staring into the distance as her attention was grabbed by something inside her that was bothering her.
"Eh, what were you saying?" As Roisin repeated her question, Yvonne was taken back to the here and now and finished the story and went on to raise general laughter about the story of the monopoly money. A small part of her was mulling over the sweetness of the night that she spent with John and that, day by day, it was rapidly receding into the past, all but the memory of it.
"You haven't said more about Karen than you can possibly avoid," She gently interposed.
"There's nothing much to tell," Came the short answer.
"Meaning that you haven't seen much of her?" "That's about it. She's bound to be even busier in her life than she used to be. She's got her life and I've got mine." "And that answers everything. You've only been half here all evening. Just trust us to say what's bothering you. You'll have to spit it out. You know how persistent I can be. That's quite bad enough for you without Roisin here as well." With a sigh, Yvonne gave way to the inevitable as she took in the grin on Cassie's face which softened the pill. For the first time this evening, she looked properly into their eyes and saw their expression of real concern for her.
"I'm a silly cow about Karen, I know. I can't argue or fight anything that went down with us that split us up after Fenner was killed. I know that I'll stay friends with Karen whatever. If anything happened to me, she'd be there for me somehow and I'd be the same for her….." Roisin and Cassie studied Yvonne as she pushed out the words from inside her. Automatically, she fumbled for a cigarette and blew the smoke out as she gained time to think. They kept a supportive silence as she paused, knowing very well that the slightest suggestion of crowding her would not help her.
"I slept with the judge, John, John Deed. He's a good man." Yvonne abruptly lunged into what she had to say, clumsily fumbling for the name of the man who she knew as the best male lover that she had known but the others had only seen as the august, if wise and kindly presence on his judgement throne in court. They did not ask any more questions of Yvonne about the judge, hearing him being given this very rare compliment. "Will that come between you and Karen?" Roisin said softly, gently coming to the point.
"It's more complicated than that. She slept with John once, at a time when he was having a relationship with Jo Mills, the same Jo Mills who moved heaven and earth to get Lauren's stretch in prison knocked down from life to a year. I'm scared to mess up something that's already bloody complicated when I owe Jo bigtime for what she did for Lauren." "Was anything holding him back that night?" "Nor more than there was for me," Yvonne answered with brutal honesty.
"Jesus, I didn't think that a judge's love life could be so complicated," Cassie said slightly in jest, shaking her head. Her mind went back to the man who had sent her down, who was a dried up old man with nothing to sustain him but his robes of office. She added hurriedly in case she had put her foot in it in the classic way that only she could do. "I mean, everything is out of your hands between all of them. You're not close enough to them where it matters. In the last resort, whatever happens between then, will happen no matter what you say or do. Nobody need know, not Karen, not George and not Jo if you don't say anything." Yvonne let out a huge cloud of smoke mixed with relief. That was what she had last said to John but it was nice to hear someone else say it. She didn't say anything but the way she nodded her head forcibly and the visible way that she relaxed into the armchair told her how tense she had been without her fully knowing it. "So if you happen to see Karen around sometime as a friend, there are no problems are there," Roisin said gently.
"No, there ain't," Yvonne reflected as she gained her freedom.
"So have you any more April Fool's jokes you've heard from Lauren. She doesn't do things by halves, does she," Cassie prompted.
A wicked smile split her face as the full humour of the stunt that was pulled on Bodybag flowed over her. This one was rich.
"The Julies got some of the screws to play a joke on Bodybag. This one is rich, I'm telling you….." Cassie and Roisin were all attention as they listened to the woman who told the most priceless funny stories and was at last in the mood to find it funny as well.