Chapter Nine
"We want a couple of kebabs for the party upstairs, Chesney. Les and Leanne are in the flat and I promised them all kebabs. It's mostly to smooth things over with Beth really, she's pretty annoyed" Kirk spoke as he leaned on the counter.
"Yeah alright"
"Any luck with the house yet?"
"No. We're probably going to get given emergency accommodation. Some poxy hotel in the city I'm guessing...I told my mum you know because I'm that desperate. You know what she said?"
"No"
"She said...Don't worry, Chesney. You and I went into emergency accommodation loads of time. It will do the kids some good. That's what she said...Because it really did me good apparently. She was alright her...Had plenty of boyfriends' beds to stay in. Billy, Fiz and me were the ones stuck in the shelters during our childhood while she was at Ronnie's or somebody else's-" Chesney paused before saying..."You know all about it though. Anyway, Linda's taken Joseph for a bit. A grandmother who actually cares"
"I bet he loves that. Linda probably has a lovely house"
"Yeah she does. Bernie's really trying to help you too but she's almost as skint as us, she's just living with Dev. And they have no room so...hotel it is. Don't know how they will find one that big to be honest. We might have to be separated in different rooms for a bit"
"Les said your mum was coming back"
"Yeah. For Ronnie's big coming out of prison party...Is Les alright anyway? I promised I'd speak to Bernie for him because of Leanne but she's got a lot on her plate so I don't know if I even want to ask"
"Why? Does she know about cults?"
"No! But she knows about weird beliefs...What did you want on these kebabs anyway?" Chesney suddenly asked as he realized how long he's left them.
"Chilli sauce-"
"On all of them?"
"Yeah"
"Did you ask Leanne? She seems too snobby nowadays for chilli sauce, don't she?"
"Oh, don't worry about her. Les said he wants to take her back to reality so put chilli sauce on it. She won't care anyway once I give her this air freshener. Lovely smell actually" Kirk answered with confidence.
Chesney wasn't convinced as he began to pour said sauce on them all. He wondered about the cost of all this too. This seemed a lot so he made a mental note to discount it as Kirk was a long-term friend. He took a few pounds from it, passing the four kebabss over. Kirk giving a small smile before going out and retreating back upstairs to the flat. He passed each person a kebab, Beth seemed to have slightly cheered up on getting her one. Kirk then passed Leanne the air freshener as well as a couple of forks.
"Cilla's coming back you know, Les. You know Ronnie's out of prison and everything? She's coming back for him" Kirk spoke up with his usual level of tact.
"Yeah Chesney told me before" Les answered while digging into the kebab.
"Like it matters. That woman was bad for you and everybody knows it, she was an awful wife" Leanne spoke up while digging into her own kebab.
"Yeah I know but it still hurts. Anyway, I'm over her now...I want to move on" Les insisted.
This wasn't very convincing but Leanne and Kirk dropped it anyway. Leanne pulling a slight face at every bite. The chilli sauce wouldn't have been her choice but she ate it anyway out of politeness if nothing else, Kirk and Beth did buy this after all. They all ate in silence for a few minutes with the television switched onto some old rerun of 'Bullseye'. Leanne remembered the theme tune playing in her house as a child, Les and Janice use to love watching it.
"Who is this Rowan then?" Kirk asked out of the blue which made the whole room stare at him. What a way to ask!
"How do you know who Rowan is?" Leanne questioned.
"Les told me...He told me he's-"
"The reason you and Nick aren't seeing eye to eye at the moment" Les quickly interrupted while giving Kirk a glare.
"Oh. Rowan is just helping me on my journey at 'The Institute'. Which is a great organization by the way, regardless of what Nick, Janice and Toyah think. That's all you need to know, Kirk" Leanne answered firmly.
"But I got some questions about reality coding. It sounds like something from a sci-fi movie...Les said he read the leaftlets. Can you like reality code a lottery win or something?" Kirk continued against Les' wishes.
"No. Reality coding doesn't work that way-"
"How does it work?"
"It just means you think of what you want and you got to stay focused on it. Things can happen if you think about it carefully. You got to store things in your head and you can come back to then. It's a lot of things really" Leanne explained to a fully invested Kirk.
"Oh! So say if I wanted to reality code the lottery, the numbers might come up in my head?"
"Well not quite. I told you, it's not about that kind of stuff. You got to think about things that matter" Leanne insisted.
"That's what they all say. Psychics and all that...They can't actually make things people want happen" Beth chimed in.
"This isn't like what you get from psychics. It's more personal than that" Leanne argued with the kebab on her lap.
Les was slightly too scared to argue in case she pushed him away next. He was the only person she was letting in right now. So he just had to listen to this and hope Kirk and Beth don't say anything to scare her away. This flat was the only solution he had right now and he was worried Rowan would be her next port of call if she chose to move on from here. That would put her firmly in his grasp then.
"More personal. How?" Beth badgered some more.
"I can't say anything else really because you have to join to get the bigger picture. Just know that it's special and special things can happen" Leanne replied with a small smile.
"Leanne. That worries me a bit...What have you been promised?" Les asked as gently as he could.
"Happiness. Peace. All good stuff" Leanne answered but this didn't make his worries decrease at all.
...
The following day was very warm and so naturally, Cilla finally made her promised return. Ronnie was being released from prison after being in there since '07. Not like it changed him or Cilla's feelings towards him. She had parked her stuff in her friend Yana's flat before making her way back to Coronation Street. Wearing sunglasses and a bad sun hat with her usual denim skirt and tight shirt. Chesney couldn't say he was impressed to see her as she entered his kebab shop.
"Hiya Ches, I promised I'll be back...Ronnie's out in a few hours. I said I'd buy him a drink at the rovers. I'm sorry to hear you're being kicked out of that house. It's been your home for so long-"
"Like you give a damn-"
"Excuse me? I didn't travel from Wolverhampton to be insulted-"
"No. You travelled because Ronnie's back, Les told me all about what you said to him on the phone. Well I hate to break it to you but I'm not some scared kid you can lie to anymore. I got my own problems right now and unless you want to help, I don't want to know"
"Les doesn't know what he's talking about. He was always useless as you well know...Don't tell me you still got a soft spot for him"
"What do you want, mum?"
"Well I did want to see what I can to help. I don't want my grandchildren on the streets, do I? I'm actually the best grandmother...Unlike Linda or Bernie, all my kids were with me until the teenage years. Linda and Bernie are both useless-"
"Fiz was in foster care-"
"For five minutes! Listen, Ches. Do you want my help or not?"
"You know I do. I just don't know if you can give me any, that's the only problem. And by the way, don't let Linda or Bernie know about your best grandmother status. I could do without that right now"
"Okay. Well let me go and see Fiz...I'll come back for you later" Cilla promised to an unconvinced Chesney.
He watched as she left and walked across the cobbles to the Dobbs-Plummer household. She gave a firm knock. Fiz opened the door in slight surprise but she was happy to see her nonetheless. Hope and Ruby were currently upstairs so it was just the two of them as she invited her to the living room.
"I am happy to see you, mam. It feels like ages since you visited us...I am sorry about Les calling you. He wouldn't go away" Fiz began to explain as she put the kettle on.
"Don't worry about him. I just saw your brother...He's still a miserable old sod, I didn't bring him up like that"
"No?"
"No. But he's always been old for his age, hasn't he? He was banging on about being evicted to me so I came back to try and help. I just get lip instead...Like I told him, I've been a better mother than Linda and Bernie put together. Yet I'm the one that gets abuse" Cilla complained to a silent Fiz.
Cilla always did have a selective memory. Fiz brought over a cup of tea regardless, she did have a bone to pick herself though.
"So...Are you really back for Ronnie? I heard he's got out prison today. Is that wise?" Fiz questioned.
"It's wise alright. Very wise...What has Ronnie done anyway?"
"Erm...Do you want a list? He's a vile man, he's just got out of prison for beating up a man so badly he was in a coma for a week"
"It was self-defence"
"He glassed him!"
"Yeah! Because the bottle was the first thing near him and he panicked, didn't he? Anyway, why do you care? He never laid a hand on us"
"He placed Chesney in a cardboard box and put him on the fridge for hours. He was in a puddle of his own tears and you know what else by the time you got home. That's bad enough, isn't it?"
"You always bang on about that one thing-"
"It wasn't just that one thing though, was it? Chesney was terrified of him. You're lucky he's even talking to you at all. Why would you wanna get back with that vile thug?"
"That's my business. He's always treated me good and that's all I care about...Who would you rather me go out?"
"Oh I don't know...A man without a GBH record would be a nice change"
"And where's the fun in that? He's coming to the pub later anyway, him and Yana. I got to go after this tea anyway. Les is the last person I got to talk to, I got something lined up for him"
"What?"
"Well put it this way, it's not going to be very nice but he deserves it"
...
"I know what I said, Les. But now I'm saying something different...Meet me in the pub later for a proper chat. I'll buy you a drink" Cilla spoke softly to a very suspicious Les up in the flat.
"No I can't. I'm not letting you back into my life after everything that you did"
"Please, Les. I promise to be nice this time. Come on, I'll buy you a nice cold beer. You surely can't pass up a free beer if nothing else. You seem very agitated so maybe I can loosen you up again"
"You would be agitated if you were me"
"A problem shared is a problem halved"
"Are you serious about this drink? No stings attached?"
"I am serious" Cilla insisted as she came a bit closer, givng a hand a quick touch and added..."So meet me in the pub around 6"
Les agreed against his better judgement. As the hours passed by, he began actually trying to make an effort. He combed his hair and used Kirk's aftershave, his daughter returned with another carboard box of leaftlets. It seems once they give away so many away, 'The Institute' gives them another batch. She noticed her father trying to make an effort and that wasn't normal for him even before he became homeless.
"Where are you doing?" Leanne asked him as she removed her jacket.
"Oh. I'm just going to meet Cilla for a drink, I think we just need to clear the air. You know? After all this time"
"Dad. I wouldn't give her the time of day if I was you, she ruined your life. Who cares what she's got to say? She brings negativity to your life just like Janice did and it's time for you to let go of the past things that caused harm"
"Yeah I know all that, Leanne. Anyway, Janice wasn't that bad. We had some good times, didn't we?"
"But they weren't real, were they? It wasn't real happiness"
"What's real happiness? Why are you determined to make everything in the past sound so terrible? We had some great times and it was real happiness, you and Toyah tricking Janice onto the Waltzers was real happiness. You being a bridesmaid at mine and Janice's wedding was real happiness...All our holidays to Blackpool was real happiness" Les reminded her which seemed to shake the recent mantra the cult has peddled to her in one of those online courses.
"But it wasn't true happiness. It just wasn't. Just go for your stupid drink, dad!" Leanne snapped.
Not wanting to push her, he just scoffed before going down the stairs. Not knowing that his evening wasn't going to improve. He breathed in slightly, putting that down to another blip. He entered the pub and right at the bar was Cilla fawning over the recently returned Ronnie. Les understood then that that's why she really invited him, to rub it in his face as promised. His precence made them turn towards the door, he felt very angry. Cilla looked as if she didn't know what she had done. Cilla's friend Yana Lumb (Les hasn't saw her for years either) at least had the decency to look somewhat guilty on Cilla's behalf for the ruse. Cilla really did wish to humilate him and it worked.
"Oh. You actually fell for it, Les. That's really sad...Can you two smell that? The smell of desperation" Cilla spoke up with a loud laugh.
Ronnie laughing along with her as he snorted. Drinking his beer while keeping an arm around her side.
"I think he got the message, Cilla" Yana chimed in as she could see Les was seething. He's already had a bad couple of days.
"Has he? Have you got the message, Leslie?" Cilla asked while baiting some more.
"I knew this would happen anyway. I only came for the free beer so your sad little plan failed anyway. You think I would want you back, eh? A washed-up old tart who can barely fall over without breaking an arm?" Les questioned back just as harsh.
"Well put it this way, Les. You combed your hair and put on aftershave, that's effort for you. And you wouldn't have made it otherwise" Cilla hissed.
"Yeah. So jog on...I just got out of the nick by doing some serious damage you know" Ronnie began as he attempted to stagger over.
Cilla's light pull made him lean back as he took another long swig. Les took one last look at the trio before storming out. He found himself being followed however but thankfully by the least harmful of the three.
"Les. I told her not to do it...She just thought it be funny" Yana told him as she caught him halfway backto his flat.
"Yeah very funny, wasn't it? I have enough problems without her messing with my head, okay?"
"Yeah okay. Look I gotta go back but I am sorry" Yana spoke softly before returning to the pub.
...
TBC