Swansea Girls Read Online Free PDF

bowl in the Belfast sink.
    Katie’s heart leapfrogged to her throat. Her mother’s whispering meant her father was in. It was his night off and as he always spent daytime pub opening hours before his free nights in the Tenby and closing hours in bed, she guessed he had overslept after his afternoon session, cutting into his evening’s drinking. Something guaranteed to put him into an even worse mood than usual.
    ‘I forgot my bag.’
    ‘Go quietly down the passage.’
    Katie didn’t need the warning. Opening the only other door in the kitchen as noiselessly as she could, she slipped off her shoes and tiptoed over the worn quarry tiles, past her parents’ bedroom door on the left and down the passage. Of the three rooms in the basement, the one at the end would have admitted the most daylight if it hadn’t been partitioned into two. The smaller of the two cubicles had an alcove, which her mother had curtained off to hold her clothes, and a single bed, which took up ninety per cent of the remaining space. It was also as black as a coal-hole, because the window was in the cubicle shared by her brothers.
    Retrieving the bag from a shelf in her makeshift wardrobe, Katie retraced her steps, but not quickly enough.
    Her parents’ bedroom door slammed back on its hinges and her father staggered out on bare feet, braces dangling over crumpled, baggy trousers, his flies open below his beer-stained vest. He stood in the doorway of the kitchen, effectively blocking her escape. ‘Tea, woman,’ he growled.
    ‘It’s all ready for you, Ernie, bar the fresh tea, and I put the kettle on when I heard you stirring,’ Annie muttered nervously.
    ‘Is that the bloody time?’
    ‘It’s not half past seven.’
    ‘You know I wanted to be out by opening time.’
    ‘You hadn’t had any sleep since yesterday. I thought ...’
    ‘You thought – you thought!’ He stepped into the kitchen and scowled at the table. ‘Is this all the ham there is? You gave the rest to those bloody boys, didn’t you?’
    ‘No, Ernie. I didn’t. I swear it. They had cheese like they always do.’
    ‘You bloody liar!’
    ‘There’s a drop of tea in the pot. It’s still warm.’ Annie fluttered around him like a sparrow feeding a fat cuckoo that has taken possession of her nest. ‘Would you like it to be going on with until the kettle boils?’
    ‘Knowing you, it’ll be stewed.’
    ‘Shall I cut more bread and butter?’ Annie moved to the breadboard after she poured his tea.
    Steeling herself, Katie prayed that for once – just this once – she’d be able to walk through the kitchen and out of the door without her father passing comment or creating a scene. Summoning her courage, she forced herself to put one foot in front of the other.
    ‘’Bye, Mam.’ She walked behind her father’s chair, leaving as wide a berth as the room and furniture would allow. Kissing Annie’s reddened cheek she headed for the door.
    ‘And where are you off to, miss, all dolled up like that?’ Ernie pushed his chair back from the table.
    ‘The Pier.’
    ‘You can’t be paying your mother enough if you can afford to buy a new dress.’
    ‘It’s Judy’s.’ Katie knew she’d made a mistake the second the words were out of her mouth.
    ‘So, you go begging round your rich friends for castoffs now.’
    ‘Girls are always borrowing one another’s clothes, Ernie.’ Annie hurried to the table, picking up the teapot as Katie backed towards the door.
    ‘I’ll not allow a daughter of mine to go out in another girl’s clothes so everyone in the street can point their finger and say I don’t bring in enough to keep my family decent.’
    ‘Please, Ernie, no one points ...’
    ‘This is your fault, Annie.’
    Katie winced as her father’s fist connected with the table sending his cup and saucer rattling. He raised his arm. Annie stepped back, but not far enough. The back of Ernie’s hand slammed across her face. Annie dropped the teapot. It shattered in a