The Camden Tales

55 - Come Back

WARNING

This chapter contains scenes of a disturbing and upsetting nature.

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-=₪ September 1904 ₪=-

Cooper Lane / St Pancras / 11.12am

Under the cover of a gloomy day, Malka had stayed home from school bound to the task of caring for her sister Rachel and the burdensome household chores. Her mother, Bethany, was in no state to carry on with the duties, having spent a tumultuous night with Thomas, who had returned home in a foul, drunken stupor.

With Thomas now gone, Malka observed her sister playing with a doll on the floor, while she dusted the shelves. Bethany was slumped on the sofa, a glass of whiskey cradled in her hand, and her voice an unexpected intrusion upon the quietude of the room. Malka wasn't sure what had gone on in the night, only that they fought loudly in their bedroom; the sounds of shouting, crying and items being smashed were heard scaring Rachel and Ishmael who had both taken up residence with Malka for the night. Now, however, her mother began to speak of a time when Thomas was a good man, gentle and loving, evoking nostalgia for a past that seemed all but a distant memory.

"He made me feel alive." she slurred.

Malka moved to sit beside her mother, a gesture that reassured Rachel allowing her to return dressing her doll in the new outfit Malka had gifted her. A pretty garment it was too, made of pale blue lace; Malka hadn't purchased it of course, but had stolen it from a local shop.

Bethany slurred on, recounting their struggles, "Do ya know the Christians used to stone him in the street? He wanted to fight back but he were terrible at fighting, so he just sort of put up with it. When we married, he changed our name and moved us here. He hoped to run from who he was, the coward; he figured if nobody knew he were Jewish then all would be resolved."

Malka had heard these stories so many times. She always found her parents to be so hung up on the past and that it stopped them from making things better for the future. She frowned as her mother spilt her whiskey again and watched as the bottle clanked against the glass as her mother recharged.

"He met that Brummy in a pub and that man protected ya father in a fight and then gave him a job. I thought it were good, cause the money he were making were real good, but Thomas ruined it for revenge. He asked Brummy for another favour, to go where we used to live and finish those toss pots what used to beat him, and that's when Brummy found out about the Jew thing." Her mother leaned in closer, but her eyelids were heavy and focused on nothing and no-one as she continued, "he started saying Thomas owed him and had him doing all sorts of god knows what. It changed in him." Malka knew what came next, "That's when we had you, spawned at his most terrible. That's what you represent to him, something wrong, something sick."

Her mother really emphasised the word sick because she had always made it quite clear to Malka that she agreed with Thomas. She always told Malka that she was the embodiment of Thomas' misery and torment, the poisonous pill in the home. It wasn't Thomas that was bad, it was Malka making him bad. Malka couldn't disagree, all the things they said she was she knew was true, because she felt it, the poison that coursed through her blood, that same blood that carried Alfie with her, something pure became tainted within her. She had hoped that his love would dilute the poison, but she still felt wrong, she felt bad, she felt sick and dirty, and she had such evil thoughts about everyone, with the only exceptions being Ishmael and Rachel.

"He's become obsessed with sex." Bethany then stated frankly, catching Malka off-guard who quickly glanced at Rachel, relieved to find her sister still absorbed in her play, and oblivious to their mother's revelations.