The Falling Man

Chapter 13

Ethel POV

The day after my date with rodent man and me and Frances' little girls night, I woke up feeling extremely hungover. So, me and Frances just hung out in my apartment all day and didn't really do much besides chug tea and stick our faces in ice water. It's now the next day and their is still no word from Alfie about our liquor liscense. To distract myself from the stress of not making any money currently, I decide to turn on my gramophone and play some records I have. I start to dance around in my apartment to the jazz music softly playing but I'm interrupted by some screaming outside my apartment. "Ahhhhh!!!" I hear a man yelling. I look towards the sound startled. Then again, "Ahhhhh!!!" I stick rooted to the floor in the middle of my living room and look at my door slightly scared. "Ahhhhh!!!" This time it sounds like it's right outside my door. "Ahhhhh!!!" It sounds like two men. I glance around my apartment thinking of what to do. Do I grab a weapon? I don't know. What do I do? "Ah!" With a bang against my door. I slowly walk towards it. Another bang against my door so I stop walking. I'm fucking terrified what the fuck is going on out there. "Ahhhhh!" Another yell but then there's a loud laugh after. A loud laugh I would recognize anywhere.

I whip open the door to see both my brothers standing there absolutely wetting themeselves with laughter. I don't say anything to them rather leave the door ajar and walk back into my living room stopping the gramophone. I turn around and glare at them as they enter my apartment. "I admire how much you two commit to your lil bits." I say to them while they are still laughing at themeselves. I walk into my kitchen to put on some tea for them. I raise my voice so they can hear me from the kitchen, "I mean you went a little extreme don't you think! But I guess you two are used to going the extra mile!" They both walk into the kitchen and give me hugs. "Hi sister." Robert says to me still a smug grin on his face. Fred says, "Sorry for scaring ya.", as he hugs me. But stifles a laugh as he says it. He's not sorry at all. "Do you remember how you two used to pull one prank but it would last months!" They both start laughing again.

I see the memory flash before my eyes when they would pour milk on my bedroom floor and let it spoil all day till I walked into my room at night and saw it. My room would reek of spoiled milk. And then when the smell would go away they would do it again. I remember Dad caught Fred doing it once and got out the belt and whipped his ass with it like 5 times. Fred was sobbing his eyes out on his hands and knees scrubbing my floor. I chuckle at the memory.

"I thought there was a crime going on out there." I tell them as they look at eachother and laugh again. "So, what brings you idiots to London, if I would have known you were visiting I would have tidied up my flat." I ask them as the kettle hisses, I go to take it off the heat and Robert comes and wraps his arms around my shoulders. "We just wanted to see our dear sister." I roll my eyes and see there's a drop of soup on the counter from my lunch about an hour ago, I dip my finger in it and turn around and wipe it on his face. "Hey!" He yells at me. "I don't think you came all the way to London to see me." I tell the pair. "Why?" Fred asks with a smile on his face before continuing, "We miss you." I don't believe it for a second but choose to ignore it for now.

"You left this here last time you were here." I tell Robert before going over to my wardrobe and grabbing his tie he left here when I let him crash on my couch after he came to the opening of the pub. "Here." I say handing it to him. "Thank ya very much. I've been looking for this lil fella." He says referring to the tie. "So, tell me actually why you're here. I was planning on shagging a man tonight so your really ruining my plans." I joke with them. Fred makes a disgusted face. While Robert points in my face, "Your disgusting you." I giggle at them. "I wasn't going to shag anyoneee I'm joking!" I say as I grab the kettle and glasses and carry them to my dining table before sitting down; the boys follow me. "I was thinking about it though." I tell them. They make the same faces and comments while I just laugh. "The performance of a man in the bedroom. Ah." I'm teasing them, they deserve it! "Please stop talking dear Jesus." Fred says with his head in his hands. "Why are you guys acting so weird now? Sex is normal!" I say cackling at their disgusted faces. "So, what's the drama? You trying to shag some British lass tonight?" I say pointing at Robert. He's known to be a flirt amongst the women at home. "I'm not so much in the mood for a night out, if that's why your here. We got our liquor liscense revoked and probably have another two days till we get it back so I'm quite stressed." I tell them. They look at eachother. Weird, I think to myself. Something fishy going on. "I should actually go meet Alfie today to ask him about it." I tell them as they still haven't said anything.

"Alfies out of town, on business in New York." Fred tells me. Well now it makes sense why we haven't got our damn liquor liscense yet. But how does Fred know that. They see my confused expression. "There are some things we have to tell you Ettie." Robert starts. I stay silent waiting for him to continue. "Times have been tough since coming back from the war and Alfie offered us jobs." Robert goes on to tell me. Oh no. I know what that means. "He's not our boss, but we work closely together. You cannot repeat this information to anyone Ethel. Anyone. Not even Frances." Robert says. I'm shocked, my brothers are taking part in illegal activities? "We started a gang Ethel. The Squad we call ourselves. We aren't bad people, we're not killin anybody who doesn't deserve it. But Alfie let us know a shipment of guns, and by guns I mean a lot of guns, were coming to Dublin. He said they would be easy to steal and then we would put them on a boat to London and he would store them, then sell them, and everyone would make a shit ton of money." I'm taking in all this information in silence, too stunned to speak. My throat feels dry. Little Fred, I think as I look at my younger brother. No longer a boy but a man and a gangster. "Well someone in Birmingham somehow found out and as the guns made their way down here, they stole them off of us...We still don't know who did it, we think it could have been the communists, but there's a gang in Birmingham also. They call themeselves the Peaky Blinders. We think if it wasn't the communists it was definitely them." "Oh gosh." I say throwing my head in my hands.

"Ettie everything's fine. Everything's under control." "Your gonna get yourselves killed! Was the war not enough!" The boys stay silent. After a moment, I turn to Robert. "I saw you dead! I saw you lying there lifeless once! I don't want to see it again!" "Ettie calm down. Everything is fine." Robert says calmly. "Your getting in a gang war! Everything's not fine!" I yell back at him. "Shhh!!" He shushes me. I take a deep breath. "We need to use your pub tonight." "What?!" I ask. "No! There's gonna be no such activity in my pub." I say shaking my head. "Nothings going to happen. All your alcohol in that pub comes from a gangster anyway!" Robert tells me. "Why do you need my pub?" I ask him. "We are going to have a meeting with the leader of the Peaky Blinders..." "Oh!" I interrupt Robert as soon as he says this and shake my head. "Ethel. Look at me. It's going to be fine. It's going to be a calm discussion. Gertrude's gonna be there too." "Gertrude! What the fuck! She's in on this too!" I yell. "She's representing Alfie in the discussion." Robert calmly tells me. "Well I'm going to be there too then." "No." He tells me quickly. "Yes! I am! It's my pub!" "Ethel. No." He shakes his head. "I'm going to be there. If you want to use my pub?!?" I say putting a lot of emphasis on the word my. "I'll serve the drinks. I have a gun behind the counter that Alfie gave us anyways." "Right?? Cause your gonna do damage with that thing?" Fred laughs at me. "Excuse you! I have great aim thank you very much." I tell him insulted. "Fine. You can be there. It's going to be calm anyways. I don't give a fuck. Just don't be fucking stupid and open your mouth before you think like you always do." Robert tells me. I do do that. He's not wrong. I sit back and get quite anxious. There's going to be a gangster meeting in my pub tonight. This is not how I expected my day to go in the slightest.