The Falling Man

Chapter 21

Ethel POV

It was the next day after Gertrude's fabulous birthday party. Fabulous for me at least. To say that the sex me and Tommy had was the best sex of my life was an understatement. I had been replaying it in my head all day. We had planned on me coming to Birmingham to see him in a week and I was very much looking forward to it. I chuckle to myself very contently. Tommy made me giddy and made my heart feel like it was jumping out of the chest that encloses it. It is slightly crazy we did have sex in a storage room at my sisters birthday party but the tension between us felt too intense to not give into it.

We hadn't even talked that much at all in general. Between France and since reuniting we've had less than 10 conversations. But when I was with him I had electricity running through my bones and who was I to deny that feeling and the sexy man causing it. I was currently at The Irish Pig working, me and Frances had a mighty catch up when I came in. I told her all about Ray and the events of last night. She knew about Tommy from the war but I had yet to tell her we reunited. Just never found the time to, as I have been busy with The Squad business. Her mouth dropped open with a scream as I told her about the storage room rendevue.

The excitement of last night even caused the fear of the man who wrote the letter to fade away. Since receiving it I was on edge working at the pub, fearing every new unfamiliar man that came in was the dangerous writer. But today I didn't feel that, too giddy and happy to even think about it.

I continue pouring the afternoon pints for the customers of the pub before I see a familiar face stroll in. It was Fred. "Hello Ettie! I find myself in trouble." Fred speaks loudly as he flops down in an open seat and slams his hands down on the bar. "Jesus Christ." I say with a sigh not looking forward to hearing about the probably dangerous trouble my younger brother is in and also not wanting to talk to him as we have not spoke since he said all those nasty things at the meeting with Tommy. "What am I supposed to give a lass for a gift? There's a woman I'm seeing and I want to get her the perfect gift. I'm not drunk." Fred states sticking out his hands. I just look at him as he's obviously very drunk. He had been drinking a lot in recent times I've noticed. I wondered if he has also been snorting cocaine prior to coming in here. "I'm not drunk!" He says loudly pointing at me. "Smack me in the face. Really hard. C'mon." He says. "Really?" I ask quite happy with his demand. "Yeah. Payback for the things I said at the meeting, c'mon, get it out of ya." He responds, before he barely finishes his last word, I smack the shit out of him as he grunts.

The man next to him at the bar looks over at us shocked before picking up his drink and moving to a different location. "Fuck." Fred says before continuing. "If you were any other woman I think you would've made the little man rise a little." He states pointing to his pants. Gross. I look at him with a disgusting face as he cackles. "Can I eat a whisky or chips or something?" He asks me as I don't respond. I continue looking at my younger brother. He's so different from before the war. He used to be just a little boy. He got into a fair bit of trouble but was quite innocent overall. Now he said gross things and rude things and drank while snorting drugs seemingly everyday. "Speak to me. Speak to me." He says after I still don't respond to him. He is a fun drunk though, he likes to dance and says funny things every once and awhile so everyone just lets him continue. He stands up and pushes through the doorway leading to behind the bar where I stand and starts pouring himself a pint. "Fish. Do you have fish? No?" He asks before laughing to himself. "I like your pub." He says looking around the room before continuing, "Do you usually have more people come in here?"

I look around as the pub is quite full confused by his question. It wasn't filled to the brim but still pretty full. "I mean, the dark backrooms are creepy as fuck..." I stop him before he can continue rambling, "Why don't you get her a rat? It was a surprise hit for you." I ask him sarcastically remembering how he secretly kept a rat as a pet when we were younger. "What? You think she would like a rat? Can I take one from here?" He says jokingly looking down to find one on the ground of the pub. "No, we don't have any!" I say to him angrily, my patience running low, pulling him by the arm to yank him back up so he's standing straight from his bent over position of fake rat searching. "Christ sister. There's something wrong with you. You've got death in your eyes." He says ripping his arm out of my grasp and holding his chest. What does that even mean? "Yeah. Remember I told you I'm depressed." I say sarcastically referring back to the fake cover up. "Oh." He says softly before continuing, "Aren't we all, Ettie?"