Mrs Morris was incredibly kind to Alex and his mother; she didn’t deserve this.
‘I’ll pay you back one day, Mrs Morris,’ Alex whispered as he crawled through the window.
He hadn’t planned to steal the ring; it happened that way. Mrs Morris had her jewelry box on the kitchen bench and when Alex spotted the ring, he knew what he needed to do.
His mother spent all their money at the bottle shop down the street.
She liked to call it ‘booze’. Alex didn’t know what the proper term was.
He couldn’t read the labels; he could tell the familiar shape of the bottle wrapped up in a brown paper bag though. And he always knew what happened after she started drinking.
Each time she left home with her purse, he begged her to bring home some food. ‘Sure thing, hun,’ she said over her shoulder. The food rarely arrived.
Now that he had the ring, he had to trade it. Despite its beauty, it could not be used to pay for food at the supermarket in town. The only person who would do ‘business’ with an eleven-year-old boy, was a sinister-looking character he’d seen hanging around Bolton Road. Mrs Morris had called him Eddie.
‘You stay away from that one, Alex,’ she said when she spotted Eddie coming towards them from Bolton Road. Eddie caught Alex staring at him and ran a finger from one side of his throat to the other. Alex shivered and trotted quickly after Mrs Morris.
That was a week ago. Alex stood nervously at the corner of Bolton Rd and Anderson St and glanced cautiously around the corner. Eddie stood with another man and he peered up and caught Alex’s gaze.
‘Don’t be shy, mate,’ he laughed heartily and beckoned Alex to come towards him.
‘I’ve got no choice Mrs Morris,’ He kicked and the ground and made his way to Eddie and his friends.
The transaction was completed quickly, with Eddie’s eyes glancing over his shoulder every few minutes. Alex knew Eddie had given him a fraction of the ring’s true value. He wasn’t in a position to argue or resist. When it was done, he ran down Bolton Road and out onto Main Street as fast as he could.
He kept running until he reached the front door of the bakery. His lungs were heaving from the effort and he was feeling dizzy. A body starved of food on a regular basis was not meant to endure this burst of energy. He pushed his way past the people queuing inside the bakery.
‘A loaf of bread and two meat pies, please!’ he called over the counter towards Bill Patterson, the proprietor.
‘Have you got any money today, Alex?’ he asked with concern.
Alex waved the five-dollar bill towards him. ‘Oh yes, Mr Patterson.’
Mr Patterson smiled sympathetically. ‘Good boy. Wait your turn son. I’ll be right with you.’
The waiting was a new kind of torture for Alex. A batch of blueberry muffins were extracted from the oven and the scent filled the little shop. Alex’s stomach protested again. There was nothing he could do except wait.
He plonked himself on the closest bench outside the bakery and started gorging on the hot meat pies. How long had it been since he’d last eaten; two days, maybe three?
His tongue burned as the hot meat and pasty passed his lips. It was a small price to pay, to satisfy his empty stomach. With the loaf of bread in his hand and the change in the other, he headed towards home.
His mother would not be awake for hours yet. He knew the patterns, as well as knew her foul moods when she woke with a hangover. He had to get home before she woke to hide the rest of the money.
As he walked in the door, his eyes searched the room frantically. His breathing quickened as he began to panic. There was nowhere safe to hide the rest of the money!
The meat pies that had been satisfying earlier, threatened a hasty exit, the same way they had gone in! He turned into the laundry and his eyes locked onto the hole in the plaster above the laundry sink. He knew the hole was home to several spiders. He stood at the farthest corner of the laundry trough, every time he had to wash his clothes. He shivered again. Alex hated spiders. No, it was worse than that. Spiders terrified him. They filled his dreams on washing day and for the next few nights. And the dreams were always the same; he could not breathe and nobody came to help him.
Alex stood at the laundry sink and considered the options; hide the money somewhere else in the house and risk his mother finding it, or hiding in the hole in front of him.
With a shaking hand, Alex reached slowly towards the hole.