Magnolia Buildings by Elizabeth Stuckley. Chapter VI

Chapter VI

HOME BY SMOG

At the end of February a week of smog set in. It was horrid to get up in the morning and see everything as dark as night. It grew a little bit lighter towards the middle of the day but it became dark again as soon as school was over. The blackness which covered the town w as both damp and sinister. The street lamps were no good. They could hardly fight the blackness. The air was concentrated coal dust. The children’s faces grew pale and streaked with black Val hated coming home at night. In the fog Shorty's gang might be anywhere. They had a down on Val because they did not want to have a rival gang. Shorty's boys were much stronger and older, and Nap, his lieutenant, was six feet tall, strong like a bull, and fought like a tiger. People said that Nap would kill someone one day, and it was no use arguing with him, because he had no brains to reason with. He could not even read or write. Blows were all he understood. Then there was Jim who never fought him­self, but who was the gang's spy. But Thompson was per-haps the worst of them all. He had a pinch like a crab. His favourite trick was to come up secretly behind a chap and leave a bruise on him that took days to heal.*

Shorty did not do any dirty work himself. He was too clever for that and the police had never caught him yet. As to Nap, the police had promised him Borstal the next time they caught him fighting.

Val was coming across the yard in the fog that he wished were even thicker. He had a scarf over his mouth, and his hands were red with the cold. To approach his own house on such a night was like attacking a fortress. He never knew whether it was defended or not. But this evening he felt that Shorty's gang was about. He knew they had sworn to liquidate his own gang.

Luckily two women were standing near the front door talking. That was good. There could be no one hiding in the dark beneath the stairs. The first danger point was past.' He rushed up the first flight of stairs, all' the time fearing that some of his enemies would attack him. Perhaps most of all he feared Thompson. Mum always said Thompson would come to a bad end. Val hoped he would. At the moment he did not feel a brave gangster any more. He felt a frightened hungry boy.