Read Online A Million Tears by Paul Henke - Free Book Online Page B

Grandad turning up would certainly annoy her.
    ‘Well, look you, don’t let me keep you,’ Grandad emphasised the “me.”
    ‘You won’t,’ Grandmother stressed the “you” and I heard her close the door, not quite slamming it.
    ‘I don’t know how she had such a lovely daughter,’ said Grandad.
    ‘Now, Dad, she’s not that bad. You know all the trouble she’s been through since my father died. We have to make allowances.’
    ‘Huh,’ he snorted, ‘most of her troubles I reckon she’s brought on herself or else imagined them. Never mind her now, how’s the boy?’
    ‘Not too bad. The doctor says if he rests and we keep him in most of the time he’ll be all right in a month or two. He said we were lucky it was such a mild dose. Go on up and see him. He may be awake by now.’
    I scrambled for my bed as Grandad parted the curtain at the foot of the stairs. When he came in he was grinning.
    ‘Now, Dai, you shouldn’t be listening at keyholes. You might hear something bad about yourself, see, and you won’t like that will you?’
    ‘No, Grandad,’ I grinned back. ‘Only I wasn’t listening at a keyhole but at the top of the stairs.’
    ‘Cheeky monkey,’ he ruffled my hair like Da did. ‘You’re lucky you’re ill, that’s all I can tell you. But don’t go taking advantage of the fact or else I might forget and put you over my knee, by mistake like.’
    ‘Okay, I won’t forget,’ I replied solemnly and then we both laughed.
    ‘I can see there’s very little wrong with you lad and that’s a fact.’
    ‘Grandad,’ I said, suddenly serious, ‘what’s going on in the village? With the mine owners, I mean.’
    ‘Why do you ask?’
    ‘No reason. I’m just interested that’s all. I heard Mam and Grandmother talking about it earlier. And if anybody knows it’s you, after all.’
    Grandad was one of the most important men in the community. He was one of the mine leaders and sat on the committee that dealt with the owners; and he was a member of the union. He was a big man with a shock of white hair and a seamed face. His nose was hooked where it had been broken in a fight years before, and his eyes were piercing like Da’s. He was heavily built though not fat.
    ‘Aye lad I guess I can tell you, though it’s not much. We’ll know more after the meeting tomorrow. What it comes down to is the people of the three villages want the owners to admit responsibility for what happened. Then they want compensation and a memorial for the . . . the kids,’ he paused.
    ‘That’s reasonable, after all it was their fault. We didn’t ask them to put their rotten slag there, did we?’
    ‘No, Dai, we didn’t. But I remember when the school was built. We picked the site and there was already a slagheap then. Not so high, maybe, but it was there. And again there’s the rain, which was hardly the owners’ fault, was it?’
    ‘I suppose not,’ I said quietly, wishing I could kill the owners like Sian had been killed.
    ‘But that isn’t all the problem. The owners are worried that if they admit it was their fault we could take them to court. And then we could get a lot more than we’re asking for right now. Do you see, Dai?’
    ‘Aye, Grandad, I see. But,’ I went on bitterly, ‘the courts will side with the owners, they always do.’
    ‘Give me one example of a court case the owners have won against us then, clever clogs,’ Grandad smiled wanly.
    I pulled a face as I thought. ‘I don’t really know one,’ I began slowly, ‘but everybody knows the courts are always on the side of the owners.’
    ‘The reason you can’t think of one is because in my living memory I’ve never known it to happen. That doesn’t mean if we did go to court we’d automatically lose. We’d definitely win but only if they admitted it was their fault and agreed to what we’re asking for. I think with the way things are in this country now, if we’ve got a just grievance the courts will decide