Read Online The Boy with No Boots by Sheila Jeffries - Free Book Online Page A

all the equipment, the ovens, the recipes, the big bicycle with the basket on front. In town, it is, near the railway.
We’re going to live there. There’s a school just down the road you can go to.’
    ‘And a shop at the front,’ said Annie. ‘You and Levi’s going to be making the bread, and I’ll be behind the counter selling it.’
    ‘And – I haven’t finished,’ said Levi. ‘It’s got a terrace of two cottages. We’ll live in one, and let the other – just need a lick of paint, they
do – and that will bring in some money, plenty of money. What with that, and the bakery, you’ll have a ready-made job to go to when you leave school, Fred, and one day, when
you’re old enough, you’ll take over the business.’
    A bolt of pain shot through Freddie’s mind. A baker. They wanted him to be a baker.
    ‘I done it for you, lad, and for your mother,’ continued Levi, puzzled by the way Freddie was staring stonily at the sky.
    ‘She can’t go out much. Now she won’t have to. There’s work for all three of us, years of work. I done it for you.’
    Annie was frowning at Freddie. ‘Say thank you,’ she mouthed.
    ‘Thank you.’
    ‘’Tis a risk,’ said Levi. ‘Cost me all my money, it did.’
    ‘Granny Barcussy’s money?’ Freddie’s eyes stung with the threat of tears.
    ‘Ah. Granny Barcussy’s money.’
    Freddie stood up. Even the soles of his feet burned with anger. But I won’t be like Dad, he thought. I won’t lose my temper. I won’t. I will not. His face went hard with the
effort, hard as glass, and his fists ached in his pockets. He looked at Levi who was sitting with his back against the apple tree, his hands idly collecting petals from the fallen blossom, scooping
them into his palm and blowing them playfully at Annie.
    He’s got no idea what I want, Freddie thought. I’ll have to tell him, somehow.
    And then he saw her. Granny Barcussy. Floating like steam, and radiant as sunlight, in the air next to Levi. She wore a robe that glistened with the colours she’d loved, he could smell the
honeysuckle and lavender she had grown, and sense the warmth of her. She didn’t look haggard and old now, her skin was smooth and her eyes full of life and compassion. She looked directly at
Freddie and her smile melted his anger. It was the same mischievous smile she’d always had, and now she held a finger to her lips and shook her head. He heard her voice.
    ‘Don’t tell him,’ she said. ‘Not now. You keep the peace.’
    She disappeared gently, like salt dissolving in water, and Freddie became aware that Annie was looking at him with an alarmed expression on her face. He wasn’t allowed to tell her, but she
knew, Freddie was sure. The hours of eye contact he’d had with his mother on those long difficult walks, the way their souls had been linked by her panic, as if he was her anchor forever
chained to her, and she was his lifeboat, safe, but blotting out the light.
    ‘I’ll talk to him,’ she said to Levi. ‘He just needs time to think about it.’
    ‘Aye. ’Tis a big thing. For a lad,’ Levi nodded, struggled to his feet and brushed the apple blossom from his trousers. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’
    Freddie sat down again, close to his mother’s bottle-green dress and the white apron she wore so proudly. They were better dressed since the war had ended. He had a new shirt and shorts,
socks without darns and new brown boots, a warm jacket and a cap.
    ‘Did Harry Price like the queen wasp?’ asked Annie.
    ‘No.’
    ‘More fool him,’ said Annie. ‘The old misery. Well, now you can wave him goodbye. You can go to a new school in town. They’ve got four teachers there, and one of them is
a lady. A Miss Francis. She takes the top class, and they say she’s very nice, and clever.’
    ‘But Mother – I don’t want to be a baker. I want to make aeroplanes.’
    ‘I know.’ Annie put her arm round Freddie. He was twelve now, tall for his age, his white blond