give him enough money to remain drunk for two whole months.’
George was away from Miguel Street for a week. During that time we saw more of Dolly. She swept out the front room and begged flowers of the neighbours and put them in the room. She giggled more than ever.
Someone in the street (not me) poisoned the two Alsatians.
We hoped that George had gone away for good.
He did come back, however, still drunk, but no longer crying or helpless, and he had a woman with him. She was a very Indian woman, a little old, but she looked strong enough to handle George.
‘She look like a drinker sheself,’ Hat said.
This woman took control of George’s house, and once more Dolly retreated into the back, where the empty cow-pens were.
We heard stories of beatings and everybody said he was sorry for Dolly and the new woman.
My heart went out to the woman and Dolly. I couldn’t understand how anybody in the world would want to live with George, and I wasn’t surprised when one day, about two weeks later, Popo told me, ‘George new wife leave him, you ain’t hear?’
Hat said, ‘I wonder what he going do when the money I give him finish.’
We soon saw.
The pink house, almost overnight, became a full and noisy place. There were many women about, talking loudly and not paying too much attention to the way they dressed. And whenever I passed the pink house, these women shouted abusive remarks at me; and some of them did things with their mouths, inviting me to ‘come to mooma.’ And there were not only these new women. Many American soldiers drove up in jeeps, and Miguel Street became full of laughter and shrieks.
Hat said, ‘That man George giving the street a bad name, you know.’
It was as though Miguel Street belonged to these new people. Hat and the rest of the boys were no longer assured of privacy when they sat down to talk things over on the pavement.
But Bogart became friendly with the new people and spent two or three evenings a week with them. He pretended he was disgusted at what he saw, but I didn’t believe him because he was always going back.
‘What happening to Dolly?’ Hat asked him one day.
‘She dey,’ Bogart said, meaning that she was all right.
‘Ah know she dey,’ Hat said. ‘But how she dey? ’
‘Well, she cleaning and cooking.’
‘For everybody?’
‘Everybody.’
Elias had a room of his own which he never left whenever he came home. He ate his meals outside. He was trying to study for some important exam. He had lost interest in his family, Bogart said, or rather, implied.
George was still drinking a lot; but he was prospering. He was wearing a suit now, and a tie.
Hat said, ‘He must be making a lot of money, if he have to bribe all the policemen and them.’
What I couldn’t understand at all, though, was the way these new women behaved to George. They all appeared to like him as well as respect him. And George wasn’t attempting to be nice in return either. He remained himself.
One day he said to everyone, ‘Dolly ain’t have no mooma now. I have to be father and mother to the child. And I say is high time Dolly get married.’
His choice fell on a man called Razor. It was hard to think of a more suitable name for this man. He was small. He was thin. He had a neat, sharp moustache above neat, tiny lips. The creases on his trousers were always sharp and clean and straight. And he was supposed to carry a knife.
Hat didn’t like Dolly marrying Razor. ‘He too sharp for we,’ he said. ‘He is the sort of man who wouldn’t think anything about forgetting a knife in your back, you know.’
But Dolly still giggled.
Razor and Dolly were married at church and they came back to a reception in the pink house. The women were all dressed up, and there were lots of American soldiers and sailors drinking and laughing and congratulating George. The women and the Americans made Dolly and Razor kiss and kiss, and they cheered. Dolly giggled.
Hat said, ‘She ain’t giggling, you know. She crying really.’
Elias wasn’t at home that day.
The women and the Americans sang Sweet Sixteen and As Time Goes By. Then they made Dolly and Razor kiss again. Someone shouted, ‘Speech!’ and everybody laughed and shouted, ‘Speech! Speech!’
Razor left Dolly standing by herself, giggling.
‘Speech! Speech!’ the wedding guests called.
Dolly only giggled more.
Then