Picture Book Moss Side

Once upon a time on the island of St Kitts there was a young coloured woman called Felicia who was very pretty and very proud indeed because she had long black shiny hair. And although she could have any man she wanted, she chose a fisherman called John to have a baby with. She called the baby Veronica even though she didn't marry the fisherman called John, who was also a carpenter when fishing was poor. And because she was so very proud she couldn't go back to her family of a mother and father, two sisters, Vernice and Margaret, and a brother called Nathan. Instead she made a vow to marry the next man that came along. And at the time she thought she was very very lucky indeed when the next man to come along was a mulatto who had a job in the bank. And the mulatto man who had a job in the bank was even more pleased to marry Felicia but only on the condition that Veronica went to live with her grandmother, which as far as Felicia was concerned was okay by her because if truth be known she'd had little time for her little daughter called Veronica. Eventually she had a child by the mulatto man who had a job in the bank, a little boy called Samuel. But that didn't stop him from sending Felicia to work as a maid for Mr Orson, the estate owner. That was where they found her dead on Mr Orson's settee with a baby in her arms. Even now whenever the subject is brought up, those old enough to remember just turn their heads and pretend nothing ever happened in the first place.

   Baby Samuel went to stay with his father from the bank who by now had found himself another woman to live with, but only on the one condition that it was okay to keep little Samuel but it was still not okay to keep another woman's daughter, no siree. Which was fine as far as Veronica was concerned because by now she was calling her grandmother Mama like she was really her mother. And eventually even Vernice came around to the idea of having Veronica about the place, especially when things needed doing like rising every morning with the cock crows before school to sell bottles of rum to the workers in the cane field. And when Vernice married Luke from town and had Clarence Harriet Deniece Benjamin and Colleen, having Veronica around to do all the housework was an absolute godsend. And when she and Luke went off to England like everyone else, Vernice thought it would be okay to leave things as they were. So you could imagine everyone's disappointment when Veronica found out she was pregnant when she was only fifteen - oh no, not Veronica, anyone else maybe but not Veronica. But as far as Veronica was concerned, getting pregnant was a blessing in disguise. For a start, it meant she no longer had to go to school which was a relief really because she'd missed so much of it beforehand through selling rum, cutting cane and looking after Aunt Vernice's children, that the school teachers had thought she'd left already and gone to the States. However, no one was surprised neither when she called the baby Felicia, after her mother and grandmother.

   It had started off as a joke really. Uncle Luke had thought it was a good idea to marry off Veronica to the nearest fellow who could afford it. Everyone laughed at the time, even Aunt Vernice. Even so, Patrick from down the road came visiting more often than once. His parents owned the bread shop down the road and he always wore shoes to school. But that soon ended once Uncle Luke  and Aunt Vernice went over to England. Veronica made sure of that. And when Aunty Vernice sent the boat fare for Veronica to come to England to live with her and Uncle Luke in a big house on Princess Road in Moss Side, Manchester, it had been such a long time since Uncle Luke had told the joke that everyone had forgotten it by now. But Aunt Vernice had no intention of letting Veronica forget about her responsibilities back home. So every month like clockwork, Veronica would send a postal order to Mama in order to buy milk powder and nappies for her little baby Felicia.

   Veronica loved being in England. There was so much to do in England. There was always work, and not even just in crop season, there was no such thing as crop season in England. And there were so many shops in England where you could buy anything you liked, you didn't have to be friends with such and such neither. In England you didn't have to wait for Mrs Michaels to kill one of her cows to buy some meat. All you did was go into the shop and say I'll have that piece there Mr Miles and the butcher would cut it up and wrap it then he put it in your basket between the eggs and the cornflakes, it was that simple. You'd be asked for money afterwards, but that was a small price to pay.

   And at work she met a fellow, a nice young man from Nevis called Raymond, or Smallie to his friends. He was called Smallie because he never talked much. And when he did talk it was only to tell her that he played cricket every Sunday and also sent postal orders to his mother. He also told her about mending fences and whitewashing the walls for Mr Henderson because his own son wore shoes to school. Veronica knew she loved Raymond when she saw him crying in the canteen, all because the plane with the Manchester United football team had crashed into a snow-covered field in Munich. It wasn't as if he knew them or anything. He'd only ever seen them on the telly for goodness sake. But still, it showed he cared, Mum said. It was then she decided that he would make an excellent father for her child, whether he liked it or not.

   Things were happy for a while for Veronica and it stayed that way until she told her aunt that she wanted to be a nurse. Aunty Vernice said it was out of the question because there wasn't enough pay being a nurse and did she forget she had a baby to send postal orders for every month? It was then that Aunt Vernice reminded Veronica of Uncle Luke's joke, you know, the one about marrying her off to the nearest fellow who could afford it. Only this time no one was laughing. And things got worse when Uncle Luke mistook Veronica's bedroom for his. The first time it happened he said it was a mistake. But when it happened again the next Wednesday, and the next, Veronica got so fed up she told her aunt what was happening. But her aunt didn't believe her and started to beat Veronica and said you're just like your mother and aunt Vernice didn't stop even when Veronica told her aunt she was going to get married. So the very next day Veronica went to the police station where the very nice policewoman gave her a nice cup of tea and sent her over to see a probation officer who told Veronica she would need her mother's death certificate if she wanted to marry Raymond without her aunt's permission. So Veronica went back to her aunt's house because she knew her aunt kept photos of her mother in a suitcase on top of a wardrobe and maybe the certificate might be there as well. But Aunt Vernice caught her before she could open the lock with a screwdriver. And Aunt Vernice really went mad at Veronica for opening up all kinds of old wounds as well as the suitcase. As far as Veronica was concerned that was the final straw. So she went straight over to Raymond's room that very minute where she found him cooking a big panful of baked beans and scrambled eggs. And she stayed there until a copy of the death certificate finally arrived from the town hall in St Kitts. Then they got married at Christ Church on Monton Street and bought a small terrace on Cadogen Street with mice in the kitchen and cockroaches in the bathroom because there wasn't enough space for the two of them in Raymond's room, never mind the brand new baby boy that was expected at the end of the summer.

(Forever and ever amen, pages 209 to 214)