Savage Beast-A Peaky Blinders retelling of Helen Keller

3.

The next morning at breakfast, Tommy was gone on business as the Shelby family ate a breakfast of jam on toast with a cup of tea. Ada was also absent, off somewhere slinking around with Tommy's old best friend turned commie Freddy, who had fought in France. Polly had her suspicions of where Ada was, as did Tommy, but he already had one sister to keep a close eye on and he wasn't keen on having to watch another, so he let Pol fret over it and tried for the most part to ignore it. He would, however, be pissed if Ada got pregnant. Suddenly, Arthur, who had been gone all morning, opened the door to the flat-with someone else behind him. Pol stood from her chair abruptly, face tight as she looked up and down Arthur Shelby senior, scarred face and all. Her brother-Tommy and his siblings father. Lily felt the clamor of shoes and chairs moving, and she considered standing to investigate but decided she'd rather eat the eggs on her plate. She ate messily, hands and fingers shoveling food into her mouth, silverware nowhere to be found near her plate, before she roamed to the plates of the others. She'd never learned to use silverware, and the Shelby's figured better she use her hands than to stab them or throw a utensil.

 John, Polly and Finn made their remarks about the man in their kitchen-Lily unaware of the awkward tension in the room. "Is that my little Lily there?" Her father advanced, reaching to touch a curl on the girls head. "Don't." Polly said stiffly, her eyes ablaze and venom in her voice. As if on cue, Lily stood, shoving her chair away from herself and walking out to the stranger she realized stood in their home. She did not recognize his smell-this is how she identified strangers. Nobody stopped her as she felt the rough callused hands, the scars on his face-trying to gauge what she could about this man-her father. Her face wrinkled in confusion. Tommy burst through the door and froze, blue eyes ice cold as he took in the sight of Lily's perplexed face, hands on her fathers face-the father who had left Lily after she had come down with fever and was left disabled-the father who had walked out on all of them ten years ago. "Get out." He said harshly, yet calmly. "This family needed you ten years ago and you left." His fathers face fell, then hardened. "I can see Lily is still a wild, helpless thing. Why have her here? The poor child would be better off in an asylum where people are educated on how to deal with people....people like her." He spoke, taking a dig where he knew it would hurt the family-Polly especially.

 Polly and Tommy had had this conversation before-he had suggested putting her in an asylum when she was five. Lily had picked up a gun Finn had taken from Arthurs desk. Tommy had strode into the sitting room to find Lily toying with it curiously-she had never felt a gun before. It had been loaded. He'd walked over slowly, and picked up her small hands and gently as if she were a frightened horse, and eased it out of her fingers before emptying the bullets. Polly had stepped inside then, to find Tommy yelling at Finn, and Lily crying on the floor. Chaos had ensued in the Shelby household as it so often did. Tommy had been angry all night, the deep rooted reason being fear that his sister could have  hurt herself. "We can't always keep this close of a fucking eye on her, Pol. We should put her in a hospital,  some place she can be cared for without talk of murder and business five feet away just like you always say. She's a Shelby, that in itself is more curse than her disabilities." Tommy was saying all this because he was scared for his sister-scared that they wouldn't always be there to protect her at every second. Tears had filled Polly's eyes, and Tommy hadn't spoken of doing such a thing again. 

Now-his father brought it up to be cruel, to hit them where it hurt and yank on their heartstrings in an attempt to do his own bidding. Tommy's eyes flicked to Polly, who turned her nose up. "We have taken care of her just fine. More than you ever have. Now you heard Thomas. Get out." She said, tone low but shaky. "But-" started Arthur. "It's fine son. A Shelby never stays where he's not welcome." And with that-he slammed the door and was gone. 

*authors note: Sorry for the short chapter. But omg Arthur Shelby Sr. trying to come back and Tommy's just like NOPE. Not happening-classic scene!