❝ We don't talk anymore like we used to do ❞
↪The war that had waged with death and destruction was finally over and left only trauma and pain behind.
Nothing was the same as before and Thomas and Victoria knew it.
Another war had begun, perhaps the...
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Thomas walked into the church and sat in the pew behind Polly who was praying. The man had not entered a church for years, the last time it was his wedding day. Too many memories of a distant time were assailing him, he wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
"I have ten minutes. What do you want?" Thomas asked.
"An explanation" Polly said, putting away the rosary "Always been able to tell when you're hiding something. People round here talk. Some of them work at the BSA. I've been talking to the wives of factory hands. Detectives have been asking questions in the proofing shops. Nothing happens in that factory without you knowing about it. Speak. God and Aunt Polly are listening"
"It was meant to be routine. I had a buyer in London for some motorcycles. I asked my men to steal me four bikes with petrol engines. I'm guessing my men were drunk. There's a still inside the factory makes tramline gin. They picked up the wrong fucking crate. The bays dropped it at Charlie Strong's yard, as agreed. Must have taken it from the proofing bay, instead of the export bay. Inside we found 25 Lewis machine guns, 10.000 rounds of ammunition, 50 semi-automatic rifles, 200 pistols with shells" Tommy told her.
"Jesus, Tommy"
"All bound for Libya. Sitting right there in Charlie Strong's yard"
"Tell me you threw them in the cut"
"We put them in the stables out of the rain. The guns hadn't been greased yet" Thomas said and Polly started hitting him repeatedly.
"So that's why they sent a cop from Belfast?" The woman asked.
"Maybe, maybe not"
"Thomas, you're a bookmaker, a robber, a fighting man. You're not a fool. You sell those guns to anyone who has use to them, you will hang. Dump them somewhere the police can find them. Maybe if they know they haven't fallen into the wrong hands, this might blow over. Tell Charlie to dump them tonight"
"No" Thomas shook his head "He won't move contraband under a full moon. Three days until it wanes"
"Then you'll do the right thing?" Polly asked.
The man nodded.
"You have your mother's common sense, but your father's devilment. I see them fighting. Let your mother win" Polly said before making the sign of the cross and leaving her nephew there alone.
The church door opened and an unmistakable noise of heels rang throughout the building. The two could not talk to each other anymore, they might not live together anymore, but he could never forget those little things that characterized her.
The noise stopped, a sign that she had most likely stopped to light a candle in memory of the soldiers who fell during the war. She was not a believer, she was a woman of science, so her uncle had trained her, but nevertheless on his birthday she went to church and lit a candle in his memory.
