Mr Dibbs Fixes Bikes

3

Alfie had lived with his parents, and his three brothers and two sisters, until the day he got wed. The same tiny house. The two girls, Millie and Elizabeth, in the second bedroom, Mam and Dad in the first, Alfie, William and George in the front parlour room. It was tight. They had no privacy, but they got by. They always got by because they couldn't do anything but get by. That was the life, back then.

When he had met the Duchess, they had courted for some time, never having much time to themselves. They had become engaged and then married and moved into a little rented flat, off the high street. When the Duchess fell pregnant, Alfie had decided they couldn't live like Mam and Dad, as much as he loved and respected them. He had to have a different life. A better life.

A second job followed, with several odd jobs to add to their savings. Within a year of young Charlie arriving, Alfie had managed to save the deposit for a house. This house. For nigh on fifty years he'd lived here. First with the Duchess and Charlie, then, as Charlie grew up and made a life of his own, with only the Duchess for company. Charlie's birth had come hard for the Duchess, and she never could have any more children, leaving a house too large for just two people. And then only the one.

Which was to say that Alfie had no experience of having his entire life upended. He had never had to go through the rigmarole of moving somewhere new, away from friends. Away from any family that would miss him as he would miss them. He could only imagine what that must feel like, especially for a young lad so far away from a place he knew as home to a town at the other end of the country. It would make anyone irritable.

"Here thy goes, lad." Stepping between the flower beds, he handed the ball back to the boy. "It's easy done. These balls bounce anywhere but where you want 'em to, eh?"

The scowl on the boy's face remained, but now had more an edge of confusion to it, as though he had expected different and begrudged not having his expectations proven right. He adjusted his glasses, giving the lad a thin smile before turning away. That bicycle wasn't going to put itself away.

"Frederick!" The lady's voice trilled around the edge of the house. A mother's call. The way only a mother could say the name of their son. "The garden isn't going anywhere and I need help with these boxes."

Alfie lifted the bicycle, placing it down on its wheels, and turned his head. The boy had continued staring, it seemed, and only now turned away, racing back to the front of his new home, tossing the ball in the air as he ran. No 'thank you', but Alfie didn't mind that. New places. New homes. New, old neighbours. It was enough to drive anyone silent and impolite.

For the rest of the day, Alfie pottered around the garden, listening to the new arrivals. They tended to shout at each other, rather than talk. That was something he would have to get used to. Miriam and Clive, the former owners of the house next door, had tended on the quiet side. Not one's for talking with neighbours. They had owned the house for ten years. Newcomers. Then Clive had died, followed only a year later by Miriam and Alfie found he actually missed them. Good folk. Not talkative, but good folk.

Creaking knees told him that, perhaps it was time to turn over the garden, perhaps gravel it. All the better to make life easier in his old age, but he was never one for taking it easy. Once he had earned the deposit for the house, he had continued on with the two jobs, keeping himself busy, bringing in a good wage, making life comfortable. It was only years later that he learned how much of a toll that had taken on the Duchess.

In a time when women were mostly expected to stay at home while the man worked, Alfie had simply not thought about how the Duchess would feel. Alone in that house for most of the day, sometimes most of the night, too. A very clever woman, far more clever than Alfie, for certain, she had taken to writing when she wasn't performing housework, but it never filled the gap loneliness had brought to her. The thing was, Alfie would never have thought less of her had she taken on a job. He simply never bothered to ask.