Matty Doolin Read Free Page B

satisfaction of feeling it making contact with Bill Cooper’s face. Also he knew for a certainty that he was winning, and this gave him the power once more to free his arm with the intention of repeating his punch. But this he never achieved, for his arm was gripped in mid-air and he was borne backwards, and there was wrenched from him a cry of agony that blotted out the face of Mr Borley.
    ‘Get up!’
    Matty struggled to his feet, then stumbled across the yard.
    ‘Where do you think you’re going?’
    Matty did not answer, he just wanted to lean against the railings for he was sick with the pain in his arm. He did not as yet know what damage Bill Cooper’s fists and feet had wrought on him, but he did know that Cooper had inflicted nothing to equal the wrench that Mr Borley had given to his arm.
    ‘Get up, Cooper. Who started this?’
    ‘He did, sir.’ Bill Cooper pointed a shaking finger at Matty. ‘He jumped on me from behind the wall.’
    ‘What have you got to say, Doolin?’
    Matty blinked his eyes tightly before stretching them and looking at Mr Borley. He wished it was the end of term. He wished he had left school. He knew what he would say to him then, but now he said, ‘Yes, I jumped on him.’
    ‘Oh, you did, did you?’ Mr Borley did not seem at all pleased at Matty’s straightforward answer. ‘Well, my brave man, you’ll be at the head’s office at nine o’clock on Monday morning and you’ll see how high he can jump on you and how hard he can come down with the stick. It’ll be a pleasure to see you get your deserts, Doolin. Now get off before I attempt to take the law into my own hands.’
    Matty continued to look at the master, and he wished from the bottom of his heart that Mr Borley would give way to his temptation.
    ‘Get going.’
    Slowly Matty turned away, with the thought uppermost in his mind at the moment that it was funny that Bill Cooper should be on report with most of the masters except old Bore. The saying ‘Birds of a feather’ surely fitted there.
    ‘Are you feelin’ all right, Matty?’ Joe was walking by his side now, and he poked his head round to the front and looked up at his friend as they left the vicinity of the school.
    ‘Aye, I’m all right.’
    ‘Your coat sleeve’s had it at the back.’
    ‘What?’ Matty looked towards his shoulder. Coo! This would set his mam off. She had bought the coat for him only a few weeks ago because he had grown so fast out of his other one. Oh lord! She would go round the bend. The thought made him spurt forward, and Joe, trotting to keep up with him, exclaimed, ‘What’s the hurry now? You’ll likely get it when you get in.’
    ‘I want the worst over afore me dad comes in from work. If me mam has cooled down by then she’ll deal with him.’ He paused; then added, ‘You needn’t come back with me.’
    ‘But, but I want to.’ The two boys stood looking at each other for a moment. Then Matty, biting on his lip, hurried on once more. Of course he knew Joe would want to come home with him, for there would be nobody in his house until six o’clock. His mother had stopped giving him the key after she found out he took his mates in and made them tea.
    The boys now went past the Dean’s Hospital, then turned into Stanhope Road, past the Park, then along the road where Matty turned off into his own street, Brinkburn Street.
    Matty had lived in Brinkburn Street for eleven of his fifteen years; he could remember no other home. Up till recently he had liked Brinkburn Street. It mightn’t be as posh as Talbot Road, or any of the other roads that ran off Stanhope Road, but because it was where his home was he had liked it, and at times he felt called upon to defend it. But he had to admit to himself that his liking for his home and the street had faded a little during the past months. He could almost go back to the day when the process began. It was one Sunday during last Autumn when Mr Tollet, who lived across the road and