A Kestrel for a Knave

‘It’s a smashing morning again.’

‘Tha’ wouldn’t be saying that if tha’ wa’ goin’ where I’m goin’.’

[…]

‘Just think, when we’re goin’ up to t’woods, tha’ll be goin’ down in t’cage.’

‘Ar, just think; an’ next year tha’ll be coming down wi’ me.’

‘I’ll not.’

‘Won’t tha?’

‘No, ’cos I’m not goin’ to work down t’pit.’

‘Where are tha goin’ to work, then?’

[…]

‘I don’t know; but I’m not goin’ to work down t’pit.’

‘No, and have I to tell thi way? …’

He walked into the kitchen and came back carrying his jacket.

‘…For one thing, tha’s to be able to read and write before they’ll set thi on. And for another, they wouldn’t have a weedy little twat like thee.’

One day I wolke up and my muther said to me heer Billy theres your brecfast in bed for you there was backen and egg and bred and butter and a big pot of tea […] we lived in a big hous up moor edge and we add carpits on the stairs and in the all and sentrall eeting. When I got down I said wers are Jud his going the army my muther saide and hees not coming back. But your dades coming back in sted. […] I haven’t seen him for a long time but he was just he sam as he went away […] when I got to school all the teacher were good to me they said allow Billy awo you gowing on and they all pated me on the hed and smiled and we did interesting things all day.

It blossomed to a bubble […] and floated quietly toward the floor. He reached out to take it back. Touched it. Gone. He blew some more, but they came out small, so he let them drift and time their own oblivion. Then it came out, a jewel, hanging heavy in the air. He reached out to catch it. It bounced off the buff of air, then wavered in the suction as he withdrew his hand. He followed it, and as it fell, he placed his hand below it, allowing his hand to fall more slowly than the bubble, so that slowly, very slowly, the bubble fell closer to his hand […] until finally the bubble landed gently on the falling palm. Billy […] tilted his hand and shifted his head to catch the colours from different angles and in different lights, and while he was looking it vanished […]

There were four chairs outside the medical room. A woman and a boy occupied the two nearest the door. Billy sat down, leaving an empty chair between them. The boy leaned forward and nodded at him across the front of the woman. The woman glanced round, then turned back to the boy.

‘And don’t be sat there like a dummy when you get in there.’

The boy blushed and looked across at Billy again. Billy sat staring straight ahead, top teeth working across his bottom lip, squeezing it white.

‘Tell him that you’re after a good job, an office job, summat like that.’

‘Who’s after an office job?’

‘Well what are you after then? A job on t’bins?’