Widows

She picked up the sledgehammer. ‘I never practiced my bit, did I?’ she said cheerfully. Standing a couple of feet from the Morris, legs apart, hands firmly gripping the handle, Dolly swung the hammer. The veins stood out on her neck and she let rip; not exactly a scream, but a weird guttural roar right from her belly. She let the hammer go and it flew through the air before smashing through the Morris’s windscreen, shattering it into a thousand pieces. Beads of glass flew backward, sprinkling over the back seats. For a second or two, the inside of the car looked like a snow-globe and it was almost beautiful to watch.

As the sledgehammer landed on the back seat, the three women gasped in shock.

‘Oh, my God!’ Linda spoke for all of them. ‘It’s like the first time you hear your mum say “fuck”!’

Dolly looked at them with an impish grin. ‘I know my strengths. And I know yours,’ she said. She turned serious. ‘We’ve got this, girls. We’ve bloody well got this.’ And then she said something that brought a lump to even Linda’s throat:

‘I won’t let you down.’

Now, Dolly saw no doubt in their eyes at all; only respect. They knew she could lead and she knew they’d follow.

By Harry’s third run, it was clear that he was holding them up. He simply wasn’t fast enough and, no matter how many times he tried, he wasn’t getting any faster.

No one said a single word as Harry thought through his options. His face was tight with anger and his jaw muscles twitched erratically. His anger was directed at himself, they could all see that, so they respectfully gave him the time and space he needed. Eventually, Harry handed his rucksack to Jimmy.

‘Lemme see you run, kid,’ he said.

As the sweat trickled down Harry’s bright-red face, Jimmy completed the run in a spectacularly fast time. In Harry’s younger days that run would have been a piece of cake, but he was smart enough to know where his team’s strengths lay — and his wasn’t running; not anymore.

‘Back to your start positions,’ Harry ordered. ‘I’m gonna time the whole thing.’

As he watched Terry, Joe and Jimmy walk back toward the follow van, Harry was hurting, inside and out. He’d always led from the front and to have to relinquish that position was heart-breaking.

Joe and Terry clambered into the back of the follow van while Jimmy lagged behind. He was tapping his watch.

‘What’s the problem?’ Harry asked.

‘Nothing.’ Jimmy didn’t want to look stupid or cause trouble. ‘It’s just my watch. Overwound it, I expect.’

Harry took his gold Rolex off and handed it to Jimmy. ‘Here,’ he said. ‘Have this. I’ll be buying myself the latest model when this is all over.’ He climbed into the driver’s seat of the bread truck.

As Jimmy took up his new position in the driver’s seat of the follow van, he admired Harry’s gold Rolex with its diamond-encrusted face. It was the most beautiful watch he’d ever seen. He vowed never to take it off.

Chapter 19