shadow of britain

Chapter 56
When Arthur and the others walked in the deep alley outside St. Giles Church, the aisle here was very narrow, not enough for two people to pass side by side.

Even a full-grown man can only hunched his shoulders as far as possible to keep his top from touching the wet, mossy walls.

They could only line up in a row, with Officer Tony at the front, Arthur at the end, and Dickens, Tom and Little Adam being protected by them in the middle.

Everyone was walking, but Adam stopped suddenly. He stopped obsessively in front of a shed built with wooden planks and wire extensions.

Tom held Adam's arm without turning his head, until he found resistance, then looked back at Adam who had stopped, and asked suspiciously, "Son, what's wrong?"

Adam blinked, pointed to the house that was stitched together with wire and wooden planks, and said, "I want to go back and see my friends."

Arthur glanced and there was only one nail left crookedly hanging on the door panel, with a red rusted number plate.

It said 27 Church Lane, Adam's home for nine years.

Arthur turned to Dickens and asked, "Charles, are you busy today?"

Dickens said with a smile: "I've been here for the last month, this is my job, it doesn't matter whether I'm busy or not."

"That's good."

Arthur turned around and accidentally rubbed mud on the shoulder of his coat.

He raised his hand and knocked on the door lightly, and asked, "Is anyone home?"

Unexpectedly, after a long time, no one responded.

At this moment, Adam stood up and said, "Mr. Hastings, you don't need to say hello when you enter here. There are four families living here, and this door is shared by everyone."

After finishing speaking, he came to the door, put both hands on the lower edge of the door panel, and even forcibly lifted it to the top of his head, opening a gap of several feet from the bottom.

Little Adam blushed, and it could be seen that he was working hard all over his body.

"Please go in quickly, I won't hold you for long."

Seeing this, Dickens hurried forward to take over his work, but when he tried hard, he heard a bang, and even removed the whole door.

"This..." Dickens held the door in his hands, his face was dazed: "I... did I break something?"

Adam shook his head and said, "No, it's inherently bad, and we usually just use it to block the wind."

Dickens breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the words: "That's good."

He put the door panel aside so that everyone could get a glimpse of the inside of the shed.

The first thing that catches the eye is a not too long semi-open-air aisle. The reason why it is said to be semi-open-air is that the top of the aisle is simply built with a layer of wooden boards to keep out the rain.

On both sides of the aisle are hearths piled up with the rubble and rubble that can be seen everywhere in St. Giles's shabby houses.

A cylindrical iron pot with a blackened bottom was placed on the stove, and some rainwater from last night had accumulated in the iron pot, and the bodies of several unidentifiable black flying insects were still floating on the water surface.

There were still some gray and white charcoal left in the stove, and on the edge of the stove was a table leg picked up from nowhere.

When Adam saw the iron pot, he was taken aback for a moment, and then murmured: "Kyle must have done it. He forgot to take the pot and the rest of the fuel back after he finished making the tea. You should be beaten severely."

Arthur heard this, so he picked up the iron pot and poured the water outside, and said, "Then let's go and get it back for Kyle. Is Kyle the friend you are looking for today?"

While shaking his head, Adam led them into the stairwell and walked up: "No, don't take it for him, I'm happy to watch him get beaten."

Arthur was taken aback: "Why?"

Adam said: "I have a grudge with Kyle. He is two years older than me, so he often fights with me because he is taller and stronger than me."

Tom was also interested. He really wanted to know his son: "Why did you fight?"

In the face of his father's question, Adam did not conceal the kindness and resentment between him and his enemy.

He said: "There are too many bridges between us, sometimes because of a penny in a brick, sometimes because I stole a newspaper he was going to sell in the street, sometimes because of him and his Help minions look down on me."

"Looking down on you?" Tony laughed loudly and said, "Adam, don't worry, there will always be people looking down on you in this world. I patrol every day, and I am looked down upon every day."

Adam said seriously: "Kyle doesn't have the guts to look down on the police, he only dares to look down on me.

He said he could get sixpence a day for working in a factory, while someone like me could only get five.

But he didn't think about it, he didn't get sixpence because he did a better job than me, but because he had an aunt who was the foreman in the factory.

It's okay that he doesn't know it, and he takes his rudeness as manliness.

I used to work with him in the textile mill, and in his free time he used to pick up Robin's skirts with a stick and tease her and say, 'Hey, let's see how white your thighs are. '

Robin was made to cry by him, and I couldn't stand it, so I hugged Kyle's head from behind, threw him to the ground, and then rode on him to beat him.

Kyle's nose was bleeding from my beating, and he covered his face and cried, like a mangy dog ​​who only admits cowardice.

I was about to win, but all his puppies came up and punched me like crazy to get an extra penny from Kyle's aunt, and they kicked Kick me in the stomach and try to tear us apart.

But I just don't let go, I have to give him some color to see.

Until his aunt ran over with a stick, and she called me 'little bastard' and hit me hard on the back with the stick.

I was in so much pain that I had to let go, and I have been banned from working in factories since then..."

When Adam said this, he suddenly fell silent.

Seeing him like this, Arthur suddenly thought of the information he got when chatting with Adam earlier.

He asked: "So that's why you were thrown out into the street by your family and not allowed to go home and sleep unless you got fivepence a day?"

With tears in his eyes, little Adam nodded.

Arthur smiled and reached out and rubbed his head, then patted Tom on the shoulder: "I have to say, Tom, you made it, this is a pretty good kid."

Tom also nodded with a smile, "I think so too."

He knelt down and wiped his son's tears with his fingers, and hugged him on his neck.

Dickens also encouraged with a smile: "Boy, this is nothing. The reason why they kick you out of the house is not because you do not do well, but because they are jealous of you, jealous that you have them for five pence a day. What you can't even buy is your character and conscience!"

Adam wiped the corners of his eyes with a smile, and said, "Dad, you'd better put me down."

"what happened?"

"I still have to dig my treasures out of the ground. I don't need them anymore, but I'm going to give them to Robin. Robin lives here too, and she needs them more now than I do. "

Tony whistled and joked: "Oh! Adam, can't you see that you are still a Merry Seed? Robin, I remember this name, is it the girl you rescued from that little bastard Kyle? You This ghost is clever."

Little Adam blushed, neither admitting nor denying, he just raised his finger and pointed to the roof: "She lives on the second floor, the third room from the stairs."

(End of this chapter)