Finders and Keepers by Catrin Collier

Harry. He may not be able to sit up in your car.’
    â€˜The sanatorium should have an ambulance if we need one.’
    â€˜Then it’s settled. We’ll wait for your telephone call, Harry.’ Victor stood.
    â€˜Thank you, Harry.’ Joey also rose to his feet and slapped Harry on his back.
    â€˜Yes, it’s good of you to offer to do this, Harry.’ Victor watched another tear escape from Megan’s eye and squeezed her hand.
    â€˜I’ve a road map of South Wales that you can have.’ Lloyd stared ruefully at the boxes piled in the corner of the room. ‘That’s if I can find it.’
    â€˜I’ll give you a hand to sort through the packing cases this evening.’ Sali handed her handkerchief to Bella, as the tears started to fall from her daughter’s eyes.
    â€˜Best get an early start, Harry,’ Victor advised. ‘You know what cars are like. The minute you’re the maximum distance from the nearest garage, it will break down.’
    â€˜Are you wishing that on me, Uncle Victor?’
    â€˜It’s happened too often to me to wish it on anyone else. I’ve been to the Swansea Valley, and Megs is right – it is a beautiful place but the sheep outnumber the people a hundred to one, and there’s nothing there but isolated farms, scenery and the castle. It’s twenty-odd miles to Brecon, eighteen to Swansea and there are precious few shops in between. Take a good book if you’re intent on staying overnight.’
    â€˜Do you think Harry really knows what TB is like?’ Victor asked when Lloyd walked him and Joey to the door.
    â€˜If he doesn’t, he’s going to find out.’ Joey lifted his hat from the stand. ‘That was some homecoming party we gave him.’
    â€˜We’ll have a party again some other time.’ Lloyd tried not to think when that might be.
    â€˜Funny to think of little Harry all grown up,’ Joey reflected as they walked outside. ‘It only seems like the other day that he moved in with us in Tonypandy when Sali became our housekeeper.’
    â€˜Some other day,’ Victor commented. ‘You looked in the mirror and counted your grey hairs lately, Joey?’
    â€˜Ready?’ Joey opened the passenger doors of his car for Rhian when she brought out his three daughters and two sons.
    â€˜I am.’ She turned to Sali and Megan. ‘See you all very soon.’
    Victor opened the doors on the lorry and called impatiently, ‘The cows won’t milk themselves, boys, Megs.’
    Megan hugged and kissed Sali, Rhian and the girls one last time. She was halfway to the lorry when she turned and ran back to Harry.
    â€˜You will make sure that this place is right for Dad, won’t you, Harry?’
    â€˜I promise, Aunty Megan.’ Harry picked up Glyn and encouraged him to wave goodbye along with the rest of his family.

Chapter Three
    Mary lifted the final basket of eggs on to the back of the cart David had harnessed.
    Dolly was the sole remaining mare in the stable that had once held two dozen riding, cart and shire horses. Knowing that Mary used Dolly to ferry the produce she kept from him, Bob the Gob had once demanded she send her to market. But even he had to admit that that at twenty-one, Dolly was too old to attract a bid from anyone other than the glue manufacturer, who never paid more than two shillings for an animal. So, he had grudgingly given in to Mary’s pleas that they be allowed to keep the horse. But only after reminding her that in return, he expected her to pay a proportion of their rent in hard cash. He also added that it could only be a matter of months before the mare died and she would be forced to give up her clandestine dealings.
    Dolly was slow and arthritic but Mary dreaded losing her. She was their only means of transporting produce out of Bob’s clutches and, as with the ever-present threat of the workhouse, she refused to speculate