to sit with the man who had saved his life,

who told him to treat people as singular, not plural,

and to play his ‘chest close to his cards’.

Louis never spoke of how Frederick had hung himself

soon after coming home from the trenches,

how shell-shocked Arthur still couldn’t find work,

nor Harry who lost his fishmongers when he signed up.

A year after the Treaty of Versailles was signed,

Louis was buried in a plot next to Gladys in a corner

of Woolwich – which would be forever – foreign.

PART TWO

CHAPTER 10

Brixton, London, 1954

TAIWO

‘ELLIE, marry me soon. You are of age now.

Your mama will either cease this nonsense or disown you,

but at least she will stop dousing you with water

then running a live electric wire over your body.

These British think they are so superior to coloureds,

they believe those stupid Tarzan films from America.

To me they are cardboard people with chessboard minds.

You do not see how they sneer at me in the street?

Sweet Ellie, you do not see the evil in this world.

That is why I love you. You are spring water.’

He pulled her towards him as if leading her to waltz.

She curled into his chest with feline fluidity,

all angst dissipated against his warm wool sweater.

She undid the clip which imprisoned her auburn curls

in a sweeping French knot on her head, the red flush

of desire prickled her gooseberry flesh each time

his hands swept down her arms. She floated, tensionless,

on water, safe, bobbing, open to the swirl of gravity.

Then her mind opened. It was dark. Time to go back

to college and prepare for her wedding.

Camberwell, London, 1955

SNOWFLAKES sprinkled down that cold Christmas Eve,

anointed Ellen’s dark-green and cherry-red costume,

vanished in the gravel drive of Sacred Heart Church

where, linked with Taiwo in his Moss Bros suit,

she smiled into the winking eye of a black box camera,

as excitedly they albumed their chiaroscuro union.

‘Marry in red, wish you were dead!’ was Peggy’s

parting arrow the day before, but Ellen watched it

fall to the ground as confetti sprayed over the joyous two

from the waving hands of their cheering friends, before

they all tumbled into a limo and several old bangers

and headed for a slap-up of rice, stew, cakes and beer.

‘A man’s happiest day, is it not? Yes, it is, truly, indeed.

I have beaten the demons and married my beloved.

Ah, if only Mama were here to see her handsome son.

Would she approve? I suspect she too would be trouble.

So, it’s time to make a new life with a wife and children.

Today joy fills me like twenty beers but still I think

of Kehinde. I’ve added another layer she’ll never know.

Today I search her eyes like pebbles in a lake.

TAIWO/ELLEN

My hands cup two creamy breasts,