Chapter 56: Robin of Adam the Wise

Chapter 56 – Robin of Adam the Witty
As Arthur and the others walked down the deep alleyway outside St. Giles Church, the aisles here were narrow and not big enough for two people to pass side by side.

Even a grown, strong man could only scrunch his shoulders as much as he could to keep his blouse from touching the wet, mossy walls.

It was all they could do to form a line, with Officer Tony in front, Arthur walking at the end, and Dickens, Tom, and little Adam protected by them in the very center.

As the group walked, Adam stopped abruptly, however, and paused in fascination in front of a shanty built of boards and wire extensions.

Without looking back, Tom took Adam’s arm until he realized he was meeting resistance, which caused him to look back at the stopped Adam and ask suspiciously, “What’s the matter, son?”

Adam blinked and, pointing to the house, which was stitched together with wire and boards that were no longer visible, said, “I want to go back and see my friend.”

Arthur swept his eyes over the red-rusted door sign that had only one nail left, hanging crookedly from the door panel.

It read 27 Church Lane, the home Adam had lived in for nine years.

Arthur turned to Dickens and asked, “Charles, you’re not busy today, are you?”

Dickens laughed, “I’ve been staying here for the last month, that’s what I do, it doesn’t matter if I’m busy or not.”

“That’s good.”

Arthur turned around, accidentally rubbing mud on the shoulder of his coat.

He raised his hand and knocked gently on the door, opening his mouth to ask, “Anyone home?”

Who knows, after a long time, he didn’t hear anyone respond.

At that moment Adam stepped forward and he spoke, “Mr. Hastings, there is no need to greet anyone entering here, we have four families living here and this door is shared by all.”

With that said, he made his way to the door of the room and with both hands resting on the lower edge of the door panel, he surprisingly lifted it stiffly above his head and opened a gap of a few feet from the bottom.

Little Adam flushed red, and it was evident that he was exerting himself all over.

“Please hurry up and get in, I can’t hold it for long.”

Seeing this, Dickens rushed forward to take over, and who knew that when he exerted himself, all he heard was a thud, which dislodged the entire door.

“This ……” Dickens, holding the door in his hand, was full of confusion, “have I …… I broken something? ”

Adam shook his head, “No, it’s broken itself, usually we just use it to block the wind.”

Dickens sniffed in relief, “That’s good.”

He set the door panel aside and the crowd was able to get a glimpse of the inside of the shack.

The first thing that caught their eyes was a semi-open-air aisle that wasn’t too long, the reason why it was said to be semi-open-air was because the top of the aisle was simply boarded up to keep out the rain.

On either side of the aisle were hearths made of the same rubble that could be found in the broken houses of St. Giles.

On the stove stood a cylindrical iron pot with a blackened bottom, in which some of the rainwater from last night had accumulated, and on the surface of the water floated the corpses of several unidentifiable species of black flying insects.

There was still some gray and white charcoal left in the stove, and on the edge of the stove was a table leg that had been picked up from somewhere.

When Adam saw the iron pot, he first stared blankly, then muttered, “This must be Kyle’s doing, he forgot to take the pot and the leftover fuel back after he finished making the tea, if his father finds out, he’ll probably get a severe beating again.”

Arthur heard this, so he picked up that iron pot and splashed the water in it outside and spoke, “Then let’s go get it back for Kyle. Is Kyle the friend you were looking for today?”

Adam shook his head as he led them into the stairwell toward the top, “No, don’t take it for him, I’d be happy to watch him get beat up.”

Arthur froze at that, “Why?”

Adam said, “I have a grudge against Kyle, he’s two years older than me so he fights me all the time on the basis that he’s taller and stronger than me.” Tom was interested too, he was looking forward to getting to know this son of his, “Why do you fight?”

In the face of his father’s question, Adam was not too subtle about his feud with his enemy.

He spoke up, “There are so many beams between us, sometimes it’s over a penny in a brick crack, sometimes it’s because I stole the newspaper he was planning to take to the street to sell, and sometimes it’s because he and his gang of minions despise me.”

“Despised you?” Tony laughed out loud, “Adam, relax, there are always going to be people who look down on you while you live in this world. I patrol every day and get looked down upon every day.”

Adam said with a serious look on his face, “Kyle doesn’t have the guts to look down on a cop, he only dares to look down on me.

He says he gets six pence a day for going to work in a factory, while the likes of me only get five.

But he doesn’t think about it. He doesn’t get six pence a day because he’s a better worker than me, but because he has an aunt who’s a foreman in the factory.

It’s enough that he doesn’t know it, but he takes his rudeness for manliness.

Once upon a time I worked with him in the textile mill, and when he was idle he always liked to pick up Robin’s skirt with a stick and tease her, saying, ‘Hey, let’s have a good look at how white your thighs are.’

Robin was made to cry by him, and I couldn’t watch, so I held Kyle’s head from behind, slammed him to the ground, and then rode up on his body and beat him up.

Kyle’s nose was bleeding from me, and he covered his face and cried like a mangy dog that had conceded defeat.

I was on the verge of winning, but the dogs under his hand, in order to get an extra penny’s worth of work from Kyle’s aunt, rushed up and beat me with their fists as if I were crazy, and they kicked me in the stomach to try to separate us.

But I just wouldn’t let go, I had to give it to him.

Until his aunt came running up with a stick, and while she shouted ‘little bastard’ at me, she hit me hard on the back with the stick.

I was in too much pain so I had to let go, and since then I’ve been forbidden by them to work in the factory ……”

Adam was suddenly silent as he spoke.

Arthur looked at him like this and suddenly thought of the information he had gotten earlier when he had been talking with Adam.

He asked, “So that’s the reason you were kicked out into the street by your family and not allowed to go home to bed unless you begged for five pence a day?”

There were tears in little Adam’s eyes as he nodded.

Arthur smiled and reached up to rub his head, then patted Tom on the shoulder, “I have to say, Tom, you’ve earned it, that’s quite a boy.”

Tom smiled back and nodded, “I thought so too.”

He knelt down and wiped away his son’s tears with his fingers, holding him up and riding him around his neck.

Dickens smiled back and encouraged, “Boy, this is nothing. It’s not because you’re not doing well that they’re kicking you out of the house, it’s because they’re jealous of you, jealous that you have something they couldn’t buy with five pence a day, and that’s your character and conscience!”

Adam smiled, wiped the corners of his eyes and spoke, “Dad, you might as well put me down.”

“What?”

“I still have to dig my stash of treasure out of the ground, and while I don’t need it anymore, I’m going to give it all to Robin. Robin lives here too, and she needs them more than I do right now.”

Tony whistled and snickered, “Ugh! Adam, can’t tell you boys are still a flirt? Robin, I remember that name, it’s the girl you saved from that little bastard Kyle, isn’t it? You devilish wit.”

Little Adam blushed, neither admitting nor denying it, he just raised his hand and pointed to the roof, “She lives on the second floor, third room out of the stairway.”

(End of chapter)