He did not go to bed that night. He put all his things into a bag, sat in an armchair and waited. Midnight came, and went. At two o’clock in the morning he went down the stairs and out of the house.
It was a cold night and Joey looked up at the moon in the sky.
‘Are you a lucky moon?’ he said, smiling. ‘Joey’s lucky moon?’
He walked to Goldman’s shop and looked round. Nobody was in the street. He took a small hammer from his coat pocket and broke the glass in the shop door. The he put his hand through and opened the door.
Joey moved quickly into the shop. He closed the door behind him and put his bag on the floor. Then he walked quietly across the shop to the door into the back room, opened it, and went through. It was dark, but the moonlight came through the window, and Joey could see the big cupboard.
The little hammer soon opened the cupboard. There were a lot of books and papers inside; some of the papers fell out on to the floor.
‘Who’s there?’
Joey did not move. Only his eyes moved, looking around the room. Then a door at the back of the room opened, and Theo Goldman came in with an oil lamp. He saw Joey.
‘What--!’ he began.
Joey jumped across the room, grabbed the old man’s arm, and pulled it up behind his back. Then he held the hammer in front of Goldman’s face.
‘Where’s the money?’ he said. ‘Tell me!’
‘M-money?’ Goldman said. ‘What – what money? There isn’t any money.’
‘Yes, there is,’ Joey said. ‘You told Webber about it in the pub. A hundred pounds or more. Where is it?’
Goldman said nothing.
‘Tell me,’ Joey said, ‘or I’m going to break your arms! First one arm, and then the other one. Where is it?’
Goldman tried to pull his arm away. He made small angry noises, but no words came out.
Joey held the hammer in front of Goldman’s eyes. ‘Tell me! Or this hammer goes into your face!’
‘All right! All right! It – it’s under the floor,’ Goldman said. ‘Under the cupboard.’
Joey pushed the old man across to the cupboard. ‘Get it,’ he said. ‘Now!’
The old man put the oil lamp on the floor and pulled the cupboard away from the wall. Then he got between the cupboard and the wall and pulled up some of the floor. There was a small box under the floor and Goldman got it out.
Joey grabbed the box from the old man’s hands, and Goldman got it out.
Joey smiled.
‘I know you!’ Goldman said suddenly. ‘You live at Albert Webber’s house!’
‘Albert who?’ said Joey. ‘Don’t now him.’
He began to take the money out of the box and pushed it into the pockets of his coat.
‘Yes, you do! You live in his house,’ Goldman said. ‘Albert told me about you. You’re—‘
‘Be quiet!’ Joey said. ‘All right, so you know me. But nobody’s going to find me.’ He laughed. ‘I can get a long way away with this money.’
All the money from Goldman’s box was now in Joey’s pockets. He gave Goldman a little push. ‘Now, get back in your bedroom and stay there.’
He pushed him again. ‘Go on! Get moving!’
The old man began to walk across the room with the oil lamp. Suddenly, he turned and hit Joey on the head with the lamp.
‘Aaagh!’ cried Joey.
The lamp broke and fell on the floor, next to the papers from the cupboard. The oil from the lamp ran across the floor, carrying the flames to the papers.
Goldman tried to run into the shop but Joey jumped on him and the two of them fell to the floor. The old man’s head hit the wall. After that, hi did not move.
Joey heard the noise of the flames before he saw them. He looked behind him. The flames were big, and were already halfway up the legs of table.
Joey jumped to his feet and ran through the shop. He found his bag by the front door, went out into the street and began to run again. At the end of the street, he stopped and looked back.
There were now flames in the shop window, and black smoke came from the shop door. He thought about the old man on the floor in the back room – but only for a second.
Then he turned and ran again.
Two days later, on Wednesday 10th April, 1912, Joey was in Southampton, with thousands of other people. They came to see the new ship there – the biggest and fastest ship in the world. It was the day of its first voyage across Atlantic to New York, carrying more than two thousand people.
Some of the people in Southampton that day were the ship’s passengers. Some of them just came to looked at the wonderful new ship.
And there it was! Joey was a happy young man. He was a passenger, with a ticket in his pocket – a ticket to New York! Life was good, he thought.
‘Joey’s lucky got me the money for my ticket!’ he said, laughing. ‘And
Joey’s luck is taking me to America. This is the end of my life!’
On the first page of The Daily Mirror: Late in the night of 14th April the Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic. It sank quickly, and by the next day the ship was under the sea. Hundreds of people are dead or missing.......
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