Parallel: From Another World [1] (The Parallel Series) ✓

The Idiot's Lantern - Two

"What the blazes do you think you're doing?" Mr Connolly looked at the boy angrily.

Tommy was backed up against the door frame intimidated by his own father. "I want to help, dad."

"Mister Connolly" the Doctor started to speak by was interrupted by the sudden snap of the man's neck, pointing and shouting in his face.

"Shut your face, you, whoever you are. We can handle this ourselves." He narrowed his eyes at the Doctor then turned to his son. "Listen, you little twerp." Rita went to launch for the man by the Doctor squeezed her hand telling her not to. "You're hardly out of the blooming' cradle, so I don't expect you to understand. But I've got a position to maintain. People round here respect me. It matters what people think." Mister Connolly spoke quietly through gritted teeth trying not to get everyone in the whole streets attention.

"Is that why you did it, dad?" Tommy asked finally understanding what his father had done.

Mister Connolly frowned not understanding what his son was talking about. "What do you mean? Did what?"

"You ratted on Gran. How else would the police know where to look, unless some coward told them?"

Mister Connolly's eyes burned with rage his fists clenched and he inched closer to the boy so he was looking down at him even more. "How dare you! Do you think I fought a war just so a mouthy little scum like you could call me a coward?"

"You don't get it, do you? You fought against fascism, remember? People telling you how to live, who you could be friends with, who you could fall in love with, who could live and who had to die. Don't you get it? You were fighting so that little twerps like me could do what we want, say what we want. Now you've become just like them. You've been informing on everyone, haven't you? Even Gran. All to protect your precious reputation."

Mrs Connolly stepped out of the hallway her face hurt and broken. "Eddie is that true?"

"I did it for us, Rita. She was filthy. A filthy, disgusting thing!" The Doctor and the brunette beside him gritted their teeth clenching their jaws in anger. Is this what he thought about everyone that this happened to? Filthy disgusting things?

"She's my mother. All the others you informed on, all the people in our street, our friends." Mrs Connolly's voice cracked a little.

"I had to." He protested. "I, I did the right thing." He pleaded for understanding, Mrs Connolly heard enough.

"The right thing for us or for you, Eddie?" Mrs Connolly looked at her son. "You go, Tommy. Go with the Doctor and Miss Stone and do some good. Get away from this house, it's poison. We had a ruddy monster under this roof, all right, but it weren't my mother!" She stepped back and slammed the door on Mister Connolly who proceeded to shout his wife's name.

"Tommy?" The Doctor looked at the boy. They started to walk down the street. People were beginning to bring tables, chairs and food out for the street party later on. "Tommy, tell me about that night. The night she changed."

"She was just watching the telly," Tommy told him. 

The Doctor looked up. then mumbled. "Rose said it. She guessed it straight away. Of course, she did. All these aerials in one little street." He looked at Tommy again. "How come?"