Weekly Writing Challenge - A picture is worth 1,000 words

‘Smiley’ Barrow and the children

I know this street. I know these people. My grandmother used to live around the corner from them when she was a kid.

The man’s name is Clyde (Smiley) Barrow. His son (Clyde junior) was in my grandmother’s class at school. The girl was an orphan, adopted by the family twelve months before this photo was taken. Her name was Bonnie and both her parents (the Parkers) died in tragic circumstances.

This photo was taken the day of Smiley’s wife’s funeral. Her name was Nelly and my grandmother told me she was a boisterous woman. She worked as a cleaner and part-time seamstress. She and the kids were always beautifully dressed.

Grandmother said Nelly had died after falling from the second floor window of the family apartment. Apparently she was cleaning the curtains. No one believed it was an accident. They thought she had been pushed. Word on the street was that Nelly had found out about Smiley’s dealings with the mafia and she was going to ‘squeal’ as they used to say back then.

Twelve months after Nelly’s death, Smiley accidently shot himself in the head while he was cleaning his revolver. Was it suicide, an accident or a hit? That was the question passed with the collection plate at the funeral.

The kids were then taken in by Smiley’s spinster sister, Petunia. She was a sour woman who lived on cigarettes, gossip and sherry. A year later, Petunia died in a house fire believed to be started when she lit a cigarette after imbibing too much sherry. My grandmother said the children escaped the fire before it took hold. They were smiling – happy to be alive, she guessed.

After Petunia’s death, the children went to live with Smiley’s older brother, Horus. Horus was a wealthy bachelor who lived in a castle in Scotland. The kids were only with Horus for two years when he lost his footing at the top of a long spiral staircase and fell to his death. Such a tragedy!

After that Bonnie and Clyde were sent to live in America with Smiley’s only surviving brother, Pete.

My grandmother would often shake her head and say, ‘I wonder whatever happened to those lovely children.’

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The above is a work of fiction for the weekly writing challenge. It’s a lot of fun! To join in or see how other bloggers interpret the challenge you can find out more here.