Chocolate Girls (7 page)

The potatoes must be ready by now. She pulled herself out of the chair, poked them with a fork and turned off the gas. Going to the window, she looked out between the criss-crosses of anti-blast tape.

‘Nowt to see out there,’ she said. ‘Black as a bear’s backside.’ She pulled the blackout curtains, shutting out the night, and lit the gas mantle. As she did so she heard the door open downstairs and smiled. Here he was, just in time! They could have their tea and turn in early, cuddle up in bed together. She turned to the door, smiling as he came up the stairs.

‘’Allo love,’ she called as he came in. Water was dripping from his cap and his face and overcoat shone with it.

‘It’s coming down in torrents out there,’ he said, stripping off his outdoor clothes.

‘’Ere.’ She handed him a strip of rag. ‘Dry yer face and give us a kiss. I’ve made us a nice stew for tea.’

‘Smashing.’ He obliged with the kiss. His cheeks were cold and damp. ‘Smells good. But before we ’ave our tea, Ede, I’ve got summat to tell yer.’

Edie looked up at him anxiously. His face and tone were solemn.

‘What, Jack? You’ve not lost that job, have you?’

‘No – not exactly. Look, sit down, eh?’

She sank into the armchair. Another, much more alarming thought struck her.

‘You’ve not been called up? They can’t’ve done yet, surely – you’re a married man . . .?’ Her mind was awhirl with worries.

‘No – they ain’t called me up.’ He stood over her, seeming so tall. ‘I went in today and volunteered.’

‘You! What d’you mean, you volunteered? For . . .?’

Jack nodded. ‘The RAF. I’ve volunteered to train as a flyer.’ He held up his hand to silence her outburst of objection. ‘Thing is, love, you know Frank’s had the call-up. And a couple of other lads from the dairy, and Lol and Patsy.’ Of all Jack’s pals, he was the first to marry. All the others were footloose, if not fancy free. ‘They’ll call me up in the end. I want to go now, with the blokes I know.’

‘But Jack,’ Edie felt herself becoming tearful. She was terribly hurt that he had volunteered to go away and leave her, just when she felt so safe and happy. That was far worse than getting the call-up! ‘We’ve got the babby on the way. Your pals ain’t got families and responsibilities like you have. You could get a reserve job – in a factory. You might never have to go. Oh Jack, please don’t go away and leave me on my own ’ere!’ She broke down.

Jack gave a heavy sigh. Guiltily he squatted down and put his arm round her shoulders. ‘I’m sorry, love, but it’s too late. My name’s already down, this afternoon. It’s not that I want to leave you, Ede, and I know it’s a bad time. But you’ve got Ruby, and yer mom.’

‘Mom!’ Edie exploded. ‘What the hell good’s
she
ever been to me?’

‘It’s just,’ Jack continued, ‘they say it’s not going to last all that long. And when they’re all chewing over their exploits after it’s over, I don’t want to be the only bloke left on the sidelines.’

The days before Jack was due to leave for training went terribly quickly, and there was little pleasure in them for Edie because she was so desolate about him going. On the last evening, he and Frank wanted to go out for a farewell session in the pub.

‘Anyone’d think they were never going to see another drink again in their lives, the way they’re carrying on,’ Edie grumbled to Ruby, watching the little knot of lads walk away along the Bristol Road, in high spirits and full of bravado.

‘Come on, eh? Come round ours for a bit. They won’t be late. Frank said ’e’d get everyone out by ten.’

‘Huh,’ Edie said. ‘I’ll believe that when I see it.’

Nervously, Edie went home with Ruby, but she was relieved to find Mrs Bonner moving slowly round the back room, gathering the plates up from tea to wash up and shooing Billy and Alf from the table. Perce, who was fourteen and had just started work, was round at a pal’s house. George, who was helping clear up, smiled at her. There was washing dangling from the backs of the chairs and from a string across one corner of the room.

Mrs Bonner was wearing a voluminous cream frock dotted with big red poppies and flat shoes so worn out that their sides had collapsed and she was forced to slop along in them to keep them on. She had a bad cough, which doubled her up, her chest rattling.

‘Awright Edie?’ she said. ‘Ain’t seen you for a long time. How’re you getting along? Keeping well?’

‘I’m awright ta, Mrs Bonner,’ Edie said, trying not to wrinkle her nose at the smell of the house. Ethel had never been the most attentive housewife at the best of times. ‘And yourself?’

‘Oh, going along,’ Ethel Bonner said. ‘Not so bad.’ But there was a dull listlessness about her speech which wrung Edie’s heart. She’d had the stuffing properly knocked out of her and it was terrible to see. Her skin was bloated and spongey and her hair had a sickly yellowish tinge to it from her smoking.

‘Rube, can you get Alf up to bed?’ Ethel said. Ruby didn’t need telling. She was usually the one in charge anyway. ‘Let’s put the kettle on and you and Ruby can have a chinwag. It’s nice to have some company in the ’ouse. Your Jack’s on his way tomorrow with Frank, is ’e?’

‘Yes,’ Edie said, a surge of pride mixed with her anguish that Jack was leaving her behind. ‘Out for their last night on the tiles.’

‘Terrible, them lads ’aving to go back into all this again. Criminal I call it . . .’ The cough cut her off again.

‘I’ve told Frank to bring ’im back in good time,’ Ruby shouted from the stairs as she shooed little Alf up to bed.

‘On a lead!’ Edie found herself laughing in spite of her misery.

Even Ethel Bonner gave a chesty chuckle. ‘That’s where yer want to keep ’em, bab, take my word for it!’

Once Alf was bedded down and the clearing up done, they settled in the back room, Mrs Bonner in her sagging chair, lighting up a cigarette. Billy, who was nine, was absorbed at the table with the
Sports Argus
, copying out football scores. Ruby and Edie sat either side of him, the big brown teapot between them. Edie thought sadly of the long silent piano in the front room.

Ethel went to the sideboard and brought out a bottle of Gordon’s. ‘Just have a tot to go with my tea,’ she said apologetically.

‘Go easy with it, Mom, please,’ Ruby said, pouring out tea into the family’s motley collection of chipped cups. ‘Frank’s got summat to say to yer tonight.’

Edie looked closely at her, hearing the urgency in her voice. She looked questioningly at Ruby, and saw the excitement in her eyes. She had a glow about her. Were she and Frank going to announce that they were to marry as well? Edie wondered, hoping that was the case. If only they’d met and married earlier, she thought, then Frank wouldn’t have been called up either, and probably Jack wouldn’t be leaving tonight . . . But it was no good thinking like that. She realized Mrs Bonner was saying something to her.

‘I said ’ow’s yer mother?’ She repeated. ‘I ain’t seen ’er in months.’

‘Oh, awright,’ Edie said. She and Jack had called in earlier. It was the first time Nellie had heard that Jack had volunteered. She looked at Edie stony-faced and said, ‘Well, you needn’t think yer coming back ’ere, yer know.’

‘What makes yer think I’d want to?’ Edie snapped, but the bitter words sunk deep into her. She was very anxious about how she was going to cope on her own when the baby arrived. No help from this quarter though, obviously. She’d told Ruby what her mom had said.

‘Don’t you get all in a state. I’ll ’elp yer, Edie, any way I can, you know that.’

‘You’ve got enough on yer plate already, Rube,’ Edie said gloomily. ‘Without adding me to the pile.’

‘Don’t talk daft.’ Ruby flung her arm round Edie’s shoulders. ‘You’re me best pal. You’ll never be on yer own with me around – there’s a threat, eh!’

Edie knew that despite Ruby’s kind words she wouldn’t be able to help much. She couldn’t help worrying. If only there was someone she could really turn to and rely on!

They sat drinking their tea in silence for a while. The broken clock watched silently from the mantle and Billy Bonner put his head down on his scrap of paper, eyes closing. Ruby sent him off to bed. Mrs Bonner finished her tipple and dozed by the fire. Edie looked at her, trying to imagine the young woman she had once been, when she’d looked very like Ruby. Edie laid her hand over her stomach. The sight of Mrs Bonner and the thought of Jack going in the morning made her feel so emotional she felt a lump rise in her throat and she tried to snap out of it and talk to Ruby and George.

‘Wonder what they’ll be doing in that camp when they get there,’ she said, doing her best to sound bright and cheerful. She was sure Ruby’s mind was running ahead with Frank and Jack the way hers was.

‘Must ’ave to learn everything there is to know about planes and that,’ Ruby said. ‘Another drop?’ She topped up Edie’s cup.

‘Jack doesn’t know one end of a plane from another,’ Edie grinned. ‘Can’t imagine why they took him on. ’E’s just as likely to sit on the tail bit and fly it backwards!’

That set the two of them off, thinking of more and more ridiculous exploits their beloved fellers might get up to. ‘Heaven help the RAF when those two nutcases arrive,’ Ruby laughed. ‘They won’t know what’s flippin’ hit ’em!’

‘You sorry you’re not going, George?’ Edie asked him.

George considered the question in his usual quiet way. ‘No,’ he said eventually. ‘It don’t appeal to me, fighting, like. And anyroad, I wouldn’t want to leave Rube to ’ave to cope ’ere on ’er own.’

‘He’s a home-boy, our George,’ Ruby said fondly. ‘Anyway – ’e ain’t eighteen ’til January. I s’pect Cad-bury’s’ll find plenty to keep ’im busy.’

They talked on in a desultory way and Mrs Bonner continued to snooze. Edie felt more and more uneasy. She’d lost track of time and it felt very late. She found herself listening out now, for the sound of the men coming back, but another half-hour passed and still there was no sign of them. She started to feel very tense with anger and a sense of rejection. Jack ought to want to be with her tonight!

‘Oh, this is the limit!’ she burst out eventually, unable to contain her feelings. ‘They’re the bleeding end, the pair of ’em! They’re going off tomorrow for God knows how long and they can’t even get themselves out of the pub in time for this once. I could crown Jack when ’e goes on like this, that I could.’

Ruby was looking strained as well. She wanted to break the news to her mom that she and Frank were planning to get engaged, but her mom was fast asleep and it felt as if the moment had passed.

When they could stand sitting waiting no longer, Edie and Ruby both went back and forth to the front door to look out and see if there was any sign of them. It was pitch black and they had to close the front door behind them so as not to show a light. Each time, the street was deserted. Mr Vintner next door had long ago been wheeled back inside.

‘Oh, blast them!’ Ruby said. ‘Where the hell are they? I don’t even know which pub they was going to.’

‘All of them, knowing them,’ Edie said.

Ruby went out again a bit later, pulled the door closed behind her and stood listening. A sound at the bottom of the street caught her attention. Footsteps!

‘Edie.’ She stuck her head in through the door. ‘I bet that’s them!’

They waited on the step, suddenly lighthearted.

‘What time d’yer call this?’ Ruby called down Glover Street.

Edie shushed her, giggling.

But there was only one set of footsteps hurrying towards them. Frank emerged through the gloom.

‘Awright,’ Edie laughed. ‘What’ve yer done with ’im? Don’t tell us ’e’s too far gone to walk home?’

Slowly Frank came in through the gate, and then, in the dim light from the door, they caught sight of his face.

All Frank could say was, ‘Oh God, Edie, I’m sorry. Oh Edie . . .’ Over and over again.

Somehow they all got inside. Edie was shaking so much that Ruby had to catch her before she fell to the floor and sit her down at the table.

Mrs Bonner woke with a start. ‘Wha—?’ She struggled to sit upright. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Tell me!’ Edie cried. ‘Frank, tell me what’s happened. Where’s Jack? Oh, don’t look at me like that!’ She flung her arm across her eyes to shield herself from the expression in his. His face seemed sucked in on itself, gaunt as a greyhound’s.

‘Summat terrible’s happened . . .’ Words choked out of him.

‘He’s not dead . . . Jack’s not dead, is he?’

There was an awful silence. Edie slowly brought her arm back down and there was no escaping Frank’s look now, the ghastly whiteness, shadows under his eyes as if he’d been punched.

‘He can’t be,’ she whispered. ‘Are you sure?’ But she could see from the expression in his eyes that it was true. ‘How can ’e be dead? He was with you – he was . . .’ She ran out of words. Full of life, he’d been. Going off with his pals in the prime of life!

‘Oh,’ she kept hearing herself saying. ‘Oh no, what’ve you
done
to him? Where is he?’ And those wailing noises must be coming out of her and she had no control over them! She heard Ruby say, ‘She’s gone as white as a sheet – oh Lor’, I ’ope this don’t bring the babby on . . .’

Edie felt herself jerking about, her hands moving convulsively in her lap. Then her whole body rebelled.