A loud bang made her jump and at first she wasn’t sure if it had come from the front of the Mission where the hall and the vestry flat opened onto Viaduct Street, or from the side alley that backed onto Hardcastle’s old mill, which was now Elliston’s factory. The curtains were still open and she peered out of the front window. Dusk was beginning to fall and she didn’t see anyone. Then there was another loud bang that felt close to her face and she hopped backwards as she saw the shape of a fist hammering on the glass. It gave her the fright of her life. She still couldn’t see a face and her heart was pounding as a man’s voice shouted at her to close the curtains immediately or she would be reported for failing to keep the blackout. She quickly drew them together and had to wait for her breathing to calm down and her hands to stop trembling before she turned out the lights and opened the side door of the vestry. She slid cautiously out into the alley. Her eyes strained in the descending dark but she still couldn’t see anything and walked forward a few steps until she heard strange noises coming from somewhere ahead.
Vera stood rooted to the spot, not sure what to make of the soft moans and heavy breathing followed by the occasional grunt that floated towards her on the evening air. She saw a young girl somehow entangled with a young lad, but she couldn’t make out their faces and she didn’t know what on earth was going on. The girl’s long fair hair had fanned out as she was being pressed up against the wall by the boy, who seemed to have his trousers gathered round his ankles. Her first impression was that it looked like a scene from a Laurel and Hardy film and she wanted to laugh and call out, ‘This is another fine mess you’ve got me in.’ But then she remembered the things she’d seen some of the young girls and the soldiers doing in the murky shadows on the night of the dance and, as another thought struck her, Vera took a step backwards, involuntarily shrieking, ‘Oh my goodness!’ and ran back towards the door.
As she did so, she thought she heard Lily’s voice shout, ‘What the hell …?’ and became aware of the pounding footsteps of someone following her down the alley. Before Vera could do anything, the figure behind her bundled her through the side entrance and into the vestry. Vera made a startled noise and turned as quickly as she could to slam the door and shoot the bolt. But it was too late. She came face to face with Lily, who was hastily buttoning her blouse and tucking it back into her skirt.
‘Who on earth was that? What’s going on?’ Vera sounded worried. ‘He’s not going to follow you in here, is he?’ Her voice expressed genuine concern.
Lily gave a rueful laugh, a resigned look on her face. ‘I shouldn’t think so, not after being so rudely interrupted, so you can calm down. He’s probably running as fast as he can right now in the opposite direction.’ She put her hands on Vera’s shoulders, alarmed that the older girl looked so distressed. ‘What did you see that’s upset you so much?’
Vera put her hands up to her face and shook her head. ‘Nothing!’ she said emphatically. ‘I didn’t see nothing.’
‘Well, that’s all right, then.’ Lily stepped closer to Vera and gently pulled her hands away from her face. ‘And I hope it will stay that way. You must promise to say nothing to my mam, or to yours if it comes to that, about … whatever it was that you didn’t see. You won’t say anything, will you?’ she repeated, sounding suddenly anxious.
‘Cross my heart and hope to die – but how can I say owt about summat I didn’t see?’ Vera sounded genuinely puzzled.
Lily grinned.
‘I don’t understand what the problem is,’ Vera said.
‘The problem is that I told my mam that I was going to see Peter tonight before I came here. She likes Peter.’
‘And wasn’t that Peter?’ Vera asked innocently.
‘No, it wasn’t.’
‘Who is this Peter anyway?’
‘Pete Mason, the boy she thinks I’m stepping out with.’
‘And aren’t you?’ Vera looked confused.
Lily tilted her head first to one side and then to the other. ‘It’s hard to explain. I know you’re 22, five years older than me, but you’ve never really courted anyone have you?’ Lily said, not unkindly.
Vera shook her head. ‘No, not yet.’
‘The thing is, sometimes I think we are together and sometimes we’re not. It might not be easy for you to understand. I do see him occasionally to please my mam because for some reason she trusts him and she doesn’t mind me being with him.’
‘But you don’t like this Peter?’
‘It’s not that I don’t like him, it’s just that … well, honestly, he’s dull as dishwater.’
‘Can’t you tell your mam that?’
Lily laughed. ‘I’ve tried but she won’t listen. I said to her once, “Why don’t you go out with him if you think he’s so great?”’
Vera snorted with laughter. ‘You never!’
‘Honest to God, I did, though she didn’t think it was funny and she went on and on about Peter, like he’s the best boy in town and I should be grateful he even looks at me. I don’t know what she’d say if she knew about Johnny.’
‘So is Johnny the one who …?’
‘Yes,’ Lily said quickly. ‘He’s the one you didn’t see.’ She giggled.
‘And why does your mam not like him?’
‘She’s never met him, but she knows his mother and his grandmother and you should hear how she slags them off. She says he’s not fit to shine my shoes.’
Vera shrugged. ‘Sticks and stones …’ she said.
‘You what?’
‘You know, “sticks and stones can break my bones but names can never hurt me”. That’s what my mam taught me to say when the kids at school got nasty.’
‘Yes, well, but we’re not at school any more, are we?’ Lily was somewhat exasperated. ‘I like to think I’ve grown out of all that,’ she said, trying not to sound superior.
‘What’s his other name, this Johnny?’ Vera asked.
‘Why do you want to know?’ Lily frowned.
‘Because then it’ll be a proper secret.’
Lily rolled her eyes.
‘But I promise I’ll not tell a soul,’ Vera said earnestly.
Lily sighed. ‘It’s Johnny Bradwell, if you must know. He lives at the other end of Viaduct Street. Satisfied?’
Vera nodded.
‘But now you’ve really got to promise me you won’t tell,’ Lily said. ‘If my mam hears that I’ve been stepping out with one of the Bradwells she’ll go spare. Promise me, Vera, that you won’t say owt.’
‘Course I won’t. I’ve said so, haven’t I? I’ll swear to that on the Holy Bible if you want, there’s plenty of them lying about.’ She made a move towards a tattered book stuffed into the corner of the pew bench that took up a quarter of the kitchen.
Lily couldn’t help laughing. ‘Na, there’s really no need for that. I trust you.’
‘I’m glad about that.’ Vera sounded relieved. ‘Do you want some coffee? My mam left some water boiling, though there’s no milk.’
Vera made the ersatz coffee from the bottle of Camp that was standing on the table. Most people grumbled that Camp was nothing like coffee, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, she thought. She glanced up when Lily went to take a look in the mirror and watched as the younger girl began to comb out her tangled blonde curls, winding them round her fingers into sausage-shaped rolls and pinning them back from her face with giant kirby grips. She had a pretty, oval-shaped face which, for a moment, looked clownish as she dabbed some lipstick from her handbag onto her high cheekbones, but she blended the redness into her pale skin as if it were rouge. She then drew the bright red stick across her lips making them suddenly as crimson as the Mission doorstep and it was as if her whole face came alive.
‘Can I have some of that?’ Vera asked.
Lily shook her head. ‘Best not right now. You don’t want your mam stopping me from coming here, do you? Though I promise you can have some if we go out anywhere.’
‘Did you know that Elsie T
anner gave me some lipstick to put on when we went to the dance?’ Vera said proudly, rubbing her lips with her finger. ‘But it had all come off by the time I got home so Mam never knew.’
Lily laughed. ‘Just as well. She’d have had your guts for garters if she’d have caught you. No doubt she’d have said it was the work of the devil.’
‘The devil? You mean Elsie Tanner? They’re all the same in Mam’s book,’ Vera said, and they both chuckled. Vera waited until they had settled on the couch before she asked, ‘Are you going to marry this Johnny?’
Lily spluttered, spraying the hot liquid she’d been sipping across the stone floor. ‘Marry him? Good gracious, we’re a long ways off thinking about things like that. It was only a bit of slap and tickle out there. Nothing more serious than that.’
‘Then why would your mam be so upset if she knew about it?’
‘Because she’d assume it was more serious than it really was. She forgets what she got up to when she was my age. Though as I say, I don’t think she’d mind so much if it had been Peter Mason out there.’
‘Would she really want you to get married now?’ Vera asked.
Lily shrugged. ‘I think if I told her Peter and I were seriously courting she’d have me down that church before any of us could say Jack Robinson.’
‘Really?’ Vera was surprised. ‘Why does she want you to get married so quick?’ She sounded perplexed. ‘You’re not even as old as me and I’d have thought she’d be pleased you were popular and had lots of boyfriends, right now.’
‘My mam doesn’t think like that. She doesn’t mind me going out and having a bit of fun, but she’s not happy with me going out with a load of different lads. She’s of a mind that only marriage can keep me out of harm’s way, if you know what I mean.’
Vera began to shake her head, so Lily added, ‘Put it this way, she doesn’t want me getting up the duff before I’ve had a chance to say “I do”.’
Vera frowned. ‘I thought you had to be married before you could actually have a baby?’ Vera had been trying to piece together things she had overheard the girls at work giggling about and she’d thought she understood, but now she wasn’t so sure.
‘I’m afraid it’s not that simple.’ Lily couldn’t believe Vera’s ignorance. She felt embarrassed having to explain to her things she and her friends had taken for granted. ‘Once you’ve started – you know, once you’re getting your monthlies,’ Lily began, ‘you can have a baby any time if you’re fooling around with a bloke; if you’re unlucky, that is, and can’t get him to marry you in time.’ Lily was doing her best. ‘I’m surprised your mam’s not told you about that,’ she said.
‘I have tried to ask her but she’s always putting me off. She says she’ll tell me some other time and then she never does.’
‘You need to be careful is what I’m saying. Don’t let him go too far. You don’t want to get caught out getting pregnant before you get wed.’
‘And you get pregnant by sleeping in the same bed with your husband?’ Vera asked innocently.
‘Well … yes, basically.’ Lily felt a little flustered. ‘Though he doesn’t have to be your husband, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. And you don’t actually have to be in bed.’
Vera suddenly giggled and Lily was thankful because it relieved the tension. ‘You mean you could be in an alley?’ Vera asked for it was as if the light had suddenly dawned.
Lily let out a sigh of relief and hoped she wouldn’t have to go into any more details. ‘You could be in an alley,’ she agreed. ‘And that’s when you don’t tell your mother about what you’ve been up to. But I’ll tell you something for nothing, Vera, I’m not in any rush to get married. That hanky-panky is not all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, it can be a right pain.’
‘It sounded as though it was painful,’ Vera said innocently. ‘And is that what you have to do when you’re married?’
Lily nodded, trying not to show her impatience.
‘Is that what makes babies?’ Vera asked. Lily nodded again and Vera thought she finally understood.
‘And was it not fun?’
‘It was a bit of both, if I’m honest. But my argument is: if I don’t try it out with more than one boy before I get married, how can I be sure I’ll be marrying the right one?’
‘The one you really love, you mean?’
‘Aye. Otherwise you could get stuck for life with someone you don’t even like and believe me that can be dreadful. You only have to look at my mam and dad.’ Lily saw a surprised look cross Vera’s face, so she smiled and said, ‘But the thing I’m saying is: I don’t need my mother to know every time I want to try someone out.’
‘I wonder how many my mam tried out before she got wed?’ Vera said suddenly.
‘I don’t know and I don’t suggest you ask her.’ Lily giggled. ‘But I do know that before I get married I intend to try out a lot more than one.’
Vera frowned. ‘But my mam says that going with lots of men means you’re dirty; like Elsie Tanner. Only I don’t think she’s dirty. I think she’s nice,’ she added with a wistful look.
‘Our mams don’t always think like we do,’ Lily said, ‘and my dad certainly doesn’t, so sometimes we have to do what we think is right, whether they agree or not.’
‘Do you think you’d be rowing all the time if you married Johnny?’ Vera asked.
‘I can’t rightly say. I don’t hardly know him.’ Lily sat back and sipped what remained of her cup of Camp coffee though it was cold by now.
‘That’s funny. It looked like you did, from what you were doing in the alley,’ Vera said innocently.
‘I thought you didn’t see anything?’ Lily turned on her in a flash.
‘No, I didn’t. Not really,’ Vera responded quickly. ‘I just meant—’
‘Well, anyway, whatever you think you saw, it was all sort of … Well, I was just trying to get to know him a bit better.’ Lily did her best to sound dismissive.
They sat in silence for a few moments then Vera said, ‘I’ve decided I’m going to marry Bob.’
‘Who’s Bob?’ Lily said, surprised.
‘Bob Lomax. You know, the maintenance man I told you about. He found me downstairs at work by the toilets that day I wasn’t feeling so good at the factory when there’d been all that fuss between my mam and Elsie Tanner. Dead nice, he was.’ Her voice sounded dreamlike. ‘He waited until I was ready and then shone his torch all the way up the stairs.’
‘Oh yes, I remember. He certainly sounded very decent. But to think of marrying him, isn’t that being a bit hasty?’
‘No more hasty than my mam thinking she can marry me off to Eric Bowman.’
‘You what? Whoa! Hang on a minute, who’s he when he’s at home? And how come you’ve never mentioned him before?’
Vera shrugged. ‘Eric Rag-and-bone-man, I call him,’ she said miserably, her eyes suddenly brimming.
Lily stared at her in astonishment. ‘You’ve never mentioned him before. Where’s he suddenly sprung from, then?’
‘I’ve been wanting to tell you ever since my mam decided to fix me up with a husband, but I can’t bear to talk about him. I feel too embarrassed even to think about him.’ Vera lifted her shoulders than slumped back against the lumpy cushions on the couch. ‘I was in the same class at school with him for a bit and Mam kept saying how she’d do anything to stop Elsie Tanner from leading me astray and then suddenly she’s dragging me off to the Rag-and-Bones’ house, saying we’d been asked to tea. Ha! Hot water and wafer biscuits more like, with him and his mam and his dad, though he never said owt all afternoon.’
‘And what did the rest of you talk about?’ Lily asked.
‘I didn’t say anything. They talked about Eric and me going off to the pictures together, getting to know each other,’ Vera said miserably.
‘And Eric? Did he really not say anything?’
Vera shook her head. ‘Hardly a word, just kept sniffing his horrible runny nose. And all the way
home Mam kept talking about how he’d be just right for me.’ Vera swiped at her eyes angrily with the back of her hand as the tears began to fall.
‘And I presume you haven’t been out with him?’ Lily asked.
Vera shuddered. ‘No, I have not.’ She was quite emphatic. ‘And I never will.’
‘Why? What’s he like?’ Lily said.
‘You must have seen him,’ Vera said. ‘He comes to Coronation Street most weeks with his dad, with the rag-and-bone cart. He’s dead skinny, with a nose like a bird that leaks like a tap and oh, he’s horrible! He looks like rags and bones himself. Mam seems to think they’re a decent churchgoing family and that’s all she cares about. But I won’t marry him, no matter what she says,’ she said defiantly. She began to sob.
‘I suppose your mam wants you to get married so that you can’t get caught having babies without being wed, like we were talking about before,’ Lily said.
Vera sat up suddenly, a determined look on her face. ‘I don’t care. I’ll choose my own husband, thank you very much, no matter what my mam says.’ Her voice was strong again. ‘And now that I’ve met Bob, that settles it. It’ll be like it is in the films.’ She put her hand up to her hair and patted it as though she was striking a pose.
‘I suppose marrying Bob would be one way to get you out of being trapped into something with this awful-sounding Eric bloke, but it would be a good idea to get to know Bob a bit better before you go making any announcements, don’t you think?’
‘Why, when I’m sure he’s the one?’
‘That’s as maybe, but are you sure he wants to marry you? You don’t want any let-downs later. And once you’re married you’d be stuck. Wouldn’t you like to have some fun first? You know, like you did that night at the dance?’
Vera suddenly looked frightened and her neck and cheeks went pink. ‘I didn’t do anything wrong, did I? What would my ma—’
Wartime on Coronation Street Page 4
