A Christmas to Remember

by Katie Flynn

  ‘Have you told Gran about the cat?’ Tess began rather breathlessly, for she had run all the way from the bus stop. ‘Before I went to bed last night I filled the big baking tray with earth because I didn’t want any accidents, and believe it or not the little darling had used the earth during the night, and scraped it up into a sort of mountain so I could see she had performed.’

  ‘Cat?’ Gran said. She sounded bewildered. ‘What cat? Tess, you’re talking in riddles; let me have the story in plain English, if you please.’

  Nothing loath, Tess began with great verve to recount the happenings of the previous evening from the very beginning – in fact from when Albert had believed that the yowling sounds were coming from her wireless set – right through to the moment when he had suggested that she should open a pet shop. Gran was about to say that she could scarcely do so with only four kittens to sell when Tess interrupted. ‘You think he was joking, don’t you, Gran? Well, he might have been, but the idea was a good one; still is a good one. The landlord isn’t asking much rent and the premises are ideal; what’s more, it means we could stay in the flat and wouldn’t have to keep on searching for somewhere else to live. And Gran, if there’s one thing I do know about, it’s animals. I’ve not jumped the gun and gone to the authorities, or to Mr Egbert for that matter, because I wanted to make sure you approved. You could do the books, Gran, order up supplies on the telephone, including our stock, which would be small animals – lots of rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters . . . that sort of thing – goldfish, those little tiny water tortoises – I can’t think what they’re called . . .’

  ‘You mean terrapins,’ Albert put in. ‘But it might not be a good idea to start off with them because I imagine they’re quite expensive. Begin with the more conventional pet shop animals . . .’

  ‘Oh yes, of course, and I forgot chickens,’ Tess said. ‘They’re really important because before the war everyone kept a few hens in their back yard, and most folk would like to do so again. But there are snags . . .’

  She went on to explain to her grandmother how folk would buy day-old chicks and then, lacking the necessary knowledge, would feed them inappropriately, or expect them to live outside in a freezing winter. ‘A simple light bulb, if you’re on the electric, and a woollen tea cosy would be enough to save their little lives,’ she said, ‘and the right food is terribly important when animals and birds are tiny. But that’s all in the future, once we’ve got our shop. Oh, Gran, you haven’t said much. What do you really think? I can go to the authorities first thing on Monday morning and ask what sort of permission we shall need for Change of Use . . . What’s the matter, Gran?’ For Edie was slowly shaking her head.

  ‘My dear Tess, you really must think; more haste less speed, you know,’ Gran said. ‘I understand why you want to get things moving, but no landlord worth his salt is going to let a girl of your age rent his property. Everything will have to be done in my name, and until I’m out of hospital and able to visit the planning authorities I’m afraid we shall have to play a waiting game.’

  Tess knew that her face had fallen, but she also knew that Gran was talking sense, so she smiled when Albert patted her shoulder. ‘I’ll do anything I can to help the pair of you, you know that,’ he said. ‘But Edie’s right, as always. However, I will talk to the landlord and sort out the rent for the flat and the shop together, because it would be too bad if someone else turned up and took over the property. What’s more, Mr Egbert is a sensible man, and knows probably better than most the importance of choosing a gap in the market for any new venture.’ He saw Tess raise her eyebrows, and explained: ‘There isn’t another pet shop for miles around, which means you won’t have aggressive competition trying to get rid of you by underpricing – meaning that if you have a rabbit for sale at five bob the competition would offer theirs for three and six. Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes, I do,’ Tess said thankfully. ‘What a lucky thing for us that you know all the tricks of the trade, Albert.’ She turned to Gran. ‘What do you think, Gran? Aside from having to wait, do you feel we could succeed with a pet shop? Farm dogs and cats are always having puppies and kittens, rabbits breed like billyo, and goldfish are ten a penny; look at the number they hand out as prizes on the hoopla stalls, and most of the poor little things die because the kids who win them don’t understand their needs. I mean to get hold of an old typewriter so I can type out lists of how to look after the animals, birds and fish we sell in our shop. Then I’ll Roneo the lists and put them in a pile on the counter.’

  Albert laughed. ‘Miss Williams, you think of everything,’ he said. He turned to Gran. ‘Isn’t she an example to us all, Edie? Yesterday morning the words “pet shop” weren’t in her vocabulary. Today she could run one unaided and make her fortune.’

  Chapter Ten

  IT TOOK TIME, as both Gran and Albert had said it would. Christmas passed and the New Year was well advanced before at last they were able to start preparing their new premises. Gran’s leg was still weak and she could only manage the stairs up to the flat provided someone walked behind her to steady her from step to step, but despite this Tess, impatient as always, wanted to start buying in her stock, for though the kittens were now young cats and had gone off to good homes, there were as yet no other creatures residing in what they had decided to call Tess’s Pets.

  But once again, wiser heads prevailed. Albert had had an excellent Christmas and willingly put money into the pet shop venture as well as doing a great deal of work on their business plan, but he pointed out that this was only possible because he closed his shop at two o’clock, since trade was always slow at this time of year.

  ‘And if you open now, with the weather so miserable and folk having overspent at Christmas, you’ll find you’ve got animals on your hands and no money to buy the necessary food,’ he said gently. He had been sanding down the long counter and now he stopped and leaned over to squeeze Tess’s shoulder. ‘Look out of the window, queen! That’ll tell you more than I can.’

  Tess looked and saw that, bundled up in warm clothing and bent double against the mixture of rain and sleet which was blowing into their faces, the few people on the pavement showed no inclination to linger, let alone window-shop.

  She sighed. ‘You’re right as always, Albert,’ she said resignedly. ‘What do you think about opening just before Easter? We could do a special offer on day-old chicks; give away a packet of chick food with every half dozen birds sold. And then there’s the Easter bunny . . . now what could we do to bring people flocking in to see the Easter bunny?’

  Gran had been sitting behind the counter in an old rocking chair which Albert had bought cheap at an auction, and now she laid her knitting down in her lap. She was doing it continental fashion with one needle tucked under her left arm, leaving her right hand to do all the work since her left was almost useless. She smiled at Tess.

  ‘A pet shop is wasted on you, or rather you are wasted on a pet shop; you should be running the country!’ she said. ‘Are you going to advertise? You could get a reporter from the Liverpool Echo to come and look at your stock and perhaps write a little article. If you open before Easter – just a few days before, mind – then they might give you space, because April is often what they call a slow news time.’

  ‘I’ll try that,’ Tess agreed. ‘But for now we’ll stock the shop with animal food, fish food and stuff for poultry. Then when Easter arrives all we’ll need will be the animals themselves.’ She grinned at Albert. ‘And thanks to your foresight, Albert, everything will be ready for the arrival of our pets.’

  The Friday before the shop was due to open Tess was hurrying home from her latest part-time job as a waitress in a small tea room on Church Street when Snowy galloped up beside her, a grin spreading over his face as he skidded to a halt. ‘Phew! You don’t half walk fast,’ he complained. ‘I saw you as I passed that big jeweller’s shop on the corner. Are you heading for a tram stop or shall I offer to carry your bag? Any news?’

  T
ess laughed. Snowy had finally settled on Liverpool University – or rather, Tess suspected, he had intended to take up a place there all along – and contrived to spend a good deal of time in the city with his friends. To Tess’s surprise he was fascinated by the pet shop, and when she and Gran had been searching for backers who might lend them money to start up he had contributed quite a respectable sum. Tess had been delighted at the time but could not help secretly wondering now whether she would be as pleased once the shop opened, for Snowy was full of ideas, some of them very wild, and when she had laughed him to scorn he had reminded her that he was a shareholder and ought to be treated with respect. But now she considered his question seriously. ‘Any news? What sort of news were you thinking of?’ she asked. ‘This is my last day working as a waitress because the first of the animals will be arriving on Monday and I’ll have my work cut out to get them all caged, penned or boxed by the time we open. From then on I’ll be rushed off my feet even if we don’t have a single customer, because animals aren’t like packets of cigarettes or bottles of beer; they need feeding and cleaning, giving fresh water . . . oh, no end of things. Albert will be back in his shop full time, and though Gran will take the money and give change she can’t do much else because the hospital have told her she must take it easy for another couple of months.’ She did not add, as she might have done, that Gran’s consultant had warned Tess that her grandmother might never have the full use of her left hand again.

  ‘She’s a very gallant lady, and I know she’ll do the exercises I have given her, but that will merely keep the limb supple. Already, though she never complains to you, she’s suffering from arthritis in her wrist and shoulder, so don’t let her push herself.’ He was a tall man, grey-haired and humorous, and he had smiled down at Tess. ‘Give her little jobs which she can do one-handed. She won’t be able to peel potatoes for a long time, but there are other tasks which will be well within her capabilities . . . oh, you will know much better than I what she can and can’t do after she’s been home for a few days.’

  But now Snowy took her hand and smiled affectionately down at her. ‘Well, I can see that once the animals arrive your life won’t be your own, so how about coming to the Grafton for a spot of the light fantastic tomorrow? I expect there’ll be a special dance over Easter, but by then you’ll be too exhausted to quickstep or foxtrot and will want to loll in a seat at the cinema watching some rubbishy picture, whereas I’ve been sitting in a lecture theatre all week and am simply longing to dance the night away.’

  ‘Oh, you!’ Tess said, poking him in the ribs. ‘When have you ever known me too tired to dance? Don’t you wish you could be in the shop when the animals and birds and things start to arrive though? Gran is worried that I’ve overstretched myself and too many will be coming in over the course of the next few days, but Miss Foulks’s stockroom is enormous and we can keep what you might call reserve animals in there until there’s space in the shop itself.’

  ‘Then you’ll come dancing? Jolly good,’ Snowy said. ‘Dancing helps one to relax, they say, and I do like my girlfriends to be relaxed. And as for missing out on your opening day, what nonsense! I shall be there with friends from university, all of whom are anxious to own a goldfish, or possibly a couple of day-old chicks. I’ve promised them special rates so one or two of them might even stretch to a rabbit . . .’

  Tess was beginning to say, repressively, that she did not think his fellow students were the right sort of people to own pets when she heard the tap-tap of high-heeled shoes on the paving stones and a breathless voice crying: ‘Wait for me, you two.’

  Tess and Snowy stopped in their tracks as an elegantly dressed blonde came to a halt beside them, her eyes fixed on Snowy. ‘Snowy White, I thought it were you!’ she said triumphantly. ‘Even from the back I knew you! Do you reckernise me? It’s been years.’

  Snowy had been staring hard, but suddenly he let go of Tess and shot his hand forward to take the other girl’s. ‘Well, I’m damned, if it isn’t Marilyn Thomas,’ he said. ‘What are you doing in this neck of the woods? The last time I was in your mam’s shop she told me you’d got work in the gowns department of a big London store . . . Harrods, was it?’ He grinned brilliantly at Marilyn. ‘Have they given you the big E already?’

  Marilyn sniffed and tossed her head. ‘I’ve gorra weekend off,’ she said. ‘Did my mam tell you I were a mannequin? I work in gowns, like she said, but I show clothes from eleven to twelve in the mornings and three to four in the afternoons. I get paid extra, ’cos they think a deal of me in gowns.’

  Tess shifted from foot to foot. Not once in this whole conversation had Marilyn so much as looked at her; how rude the older girl was, Tess thought, but even as she was considering strolling over to the nearest window and pretending to look inside, Snowy took her hand again. ‘Sorry, Tess, how rude of me,’ he said. ‘But of course you know Marilyn as well as I do, so there’s no need for introductions.’

  Marilyn sniggered. ‘Oh, so it’s you,’ she said offhandedly, glancing at Tess. She turned back to Snowy. ‘Where are you off to? Any chance of takin’ me dancin’ tomorrow? Or I wouldn’t mind goin’ to the flicks; there’s a good one on at the Plaza.’

  Snowy glanced quickly at Tess, then away again. ‘Tomorrow,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘I suppose . . . Tess, would you be a real sport and let me put off our date until after Easter? It seems an awful cheek to ask, but you and I can meet any time, whereas Marilyn here . . .’

  Tess felt outraged, but did not intend to show it. She said easily: ‘Yes, that’s fine by me. I’m awfully busy at the moment.’

  Marilyn tossed her head. ‘Oh, don’t worry! If you’re taking this – this person out then I suppose I can look up one of the guys.’ She smirked, glancing quickly at Tess, then away again. ‘They’re all dead keen on me, it’s just that I didn’t know I was going to be home this weekend so I couldn’t get in touch to tell them . . .’

  ‘. . . of the treat in store,’ Snowy said. He half turned to Tess, and she thought she saw his left eyelid flutter. And was there a touch of sarcasm in his tone? But if so Marilyn did not notice it and he turned back to her, smiling. ‘Right, then it’s all arranged,’ he said briskly. ‘I’ll pick you up at half-seven; be sure you are looking your best.’

  Marilyn gave him what she no doubt considered to be a brilliant smile, Tess thought cattily. ‘I always look my best,’ she said. ‘TTFN.’

  Snowy and Tess watched her clicking away, then Tess turned rather coldly to her companion. ‘TTFN,’ she said scornfully. ‘Have a nice evening, Snowy. See you around.’

  She was turning away when Snowy caught her arm. ‘Hang on a minute, where are you off to? What time shall we meet tomorrow? And we’ve not decided yet which ballroom to grace with our presence.’

  ‘If you think I’m making up a threesome . . .’ Tess said angrily. Snowy was shaking with silent laughter, but he sobered up when he read the annoyance in her face.

  ‘Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, what a little twerp you are, Miss Theresa Williams,’ he said, pulling her into the circle of his arm. ‘I wouldn’t do an ungentlemanly thing like cancelling our date just to pander to Marilyn’s perfectly enormous ego. I’m going to stand her up!’

  Tess’s eyes rounded. ‘Stand her up?’ she echoed. ‘But why on earth would you do a thing like that?’

  ‘Why not? It was what she did to me once, if you remember,’ Snowy said easily. ‘It’ll just be getting a bit of my own back. What’s wrong with that?’

  ‘But Snowy, that was years ago,’ Tess protested. ‘It’s a pretty mean thing to do, don’t you think?’

  Snowy grinned maliciously. ‘Marilyn is a conceited, selfish little bitch,’ he said. ‘She never thought of how you must feel, having your date snatched away from you. In fact she was pleased . . . No, don’t shake your head, you must have been able to read her expression as well as I could. For once in her life, Marilyn Thomas will be the one hanging around, all dressed up with nowhere to go.’ He grinned d
own at Tess and gave her a squeeze. ‘Honest to God, queen, she bloody well deserves a bit of a set-down, if only for what she put you through all those years ago.’

  Tess sighed, but in a way she could see Snowy’s point. Marilyn had tried to do a mean thing, and would be served out for it. For a moment though she contemplated going round to the Thomases’ corner shop and warning Marilyn that her escort had other plans, but Snowy must have read something of this intention in her expression because he shook an admonitory finger. ‘No you don’t; just you mind your own perishin’ business, Tess Williams,’ he said, and Tess could hear the laughter in his voice. ‘It’ll do bloody Marilyn good to be taken down a peg. If it hurts your delicate conscience, forget I told you. And if you’re afraid of meeting Marilyn at the Grafton – I should rather enjoy it – we can go to one of the other ballrooms; heaven knows there are plenty to choose from.’

  He and Tess parted outside the flat, agreeing what time Snowy would pick her up the following day. ‘And I mean to come round on Sunday as well to whisk you off for a final treat,’ he said. ‘And not a word to Marilyn or her mother, or you will earn my severe displeasure.’