MB09 - You Stole My Heart Away

by Joan Jonker

  Nellie perked up and leaned across the table. ‘Ay, I know what we could have for a change. Last night I slipped over to our Lily’s, ’cos she promised she’d make me a tray of fairy cakes, and when she opened the front door the smell of her dinner had me sniffing up like the Bisto Kids. They were having shepherd’s pie, and it didn’t half make me feel hungry. We could have that today, girl, for a change.’

  ‘That’s a very good idea, sunshine, ’cos it’s a while since we’ve had shepherd’s pie. See, yer do come in handy sometimes. If you hadn’t gone to your Lily’s we’d have been scratching our heads wondering what to get. That is a load off our minds.’

  Nellie drained her cup. ‘Hurry up, girl, that cream slice yer promised me is calling, telling me that if I don’t come quick, then someone else will snaffle it up, ’cos it’s thick with fresh cream oozing out of both sides.’

  ‘It doesn’t take much to make you happy, does it, sunshine? One cream slice and you’re as happy as a kid with a bucket and spade, on yer way to the shore in New Brighton.’

  ‘When I was a kid, girl, my mam didn’t have the money for a bucket and spade, and I’ve never been on a shore in me life. I’ve heard of New Brighton, ’cos our Paul went dancing in the Tower there. That’s before he started courting Phoebe. But I’ve never been. Never did me no harm though, being poor. All the kids in the neighbourhood were the same, but we had fun.’ Nellie’s bosom and tummy shook when she laughed. ‘I had a mate called Doreen, and we used to share a gobstopper. She’d have three sucks, then she’d pass it to me to have my three sucks. We enjoyed life, even though we had nowt. Not like the young ones today, who want everything handed to them on a plate.’

  ‘Oh, it’s not that bad, sunshine. Our kids don’t expect everything they’d like. Unless they work for it, which ours do.’

  Nellie pushed herself up off the chair. ‘I still think life was better before the war, girl, when people were nicer and helped each other.’

  ‘Time marches on, sunshine; nothing stands still. We’ll never get the old days back, but we can’t complain, Nellie, we’ve got good families, and are better off than some poor beggars.’ Molly walked into the hall for her coat, and as she slipped her arms into it, she said, ‘I’ll rinse the cups when I come back.’ She picked up her key from the glass bowl and put it in her pocket, then took her basket from the pantry. ‘Ay, sunshine, where’s your basket?’

  ‘I didn’t bring it, girl, ’cos we don’t need two. I can share yours.’

  Molly’s eyes rolled to the ceiling. ‘Nellie Mac, yer’ve got the hide of a flipping elephant, you have.’

  Nellie’s face beamed. ‘No I haven’t, girl, ’cos my George said I’ve got lovely soft skin. And he should know because . . .’

  Her words were cut off when Molly pushed her towards the door. ‘I don’t want to know any more, sunshine, so out yer go. And I’m not carrying all the shopping; we’ll take turns with the basket, d’yer hear?’

  ‘I heard yer, girl, and so did half the street. And I bet there’s a feller down on the docks, pushing a trolley with heavy boxes on, who can hear yer as well.’

  Molly was shaking her head as she pulled the door to behind her. Was there ever a time when her mate was lost for words? She couldn’t remember one in all the twenty-five years they’d known each other. That should go down in the Guinness Book of Records.

  ‘Here they come, Ellen,’ Tony called to his assistant. ‘They’re just waiting to cross the road.’

  Ellen came through from the storeroom wiping her hands on a piece of muslin. ‘I’ve never known anyone like them,’ she said. ‘They’ve stuck together through thick and thin. Good times and bad times. And it’s funny, really, because they’re as different as chalk and cheese.’

  ‘Look at Nellie hurrying across the road,’ Tony chuckled. ‘She bounces like a ball. I hope she brings a bit of life to the shop, ’cos it’s been really quiet in here this morning.’

  ‘They’ll all come in at once, you’ll see,’ Ellen said, ‘and in the meanwhile Nellie and Molly will brighten the place up.’

  When the two mates came in, Ellen told them, ‘We’ve just been talking about you two. It’s been as quiet as a graveyard in here this morning. We’ve only had half a dozen customers in since we opened, and we’re hoping you can cheer us up, give us a laugh, and put some money in the till.’

  ‘Well, we can put some money in the till,’ Molly said, ‘but we can’t promise to cheer yer up. Unless Nellie can come up with something. And while she’s trying, you can serve us, Ellen. We both want half a pound of mincemeat.’

  Nellie’s face was going through the motions as she tried to think of a trick she could play on the butcher. ‘Are yer any good at words, Tony? Long ones, I mean, what are hard to get yer tongue round?’

  ‘Yeah, not bad, Nellie. As long as they’re English, of course, ’cos I can’t speak Chinese.’

  ‘Oh, very funny, I must say. Well, I’ve got a word what I bet yer haven’t heard before. It’s a humdinger, this one, what Molly told me.’

  Tony pushed his straw hat back, and folded his arms. ‘Okay, Nellie, let’s be having it.’

  Nellie opened her mouth, closed it again, then said, ‘I can’t say the bleeding word meself now.’ She put a hand to her chin. ‘Give me a minute, and it’ll come to me.’

  While her mate was deep in thought, her mouth moving silently, Molly said, ‘This should be good. Nellie has a problem with words consisting of more than three letters.’

  Nellie came to life then. ‘That one will do, girl, save me racking me brains.’

  ‘What one was that, Nellie?’ Molly frowned. ‘I can’t read yer mind, sunshine, so yer’ll have to tell me.’

  Nellie got agitated. ‘If I could say the bleeding word, girl, I wouldn’t need you to do it for me! Yer’ve just told soft lad here that I can’t say words what have more than three letters in. But yer used a big word to tell him.’

  Molly saw the light. ‘Oh, you mean consisting, sunshine, don’t yer?’

  Nellie jerked her head back in disgust, frightening her chins who weren’t expecting to be disturbed. ‘That’s the one, girl, so now ask soft lad here what it means. And I bet he won’t have a clue.’

  ‘I’m sorry to disappoint yer, Nellie,’ Tony said, ‘but I do know what consisting means.’ His smile was like a smirk of confidence. ‘It means, Nellie . . .’ He tapped his chin, and thought how he could best explain it to her. ‘Let’s see how I can put it. I know – the word consisting means made up of.’ Tony looked pleased with himself. ‘So yer see, I do know what it means.’

  ‘Oh, yer must think I’m as thick as two short planks! No one can trick me like that, soft lad. When yer say “made up of”, what d’yer mean. What is made up of what?’

  Molly thought they’d be there all day if she didn’t step in, for Tony was beginning to look confused. ‘Nellie, we’re having shepherd’s pie tonight, aren’t we?’ She waited for a nod, then went on. ‘Well, to make the pie, we need potatoes, mincemeat, onions and an Oxo cube. There’s a lot more ingredients yer can use, but I’m just talking about us. Our pies will consist of the mince and the other things I’ve mentioned. So have yer got it now? D’yer know what consist means?’

  ‘Yeah, I know what it means. I knew all along, girl,’ Nellie lied. ‘I was only pulling Tony’s leg ’cos he thinks he’s so ruddy clever.’ She turned her head to wink at her mate. ‘But I’ve got a word what will stump him. Are yer ready for it, Mr Clever-clogs?’

  Tony chuckled. ‘Ready when you are, Mrs Mac.’

  ‘Right, me lad, just get an earful of this.’ Rising to her full height, Nellie said, ‘Sentitity.’

  Tony frowned. ‘Never heard of it, Nellie. Spell it for us?’

  ‘Sod off, lad! If I could spell that, I’d not be standing in a ruddy butcher’s shop right now, I’d be standing in a classroom full of kids, with a cane in me hand to wallop kids what got their spelling wrong.’

  And the little woman couldn’t u
nderstand why Molly doubled up, Tony and Ellen burst out laughing, and the two customers who had been standing at the back of the shop for a few minutes had smiles on their faces. ‘What’s so bleeding funny?’

  ‘Nellie, because I’d like to finish me shopping, and because there’s two customers standing behind you waiting to be served, I’ll hurry things along.’ Molly put her arm across her mate’s shoulder. ‘The word you were trying to stump Tony with wasn’t sentitity. You should have said serendipity.’

  ‘That’s what I said, girl! Yer want to try washing yer ears out! And you, Mr Butcher-man, I bet yer don’t know the meaning of it. Or you, Ellen Corkhill, standing there trying to look intelligent when ye’re as thick as I am.’

  One of the waiting customers very foolishly thought she’d try to help. ‘I could explain what it means, Mrs McDonough.’

  Nellie spun round and glared at the poor woman. ‘Who are you when ye’re out? Nosy, aren’t yer?’

  ‘I think it’s time we were on our way, Ellen, so will yer pass our meat over, before war breaks out! Here’s five bob. Yer can take for Nellie’s as well, and she can pay me later.’

  Ellen passed the two parcels of meat over, and the change from the five shillings. ‘Take Nellie with yer when yer go, Molly, because the way she’s going on we’re going to lose two good customers.’

  ‘Not to worry, we’ll be on our way,’ Molly told her. ‘All I need to say to get her running is “cream slice”, and yer won’t see her heels for the dust.’

  ‘Oh, before yer go, Molly.’ Tony nodded to a customer he’d just served, then walked down the counter. ‘What does that ruddy word mean? I’ve never heard it before.’

  ‘Ooh, I got it out of the dictionary, Tony.’ Molly crossed her fingers before telling him, ‘I couldn’t remember what it said if yer paid me.’

  ‘Ay, take a gander over there.’ Ellen was nodding to the back of the shop. ‘Hurry before yer miss it, ’cos yer might never see the like again.’

  Molly was expecting to find her mate in an argument with the lady who had offered to help, but to her amazement, what she saw was Nellie looking up at the woman and actually smiling. So Molly moved closer, and was in time to hear her mate saying, in a voice as sweet as honey, ‘Oh, thank you, dear, that was very kind of yer.’

  ‘Think nothing of it, Mrs McDonough. I’m glad to have been of some assistance to you.’

  Molly took her mate’s arm, and said, ‘Come on, Nellie, we’re running late.’ She smiled at the two women. ‘We’ll leave you to get served. Ta-ra.’

  ‘Ay, there was no need to drag me away like that,’ Nellie said, as she was pulled sideways through the shop door. ‘She was very nice, that woman, what’s named Mrs Maudsley. Told me all about the word and what it meant. She was a bit posh, like, but nice just the same.’

  ‘Nellie, sunshine, yer were ready to knock spots off the woman five minutes ago,’ Molly said, basket over her arm. ‘Now yer think she’s a very nice lady! Which she is, of course, and she’s also very well known in the area, and popular. And another thing, sunshine. Because a person is well spoken it doesn’t mean that they are toffee-nosed snobs.’

  ‘Yer don’t need to tell me that, girl, because haven’t I been your mate for twenty-five years?’

  ‘What on earth has that got to do with anything?’ Molly queried. ‘Yer go from one subject to another, and yer lose me sometimes. I can’t keep up with yer.’

  Nellie did a hop, skip and a jump to keep in step with her mate. ‘Well, it’s like this, girl. You’re a bit posh, aren’t yer? And I know you’re a nice person, ’cos yer’ve always been me mate. And yer use big words and don’t swear.’

  ‘And that makes me posh, does it, sunshine? I don’t know whether to feel flattered or battered! But we’ll discuss that another time, for we’re nearly at Hanley’s. And as I promised to buy yer a cream slice, I think I’ll join yer and make it two cream slices. And we’ll be daredevils and eat them in the shop, eh?’

  Nellie stopped dead in her tracks. ‘Ay, girl, I’ve changed me mind about you. Yer were right, ye’re not posh. I mean yer’d never see a posh woman like Mrs Maudsley standing in a shop eating a cream slice, with cream on her chin and nose. No, girl, ye’re not posh. Ye’re just the same as me, as common as muck.’

  Chapter Five

  Molly raised her brow when she opened the door one morning and found her daughter standing outside. ‘I wasn’t expecting you, sunshine, I thought yer were Nellie. She’s usually here by now, so I don’t know what’s keeping her.’

  ‘Shall I give her a knock, Mam, to make sure she’s all right? Perhaps she’s not well.’

  ‘No, she’ll be along any minute, you’ll see. If she was out of sorts, George would have knocked when he was passing on his way to work.’ Molly stepped back into the hall. ‘Aren’t yer coming in, sunshine?’

  Doreen shook her head. ‘No, I won’t come in, Mam. I only wanted to tell yer that I called to see little Moll last night, and Jill said if it was a nice morning, we could take the babies out in the prams for a walk. A bit of fresh air would do them good. So I thought I’d let you know, save yer knocking. Aunt Vicky will probably have a nap while we’re out. And we’ll get our shopping in.’

  ‘It’s good to take the babies out, sunshine, when the weather is decent. Best to make the most of it. Besides, it’s nice for you and Jill to get out of the house so yer can have a good natter. It means the babies can get used to each other as well.’ Molly popped her head out and looked towards her mate’s house, three doors away. ‘I can’t understand Nellie not being here, ’cos she’s usually here before half ten. It’s not like her at all. She knows I put the kettle on at twenty past, so the water’s boiled when she knocks on the door.’

  ‘Mam, why don’t yer give her a knock? It’s no use walking up and down, wondering and worrying. I’ll knock if yer like, just to make sure?’

  Molly sighed. ‘I won’t rest until I know she’s all right, so I may as well go and see. I’ve got a key to her front door, so if she doesn’t answer, I can let meself in. I’ve had her key for years, in case of emergency, but I don’t like going into her house.’ She grinned at her daughter. ‘Yer wouldn’t think I’d be afraid at my age, would yer, but I’m a bit of a coward.’

  ‘Get the key, Mam, and I’ll come in with yer.’ Doreen nodded her head. ‘Go on, Mam, let’s get it over with. Our Jill will be coming down soon, and I want to be ready so we can go straight out. And I’d rather know Auntie Nellie was all right before we left, otherwise she’d be on me mind all the time.’

  ‘Right, I’ll get the key, sunshine. I’d rather have someone with me than go in on me own.’

  Armed with the key, Molly led the way to Nellie’s. ‘I’d better knock first, in case we barge in and find her standing there in her nuddy.’

  Doreen chuckled. ‘It doesn’t bear thinking about, Mam. Go on, knock hard.’

  The first knock was quite soft, but when there was no reply Molly knocked harder. ‘I’m getting worried now, sunshine,’ she told her daughter when there was still no sound from inside. ‘She would have heard the knock if she was in, and I know for a fact she wouldn’t go to the shops without me.’

  ‘I’ll try and peep through the window,’ Doreen said, ‘see if I can see anything.’ But she couldn’t see clearly through the net curtains. ‘I can’t see anything, Mam; it’s dark in there. I don’t think Auntie Nellie is in, ’cos I’d have been able to see if someone was moving around. Yer’d better use the key and go in, it’s the only way.’

  It was with trepidation that Molly turned the key in the lock, for she felt like a trespasser. She was taking the key out of the door when she nearly jumped out of her skin with fright as a voice called, ‘And about bleeding time, Molly Bennett.’ The voice sounded strangled, and Molly and daughter looked at each other before making for the McDonoughs’ living room. They were both expecting to see Nellie lying on the couch with a headache or perhaps an upset tummy, but nothing prepared them for th
e sight that met their eyes. And they didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  Nellie had broken the seat of the fireside chair, and her bottom had fallen through. It was inches from the floor, and Nellie’s body was folded together, her knees on her chest. Her arms were flat on the arms of the chair, and they were the only thing stopping the chair from collapsing completely.

  ‘How the hell did yer do that, sunshine?’ Molly asked, as she weighed up the situation, and wondered how to get her mate out of the chair without hurting her. ‘How did yer come to break this chair, ’cos yer never sit on it with it being George’s.’

  ‘If ye’re after me life story, do yer have to have it now?’ Nellie snorted and narrowed her eyes. ‘I’m in bleeding agony, and you’re asking me stupid bloody questions! Just get me up instead of standing there as though I’m a monkey in a zoo. And a fat lot of good it was bringing yer daughter with yer, she’s bloody hopeless, standing there with her mouth open.’

  ‘Nellie,’ Molly said, a hand cupping her chin. ‘If you were standing where I am, and I was in the predicament that you’re in, then you’d not only have yer mouth wide open, but yer’d be killing yerself laughing. And being your usual crafty self, you’d be selling tickets to the neighbours.

  ‘Doreen, you get a grip on the back of the chair and hold it down, then I’ll try and pull Nellie up.’

  Molly put her hands under Nellie’s armpits and heaved, but she couldn’t move her mate. She tried again, but it was no use, for Nellie’s bottom was stuck tight. ‘I think it would be better if yer came round to the front, Doreen, and we can take an arm each. I’ll never be able to manage on me own.’

  ‘Stop flapping about, will yer?’ Nellie’s back was hurting where she’d scraped it when she fell through the seat, and every time she moved it was agony. ‘Just give one big pull, and I’ll try and help yer by pushing on the arms. Don’t worry about whether ye’re hurting me, just get me up. And move yerselves, don’t stand gawping. I don’t want to still be like this when George comes home from work.’