The Bells of Bow

by Gilda O'Neill

  ‘I’ll make sure they get a note, girls. Don’t you worry. You just get yerselves off to work.’ Rita ushered them to the shop door. ‘Thanks for bothering to bring Minnie and Clara in,’ she whispered.

  ‘Daft,’ said Babs. ‘How’s that a bother?’

  ‘Well, I reckon it was thoughtful. They was in a right state.’

  Babs shrugged. ‘It was a pleasure.’

  Rita kissed each of them on the cheek and then looked up at the bright blue summer sky. ‘Now, you two look after yerselves, won’t yer. Yer never know when them bastard things are coming over.’

  ‘Don’t worry about us, Reet,’ grinned Evie. ‘We’re as tough as old boots, us Bells.’

  Evie tossed another greatcoat sleeve to one side and looked up at the clock. ‘Quarter to five.’ She sighed. ‘Blimey, this afternoon ain’t half dragged. And I’m hungry.’

  Babs turned to Lou and smiled. ‘Hark at her.’

  ‘Going out tonight, Eve?’ Babs asked.

  ‘Probably,’ Evie said wearily. ‘Me mate Gina mentioned something.’

  ‘That’s a shame,’ said Babs, winking at Lou. ‘’Cos Lou said she was gonna ask us round hers tonight, ’cos they’re having roast beef and Yorkshire pudden for their tea. Ne’mind.’

  Evie threw a sleeve at Babs’s head and squealed, ‘You liar.’

  Babs threw the sleeve back. ‘No I’m not,’ she giggled.

  ‘Are!’ Evie shouted back and soon the sisters were in a laughing, wrestling heap on the floor, flapping at each other with khaki overcoat sleeves.

  ‘Just look at them,’ sneered Ginny. ‘What a disgrace.’

  ‘No sense of humour, some people,’ Lou said to Maria.

  ‘And some people have got no sense of loyalty to their own country, talking to Eyties,’ fumed Ginny.

  Maria stood up. ‘I’ve just about had it with you and your snidey comments, Ginny.’ She took a step towards Ginny and suddenly she felt as though the world had been turned upside down. There was a massive explosion, the windows buckled and then the glass came crashing down on her. Maria was thrown right across the room in a tumbling heap of cloth, chairs and boxes.

  ‘Bloody hell!’ yelled Evie and rolled herself into a ball.

  When the thundering sound stopped, she lifted her hands gingerly from her head and got herself onto her knees. She peered around her; the air was thick with dust.

  ‘Blimey,’ she said. ‘This place looks like a bomb’s hit it.’

  ‘Yer scatty, mare,’ she heard Babs say. ‘Of course it looks like a bomb’s hit it. One just flaming did.’

  ‘Babs?’ Evie coughed and spluttered, trying to rid her throat of the grit. ‘Babs? You all right? Where are yer?’

  ‘Here. I’m stuck down here under the work bench.’

  ‘Stuck? Aw, Christ.’ Evie crawled towards her. ‘D’yer think yer can move without me hurting yer?’

  ‘Yeah. I don’t think I’m injured or nothing, it’s just this flaming machine in the way.’

  Evie took a deep breath, grabbed the heavy industrial machine in both hands and wrenched it free with one enormous pull.

  ‘You been eating yer greens?’ Babs grinned up at her as she crawled out on her belly from under the work bench. She rolled over on her back and lay there, eyes closed, trying to get her breath.

  Evie dropped to her haunches. ‘Yer sure yer all right?’

  ‘Bit bruised and a few cuts, that’s all.’ Babs laughed. ‘You was right this morning, weren’t yer? When yer told Rita that us Bells are as tough as old boots.’

  Evie grinned and ruffled her twin’s filthy hair. ‘Yer might be tough, but yer look lousy. Yer should see yer face. Looks like yer’ve been doing a coal round.’

  Babs opened her eyes. ‘Yer don’t look so good yerself. And yer sleeve’s all ripped and all.’ Babs patted her hair primly. ‘I dunno if I wanna be seen on the bus with you tonight,’ she teased.

  ‘Saucy mare.’ Evie held up her tattered sleeve. ‘I did that pulling out that machine. You can get me a flipping new frock for that. I want all your coupons. Every one of ’em.

  Babs smiled up at her. ‘Typical. I might have known yer wouldn’t save me life for nothing.’

  Suddenly serious, Evie bent forward and kissed her. ‘So long as yer all right, Babs, I wouldn’t care if I didn’t have another new frock ever again.’

  ‘Will someone help me?’ The sound of Joan snivelling made Evie turn round. ‘I’ve got glass in me corsets,’ she whined. ‘And I’m frightened to take ’em off in case I cut meself.’

  Evie pulled herself to her feet. ‘Hang on, Joan. I’ll just see to Babs.’ She went and got her coat from the stand. ‘I think this is about the cleanest thing in here,’ she said, shaking it violently back and forward. Then she propped it under Babs’s head. ‘Don’t you dare bleed on that,’ she said, wagging her finger at her twin. Then she took Joan by the arm. ‘Come on, you. Let’s go in the lav and I’ll sort yer out.’

  Joan limped along pathetically beside her. As they got to the double doors at the end of the room, Mr Silver and the warehouse workers came rushing in.

  ‘Careful, you,’ Evie shouted at Mr Silver. ‘Joan here’s leaning all her weight against me and I can hardly support her as it is, without you lot bashing into me.’

  ‘Sorry, Eve. Go on, through you go.’ Mr Silver ushered them past him. ‘Everyone else accounted for up here?’

  Babs looked up at him from her makeshift bed on the floor. ‘I ain’t sure, but I think I just heard a noise coming from under the bench here.’

  Lou knelt down and peered into the jumble of chairs, bench legs, machinery and broken glass. ‘I think it’s Ginny. But I can’t get through there to see properly.’

  Maria knelt down beside her. ‘I reckon I can get in there,’ she said and started squeezing her way into the tiny gap, edging her way forward inch by inch.

  ‘I think we should wait for the rescue squad,’ Mr Silver said nervously.

  ‘It is Ginny,’ Maria called to them. ‘I can see her. She’s wedged sideways. I can’t tell how bad she’s been hurt though.’

  Mr Silver went over to the glassless window and looked out. ‘There’s chaos out there. No sign of the rescue people.’

  ‘I’ll have to do something.’ Maria sounded serious.

  Mr Silver thought for a moment. ‘Well, for God’s sake be careful, Maria.’

  After a few tense moments, Maria called out again. ‘This stuff keeps slipping when I try and move her. I need another pair of hands in here.’

  ‘I’m little,’ said a male voice from behind Mr Silver. ‘I can get in there next to yer.’

  ‘Tiddler?’ Mr Silver frowned. ‘I’m not sure.’

  But Tiddler wasn’t listening to his governor’s reservations. Ducking down, he began wriggling his way forward. After much panting and puffing, he reached Maria.

  ‘Hold that bit to one side for me,’ Maria said, ‘so’s it don’t fall and I can get this chair shifted. It’s digging right in her back. That’s it, Steve. Hold it there.’

  ‘What did you say?’ Ginny’s voice was faint.

  ‘Don’t worry yerself, Ginny, Maria said gently, ‘it don’t look like the chair’s damaged yer or nothing. It’s just the legs are blocking yer in.’

  ‘I don’t mean about the bloody chair,’ Ginny snapped impatiently, her voice more like her usual whine.

  ‘What?’ Maria said.

  ‘I heard you call him “Steve”.’

  ‘Well,’ the now fascinated machinists and warehouse workers heard Maria reply, ‘when me boy friend’s name is Steven, what d’yer think I should call him, Cyril?’

  ‘No,’ they heard Ginny answer. ‘“Tiddler”, just like everyone else.’

  There was a pause and then they heard Maria speak again. ‘Shall I let this chair fall back on her, Steve?’

  ‘No!’ Babs shouted insistently. ‘Don’t do that, Maria. I wanna see the look on her face when yer drag her out.’

  Unawar
e that his daughters were waiting at the factory for their turn to be checked over by the ambulance crew, Georgie had just gone into the watch room at the sub-station to sign on for the evening shift.

  When he had handed the completed duty book back to Sub-officer Smith, Flossie touched him gently on the shoulder. ‘There’s already a couple of incidents on the report sheets from this afternoon, Ringer.’

  He smiled over at Maudie who was sitting by the switchboard. ‘We could be in for another busy night, then.’

  ‘One of them was Aldgate way,’ Flossie said.

  He swallowed hard. ‘Blimey, I hope the girls are all right.’

  ‘I thought you’d want to know.’

  ‘Yeah, ta, Floss.’ But Georgie didn’t have much time to worry.

  Within minutes the reports were coming in again and he had no choice but to put his daughters to the back of his mind and concentrate on driving his crew.

  When Georgie eventually got back to the sub-station, dawn was breaking.

  Yawning loudly, he dragged himself into the watch room where he knew, even though her shift was over, Maudie would be sitting waiting for him.

  ‘Bought yer a present,’ he said, kissing her on the top of her head.

  He stuck his filth-engrained hand into his tunic pocket and took out a slab of grey, bone dry cake wrapped in his hankie.

  Maudie fluttered her eyelashes. ‘You old romantic,’ she said.

  ‘An old girl come out with it from one of the houses opposite where we was working. “Get yer laughing gear round that,” she said. “Used me last few currants in that, I did.”’

  Maud took it from him and looked at it closely.

  Georgie winked at her. ‘ “I’m giving this to me girl,” I told her, and that’s what I’ve done.’

  ‘Aw, ain’t he sweet,’ said Flossie from the battered old armchair in the corner.

  ‘You still here as well, Floss?’

  ‘Yeah, we can’t sleep till all our boys are home, can we, Maud?’

  ‘Well, they’re here now, so bugger off,’ one of the girls from the other shift said. ‘Go on, go and get some kip.’

  Outside in the playground, Georgie said to Maud, ‘Yer ain’t really gonna eat that horrible cake, are yer?’

  ‘Not if you promise you won’t be offended. But it does seem ungrateful when the woman’s used her last currants and everything.’

  ‘I didn’t wanna take it off her, but she really wanted me to have it.’ Then Georgie grinned. ‘I know someone who’ll really enjoy it.’

  He led Maud over to the pen the firemen had built for the pig club sow, took the cake from her and threw it to the fat pink creature who snuffled it up in one appreciative gulp. Then he put his arm round Maudie’s shoulder and started to laugh loudly.

  ‘What’s tickling you?’

  ‘I just thought about a stroke that Albie Denham pulled. He was a rogue, that one. Know what he did? Went to all these restaurants up West, pretending he was collecting swill for pigs. The restaurants was only too glad to let him have the stuff, specially when he offered ’em a nice little monthly payment and all. Well, he told ’em they had to supply their own drums, right, told ’em to use old oil drums ’cos they was the right size and everything. And what does he do? He goes round and collects ’em all, dumps the swill and then sells the drums for scrap. What a character.’ Georgie shook his head. ‘But yer know, Maud, wicked as it sounds, and I wouldn’t wish anyone dead, I have to admit that there’s part of me that’s relieved that he ain’t around to bother our Evie no more. She can be a right little mare at times, I know that, but at other times she’s a different character altogether. She can be a really good kid. Kind and caring. Yer know, before I came on shift, Rita was telling me how she’d gone and looked after Minnie and Clara this morning.’

  ‘Yesterday morning, you mean,’ said Maudie looking up at the now brilliantly blue sky.

  George rubbed his hand over his stubbly chin. ‘Yeah, yesterday morning. Come on. Let’s get home.’

  They walked along slowly, enjoying the fresh, early morning air.

  ‘I often wonder, yer know, what would have happened if Evie had landed herself a decent bloke and not got herself hiked up with Denham. Someone steady like, who would have kept her in order a bit. I ain’t saying it was all his fault. I mean, she don’t need much encouragement, that one. She can be a right little madam, I can tell yer. And that temper.’

  Maudie nodded. ‘You should have heard her the other day, going on about Albie’s mother.’

  ‘Her. Hard old cow. Babs is always saying how she’s Betty’s nan and we should make allowances, but when all’s said and done, she’s bad news, that one. Real bad news. I don’t trust her. Wouldn’t trust no one what makes a living out of other people’s trouble and misery.’

  Maudie grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him up short. ‘Queenie Denham might be bad news, George, but look there. There’s definitely a bit of good news.’ She pointed excitedly to the headlines on the newspaper stand. ‘Someone’s tried to assassinate Hitler!’

  34

  It was a warm summer evening in August, almost a month since the factory had been hit, and Babs and Evie were still shocked enough by the fact that one of them might have been injured or even killed to still be in a reasonable state of truce in their dealings with one another. It hadn’t, however, stopped them from carrying on with their usual, everyday needling of each other.

  As she stepped into the front bedroom, Babs’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘Gawd help us, Eve,’ she said, screwing up her nose at the overpowering scent of Evening in Paris. ‘It stinks like a tart’s parlour in here. How much of that stuff have you put on yerself?’

  ‘Enough to do its job, I hope,’ said Evie with a saucy wink. She carefully replaced the lid on the bottle of Cutex varnish then started flapping her hands and blowing on her nails to dry them.

  Babs fell back onto the bed and closed her eyes. ‘I’m too tired to go out tonight. Tell Dad that I’ll have Betty, and him and Maudie can go out for a drink or something.’

  ‘Well, if you wanna stay in on a Friday, it’s up to you. But I think yer must be mad.’

  Babs opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling. ‘It’s not as if I had anything much planned really. Lou mentioned going to the flicks, but she wasn’t that keen. She’s broke again and wants to save her dough for when we go out tomorrow night.’ Babs levered herself up onto her elbows. ‘Where you going then? Somewhere good?’ Evie twisted round on the dressing table stool and struck a fashion-plate pose with her hands cupped beneath her chin. ‘I, my dear,’ she said in a mock posh voice, ‘am going with Gina to Rainbow Corner.’

  Babs yawned. ‘What’s that then?’

  ‘Don’t yer know nothing?’ Evie sounded scandalised. ‘Blimey, Babs, I think the world passes you by. I wonder if it’s even worth talking to yer sometimes.’

  Babs flopped back onto the pillows. ‘All right, if that’s how yer feel, don’t tell me.’

  Evie tutted dramatically. ‘Calm down. It’s a club in the West End, all right? It’s been set up special like, for American servicemen.’

  Babs yawned again. ‘Aw yeah?’

  ‘Yeah, it’s on the corner of Shaftesbury. Avenue and Piccadilly. You know, where Del Monico’s and Lyon’s Corner House used to be.’

  Babs sat up. ‘How the hell would I know about places like that, Eve? I wasn’t married to Albie Denham, was I? I never went out gallivanting all over the West End. Now name any pie shop in Bow and I’m yer girl.’

  ‘Oooo,’ Evie teased her. ‘You know how to enjoy yerself, don’t yer?’

  Babs got off the bed and went and sat on the stool next to Evie. ‘Good, is it?’ she asked. ‘This Rainbow place.’

  Eve turned back to face the mirror. ‘Dunno. I ain’t never been there. But Gina goes mad about it. A lot of girls do.’ Evie took the top of her pancake stick and stroked streaks of the thick, pinky beige make-up onto her cheeks and forehead. ‘Do you know, she ha
d to put me name down forty-eight hours ago to say that I was gonna be this bloke Ray’s guest? That’s how hard it is to get in there.’

  Babs wasn’t sure how Evie expected her to respond. ‘Well, fancy that,’ she said, for want of something better to say.

  Evie finished smoothing the foundation over her skin and then liberally dusted her face with powder. Then she held up a deep red lipstick. ‘See this,’ she said, nodding at the scrap of lipstick protruding from the end of the tube. ‘I’m gonna use all of it. It’ll be a good investment.’

  Babs frowned. ‘I hope so, ’cos that lipstick’s bloody mine.’

  Evie waved her hand dismissively. ‘Don’t worry about it. According to Gina, the Yanks have got loads of everything in this place. Even more than they usually have. And yer can imagine what that means. She says they’ve got as much lipstick as yer can carry. And they’re right free with it and all. Tell yer what, I’ll bring yer home a few tubes, if yer like.’

  ‘Aw yeah. Lovely,’ Babs said sarcastically. ‘But don’t go putting yerself out, will yer? Just a plummy sort of colour and a pillar box red’ll do me.’

  ‘You can laugh, Babs,’ Evie said primly. ‘But Gina says they’ve got everything.’ She thought for a moment. ‘Meat they’ve got. Real meat, I mean, no stinking snook or Woolton pie for them. And, well, everything.’ She looked at herself dreamily in the mirror, and began carefully applying the colour to her mouth. ‘All it takes,’ she said through stretched lips, ‘is a ride on a number fifteen bus and yer in Paradise.’ She tossed the empty lipstick tube onto the dressing table. ‘Right, that’s me done.’ She turned to Babs for her to get the full effect. ‘Gorgeous, eh?’ she said blowing a pouting kiss.

  ‘Eve.’ Babs touched her gently on the arm.

  Evie drummed her fingers impatiently. ‘Yeah, I know,’ she said evenly. ‘Be careful.’

  ‘Actually, I was gonna say have a nice time.’

  Evie’s expression softened. ‘I will, Babs,’ she said, running her hand down her sister’s cheek. ‘Ta.’