The Lido Girls

by Allie Burns

  We do hope you are able to assist us in this matter and help us to spread joy to women across the country.

  Movement is Life!

  Yours sincerely,

  Prunella Stack

  She folded the letter in two. She had kept it from Jack; she wanted to surprise Delphi. What she needed was Delphi to encourage her to push aside her own concerns. What would Prunella and her Aunt Norah say if they saw the teacher she had become? Would they laugh at her for teaching Frills and Drills? Could she forgive them for giving her name to that press photographer at Olympia? She didn’t know, but she felt sure that she could do all of that for Delphi.

  As the water polo players clambered out of the pool, Jack emerged from the sun deck with what seemed, even at that height, to be a grim, set jaw. At the same time Delphi and Sid appeared, arm in arm, chins high from the direction of the entrance. She clutched the letter, pushed herself up from the coconut matting and took the steps from the tower two at a time.

  The three of them were already facing one another by the time she arrived.

  ‘You’ve got some nerve, turning up here.’ Jack’s voice was flattened with contempt.

  She tried to catch Delphi’s eye, gesture at her with the letter, but her attention was focused on Jack.

  ‘You had no right to sack me.’ Sid had caught the sun whilst on his cruise, but he still looked drawn around his mouth. The only thing with bounce were his waves of hair.

  ‘Well your temper tantrum with the pump didn’t pay off. It’s been fixed.’

  ‘Now.’ Natalie stepped in. ‘It is time to admit to any wrong-doing,’ she looked at Sid’s sullen face, ‘and then we can decide on a way forward.’

  ‘Sid needs a wage, Jack,’ Delphi said before Sid could respond to her barely concealed accusation of his theft. It would be so much better if the truth came from his own mouth. Right then even a denial would be progress. She clutched Sid’s arm tight and nudged him with her elbow.

  ‘I’m prepared to move on…’ Sid jutted his chin out ‘…if he is.’ His words didn’t seem to Natalie to match his tone, and she felt sure his good arm would act as a piston to bring his fist into Jack’s jaw at a moment’s notice. ‘We need to put this behind us and work together for the season’s end.’

  ‘If that is all you have to say, then no.’ Jack stood firm. He too was angling for a confession. ‘You’ve put Natalie and I in an awkward position. When Mother finds out you’re engaged…’

  ‘It’s precisely because we’re engaged that Sid needs his job back. If you don’t do it then Arthur will step in.’

  Jack looked from one of them to the other.

  ‘If you break off the engagement, then I’ll work with him again. The other councillors want me here. They won’t let Arthur get rid of me that easily, just so he can save his friend.’

  Delphi paused, took Sid’s hand in her own and squeezed it. Sid whispered no, but Delphi continued.

  ‘Well, would it change things if we were to tell you I’m pregnant? Would you give him his job back then?’

  No words came. Delphi, pregnant. She tried to put these two things together, but they refused to join up. Why hadn’t she told her before? It was going to take some getting used to; that much she knew. Things could never go back to how they were before, not now. She scrunched the letter up tight in her fist and hid her hand behind her back. There was no use in showing it to her now. The girls still have their display at the gala. There’s the diving too. We don’t need the League.

  ‘So you see now…’ Delphi spoke to her ‘…he has to give Sid his job back. Sid needs to support me.’ She turned to Jack. ‘Please, Jack, please.’

  Delphi didn’t look as happy about the announcement as Natalie might have expected. Even in the face of Jack’s obvious anger at the situation she lacked her usual defiance.

  A muscle flexed in Jack’s cheek considering the pair of them. Delphi squeezed Sid’s hand again.

  ‘It’s all right, it’s all right,’ she whispered to him.

  ‘I ought to punch you.’ Jack moved towards Sid, and Natalie lunged out to hold him back.

  ‘But please, Jack,’ Delphi repeated.

  ‘I’m sure Arthur will find him something else.’

  Delphi began sobbing now. Without a job to support them Mrs Mulberry would never consider letting Delphi stay with Sid. But a baby? That had the potential to change everything. To keep the scandal quiet Mrs Mulberry would want Delphi well away from London. A baby would be what kept Sid and Delphi together, and she and Natalie apart.

  *

  Yvonne’s house was a small two-up-two-down about halfway up the hill that the street cut along. Yvonne was off sick again and the evening’s drama with Delphi had propelled her up the incline to visit her. It was only when she reached the front door that she hesitated. Her fist hovered in the air. The curtains were drawn.

  The summer was drawing to a close and she was running out of time to help young George. She had delayed this long enough. She had to win over Yvonne.

  She knocked. She heard a sound from inside. But no one came to the door. She rapped again.

  ‘Psst,’ came from the window above. The long red hair of George’s sister hung down. ‘Come around the back.’

  The kitchen door was already open. In the yard there was no washing on the line, nothing much to speak of. Inside, she could taste the damp in the air of the old Victorian house. The tap dripped on to a jumble of dishes in the sink. There was a sickly smell of over-ripe fruit. A greenbottle fed on a yellow pat of butter.

  ‘She’s in the back room,’ George’s sister whispered from the banisters.

  ‘I’m not up to visitors,’ Yvonne demurred as soon as Natalie had crossed the threshold to the dark and dank back room. She found her on an armchair, her veined legs resting on a footstall in front of the dormant range. The unlit gas lamp hung from its bracket behind her. She was washed and clean, her make-up on, her thin scarf fastened just behind her hairline, and if it wasn’t for the red, puffy eyes then Natalie would have wondered what was keeping her from work again.

  ‘I was calling to see if there was anything I could do for you,’ she said after a few moments. ‘Have you been to see the doctor about your health?’

  Yvonne snorted, ‘The doctor is not for women who have taken their best clothes to the pawnbrokers, or put cardboard insoles in their children’s shoes to keep out the wet.’

  ‘I see.’ She had no idea that things were this tough for Yvonne. It was a stark contrast to the deep pockets of the holidaymakers she’d encountered in the town. She thought of the coughing family on the train down, their week’s food supply stuffed into their suitcase. It clearly wasn’t all vacuum cleaners and washing machines for some families, not even on tick. ‘Perhaps I could help you get well enough for work?’

  ‘Many of my problems are with this,’ she tapped the side of her head. ‘If I had the prize money from Miss Lovely Calves and Ankles perhaps I could afford to be unwell.’

  ‘I have tried to make amends for that. I was new and trying to make a good impression. I shouldn’t have left you out of the contest. You have been stubborn though. They say now that physical exertion is just the thing for keeping those inner demons under control.’ She sighed, there was nothing to be gained from recriminations now. ‘I’m sorry and sad to hear you are having money worries too.’

  ‘Is all right.’ Yvonne shook her head. ‘Toots would have won. She was right – who would look at a woman with legs like this?’ She lifted one of her shins up and pulled up her skirt.

  ‘Well Mr Penning for one.’ She looked about for a photograph of him on the mantelpiece or in the glass-fronted cabinet, wondering if her husband was sending enough of his wage packet home for jam. ‘You must miss him?’

  ‘It is not much fun alone, no…’

  ‘Does he know how down you are? If he did, he might send you something to see the doctor.’

  ‘My neighbour, she pays a shilling a week for the last two year
s. It will be still three more years before her doctor bill is paid. If anyone can help me it is the chemist. But there is no remedy for me there either.’

  ‘The fitness classes are free?’ she ventured. ‘It’s made such a difference to some of the girls already and I want to convince Mr Whittle that next year you girls could offer them yourselves in the town. Would you think about coming?’

  ‘I don’t think so. It’s my joie de vivre, and these terrible veins.’

  ‘I could give you some remedial massage to relieve the pain, and you and I could have a private class. We could do it here to start with, until you felt more confident and your energy comes back.’

  Yvonne eyed her up and down. ‘I heard you had an argument with your friend Delphi.’

  ‘Did you now?’ George was a terrible gossip for such a young boy.

  ‘Is this why you want to do all this for me? You miss your friend?’

  ‘Perhaps. I miss teaching too and I love helping people. I think that’s why instructing George has been so rewarding…’ Yvonne wasn’t laughing along with her; her face had shrivelled. ‘Ah, yes. I’m sorry about the trouble I have caused with the lessons.’

  ‘You meant well. He has been very happy and so pleased with himself now he can swim. I have seen you through his eyes and grown to like you.’

  ‘But the idea that he could bring his father back from his job by learning to swim; I should have discouraged that.’

  ‘It is worse than you think.’ Yvonne followed her raised foot as she turned it in a circle, gestured for Natalie to close the back-room door.

  ‘Please do not tell this to a soul. I don’t know why I am going to tell you, but there you go.’

  Natalie wondered if this meant she might be forgiven at last. She leant forward to give Yvonne her full, rapt attention.

  ‘There is no Mr Penning, not any more. He brought me to this wet and grey country with its fish and chips and boiled carrots and then he said he could not live with my moods, as if it is my fault. Then he dumped me here alone and without enough money to feed my children. The pig.’

  ‘Ah.’ It explained so much. ‘Does George know? Of course, he doesn’t,’ she added quickly. ‘Poor thing. Poor you too, but perhaps he deserves to know the truth…’

  ‘A boy needs a father and I can’t take away his hope. Hope is all he has in the end.’

  ‘And you?’

  ‘Being at work with my friends makes me happy, on the days it is possible for me to feel I can smile. But I can’t tell them because of the shame.’ She put her head in her hands. ‘What will they say when they know, I am a poor, deserted, middle-aged woman, with fading beauty and ugly legs.’ She sobbed.

  ‘Well that’s decided then. We’ll start on your massage straight away. We need to build you up and make you strong so that you can earn enough to make ends meet.’

  ‘Will it make much difference?’

  ‘We can’t change your dark moods, but physical exercise can help, and I do know that your hairstyles are really super. It wouldn’t take much to turn your skills into a living that will pay for new shoes for George and perhaps even a trip to the doctor for you.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Yvonne blew her nose on her hankie. ‘That would be my dream come true, to work as a hairdresser, see my children looking smart and hear the jangle of coins in my purse.’

  ‘Then you mustn’t brood here on your own in your back room. George wants to dive on gala day and if you compete in the final heat tomorrow you will get your chance to impress Cornelia Moon next week.’

  ‘I don’t know…I’m tired, so very tired.’

  ‘Why don’t you give yourself a chance? I rather fancy your chances of winning the heat, because I’ve just this minute decided that we’re going to call this one Miss Lovely Hair.’

  *

  ‘A deep breath and a quick prayer,’ Jack instructed, ‘and off you go.’

  George filled his chest, pressed his palms together, and after a quick glance at the heavens jumped once again from the ten-foot diving board.

  ‘Stretch,’ she called below as he plummeted towards the pool.

  He hit the water with another slap.

  ‘Oh dear,’ she said to Jack, ‘do you think he’ll ever get it in time for the gala?’ There were just a few days to go and she was beginning to worry that he might not be ready and that he would embarrass both himself and Yvonne in front of the whole town on the August bank holiday.

  ‘He has not one, but two diving teachers. If you and I can’t work together to get that boy diving properly, then we may as well hang up our whistles.’

  George’s red head had bobbed to the surface and he batted the water with an untidy front crawl. She hoped Jack was right.

  ‘What has happened to the little boy who was scared of the water?’ she called down to him, determined to keep his spirits up.

  ‘And what happened to your clean entry?’ Jack shouted. They’d agreed to take a two-pronged approach – he would be tough and she would be kind. ‘Remember what I said. Never dive down. Use the air for as long as possible. Now up you come and try it again, and we’ll keep trying until you’re diving like an Empire champion.’ He winked at Natalie. ‘We’ll get there, don’t worry.’

  Edith, tightening her bathing cap, emerged from the pool where she’d been practising rolling in from a seated position. Natalie had worried that Edith’s nerves would let her down on the board, but as it turned out she’d got it first try.

  ‘I’m ready to progress to the board.’ Edith appeared behind them. ‘Isn’t it wonderful to reach my age and find you’re really rather good at something?’

  *

  At the top of the ride’s stairs an operative in a worn suit and cap pushed his shoulder against the wooden car to force it up the final steep incline, until it reached Natalie and Jack on the short platform.

  Beneath them, the wooden beams criss-crossed their way back down to the pier. Below that the indigo sea rolled. They got a car together, just the two of them.

  ‘We made a good team today,’ Jack said.

  The tracks fell away in front of them, promising, she hoped, a gentle, bumpy path to the bottom of the slope.

  ‘Hold on tight, ladies and gents,’ called the operative.

  Jack lit a cigarette as the operative began running along the track behind them and their car gathered speed. He let them go and gravity took over. Her hair took flight. A smile threatened to split her face in two. The tracks fed themselves beneath the car. Down they sped, the wheels grinding against the rails. Her stomach flipped like a pancake as they went over one, two and then three bumps and then they pulled into the second station at the bottom. A serious-looking operative took his hands from his pockets to pull them to a gentle stop.

  ‘That was fun,’ said Natalie, smoothing her hair as they clambered out.

  ‘Back we go,’ Jack said. Now they were on the pier’s level they needed to climb up again for the return journey. The car was pushed for them while they scaled the stairs.

  ‘You made such an impact on George today.’

  ‘I never really saw myself as a teacher. It’s always been diving.’

  ‘I know, I know,’ she added quickly. ‘You’re so talented. But you have a lot of patience too. I don’t recall ever seeing such encouragement for belly flops as I saw you give George today.’

  ‘He’s a trier. But what about Edith, what a turn-up eh? If only she were thirty years younger.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter how old she is.’

  ‘I was just thinking of me, of my career.’ This was the first time he’d mentioned it since that terrible diving contest. ‘Natalie, I have to face it. I blew it with the scout. I won’t be going to Berlin next year.’

  First came the rumble and then their car with the operative pushing behind.

  ‘Everyone has the odd bad day.’

  ‘My bad day ruined my ambitions.’

  They sat back down and she clutched her bag to her lap.

 
‘What will happen, when the Lido closes?’

  She thought of Mr and Mrs Mulberry arriving the next day and what this would mean for Delphi, but also she was thinking about the two of them, and whether the bud of their holiday romance would go on to bloom.

  ‘Hold on tight, ladies and gents.’

  She held on to the bar as the operative upped the pace of the car and then they were on their own as they sped back down the tracks.

  ‘You could marry me?’ he called at the top of a bump.

  She fumbled with her hair when they hit the buffers. Did I hear him correctly?

  ‘Will you be my wife?’

  He looked at her with those blue eyes of his and this time there was no mistaking what he had said.

  ‘What do you say, Natty?’

  ‘But what about Delphi and the baby?’ Surely she couldn’t get engaged when her friend’s future was in doubt, but then Delphi was pregnant and certain that she would defeat her parents. Delphi had left behind the idea that they would stay spinsters together; perhaps it was time she did the same.

  ‘That’s no answer! We’ll help Delphi,’ Jack assured her.

  ‘Them. We need to help all three of them.’

  The operative lifted the safety bar.

  ‘Oh, Jack. Married? Really? Doesn’t it bother you that I am older?’

  ‘Ahem.’ The operative nodded his head towards the couples waiting on the platform.

  ‘Just a moment.’ Jack cupped her hand tightly in his. ‘Is that a yes?’

  ‘It is.’ He led her out of the car and back towards the pier, but she had a terrible urge to go back to Sun Ray House alone and to look at herself in the mirror. She longed to see the exhilaration in her reflection so that she would know for certain that it really was true. She was actually going to be Jack’s wife.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Airplane banking dive

  The diver spreads her arms out and back, her legs arched behind her.

  The room’s sparse furnishings included a small double cast-iron bedstead wedged beneath the eaves and a threadbare armchair in the window’s alcove. It was here that Delphi and Sid were crammed, holding hands.