Holidays at Home Omnibus

by Wait Till Summer; Swingboats On the Sand; Waiting for Yesterday; Day Trippers; Unwise Promises; Street Parties (retail) (epub)

  ‘Not as early as me! Mam and I do the morning papers, remember.’ She smiled at him and said shyly, ‘Don’t think I’m trying to steal you from your girlfriend. I know you’re engaged to Beth Castle and so does our Mam.’

  ‘OK, why not? Go down a treat a cup of cocoa will.’

  Shirley’s mother, a small, thin woman dressed in the overalls she wore in the shop, greeted them with little enthusiasm. After a nod, she went into the kitchen and began to fill the kettle and stir the cocoa and sugar and milk in the cups. ‘Nothing fancy, mind,’ she warned as she reappeared with a plateful of sandwiches. ‘Meat paste or bloater.’

  ‘Thank you, Mrs Downs. Very kind.’ Feeling a little uneasy, Freddy was glad when Shirley leaned across him and turned on the wireless. Dance band music issued forth and Shirley stood up and persuaded Freddy to dance.

  Mrs Downs looked on and smiled. ‘My Shirley never could keep still when there’s music to dance to,’ she chuckled.

  ‘Beth doesn’t dance,’ Freddy said. ‘So I’m not very good. I like it, mind. I just don’t get no practice.’

  ‘Soon put that right,’ Shirley replied. ‘So long as you’ve got rhythm.’

  Freddy was surprised at how enjoyable it was to hold Shirley in his arms. She pressed close to him and, being slightly taller, leaned towards him until her head touched his. Her cheek was warm against his own, the illicit contact far more exciting than he would have imagined, and he didn’t want the music to stop. He continued to hold her when the Sid Philips number came to an end; and the look in her eyes disturbed and excited him.

  When they sat to enjoy their supper, Mrs Downs said, ‘Engaged to that Castle girl, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes; we’re getting married in a couple of years, if the war doesn’t stop us.’

  ‘You don’t sound very sure,’ Shirley said, looking at him quizzically, her head tilted to one side. ‘How can the war stop you?’

  ‘Old enough for call-up, I am.’

  ‘So? If you want to marry Beth, then you will.’

  ‘Best you don’t!’ Mrs Downs said, unexpectedly fiercely. ‘Dishonest, deceitful family they are. Not a decent one among the lot of ’em.’

  ‘What d’you mean?’ Freddy asked.

  ‘No, Mam,’ Shirley pleaded. ‘Don’t start on all that. Not tonight.’

  ‘All what? If there’s something I should know, then you have to tell me,’ Freddy said.

  ‘Stole that business of theirs from my grandfather, that’s what.’

  ‘Your grandfather? A hell of a long time ago, then.’

  ‘The Pipers, Joseph and Harriet Piper, Moll’s grandparents they were, put in a complaint about the state of the place, got a bunch of thugs to knock it about a bit, and bought it off him cheap. They built that place you see today by deceit and dishonesty, that’s what.’

  ‘And when is all this supposed to have happened, Mrs Downs?’

  ‘Don’t matter when. It happened, and that’s all you need to know before you tie yourself to that family.’

  It was only then that Freddy realised that Shirley’s mother had been drinking. Soon afterwards he excused himself and left. That was a lot of ol’ rot she was talking. As if the Pipers would do anything like that. Decent they were, and well known for their generosity.

  As he let himself into his parents’ house he made a decision. If Shirley’s mother drank, then she might not always guard her tongue. Tomorrow he would tell Beth about going to the pictures and meeting Shirley there, and walking her home. She’d understand, probably admire him for his thoughtfulness. Best to cover the situation before it jumped up and knocked him between the eyes. Best too if he didn’t see Shirley again, innocent or not. He closed his eyes and danced with Shirley blissfully, bewitched, into his dreams.

  The following evening, he told Beth an edited version of his meeting with Shirley and her mother.

  ‘I was miserable, Beth. I knew I’d let you down, so I went to the pictures.’

  ‘Oh, Freddy, I’m sorry. I should have gone with you.’

  ‘You wouldn’t have enjoyed it, it wasn’t much of a film. Gangster stories aren’t your favourite, are they? Anyway, Shirley Downs was near by and as she had a big huge bag of sweets, I sat next to her and shared them,’ he grinned. ‘I walked her back to the shop after. It was late, see, after eleven. I didn’t think she should walk back on her own.’

  ‘That was kind of you, Freddy.’

  ‘Well, I’d like to think someone would do it for you when I’m not here to look after you, love.’ He handed her the velvet-lined jeweller’s box. She seemed oblivious to what he was saying as he placed the dainty, sparkling brooch in her hand. ‘I had to buy you a ring, it’s convention, isn’t it? But this was something different. I bought this not because it was expected of me, but because I wanted to.’ He lowered his voice, adding, ‘Because I love you.’

  She choked on tears of joy and, speechless, she hugged him. Then as she calmed down she told him he was marvellous, thoughtful, romantic and that she was the luckiest girl in St David’s Well.

  He felt euphoric at her reaction, his body fired with love, and this lasted until he left to walk home. As he walked past the newsagent and looked up at the blacked-out window above, he remembered the dance he had shared with Shirley Downs and despondency fell over him like a threatening shadow, an augury of a future without joy.

  * * *

  Beth proudly showed the brooch to her sister, but Lilly was far from impressed. She had just got home from a very unsatisfactory meeting with Phil Martin, and she was miserably aware that for her life was far from perfect. Then her stupid sister had come in boasting about some boring present from that cheat Freddy Clements, and she was supposed to be pleased? Fat chance. ‘It was probably your money he was spending anyway!’ she snapped.

  ‘The trouble with you, Lilly Castle, is that you’re jealous! No one ever buys you presents!’ Beth retorted and soon they were arguing as only sisters can.

  Eynon came in after a while and said, ‘Stop it you two! I could hear you halfway up the street. It’s bad enough our Mam and our Dad rowing all the time without you two joining in. Honestly, I’ll be glad when I can sign on and join the army. It can’t be much worse than living here!’

  Slamming the door he ran upstairs and flopped on the bed. Through the wall, he could hear the subdued mutterings of his parents. They were not as loud as his sisters, but the tone told quite clearly that they were arguing.

  Coming home from a date with Alice Potter he had felt great. Then, as soon as he stepped inside the front door, his mood had changed. He thought of leaving home with greater anticipation. If it weren’t for the war he would be facing living here until he married, years ahead. At least the army was an escape available to him. Even if it meant danger it would be an improvement, he thought, as the voices downstairs rose to a crescendo, in counterpoint with the increasing volume from the next room.

  * * *

  A note pushed through Olive’s door that evening asked her to call in to see Granny Moll on the way to the beach next morning. Curious, and preparing to stand her ground if there had been any complaints, she called and stepped into the large, three-storey house in Sidney Street a few doors up from the smaller one owned by Marged and Huw.

  After the usual offer of a cup of tea from the blackened metal pot on the hearth, Granny Moll said, ‘We’ve been thinking about what you said about keeping the fish-and-chip café open. Do you think you could manage it without calling for help and expecting some of us to leave the beach and rescue you if you got into difficulties?’ She handed Olive a cup of tea that was as thick as paint and waited for the girl’s first polite sip.

  ‘You really mean it? I can run the café instead of working on the beach?’

  ‘You’ll have a month’s trial. Fair play, you should know all about it, working there all winter like you do, but we’ll need to be sure. It will be different from working under Bleddyn. You’d have to organise the staff and deal with orders; it
’s a lot of responsibility.’

  ‘I won’t have any problems. Just give me a girl to serve tables and some help with the dishes and you won’t need to do anything more.’

  ‘What’s wrong with your tea? I can spare another spoonful of sugar if it isn’t sweet enough.’

  ‘Sorry, Granny Moll, but I find it a bit strong.’

  ‘Not expecting, are you?’ The old lady looked hopeful.

  ‘No, it’s just too strong for me.’

  ‘I’ve been trying an experiment. Instead of emptying the pot, I put a small sprinkling of tea leaves on top, just to see if it saves on the tea. Now it’s going to be rationed we have to try and save a bit.’

  ‘I think I’d rather drink hot water,’ Olive said, making a face.

  ‘Shall we start next Monday then?’ Moll suggested and Olive thankfully discarded the tea and nodded agreement.

  ‘I know Ronnie wants to tell you himself, but he had his calling-up papers a couple of days ago.’

  ‘What? I thought he’d applied for deferment on account of the business?’

  ‘Turned him down it seems.’

  They discussed their fears for a while, both trying not to remember the steady stream of injured young men returning to the town and the increasingly long list of the missing and killed.

  ‘The best way of helping Ronnie is to appear matter of fact about it. We’ll talk about it when he comes home, plan for the future as though it’s only around the corner,’ Moll said, holding Olive’s trembling hands.

  They comforted each other and with their fears talked out honestly and fully, they agreed to try not to think about the dangers Ronnie would undoubtedly face. They agreed to take it for granted that he would return, soon and unharmed, to take his place once more within the Piper family.

  ‘There is one thing, Olive, love,’ Moll said sadly. ‘This news changes things. I think our plans to reopen the café will have to wait or at least be reconsidered. We’ll need you to replace Ronnie on the stalls.’

  Thinking of Ronnie leaving her, at that moment Olive was too distressed to care. Telling Granny Moll the news, saying it aloud, had been almost as shocking as when she saw that dreaded envelope with OHMS on the corner.

  For the next couple of weeks Ronnie concentrated on ‘training’ his wife to run the two stalls for which he was mainly responsible, which sold everything needed for the beach, including ices and pop, plus the swingboats and helter-skelter.

  Disappointment over the refusal to run the café was given greater emphasis, a cover for her real distress at Ronnie having to leave her. She tried to hide the true cause of her unhappiness, instead being as difficult as she knew how when Ronnie and the others tried to encourage her to take an interest in the beach. How could she admit that her real reason for hating the business was that she was shy? Even a light-hearted joke from a customer made her colour up and want to run. She was being forced into something for which she was totally unsuitable.

  ‘Eynon will give a hand when you’re busy, and when you aren’t he’ll deal with the helter-skelter,’ Ronnie told her one afternoon, when the cloudy weather had brought disappointingly few people in search of fun. ‘There’s no set job for any of us. We all muck in where we’re most needed.’

  ‘I know that, Ronnie. I’m not stupid!’

  ‘You’ll be fine, love,’ he said, hugging her. ‘It’s only till I come back and then you can give it up. Keep it all going for me, will you?’

  ‘It seems fine on a day like today when most of the trippers have stayed in the cafés and shops. But when there’s a queue and I’m running out of ice-cream, or short of change, what d’you expect me to do then?’

  ‘Taff’s job is to keep an eye on us all and help where needed, you know that.’ He was beginning to become concerned by Olive’s obvious reluctance to learn. Then he sighed. ‘Look, love, I know you’re disappointed not to be running the café, but—’

  ‘Restaurant! It would have been a restaurant.’ She turned away so he couldn’t see tears. How could she tell him that she was crying for him?

  A group of young girls walked up, chiffon scarves in their hair, sand on their feet where they had been walking along the edge of the tide, blue with cold in their bathing suits but determined to have fun. Olive watched as he turned to present them with his special smile.

  ‘You need something more than dippers on today, girls,’ he said. ‘I’m not complaining, mind.’ He served them generously with top-heavy cornets and when he turned to speak to Olive she was on her way up the metal steps to Piper’s Café.

  He couldn’t understand her attitude. Knowing he was going away any day, he had expected these last hours to be special, but instead of being more loving, she was more prickly and bad-tempered.

  He was appeased a little when she returned ten minutes later with a tray of tea and sandwiches for them both.

  ‘Sorry I’ve been awkward, Ronnie,’ she said, staring down into her teacup. ‘I’m finding it hard to accept that you’re going away and I won’t know what you’re doing or even where you are. Since we married we haven’t been apart for more than a few hours.’

  ‘I’ll write, love. I’ll write as often as I can, although from what I understand there won’t be much time in the first weeks; they really put us through a grilling. I promise I’ll write but don’t be upset if you don’t hear for a while. The training is important, see. Our lives depend on knowing what to do in any situation. But I’ll be all right, I just know it. You have to believe that. It’ll help me to cope, knowing you’re here with the family. I’m the lucky one. I will know what you’re doing and where you’ll be.’

  ‘I’ll keep the stalls going as well as I can. I know you’ll need a job to come back to and no other job will do.’ She smiled and, forgetting their tea, they kissed, much to the amusement of the girls who had returned for another ice.

  ‘Make the most of it, ladies,’ Ronnie said as he served them. ‘There isn’t much more where that came from, thanks to Adolf, rot his socks.’

  * * *

  Beth watched each evening as the young girl casually walked up to the bins outside Piper’s Café and took the parcels of food. She saw her run off over the path, across the headland and through the fields. One day she failed to arrive and Beth wondered if she were ill, or had just got tired of feeding the horses. The following evening she was there early and hovered around until the food was placed in the bin. Beth stopped her cleaning and watched as the girl went only as far as the grass and, with her back to the café, opened the packet and began to eat.

  So the food was for herself! Beth was glad she hadn’t altered her habit of putting out only the best food for her, and had not decided that the horse might not be very fussy. She tried to follow, but the girl easily evaded her and she walked disconsolately back to the café. The following night she tried again, then, realising that the girl was well aware of her intentions, decided it was best to do nothing for a while and hope the girl would regain her confidence and allow her the chance to get close.

  Beth had told her parents nothing about Freddy using their savings. She proudly showed them her beautiful daffodil brooch and boasted about how well their savings were growing. If Marged, Huw and Moll had their doubts, they said nothing to her. There was plenty of time before they would be married and everything could change before a wedding took place.

  There were evenings when she and Freddy didn’t meet and on those, Beth worked at making tablecloths and embroidering cushion covers for her future home. She had three large boxes in her bedroom, boxes in which the local shop received its five-weekly orders of cigarettes and tobacco. Strong and roomy, they were gradually filling up with the necessities for beginning to build a home.

  Occasionally Freddy would contribute something. His mother found a pair of pillow cases she had never used, a saucepan that she no longer needed. In spite of the fun of watching the collection grow, Beth sometimes felt a melancholy surround her as she took out the items and listed them, writi
ng down items they still needed and planning how they would be used.

  On the day Ronnie left, a travel warrant and a small suitcase his only possessions, she stood with the rest of the family outside the family home and wondered how long it would be before Freddy went off in the same way.

  ‘I wish I was going with him, don’t you, Freddy?’ her youngest brother Eynon said.

  ‘Shut up, you damned fool!’ Lilly said. ‘No one in their right mind would want to go and fight in a war!’ She was tearful. Phil had told her the previous day that he too was waiting to be called up.

  ‘Yes, use your sense,’ Marged scolded him. ‘Can’t you see how upset we all are? Especially Olive, seeing him go like this.’

  As the others tried to hush him for Olive’s sake, Freddy agreed with Eynon.

  ‘I can’t say I’ll be sorry to go, Eynon. This waiting around is terrible when we want to go and help fight.’

  Surprised, Beth turned to him and asked, ‘You really want to go and fight in a war?’

  ‘I don’t want to leave you, Beth, love, you know that, but I can understand the excitement Eynon’s feeling.’

  ‘You’re the only one, then.’

  ‘Wearing a uniform and carrying a gun and hand grenades; I’ll show ’em,’ Eynon said. ‘I can’t wait till I’m old enough.’

  ‘The way it’s going over there, you’ll have your chance,’ Huw said gruffly, as Bleddyn put the clutch in and began to move off with Ronnie and Olive inside the van. ‘Me an’ all, perhaps, even though I’m past fifty.’ He dragged himself inside with the aid of crutches, the reason why he hadn’t driven his son to the station.

  As the van moved off, taking Ronnie and Olive to the railway station, and the rest of them stood in the road waving until they disappeared around the corner, Moll said sadly, ‘Your brother’s boys will be going next, Huw. I don’t know how we’ll manage without Taff and Johnny.’

  ‘We’ll all have to work that much harder, that’s all,’ Huw said, his voice choked with fear at the thought of the danger Ronnie would soon be facing. ‘We’ll work hard to keep everything going till they come home.’