by Joan Jonker
‘I’ve had strict instructions from Rosie that I’m not to grow any more. She’s threatened to hit me on the head with the frying pan every night, to stunt me growth.’
‘Someone would have to lift her up to do it,’ Ruthie said. She had given her chair up to Steve and was sitting on a fireside chair with a plate on her knee. ‘Unless yer were daft enough to bend down so she could hit yer.’
‘I did tell Rosie she’d have a problem, but as usual she had an answer. “Sure, I’ll not be letting yer get the better of me, Tommy Bennett, that I’ll not. I reckon if I stood on the third stair I could manage it right enough”.’
‘She’s a case, that girl.’ Nellie screwed up her chip paper and was about to throw it on the hearth when she caught Molly’s eye and thought better of it. ‘Yer’ll definitely have yer hands full with her.’
‘And me arms, Auntie Nellie, I’m pleased to say. I can’t think of nothing I’d like better than to have me hands and arms full of Rosie O’Grady.’
Doreen looked at the empty plates. ‘Ma, I’ll do the dishes then go over and see Miss Clegg. And Phil will be coming back with me to see Steve and Tommy.’
‘I’d like to go, as well,’ Steve said. ‘If yer think Miss Clegg’s up to it.’
‘Me too!’ Tommy piped up. ‘I’d love to see her.’
‘She’d be made up to see yer. But don’t stay too long or get her excited. Remember, she’s ninety.’ Molly pushed her chair back. ‘Go on, the four of yer. Me and Nellie will do the washing up.’
There was loud laughter when Nellie threw the chip paper and caught Molly on the nose.
‘Yer can sod off, Molly Bennett! Me and George weren’t good enough to have any of yer dinner, so I’m ruddywell not going to wash the dishes what you greedy buggers had yer dinner off! Me and my feller had to sit on yer couch and eat chips out of the paper, like two naughty children. And, to add insult to injury, I had to pay for the ruddy chips meself! So don’t be expecting any favours from me ’cos yer’ve no chance.’
Molly had the plates stacked up in front of her. Without raising an eyebrow or turning a hair, she asked, ‘Shall I wash and you dry? Or would you rather wash?’
Nellie dug her curled fists into the couch and pushed herself up. ‘I’ll dry, girl, ’cos I don’t want to get me hands chapped. George doesn’t like it when me hands are rough.’
Steve, Tommy, Jill and Doreen were still laughing when Phil opened the door of Miss Clegg’s house. And within minutes they had the old lady in stitches. The tears of emotion that had sprung to her eyes at the sight of the two young soldiers, were quickly turned to tears of laughter. And conversation during the half-hour visit was kept light. When Victoria asked questions about the war, either Steve or Tommy would relate a funny incident rather than the reality. So that when the old lady they all adored went to bed, she would go to sleep with a smile on her face.
Chapter Five
When Rosie came back alone, it was to say that Bridie and Bob were looking tired and she’d suggested they stay in and have an early night. ‘Sure, wasn’t herself up at seven this morning? She couldn’t sleep with the excitement of it all. And while Uncle Bob didn’t get up so early, he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep. So I’ve told them to go to bed early and they’d see their beloved grandson tomorrow.’ Rosie’s bonny face had a smile for everyone. But she reserved her special one for Tommy. ‘It’s palpitations we’ve all had for the last week, Tommy Bennett, so it is. And it’s meself that’s wondering if yer appreciate the worry yer’ve put us through?’
‘I didn’t put yer through any worry, it was some bloke called Hitler.’ Tommy winked broadly. ‘Come and give us a kiss, Rosie, I haven’t had one for two hours.’ He was sat at the table with Jill and Steve, and Doreen and Phil. Patting the empty chair next to him, he said, ‘Come on, I’ve saved yer a seat.’
‘Auntie Molly, since yer son put on that soldier’s uniform, he’s become very forward, so he has. And bossy with it.’
‘We’ll make allowances for him, sunshine. For the next week we’ll pamper him and give him all his own way. Then it’s back to normal.’
‘So yer think I should give him a kiss, do yer, Auntie Molly?’
‘Most definitely, sunshine!’
There was a twinkle in Rosie’s deep blue Irish eyes as she walked around the table. ‘Me mammy used to always say that I should have respect for me elders. So I’m giving yer a kiss, Tommy Bennett, ’cos yer mam said I should.’
Nellie, from her speck on the couch, said, ‘For heaven’s sake get on with it, girl, before he dies from the want of.’
Tommy jumped up, his pulses racing at the mere sight of the girl he adored. ‘I don’t enjoy a kiss sitting down. Let’s do the job properly.’ And when he pulled Rosie into his arms his kiss was not only proper, but a real humdinger.
Steve leaned towards Jill, and in a loud whisper said, ‘While all the eyes are on Tommy, d’yer think we could steal a kiss?’
‘I was just thinking the same thing,’ Phil said. ‘How about it, Doreen?’
Nellie watched the three couples, with their arms entwined and their lips meeting, and when she thought they’d had enough, she called, ‘Okay, break it up! If yer carry on, I’ll be dragging me feller upstairs.’
Molly gasped. ‘Nellie McDonough! Will yer be careful what yer say? Honest to God, I don’t know where to put me face sometimes! No matter what we’re talking about, we always manage to end up in your bedroom!’
Nellie pulled her tongue out. ‘Ye’re wrong there, girl. It wasn’t my bedroom I was talking about, it was yours! What’s the use of us running home while you’ve got a perfectly good bed upstairs? Besides, by the time we’d got to ours, George would have lost interest.’
‘I give up,’ Molly said, her mind smiling while her head wagged from side to side. ‘I don’t know how yer put up with her, George.’
‘With great difficulty, Molly, with great difficulty.’
‘Go ’way, Dad, yer’d be lost without her.’ Steve sat down and pulled Jill on to his knee. ‘Yer life would be very dull.’
Nellie wasn’t as demonstrative as Molly, but her love for her children was just as deep. And while she resorted to humour now, as she looked at her son her devotion to him could be seen in her eyes. ‘Oh, yer’ve come up for air, have yer? Well, now yer’ve got yer breath back, perhaps yer’ll tell us a bit more about where yer’ve been for the last two years, eh? We got no news in yer letters ’cos most of the words had ruddy big blue lines through. That feller who read the letters before censoring them had a good job, didn’t he? I bet his hair used to stand on end reading the passionate ones.’
‘You should have applied for that job, Nellie,’ Jack said. ‘Yer’d have been good at it.’
‘Nah, I’m no good at words with more than six letters in. Mind you, I could have taken me dictionary with me.’
Molly laughed. ‘Yer haven’t got a dictionary!’
‘Yes, I have, smart arse.’ Nellie tried a look of disdain, but as she was sitting down it wasn’t very effective. ‘I’ve got you, haven’t I? I could have took you with me.’
‘Yer mean yer could have taken me, sunshine, not took me. That’s very bad grammar, that is.’
Nellie bit on her bottom lip in an attempt to keep her face straight. ‘Yer don’t half get me mixed up, girl, and I’ll swear yer do it on purpose. What’s me grandma got to do with it?’
George touched her arm. ‘I would very much like to hear about the war, and I’d like to hear it before the next one starts.’
As quick as a snap of the fingers, Nellie’s whole attitude changed and she became the docile housewife. ‘Yes, love! Anything yer say, love! Steve, you heard what yer dad said. Don’t be sitting there like a love-struck giraffe, tell him what he wants to know.’
‘I’ve already told yer most of it.’ Steve had given a very watered-down version of his time overseas. It had been such a joyous homecoming, he didn’t want to put a damper on it. He’d tell his dad t
he truth when they were on their own one day, but to do so now would only upset the women. But all eyes were on him and he had to say something. ‘If yer think Liverpool was badly hit by bombs, it’s nothing compared to the hammering Hamburg got. It was razed to the ground. Even when the Germans surrendered, our soldiers were on orders not to let anybody into the city because it was too dangerous. People weren’t allowed to go back to their homes, and even though I hate Hitler and his cronies, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the civilians. Particularly the elderly and very young who were walking around bewildered and homeless. They probably didn’t want the war any more than we did.’
‘Somebody should have stopped Hitler before he got so powerful,’ George said. ‘The top brass in the German army must have known from the very beginning what he was up to, and yer can’t tell me they all agreed with him. So why didn’t they knock him down to size?’
‘Dad, anyone who disagreed with Hitler didn’t live long enough to tell the tale. He was ruthless. His one aim was to rule the whole of Europe, and anyone who raised their voice in opposition was quietly disposed of.’
‘We passed through Holland on our way to Belgium,’ Tommy said. ‘And there were women and young girls walking round with their heads shaved. When I mentioned it to one of the lads, he said the Dutch people did that to anyone who fraternised with the enemy. Some of the girls had made friends with the Germans, probably to get food off them, but the Dutch people didn’t take kindly to them and shaved their heads to shame them, so everyone would know what they were.’
‘Yeah, we saw that on the Pathé News,’ Molly said. ‘I can understand the Dutch people wanting to shame them because they were eating potato peelings while these girls were well fed. But I have to admit I asked meself if I wouldn’t have done the same thing if me family were starving. It’s easy for us to criticise, but we don’t know what we’d have done in the circumstances.’
‘One of me mates, Hooter, said he heard some of the girls had babies to the German soldiers stationed there, but I don’t know whether that’s true or not. Hooter was always pulling our legs and we never knew when he was having us on.’
‘Hooter!’ Nellie said. ‘What sort of a name is that when it’s out? The poor lad wasn’t lumbered with a name like that, was he?’
‘No, his real name is Archibald Higgins.’ Tommy’s chuckle turned into a fullblown laugh. ‘Hooter was a nickname we gave him because of his nose. Honest to God, he had the biggest conk I’ve ever seen in me life.’
‘That wasn’t very kind of yer, Tommy Bennett,’ Rosie said. ‘Sure, the poor lad can’t help the way the good Lord made him.’
Nellie’s shaking body had the floorboards creaking. ‘Perhaps not, Rosie, but his mother didn’t help by giving him a name like Archibald. She was either thick or had a bloody good sense of humour. I can just imagine it when he was a kid out playing and his mother coming to the door to call him in. “Archibald, yer dinner’s ready!” The poor lad must have had his leg pulled something rotten.’
‘I doubt it, Auntie Nellie, ’cos he’s a big lad and knows how to handle himself. He can give me a couple of inches, easy. Anyway, yer’ll be meeting him one of these days because we’re keeping in touch. He only lives in Hawthorne Road and we’ll be getting together with a couple of other lads in a week or two.’
‘He doesn’t live near the gasworks, does he?’ Nellie asked. ‘The smell from there is terrible, and if he’s got as big a nose as yer say, he’ll get the smell twice as bad as anyone else.’
Molly tutted. ‘Nellie, will yer leave the poor lad alone!’
‘I don’t mean no harm, girl. In fact, I’ll look forward to meeting this Archibald, and his hooter.’
‘Ye’re in for a surprise, Auntie Nellie, ’cos he could lift you up and toss yer in the air as though yer were a rag doll.’
Nellie shuffled to the edge of the couch, her eyes wide with anticipation. ‘Ooh, d’yer think he will, Tommy?’
‘He will if he thinks ye’re asking for it.’
‘Ooh, I wouldn’t ask for it, lad, that would look brazen. But there’s nothing to stop you putting in a good word for me.’
‘That’s enough, Nellie McDonough!’ Molly slapped a hand on the arm of her chair. ‘Wherever he is, the poor lad’s ears must be burning.’
But Nellie had to have the last word. ‘Well, if there’s anything burning, girl, he’s got the right equipment to smell it.’
Molly turned to her son. ‘Tommy, why did yer have to mention yer mate? Nellie will worry it like a dog with a bone.’
There was a hint of devilment in Tommy’s smile. ‘Mam, Archie does have a large nose, that’s the truth. And we nicknamed him Hooter. But he’s one of the most handsome men ye’re likely to meet in a month of Sundays. And the nicest.’
‘He wouldn’t happen to be about forty, would he?’ Nellie asked. ‘Yer see, I could do with trading my George in for another model.’
‘Sorry, Auntie Nellie, he’s only twenty-one.’
‘Isn’t that just my luck?’ Nellie let her shoulders slump and the corners of her mouth turned down. Then she spotted a smiling Ruthie sitting on the floor next to her mother’s chair. ‘He’s too young for me, and too old for you, queen. So we’ve both missed out. Mind you, he’d be just right for our Lily.’
Steve leaned forward. ‘Lily said she had a date tonight. Mam, is she courting?’
Nellie felt George dig her sharply in the ribs and she chose her words carefully. ‘I don’t know, son. She was going out with a bloke for a while, then he got called up. That’s about all me and yer dad know.’
‘She said she had a date, so he must have been demobbed. Unless, of course, she’s found someone else while he was away.’
No such luck, Nellie was thinking as she answered. ‘I honestly couldn’t tell yer, Steve. With all the excitement of you and Tommy coming home, I’ve had so much on me mind. And then not knowing when Paul will be home, that’s been a worry.’
‘At least yer’ve had a letter from him, so yer know he’s in England. I wouldn’t worry, Mam, he’ll walk in as large as life any day now.’
‘Of course he will,’ Molly said. ‘And then we’ll have a real Welcome Home party. I hope Corker’s ship docks before then ’cos it wouldn’t be a party without Corker.’
‘He should be home soon,’ Jack said. ‘He’s been away about four months now.’
‘D’yer know what I’ve been looking forward to all the time I’ve been away?’ Steve gave Jill’s hand a squeeze. ‘Apart from wanting to be with you, sweetheart, and me family and friends. Well, it’s walking into the corner pub for the first time in me life, with me dad, Uncle Jack and Uncle Corker. It’s a few years ago now, but I can remember one night when the three of yer were going for a pint and I must have looked dead jealous. Uncle Corker ruffled me hair and said not to worry, the time would come when I’d be old enough to go with them. So when I have me first pint, standing at that bar, I want those three men with me. Then I’ll know I am well and truly a man.’
Jill, the shy and gentle one, wasn’t going to let that pass. ‘Yer don’t need a pint to become a man, Steve. In my eyes, yer’ve always been one.’
‘And so has my Phil.’ Doreen gave her boyfriend a quick peck on the cheek. ‘From the second I clapped eyes on yer at Barlow’s Lane Dance Hall, yer’ve always been my man.’
Molly’s eyes were filling up. Oh God, I’m going to cry. Then she heard Rosie’s lovely lilting voice, which was like music to her ears.
‘I’ll not be leaving you out, Tommy Bennett, indeed I’ll not! Sure yer were fifteen when I met yer, but I knew even then that yer were the man for me. I had a bit of trouble convincing yer, that’s the truth of it, but sure didn’t yer come round to my way of thinking eventually? And I’ll be telling yer this. Neither age, a soldier’s uniform nor a pint of beer, make the man. Yer are what the good Lord made yer, and He made you a man, Tommy Bennett.’
‘I’m glad he did, Rosie, and that’s the truth of it.’
Tommy’s attempt at an Irish accent did him credit. ‘’Cos if He’d made me a woman, wouldn’t I be after asking yer to get off me knee right this minute?’
‘If yer were a woman, Tommy, I wouldn’t be on yer knee in the first place! But seeing as ye’re not, would yer kindly keep yer knees still and stop bobbing me up and down?’
‘Come here, wench, I want to whisper in yer ear.’ Tommy whispered so low nobody could hear him. But the smile on Rosie’s face told them that whatever he’d said had found favour with her.
‘Auntie Molly, Tommy wants to know if it would be all right if he walked me home now? He’d like me to himself for an hour, and it’s meself that’s saying it would be altogether fine by me.’
Amidst the laughter, Jack scratched his head and said, ‘Now I can’t for the life of me imagine what he wants to get yer on yer own for.’
George, his hands clasped between his knees, chuckled. What a bonny girl this Irish lass was. As pretty as a picture with a smile that would melt a heart of stone. ‘Whatever it is, it’s got Tommy blushing.’
‘I don’t know why I bothered whispering, Mr McDonough! I might have known Rosie would blurt it out. And this blush yer see on me face – well, that’s me getting in practice. I’ve got a feeling I’ll be doing a lot of blushing in me life. Rosie doesn’t believe in beating about the bush. If she thinks it, she says it.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as yer don’t hurt anybody,’ Molly said. ‘Rosie told me once that if the good Lord hadn’t wanted her to think, He wouldn’t have given her a brain. And if He hadn’t wanted her to talk, He wouldn’t have given her a mouth.’
‘And isn’t that the truth, Auntie Molly? So yer son had better get used to me using both me brain and me mouth.’
‘Will yer get yer coat, Rosie, and I’ll walk yer home.’ Tommy gave a broad wink behind her back. ‘And when we get there, leave yer brain on the hallstand ’cos yer’ll not be needing it. Just bring those ruby red lips in with yer.’
