by Joan Jonker
‘I’m all for it.’ David sounded eager. ‘They have football on as well. The day after the game, of course, but at least you can watch it in comfort. Standing in the Kop when it’s cold or raining is no joke. It takes a very loyal fan to go to every home game. So I’m all for clubbing together to buy a television.’
‘Whatever you two decide, I’ll go along with,’ Eva said, folding her pages of the paper. ‘It will be nice for me when I go on part time, having the afternoons with me feet up and being entertained.’ She pushed her chair back, passed the paper to David, and began clearing the table. ‘We’re having roast beef for dinner, and I’ll do a Yorkshire pudding.’
Poppy rubbed her tummy. ‘Goody, goody. I love Yorkshire pudding with plenty of gravy.’
When the knock came on the door, Eva looked down at the dirty dishes in her hand and the tablecloth littered with crumbs. ‘Oh, dear, this is probably Marg. I’ll take these out while one of you brings the sauce bottle and jam out. And the other, whip the tablecloth off the table and shake it in the yard.’ When the second knock came, she shouted, ‘Hold yer horses, will yer?’
‘Look at the state of me in my dressing gown,’ Poppy moaned. ‘I don’t care who it is, I’m opening the door in it. If they don’t like it, they can lump it.’
‘Ay, queen, I heard that.’ Marg Boden brushed past. ‘And I wouldn’t care if yer were in yer nuddy. It wouldn’t put me off me dinner.’
Eva poked her head into the living room to see her neighbour pulling a chair out for herself. ‘Don’t make yerself comfortable, sweetheart, ’cos you ain’t staying for dinner. The piece of beef I’ve got will not stretch to four people.’
‘Oh, I won’t be staying until dinnertime, queen, ’cos I’ve got to get me own dinner on the go. We’re having lamb with mint sauce, and veg of course.’ She winked at Poppy and David before adding, ‘I promised Ally I’d just have one cup of tea, ten minutes’ chatter, then go home. Is that all right with you, queen?’
Eva came in drying her hands. ‘Do I have any choice, Mrs Boden? It seems not, for we were all set to lounge around for the whole day.’ This was a fib of course, but neither Poppy nor David contradicted their mother, as they sat and waited to be entertained by their neighbour. They only had to wait a few seconds.
‘Say that again, Eva Meadows.’ Marg narrowed her eyes to slits. ‘Did you just say that the three of yer were going to hang around all day in yer dressing gowns?’
Eva nodded. ‘That’s what I said, sweetheart. There’s nothing wrong with your ears.’
‘Well, you lazy buggers!’ Marg looked from one to the other. ‘Yer should bleeding well be ashamed of yerselves! Not only do yer not go to church, but yer can’t even be bothered looking respectable. The neighbours will think ye’re running a house of ill repute.’
David managed to get an expression of innocence on his face. ‘What do you mean, Marg? What is a house of ill repute? I never heard of that before.’
Poppy copied him. ‘Neither have I! Do you mean like Florrie, over the road? I know her house is untidy.’
‘Don’t act the bleeding goat! Who do yer think ye’re trying to kid!’ Marg sat back in the chair and crossed her legs. ‘If all this is because yer can’t be bothered making me a cup of tea, and yer think I’ll take the hint and slink back home, well yer’ve got another think coming, queen, because I came for a purpose, and I ain’t about to move me backside until I’ve done what I set out to do. So now you know.’
Eva stood by the table looking thoughtful. ‘I’ve forgotten what yer said yer’d come for now, so remind me.’
Marg held up three fingers of her left hand, and ticked them off with the index finger of her right. ‘Cup of tea, ten minutes’ chat, and ask Poppy if Sarah can go to the Grafton with her and David again on Tuesday. Now they are easy enough to understand and agree to. So get the ruddy kettle on, and stop messing about.’
‘All right, sweetheart, keep yer hair on. I’ll put the kettle on. That’s number one and my job. David can keep you chatting until the tea’s made. That’s number two sorted out. And number three is Poppy’s turn. She’ll answer the question about Sarah and the Grafton.’
Marg let out a deep sigh. ‘All that for a ruddy cup of tea. I ask yer, was it worth it?’ She winked at Poppy before raising her voice. ‘The least she can do is put a couple of biscuits on the saucer to make up for the time she’s wasted.’
It didn’t take Eva long to make the tea, and soon they were seated round the table with a plate of assorted biscuits in the centre. After dunking an arrowroot biscuit into her tea, and lifting it quickly to her mouth before the end fell off, Marg turned to Poppy. ‘Would you mind taking Sarah with you to the Grafton on Tuesday? If it intrudes on yer love life, then just say so. Sarah won’t be upset. I mean, yer don’t want a hanger-on if ye’re with a boyfriend.’
‘I haven’t got a boyfriend, Marg,’ Poppy said. It had to come out sometime, so it may as well be now. But she wouldn’t go through the whole saga of Peter and Kate, for whatever they decided it was their business, not a source of conversation for people who didn’t even know them. ‘And I’ve got another surprise for you. I handed in my notice at work on Friday, and I leave next Friday.’
Marg’s eyes were like saucers. ‘Go ’way! Ooh, where are yer going to work now, then? Is it a better job, with more money?’
‘Calm down, Marg. I haven’t got another job to go to.’ Poppy gave a shortened version of what happened, and ended by saying, ‘I wasn’t going to put up with it any longer, and I went with Jean to give in our notice.’
Marg gave Poppy a slap on the back. It was meant to be a comfort, but it nearly toppled Poppy out of her chair. ‘Yer won’t be out of work for long, queen, not with your looks. And with yer learning shorthand, yer should walk into one.’
‘Me and David have told her that,’ Eva said. ‘She’ll have a job in no time.’
Marg rested her elbows on the table. ‘Ay, I think I’ll move in here. Yer have a lot more excitement than we do in our house. Have yer got room for a lodger?’
David asked, ‘How would you consider sleeping on the couch for a mere thirty bob a week? That would include breakfast, but you’d have to be out of the house by seven thirty ’cos I need the bathroom to shave in.’
‘Yer can sod off, lad. I do much better than that in me own home.’ Marg was grinning at what she was about to say. ‘I get me breakfast free, as long as I feed me family before they go off to work. Then I can go back to me lovely comfortable bed, which is still warm from me lovely husband. When I’ve rested, I go downstairs and blow the dust off the sideboard and mantelpiece, put the dirty dishes in hot water to wash themselves, put a few cobs of coal on the fire my feller lit for me, then stretch out on the couch until I feel refreshed. Then I stroll to the shops for something tasty for my lunch, like boiled ham for a sandwich, with a fresh cream cake to follow.’ Marg yawned and put a hand over her mouth. ‘I buy two tins of cooked meat, an onion and an Oxo cube. Mix them all together in a pan and heat it up just before the family are due in. I serve the dinner, but don’t eat any meself because I can’t stand tinned meat, it reminds me of cat food. Then I put a hand to me forehead, like this.’ Marg took on her Ethel Barrymore role. ‘And I let out a sigh before flopping full length on the couch and complaining about being tired out after cleaning the house from top to bottom. And it never fails. My Ally tells me to stay where I am, and he and the girls will wash up and make me a nice cup of tea.’
No one had spoken a word. They were all carried away, not only by the tale their neighbour was making up as she went along, but by her ability to tell a story to fit any occasion.
Marg still had a few words to say. ‘So yer see, lad, you’d have to pay me money to sleep on yer couch. And I wouldn’t come cheap.’
Eva felt like clapping. Who else could tell a story off the cuff like that? And with all the expressions and actions. ‘Have you ever thought of writing a book, Marg? Ye’re wasting yer time and talent.’<
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‘Oh, don’t think I haven’t thought of that, queen, ’cos at school my teacher said the same thing.’ Marg giggled. ‘Well perhaps not quite the same words you used. I can’t remember exactly, but what it amounted to, in a nutshell, was that if the number of words I used in a week were written down, it would take a crane to lift the book. Actually she didn’t say book, ’cos she was posh, she said tome. I thought she meant a tomb, you know, like what they bury kings and queens in, and I laughed. And d’yer know what, I got the cane for laughing in the middle of a lesson. I didn’t think that was fair, ’cos half the class were laughing, only they had lifted their desk tops so the teacher wouldn’t see them. I got me own back on a couple of them at playtime, though. I pinched their ball and threw it into the boys’ playground. The lads hung on to it until the bell went, so they got paid back for laughing at me.’
‘I wouldn’t have the nerve to laugh at you, Marg,’ David said. ‘I’d laugh with you, but never at you.’
‘That’s good thinking, lad.’ Marg held an arm out and flexed her muscles. ‘Mind you, I’d never hit a mate. That would be hitting below the belt, and against the Queensberry rules.’
‘Before we forget what you came for, Mrs Boden,’ Poppy said, ‘can we get back to the Grafton on Tuesday. I may go, and I may not. I’ll have to pull my horns in and watch what I spend, but I don’t think I’ll have to be so tight with myself. One night out a week won’t break the bank.’
‘I’ll take you on Tuesday,’ David offered. ‘I haven’t made any plans so I’m free. Sarah could come with us.’
Poppy’s grin reached from ear to ear. ‘I’m so glad I have you for a brother, David. You are one little love. I’d miss not going to the Grafton, but I didn’t want to go on my own because of Peter and Kate. He’d be bound to ask me to dance, and if I was alone he’d naturally ask me to join them. I don’t want to do that; it wouldn’t be fair on Kate. But if I’m with my brother and a friend, it would be different. I wouldn’t feel awkward. So if David is game, then you can tell Sarah to call for us at half seven.’
‘She’ll be over the moon, queen, and as soon as I tell her she’ll be up those stairs like a shot, to choose which dress she’ll wear.’
David grinned. ‘How many dresses has Sarah got, Marg? Is she fashion conscious like her mother?’
‘Yeah, she’s got a lot of clothes has our Sarah. So has Lucy, come to that, but where Sarah is careful with her money and spends it on decent clothes, Lucy is more easy come, easy go. She loves chocolates and thinks nothing of going through a whole box in one night. She takes after Ally. He’s got a very sweet tooth.’
Marg glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece and stood up so quickly she knocked the chair flying. ‘Oh, my God, look at the time! I told Ally I wouldn’t be long.’ She picked up the chair and pushed it under the table. ‘It’s all your fault, yer know. Yer keep yapping away and I can’t get a word in edgeways.’
‘You cheeky beggar!’ Eva said. ‘I don’t think I’ve been able to get half a dozen words in since you’ve been here!’
‘Oh, I’m not blaming you, queen, and I’ll tell my Ally that. It’s Poppy what’s done all the talking. What with her love life, and packing in her job, well, I don’t know about me writing a book, she could sell her story to the News of the World and make a fortune. She’d have to spice it up, like, but she’d never have to worry about working again.’ Marg forgot she was in a hurry as her imagination took over. ‘I can see the headline now, on the front page in large letters. Wealthy Boss Has Wicked Way With Typist. You’d coin the money in, queen.’
‘Marg, have you forgotten yer’ve got a home to go to?’ Eva kept her face straight. ‘And a family who will be expecting a roast dinner.’
‘Oh, the dinner won’t take me long, queen, ’cos I put the meat in the oven before I came here. And the veg are all washed and in the pan, ready to put a light under.’
‘Marg Boden, you’ve got a skin as thick as an elephant. I’d call yer every name under the sun for holding me back with our dinner, if only I could bring meself to swear.’
On her way to the door, Marg turned. ‘Seeing as ye’re me mate, I’ll swear for yer.’ Stomping a foot, she snarled, ‘Damn, blast and bugger the bleeding woman.’ Then, all smiles, she asked, ‘Now don’t yer feel better getting that off yer chest, queen? I always say a good swear is better than giving someone a black eye.’
‘I’ve got to my age without swearing or giving anyone a black eye, sweetheart,’ Eva said. ‘And I can’t see me changing now. But if I ever catch one of me fingers in the mangle, or bang me head on the mantelpiece, then I’ll give yer a knock on the wall and you can swear for me.’
‘Will do, queen, will do.’ Marg waved a hand over her head as she made for the front door. ‘See yer tomorrow, queen.’
David came back into the living room after seeing their neighbour out. ‘She’s hilarious. Never lost for words. There were a few times there I wanted to breathe for her, ’cos she went on non-stop.’
‘She can be serious when she needs to be,’ Eva said, her head nodding in agreement with her words. ‘There’s a couple of elderly people in this street who have good reason to be grateful to Marg. If it’s snowing or raining, she gives them a knock and gets their messages for them. And if they’re not well she’ll send for the doctor, or sit with them herself until they’re better. Not many people see that side of Marg, because she never lets on. She’s kind and thoughtful, and one of the best friends anyone could have.’
Poppy was nodding now. ‘We’ve also got good reason to be grateful to her. She’s always been there for us, hasn’t she, Mam?’
‘Yes, she has, sweetheart. When I had to go out to work after yer dad died, she was the one waiting for yer to come home from school, with a hot cup of tea ready to warm you up. I could never have managed without her. I couldn’t have kept this house on, not without her help.’
‘I know, Mam, and we’ll make it up to her. Let her see how we’ve never forgotten her kindness,’ Poppy said. ‘When we’re all settled, with me in a new job, we’ll do something nice for Marg. I don’t know what, but we’ll think of something to surprise her.’
David was nodding. ‘Very good idea, sis. When we’re in the money, we could buy her a watch, or a necklace. Or take her to the Adelphi for dinner. She’d like that best, I think. She loves getting dolled up, so she’d love the Adelphi.’
Eva gave a low cough. ‘Excuse me, but aren’t you forgetting something? Just before Marg came, you were all set on buying a television when we’d saved enough money. Now you’re talking of saving for a watch for our neighbour or a posh meal at the Adelphi! Before you make any plans, I suggest we forget all about a television, and a thank you present for Marg, until we’re financially settled. Don’t you agree?’
David and Poppy looked at each other and nodded. ‘We got carried away there, Mam,’ Poppy said, ‘spending money we haven’t got. But it was nice while it lasted.’
‘We had good intentions,’ David said. ‘And it doesn’t mean we have to forget the television, or Marg! Thinking of them will give us something to look forward to.’
‘I get my reference from Mr Jones tomorrow night, so keep your fingers crossed it will be a good one. I’ll start looking around in earnest once I’ve got that in my hand. And I’ve made up my mind that I’m going to ask Mr John for a reference as well. I don’t think he’ll refuse, because by Monday I’d like to bet any money he will have been ticked off by his father. I’ve worked there for over three years, never a day off, so I can’t see how he can refuse to give me a decent reference. Then I’ll have two to show any firm I apply to for a job.’
David patted her on the back. ‘Well said, our kid. I’m proud of you.’
‘I wish you all the luck in the world, sweetheart,’ Eva said, ‘both in your working life and in your love life. But don’t worry over things that are not worth worrying about. The world isn’t going to come to an end if yer don’t get a job straight away. I kno
w you have your pride and want to pull your weight in the house, but if me and David don’t worry why should you? You’ll find a job, maybe not as soon as you’d like, but it will happen. And when it does, we can start talking about what we’re going to buy, and when we’ll be taking Marg for the posh meal you mentioned. All it takes is patience, and my ma used to tell me that patience always pays off.’
Poppy jumped to her feet. ‘Okay, Mam. Now let me help you get the dinner ready. You see to the beef, and I’ll do the veg and potatoes. Then when it’s on the go, we’ll sit down while my dear brother makes us a cup of tea.’
‘Ay, watch it, sis. You’d better be nice to me if you want me to take you to the dance on Tuesday.’
‘I’m going to be very nice to you, David, in case you change your mind. In fact I’m going to give you one of my roast potatoes in appreciation.’
‘A big one, sis?’
Poppy nodded. ‘A big, golden, crispy one. And that is worth a slow foxtrot of anyone’s money.’
Poppy couldn’t help being apprehensive when she arrived at the office on the Monday morning. She’d told her mother she wasn’t the least bit worried, but that had been bravado. It was easy to appear laid back with a piece of toast in your hand, and a cup of tea in front of you. But waiting by the entrance for Jean to arrive was nerve-racking. Several women from offices in the same block had stopped to ask if what they’d heard on Friday was true, and were sympathetic when told it was. One or two said they weren’t surprised because Mr John was known to be a bully.
Jean came hurrying up, her face red with the exertion of walking very fast. ‘I’m sorry I’m a few minutes late, Poppy, but the bus was full and had to stop at every stop.’
