Blitz

by Claire Rayner

  Joshy groaned loudly and they all laughed, and David cuffed him cheerfully and went on. ‘I just want to say, on behalf of the family, how grateful we are to Sister Trent and all the nurses and the doctors and Miss Henson from the physio department and all the girls on X-ray, and, well, all of you. She’s done incredibly well, our Auntie Jessie, and we’re very grateful. She’s going home now to a really pretty cottage we’ve found for her and the children and another special person in our lives, Goosey, who’s been in our family for the – well, for ever – and we’ll be there too as often as we can get out of London. Even though the raids are over now – ’

  ‘I wish I could be so certain,’ Jessie growled.

  ‘Oh, they are, Jessie. I swear to you they are. There hasn’t been a raid now for almost seven weeks. May the seventh ended the Blitz, truly it did. They’re too busy elsewhere now, those Germans. No more raids – the Blitz is truly over, I promise you. And as I say, we’ll be down here as often as we can and life might be a lot easier, war or no war – ’

  ‘Can we call on you to help with the summer fete in August, Mr Deveen?’ Sister called. ‘A man who can get his hands on a five-pound box of chocolates in wartime has to be well worth cultivating – ’

  ‘We will,’ Poppy promised. ‘Just tell us what you want – ’

  ‘I’ll do some sewing for you if you like,’ Jessie said. ‘I used to work in a factory making coats and dresses, long ago. When I was young, younger than my Poppy here.’ She smiled at Poppy. ‘Ask your Mama some time, Poppy. Why ain’t she here today?’

  ‘What, get her out of her house?’ David demanded. ‘That’ll be the day – ’

  ‘She’ll have to get out sometime,’ Joshy said. ‘After she’s dead, she will. You can’t keep dead bodies in houses. It’s not legal. I asked my teacher and she told me – ’

  ‘Joshy, that’s enough,’ David said firmly. ‘There are things we all know and don’t have to be told, believe me.’

  ‘Well, I was just saying that – ’

  ‘Enough! Listen, everyone, the car’s outside, and I think it’s time we took our Jessie home. Come and wave us goodbye, hmm? If you can –’ And he smiled at the woman in the bed next to Jessie’s, who had been lying flat on her back for weeks and showed no sign of ever trying to get out again.

  The next half hour was exhausting. The children ran to and fro with Jessie’s collection of personal belongings, and her books (‘How can a person be in a hospital for five months and not pick up a few bits and bobs?’ Jessie demanded when Lee commented on the quantity. ‘I’ll bet you’ve got more than me, anyway. I was bombed out, remember?’ And she said it almost with pride) as David dealt with the details of payment outstanding with the Sister and her clerk, and Poppy tried a little hopelessly to control the hubbub and stop people from being too upset by Jessie’s magisterial progress out to the car on her own two crutches because she was not, she assured everyone loudly, going out any way but under her own steam.

  The only difficult moment for Poppy was when they were standing in the hospital’s main doorway watching the children bustle round the car to get her place ready for her.

  ‘It’s when children turn out good that life makes sense,’ Jessie said suddenly, standing there four-square between her crutches and following them with her eyes as they darted busily about. ‘It’s what we’re for, hmm, Poppela?’

  ‘Not the only thing,’ Poppy said and tucked her hand inside the taut elbow beside her. ‘Life’s about being happy and loved and busy – and – and good yourself. Like you. You’ve done well, sweetheart, and never think otherwise. No matter how our children turn out, we matter too. Otherwise it means the children were only as important as the sort of children they have themselves eventually, and that can’t be right, can it?’

  ‘You’re a good girl, Poppy,’ Jessie said. ‘You always have been. As far as I’m concerned you’re my child too. Let your mother go and jump in the lake if she don’t like it. My Poppela, hmm?’ and she turned her head and grinned at her. And Poppy smiled back.

  ‘Got it in one,’ she said. And Jessie nodded and set out to take herself and her crutches across the gravel to the car.