Bomber Overhead

by Graveyard Greg

  Chapter 17

  Ginger was hurrying, and as they walked down the east side of The Green, they ran into Mrs.Vaux. She was her normal cheery and inquisitive self. "What do you have there, children?" she asked.

  "A homeless kitten," Ginger answered.

  "Homeless. Wherever did it come from?"

  "I found it a few weeks ago."

  "And Farmer Selkirk has been looking after it." Jeffery chimed in. "But now that his daughter has joined the WAAF he doesn't want to anymore."

  "And is one of you going to take it home?"

  "Can't," Arthur said. "They won't let us. Ginger's place don't like cats, and me and Jeffery both live in the hostel up at the manor. Colonel says they don't need another cat."

  Jeffery gave a hopeless shrug. "We meant to keep it up at the old windmill, but that's full of rats. We worried they'd attack a kitten," he said. "Now we can't think of what to do. We might have to turn it loose"

  "Oh dear me," Mrs. Vaux pursed her lips and shook her head. "What would the poor thing find to eat?" She moved closer to Jeffery and put a tentative finger on the kittens head. "Pretty little thing, and friendly. Is it a boy or a girl?"

  Before he could answer, Ginger said, "I've got to go. I'm late." And she rushed away.

  Mrs. Vaux was surprised and a little shocked at her behaviour.

  "She lives at the Fox and Hounds." Arthur explained. "She has to go help them with the pub meals. They get upset if she's not there on time."

  Mrs. Vaux shook her head. "Well that's not right. Do they pay her?"

  "I don't think so, "Jeffery said." She never has money."

  "No, that's certainly not right; something should be done about that. Taking advantage of a bad situation is wrong." She shook her head in genuine disapproval. "But you didn't tell me about the kitten. Boy or girl?"

  "Girl."

  A frown crossed Mrs. Vaux's face. "Oh dear. I was going to offer to take it in, but I don't want to have a house full of kittens when she grows up."

  Jeffery, seeing a possible way out of their dilemma, said. "Mr. Selkirk had her fixed when I promised to work for him Saturdays."

  "Does he pay you?" Mrs. Vaux's voice was quite sharp.

  "He gives me five shillings every Saturday after I've cleaned out all his chicken houses."

  "Hmm. Not exactly a king's ransom for a dirty, hard job, but it's better than nothing. Would you boys like to come in for a piece of cake?"

  The boys followed Mrs. Vaux through into her kitchen where she served them slices of cake and glasses of milk. The kitten got a saucer of milk and a few crumbs which quickly disappeared. As they ate, Mrs. Vaux asked questions about Ginger and wanted to know where she'd come from and what her parents were doing.

  "Her mum's in the WRNS and her gran lives up in London," Jeffery told her.

  "And her dad's a sailor on a destroyer," Arthur chimed in.

  "Does she ever see them, or hear from them?"

  "Her gran writes sometimes," Jeffery said, and she gets letters from her dad. She says they come in batches. He posts them when his ship's in port. There's a lot of bits cut out leaving big holes. Her dad says it's the censors do it. They're people who read the letters to make sure there's nothing in them that the Germans shouldn't know."

  Their hostess smiled. "I do know what a censor does." Jeffery looked a little sheepish. "Oh, don't worry about it," she said. "You're young and everything's new to you and you pass it on. And that's a good thing. There's a chance I might not have known."

  Both boys had now finished the generous pieces of cake, and were sipping their milk.

  "What's that girl's name?"

  "Ginger," said Arthur.

  "No. I mean her real name."

  For a moment this request stumped them. Ginger was Ginger. They'd never even considered calling her by another name. Then Arthur said, "It's Daisy, Daisy Chandler." Jeffrey nodded.

  "I'll just write that down" Mrs. Vaux said, standing and getting a pencil and paper from a kitchen drawer. When she'd finished, she said,"

  Do you think she'd like to come and stay with me? I could do with company, and she'd be able to help look after the kitten."

  Jeffery finished his milk and put the glass on the kitchen table. "She'd like to get away from that pub, that's a fact. She never has time to herself."

  "Will you ask her to come and see me, then? If she'd like to live here, I'm positive I can arrange it."

  Arthur had finished his milk, too, and Mrs. Vaux stood up. "Well I don't suppose you want to stay around here all day. You'll be wanting to go and do whatever it is boys do with their time." And as she said this, she led the way to the door. The boys thanked her for the milk and cake and left.

  Away from the cottage, Jeffery said. "She's a nice lady. I wish all the village people were like her."

  "Most of them are nice enough," Arthur replied. "It's just a few that aren't. I hope she can help Ginger. She's worried about her mum, I think."

  "What's wrong then?"

  "She thinks her mum may have a boy friend."

  Jeffery said nothing but shook his head. Other families were breaking up as well, and with the evacuation already making them feel somewhat abandoned, many of the children were worried.