Sunshine and Showers

by June Francis

  Apparently they had found a position for her at the home of two elderly spinster sisters and she would be starting work there as a domestic within days of leaving the orphanage. Patsy did not know whether to feel glad or sorry. It was good news that there wouldn’t be a man in the house for her sister to want to fuss over her but, on the other hand, Kathleen did not like old women. Patsy could imagine her getting discontented within days. She would not settle and might end up doing something stupid to get out of there.

  A sigh escaped Patsy and she wondered how she could help her sister to be happy. Then she became aware that the music was getting slower and slower. She rushed across the room and wound up the gramophone and the tempo returned to normal.

  ‘Thank you, Patsy!’ called Rose in a breathless voice. ‘I do so love this song.’

  ‘It’s very catchy, madam.’

  ‘Millions agree with you.’ She glanced in Patsy’s direction and the girl waved the telegram.

  ‘Oh hell! I hope that isn’t what I think it is,’ said Rose, her steps faltering. ‘Open it and tell me it’s not from my husband.’

  Patsy did as asked and saw that it was as Mrs Tanner feared. ‘Mr Tanner says that his liner is expected to dock in Liverpool tomorrow morning.’

  ‘Well, at least he’s given me some warning,’ said Rose, going over to the gramphone and removing the record. ‘I don’t suppose I’ll be playing this in here again.’ She placed the record in its sleeve and then sat on the sofa. ‘Fix the carpet and then run me a bath. I want to look and feel my best this evening.’

  ‘You’re feeling better now, then, madam?’ asked Patsy, unrolling the carpet and smoothing it flat. Rose had been bilious every morning for the last few days.

  ‘Yes. Much better. It must have been something I ate the other day. Maybe the oysters?’ she said brightly. ‘You’ll need to make up Mr Tanner’s bed and give the room a clean. It’s the final of the competition this afternoon. You’ll have to wish me luck, Patsy.’

  ‘I do, madam. You’ll be wearing your new frock?’

  Rose smiled. ‘Naturally. But not new shoes. I’ll be wearing the ones that have carried me through this far.’

  ‘Will you be having dinner at home afterwards?’

  ‘No. Hopefully we’ll be celebrating, so I won’t be in until late. You can have a few hours off but be back here by nine at the latest.’

  ‘Yes, madam. Thank you.’ Patsy hesitated. ‘Is it possible, madam, for me to use the telephone? I’ve received a letter from the orphanage and I must visit there but I need to find out if it’s convenient first.’

  Rose frowned and appeared to give it much thought before saying, ‘All right. Just this once. But run the bath for me first.’

  Patsy thanked her and hurried out of the room. The bathroom was in a converted small back bedroom and the bath was large and white and stood on claw-shaped feet. The hot water came from a heater on the wall. She put in the plug and turned on the taps and took a jar from a shelf and threw a handful of Attar of Roses bath crystals into the water. Then she put out a couple of thick fluffy towels on the rail. When she judged the water was just as Rose liked it, she turned off the taps and hurried downstairs.

  While her employer was having her bath, Patsy used the telephone and was delighted to be given permission to take her sisters and brother out for a couple of hours. She could not wait to see them.

  * * *

  One of the twins was the first to reach Patsy. She flung her arms about her eldest sister’s waist and beamed up at her. ‘It seems ages since you were last here.’

  Patsy returned her hug and planted a kiss on the top of her head. ‘You must have behaved yourself if they’re letting you out.’

  ‘I’ve been as good as gold,’ she said earnestly. ‘Ask our Mary!’

  ‘She’d say yes even if you hadn’t.’ Patsy stared at the other twin. ‘How have you been?’

  ‘I’ff losth a tooth,’ said Mary, opening her mouth and showing the gap. ‘I’ff goth a new one comith fru.’

  Patsy made a suitable comment and smoothed back a strand of hair that had come loose from one of Mary’s plaits. The twins were carrot tops with a sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of their noses. At times like this she was reminded of the night that they were born. She had thought her mother was dying the way she had carried on screaming and swearing. The woman who had tended her at the birth had not been a registered midwife but one of the neighbours who had ten children of her own. Patsy had overheard her saying that, with their red hair and dimpled chins, the twins were as unlike the older children as cheese and chalk. She might as well have said that the twins did not share the same father as the other Doyle children. Patsy was aware such things happened during the war, with so many husbands away and the possibility of their never coming back. Whether they shared the same father or not made no difference to the way she felt about the twins. She loved them.

  Jimmy touched her arm and she smiled at him. ‘You OK?’

  This brother had her light brown hair and grey eyes and strong chin. ‘I’d like to discuss with yer a couple of matters that are bothering me,’ he said seriously.

  ‘OK! But first I need to talk to Kathleen.’

  Patsy hoped Jimmy was not getting bullied. He did not mix easily and no doubt missed his older brother, Mick, who had always looked out for him. She turned to Kathleen and immediately her heart sank because she just knew that her sister had a mood on her. Blonde and blue-eyed, Kathleen was already showing feminine curves in the right places beneath her navy-blue coat and skirt.

  ‘All right, what’s eating you?’ asked Patsy.

  ‘Let’s get out of here. I’ve had enough of this place,’ muttered Kathleen. ‘Thank God, I’ll be able to walk out next week and not come back.’

  Patsy slipped a hand through her sister’s arm. ‘Don’t say that in front of the twins,’ she asked in a low voice. ‘They’ve still years ahead of them. Anyway, what about the position with the two spinsters? How d’you feel about that?’

  ‘Two right old miseries dressed in black crêpe from head to toe. They’re still mourning their father who was killed in the Boer War. They have photographs of him in uniform on the sideboard.’ Kathleen rolled her eyes. ‘And if yer could see the house! It sent a shiver up me spine I can tell yer. Narrow passages and steep stairs – and dark! I could break me blinkin’ neck going up and down them. They don’t even have gas but use oil lamps and candles. I don’t know what the guardians are thinking of, wanting to send me there. In my opinion they just want to get rid of me.’ Her mouth tightened. ‘Well, I’m making me own plans and it won’t be working for those two. The guardians can’t force me to do what they want.’

  ‘It does sound pretty gruesome, just like in a horror flick,’ said Patsy worriedly. ‘But what else do you have in mind?’

  ‘Fellas! They’re what’s on her mind,’ said Jimmy, who had been listening. ‘She gets herself into trouble because she thinks she knows it all when she doesn’t have a halfpennyworth of common sense. She won’t listen to anyone. Yer’d think she had cloth ears.’

  ‘Shut up, shrimp!’ snapped Kathleen. ‘Yer a boy and boys get away with murder compared to girls.’

  ‘That’s not true,’ he said indignantly. ‘I bet you’ve never had six of the best. I have and I don’t want whacking again. So now I take notice of what I’m told and do it. I aim to get somewhere in the world and I’ve enough nous to realise that the only way to do that is by getting myself noticed for the right reasons. Not like you, making eyes at the workmen and not looking where yer going.’

  ‘Shut up, you!’ Kathleen poked her elbow viciously in his side. He gasped and called her a bitch.

  ‘Stop it, the pair of you,’ cried Patsy, annoyed with both of them. ‘I didn’t come here to listen to you two argue. Anyway, what’s this about workmen?’

  ‘She walked into a pile of bricks and almost knocked herself out,’ said Jimmy, rubbing his side and glaring at Kathleen. ‘Talk abou
t stupid.’

  ‘Did you hurt yourself, Kath?’ asked Patsy with concern.

  Kathleen hunched her shoulders. ‘I only split me lip and scraped me elbow, so whoever told our Jimmy about the accident got it all wrong. Anyway, he helped me up and escorted me to Matron’s office.’

  ‘Who’s he?’

  Kathleen barely hesitated. ‘Billy the apprentice. He quite fancied me.’

  Patsy frowned. ‘What did Matron say?’

  ‘She put iodine on it and that really stung but I didn’t whinge,’ said Kathleen smugly.

  ‘Good. So you haven’t seen any more of this Billy?’

  ‘No. The builders finished the job and left.’

  ‘That’s a relief. I don’t want you flirting with anyone at your age. Remember what I told you about you know what.’

  Kathleen looked amused. ‘Oh that! I’m not interested in that! I just want a fella who’ll treat me to the flicks.’

  ‘If a fella spends money on you, then he’ll expect something in return and it won’t be a cup of tea and a bun,’ warned Patsy. ‘You stay away from the opposite sex. Now, let’s get across this road.’ She grabbed hold of the twins’ hands and hurried them past a couple of cyclists and a horse-drawn van. ‘Anyway, I’ve something to tell you that should cheer you up, Kath,’ she called over her shoulder.

  ‘That’ll be a change,’ muttered Kathleen.

  ‘You bet it will,’ said Patsy.

  She turned to Jimmy and handed him a paper bag. ‘Here’s some stale crusts. Take the twins and feed the ducks.’

  ‘OK! But after yer’ve told our Kathy what yer don’t want us to hear, I want to tell you what I want to do when I leave the orphanage – and it’s not joining the navy,’ said Jimmy.

  ‘All right! Later,’ said Patsy, shooing him and the twins away.

  For a moment she watched the three head for the bridge overlooking the boating lake and then she faced her sister.

  ‘So what’s this big secret?’ asked Kathleen.

  ‘A wedding on Easter Monday,’ replied Patsy with a pleasurable glow. ‘We’ve been invited to Miss Kirk’s wedding.’

  Kathleen looked surprised. ‘You mean Miss Kirk who worked for the Bennetts?’

  ‘I’m glad you haven’t forgotten her.’

  ‘She was good to us and showed us how to make gingerbread men and jam tarts. But why should Miss Kirk want us at her wedding? Who’s she marrying?’

  ‘Mr Bennett. And why does she want us? Because she thought it would be a treat for us. We’re almost grown up. There’ll be good food and other young people you’ll remember meeting at Tilly’s wedding.’

  ‘Tilly and her husband still send money to the orphanage at Christmas for presents for us.’

  ‘Trust you to remember them for their money and presents,’ said Patsy.

  Kathleen smiled. ‘Why shouldn’t I? It isn’t as if I don’t appreciate what they do. Anyway, if the wedding is on Easter Monday, I won’t need the guardians’ permission to go—’

  ‘So you’ve decided to accept the invitation?’

  ‘Yeah! Yer never know what might happen.’ Her blue eyes gleamed.

  ‘That’s true. But I don’t think you’ll find a job there. You’ve got to think seriously whether you’re doing the right thing about not taking this position with the spinsters. You need somewhere to live, and for girls in our position the only option is a living-in job. It would be different if I was older and we could rent a house. A house where we could all be together. I’m sure Mick would be willing to put something in the kitty to help out with Jimmy and the twins.’

  Kathy stared at her in disbelief. ‘Yer talking about something that’s of no benefit to me right now. Anyway, some of us might have other plans than to play at happy families.’

  Patsy was annoyed by her sister’s reaction. ‘You mean you!’

  Kathleen laughed. ‘I can bloody imagine a better future than living with the twins and our Jimmy! Out of all of yer I prefer our Mick, but with him in the navy he’ll be useless to me.’

  ‘He’ll still need a place to come home to,’ pointed out Patsy, hanging on to her temper.

  Kathleen said, ‘He can put up at the Seamen’s Home and then in a few years time he’ll be casting around for a wife. It’s not me that doesn’t have any common sense, it’s you. Yer should be doing what you told me not to do and look out for a fella to walk out with. One who has a trade and will want to marry yer one day.’ She paused for breath but did not give Patsy a chance to interrupt. ‘Unless yer find yourself a sugar daddy. Perhaps you’ll be lucky and he’ll be prepared to put up with our Jimmy and the twins.’

  ‘What the hell do you know about sugar daddies?’ asked Patsy angrily.

  ‘I’ve heard a couple of the kitchen staff talking.’ Kathleen smirked.

  ‘What did they say?’

  Kathleen did not reply but instead said, ‘I could do with a new frock. Now, if I had some decent material I could make one. I’m pretty nifty with me needle.’

  ‘But you haven’t the time and you haven’t the material,’ cried an exasperated Patsy.

  ‘Then I just mightn’t go.’

  ‘Please yourself. I’m going to catch up with Jimmy and the twins. You can look after the girls while I have a word with him.’

  ‘What are you going to talk to him about?’ asked Kathleen, looking suspicious. ‘Me and the apprentice?’

  ‘With him gone why should I bother?’ Patsy left her sister and hurried in the direction of the boating lake bridge. ‘Come on, don’t hang about there,’ she called over her shoulder.

  Kathleen stuck out her tongue at Patsy’s retreating figure and slowly followed her. She knew there was a lot of truth in what her sister said but she’d be damned if she would go and work in that dark miserable house with those prune-faced spinsters. She guessed there’d be no fellas worth looking at who might come visiting the old girls. But even if there were she just knew those two women wouldn’t give her the opportunity to speak to them. She was just hoping that something would happen so she could do something else.

  ‘Is our Kathy moaning about us again?’ asked Maureen, looking up at Patsy.

  ‘No.’ Patsy thought Kathleen was too wrapped up in herself to spare much thought for the twins. ‘Why should she?’

  ‘Because she thinks we’re nuisances.’

  ‘She probably doesn’t mean to give that impression. She’s a lot on her mind with leaving the orphanage.’

  ‘No, she means it,’ said Maureen firmly. ‘She’d much rather giggle in corners with girls her own age than be with us.’

  Patsy said easily, ‘Did you hear what they said?’

  Maureen’s cheeks reddened. ‘Don’t want to talk about it. It was rude.’

  Patsy said, ‘You really shouldn’t be listening, then.’

  ‘I didn’t mean to but our Kathy has a loud voice. Anyway, I’m glad she’s leaving. She gave me a Chinese burn and I didn’t like that.’

  ‘I’ll speak to her about it,’ said Patsy, thinking she would like to give Kathleen a Chinese burn in way of punishment.

  Maureen shrugged. ‘No point. Anyway, our Jimmy is wanting a word with you.’ She grabbed her twin’s hand and ran with her in the direction of the paddling pool.

  Patsy called to Kathleen and shouted at her to keep her eye on the twins. Then she turned to her brother. ‘So what is it you want to do?’

  ‘Work on the railways,’ he blurted out. ‘I want to be an engine driver.’

  She remembered that a railway line ran behind the orphanage. ‘So do hundreds if not thousands of other boys, Jimmy,’ she pointed out. ‘Think of something else.’

  He jutted out his chin. ‘I don’t want to do anything else. I want to be an engine driver and I thought you would help me. So what if there are loads of other boys wanting the same job? There’s plenty of engine drivers needed. Why shouldn’t it be me that makes it?’

  ‘I wouldn’t argue with what you say,’ said Patsy, not wishing to
discourage him. ‘Do you know how to go about becoming an engine driver? I would think you’d have to serve an apprenticeship and that would take a few years. It’s a very responsible job.’

  His face brightened. ‘I reckon I’d have to be a fireman first. Yer know, shovelling coal to heat up the water to make steam.’

  ‘Yes, I know. So how do you become a fireman?’

  ‘I probably have to get an ordinary job on the railway, like be a porter. It would build up me muscles. Yer have to be strong to shovel coal.’

  ‘I suppose building up your muscles is a good start.’

  Jimmy frowned. ‘I have to start somewhere. I just want yer to make sure the guardians don’t send me to a training ship, like they do most of the boys.’

  Patsy thought that in two years time she would be eighteen. Hopefully, the guardians would be prepared to take notice of what she had to say by then. If not, she was going to have to find a man to speak for her. If only her father had still been alive. But, of course, she was wishing for the moon.

  She ruffled Jimmy’s hair. ‘You keep on hoping and we’ll see what can be done. In the meantime…’ Her voice broke off as she noticed Kathleen signalling frantically to her.

  Jimmy had noticed her as well. ‘I bet our Mo has fallen into the paddling pool.’

  Patsy had almost forgotten how accident prone she was and began to run. It was as Jimmy had guessed and they were confronted by a weeping and extremely wet Maureen.

  ‘Why does it always happen to you?’ cried Patsy, removing her sister’s sodden coat and wrapping her own about her shivering form. ‘Now this has happened the orphanage might think twice about allowing you to come out with me again.’

  ‘I was trying to float a lollipop stick on the water,’ grizzled Maureen.

  ‘I only took my eyes off her for a moment and in she goes,’ said Kathleen. ‘It wasn’t my fault.’

  Patsy snapped, ‘You should have known better than to take your eyes off her, even for a second.’