by Katie King
Having a lift was also useful because Peggy had her prized but surprisingly heavy camera in her basket, along with an emergency rock cake for Holly should she get a bit peckish or peevish while the children and everyone else were on stage. Peggy wanted to take a photo of all the cast, and if it was good enough, she planned to send it to the local newspapers to show everyone just what evacuee children could pull off, should they be so minded.
The ride by car over to the hospital was also useful as far as Peggy was concerned as there was a vanity mirror behind the flip-down shade on the passenger’s side.
As Roger stood beside the car and patted his various pockets as he attempted to locate the key to start the ignition, Peggy took a second to colour her lips in her Auxiliary Red lipstick. She blew Holly a kiss, her lips parting with an audible pop, and Holly giggled and stretched a pudgy hand towards her mother’s lips.
Roger did a double-take when he saw Peggy’s lipsticked mouth but he didn’t say anything.
His eyebrows were still raised as they drove down the road, Peggy was amused to note, and so she decided to believe that this was because the lipstick was definitely doing its job.
The moment they got to the hospital, Roger promptly disappeared as was usual for him at dos like this as there was always a queue of parishioners he wanted to speak to, or who wanted to speak to him.
It wasn’t long before a very smiley Connie sidled up to her aunt and insisted that Peggy come over right away and say hello to Susan, the pretty nurse.
This was especially tiresome as Peggy had just that moment settled herself and Holly in a seat near the end of a row in as comfy a way as possible, and Peggy was perusing the programme which suggested two special guests, while Holly seemed to be on the verge of nodding off (she had been given three potatoes at lunchtime with her soup in the hope of this very outcome).
But keen not to dampen Connie’s enthusiasm on what after all was such a big, nerve-wracking day for her, Peggy stood up with Holly in her arms and, leaving her basket and coat on her seat to mark it as taken, followed Connie across to where Susan stood helping some patients on crutches to their seats.
Mabel came up and whispered, ‘I’ll take the photograph of the cast, Peggy, as you’ve got your hands full’, and Peggy mouthed back ‘thank you’ and passed across the precious camera.
Peggy noticed June enter the room and instantly guess who Susan was, if her single raised eyebrow was anything to go by.
Peggy ignored her friend in an extravagant way that would tell June she was joking, and to make sure she got the point that she didn’t really mean to be rude, Peggy flashed a quick smile in June’s direction as she and Holly stopped beside the lovely Susan.
‘Susan, this is my lovely aunt Peggy, and my cousin Holly,’ Connie announced proudly.
Peggy was touched by the very nice way Connie introduced her.
If Susan recognised Peggy from the one time they had seen each other up close, back on that late summer morning, she was far too polite to give any sign of it.
Instead Susan gave her a beaming smile and then went on to say in a totally disarming way, ‘So you are the wonderful woman who Connie can’t stop talking about. I’m so very charmed to meet you, although I rather think I know everything about you already, all of which has left me in total awe.’
Susan had something extremely charming about her, Peggy had to admit as she tried not to grit her teeth.
But she told herself not to be so silly, and Peggy then found she couldn’t help but grin back in response to Susan’s warm greeting and say ‘Likewise’, although she felt her unique mix of elocution lessons and south-east London gorblimeyness felt a little wanting, and was certainly no equal to the honeyed manner in which Susan spoke.
As they made polite chit-chat Peggy saw why Connie was so drawn to the young nurse. In fact, Peggy herself was bowled over by how extremely attractive Susan was close up. She was stunning, the absolute picture of prime health, with perfect skin and hair and teeth.
Peggy sneaked a look at Susan’s fingers to cheer herself up a little, and to her huge chagrin saw that the nurse’s digits were no stubbier than anyone else’s, and were in fact distinctly more slender than Peggy’s. Peggy felt a louse at being so mean.
Susan called her colleague Nina over to say hello, and both nurses then spent quite a while telling Peggy what a live wire Connie was, with Peggy nodding agreement. Then they explained that James was really busy with several tricky cases that needed urgent treatment, and it was likely he wouldn’t be able to watch the panto. He had passed on apologies for the nurses to give to Peggy though, who really wasn’t sure how she should respond.
Luckily she didn’t have to because at that moment several hospital orderlies shepherded some injured servicemen into the room, and needed Susan and Nina to help them to their seats.
Peggy watched with admiration the care with which the two gentle and smiling nurses helped the shuffling officers, easing them down carefully so that they didn’t open up healing injuries.
She carried Holly back to her own seat a few minutes later, thinking that if Susan had usurped her in James’s attentions, at least Peggy knew that she had been knocked into second place by an extremely worthy opponent.
Gracie bustled in with Jack and plumped herself down beside Peggy.
‘How’s married life?’ said Peggy.
‘Wonderful. I love it.’
Peggy realised that her feelings of trepidation over what Gracie was about to do on the morning of the marriage hadn’t come to fruition. She hoped it would stay that way.
Gracie was naturally a buoyant, optimistic person, and so possibly this really helped her charge through life in a positive manner. Peggy wondered if she should try to be a bit more like Gracie in her own attitude.
‘And Granny Nora?’ Peggy was interested to hear how Gracie was finding dealing with her.
‘Granny Nora is about to be thrilled that Jack is to have a little brother or sister,’ said Gracie.
‘No!’ Peggy almost squealed. ‘Congratulations. That’s wonderful news, Gracie, although I suppose this might affect you wanting to come and spend time with me running the playgroup.’
‘Not a bit of it,’ laughed Gracie. ‘Something’s got to take up my days to stop me from killing the old bat after all!’
Peggy guessed the ‘old bat’ was Granny Nora. ‘Gracie, you are naughty! By the way, have you clocked what the food and drink the children are selling is like? I completely forgot to notice when I came in, which will be a very black mark for me if I ever get found out.’
‘Have I noticed?! I polished off two biscuits and two cups of something quite strange but very pleasant as I stood right there at the stall; I’m hungry all the time and I couldn’t wait to get inside here before scoffing them. Anyway, you can report back that the biscuits were very tasty, and they really hit the spot,’ Gracie told her.
‘This makes me wonder, Peggy – did you by any chance see the large box of toys outside by the desk where those lads are taking the money? I ran into Angela while I was eating those biscuits, and she told me that she put on the posters that donations of usable toys and other stuff for the Tall Trees Playgroup for Working Mothers would be gratefully received. And people have really gone to town in showing their support for it, to judge by what I saw.’
‘Really, Gracie?’ said Peggy. ‘I didn’t see. I had no idea.’
‘Really, Peggy. And it’s all down to those children.’
Peggy smiled happily. She could hardly wait to see what the kind people of Harrogate have donated to her playgroup. What had been a mere dream several months ago was fast becoming a reality, and the thought of all that it might mean for herself and Holly in terms of income and independence was intoxicating.
But before Peggy could think too much further about any of this, the lights in the room were dimmed and it was time for Sleeping Beauty to begin.
Peggy looked behind her, and from the corner of her eye she saw Barbara
and Ted creep in and Susan escort them to two seats she had saved for them which although near the back, gave excellent views of the stage.
Unfortunately, just then baby Jack chose that moment to give a single howl at sitting in the dark when there were really interesting things he wanted to know about that weren’t on the stage, and so Gracie had to hurry out to attend to him before he set Holly off and together the little ones screamed the place down.
But not before Gracie leant over and whispered to Peggy, ‘I wonder if there’s any of those biscuits left. I’d best go and check.’ And with that Gracie made herself and Jack scarce.
This was something of a relief as although Peggy was really fond of Gracie and Jack, the reality was that two screaming toddlers wouldn’t be much of an advert for her playgroup, she thought, and she was relieved that Holly hadn’t stirred when Jack had made his familiar squalling sound and that her own little daughter was obligingly still dead to the world as she slept on.
Peggy chuckled to herself as she imagined Gracie polishing off any food she could find still left, and then she thought the irrepressible Gracie would quickly make herself scarce, leaving it a mystery as to who had scoffed the last of the scran.
Peggy made sure Holly’s legs were covered so she wouldn’t get cold, and after a quick look around to make sure that none of James’s patients needed help or anything fetching for them that she could see, and that James wasn’t anywhere in sight to distract her, Peggy settled back in her seat to enjoy the pantomime.
The children had excelled themselves.
Aiden had managed to bring the best out of his actors, who were a mix of children and adults, while Dave and Tommy’s sets were extraordinary and with the help of James’s patients looked very professional. The pantomime managed to blend Sleeping Beauty with rather a lot of other pantomimes, but it was all to good effect.
What really stood out though, in Peggy’s humble opinion, was the script, which was far better than Peggy could have dreamed of. Connie had come with something that was amusing – hilariously so at times – and there was plenty of ‘it’s behind you!’, and ‘oh yes, it is – oh no, it isn’t’, so that there could be lots of audience participation with everyone joining in.
Best of all, Peggy thought, was the intricate way Connie had managed to weave in many references to everyone’s current situation that they would all recognise, with moments of high drama and, at time, real pathos.
There were some jokes about the hospital and the school (including a risqué one about the rivalry between the TT Muskets and the Hull boys that mentioned the kidnapping of Milburn), and even was a section called Operation Pied Piper, which everyone knew had been the Government’s codename for the first stage of the mass evacuation that Peggy and the twins had experienced at the start of the war, but which now was given to a plan that the players kept getting deliberately wrong to steal sweets from the Wicked Fairy.
The audience threw themselves into participating in the performance.
At one point Dave did some magic tricks on stage, and Mabel had to go up there as his helper; Peggy looked for Roger to share a smile with him, but she couldn’t see him anywhere. A few minutes later the reason for this was clear – Roger was the Dame, and he was in his element as he hammed up his performance no end, playing the crowd for laughs, and joking around with the pantomime horse. There was a second surprise in June turning up as an ugly sister, and Peggy marvelled how in just a few short minutes her friend had been transformed into a grotesque but amusing caricature. A little later Peggy laughed at the Wicked Fairy turning out to be the headmaster from their school, who flung himself into the role with more than a hint of Max Schreck’s interpretation of Count Orlok in the 1922 vampire horror silent Nosferatu, and Peggy wondered if the sight of him might leave some of the more impressionable school pupils with nightmares when the pantomime was put on there once term had begun.
Then Peggy had the biggest surprise of the afternoon when both Milburn and Porky appeared on stage with tinsel wrapped around them in strategic places and Porky sporting a jaunty red and green felt hat that made his face look like that of an elf, balanced by a huge red bow on the tip of his corkscrew tail. Both animals were a credit to Tall Trees, being impeccably well-mannered and not at all skittish about being on stage with people laughing at them.
Peggy glanced at the programme Angela had designed and realised that ‘Special Guests’ Limnurb and Kryop, were of course anagrams of Milburn and Porky’s names. The pantomime horse was hilarious when it pretended to take umbrage at coming across a real horse on the stage, and everyone one hooted with laughter when only reluctantly could it be persuaded off the stage, and then kept running on again to see if Milburn had left yet.
Angela was, naturally, a lovely Sleeping Beauty, and when at one point she forgot her lines, Prince Charming sprang to her rescue, with a deadpanned echo of the lines from the pantomime horse standing on the edge of the stage, which meant it seemed as if this blip had been planned all along.
And if anyone had doubted Connie’s memorising abilities, such notions were cast asunder by her control of a potentially disastrous situation as she coaxed Angela back towards the script, while managing to throw in a funny ad lib or two.
Peggy suddenly found she couldn’t stop the tears spilling.
She was SO proud of the children and what they had done. Somehow they had managed to work a feat of magic.
Not only was this a pantomime that fulfilled all the normal expectations of what a pantomime should be, but it was a really excellent one, being that sublime mix of the fun, light, dark, irreverent and serious.
As everyone stood to sing ‘God Save the King’ at Prince Charming’s request to close the performance, James slipped into the seat beside Peggy where Gracie had been.
He smiled and when he saw Peggy’s teary cheeks he delved into his trouser pocket and came up with a pressed clean hanky for her.
He said, ‘Give her to me’, and Peggy passed him a blissfully snoozing Holly, who was still knocked out, despite the rousing sounds around her.
James looked down at the sleeping child in his arms, and said, ‘You’ll pay for this later tonight as she’ll be up and raring to go.’
‘Don’t I know it,’ agreed Peggy. ‘But don’t think you’ll get off scot-free either, although maybe not tonight. Apparently Jessie has done a survey of your patients about what the money raised should buy to donate to your hospital. And what the men have decided that they really want are some kegs of beer and some cigarettes, and Jessie has agreed to this.’
James shook his head in mock alarm, his hand on his brow.
‘I cannot wait,’ he smiled at Peggy.
There was encore after encore, and a standing ovation, the deep-voiced cheers of the wounded servicemen in the audience bringing tears afresh to Peggy’s eyes, as she earnestly hoped that the happy experience of watching something so innocent as a pantomime would have done huge amounts to lift spirits across the whole audience, but especially in raising the spirits of these poor injured men who had already given so much for their country.
If the panto had made everyone forget about all the worries to do with war and rationing and all the rest for an hour of riotous fun, then the children really were to be applauded.
Connie and Aiden were carried aloft around the room by a mix of the Tall Trees children and the boys from Hull, as everyone belted out ‘For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow’ for Connie’s benefit.
And then Jessie and Connie noticed Barbara and Ted, and they ran to their parents and there was a four-way hug that looked as if it was never going to end.
‘I’m sorry, but this is making me blub all over again,’ said Peggy.
‘Shall I get a second hanky?’ said James. ‘Susan always seems to have a ready supply.’
‘I bet she does,’ said Peggy, being unable to keep a certain spikiness from creeping into her voice.
James glanced towards Peggy with a confused look at Peggy’s tetchiness, and
then he cottoned on to what was causing this.
As Holly started to wake up, James leaned over and whispered in Peggy’s ear, his lips so close that Peggy could feel them brush against her and electrify her skin, saying, ‘Would it help you to know that Susan most definitely wouldn’t be interested in me?’
Peggy wasn’t sure what he meant, although she twigged that he’d realised she was jealous of Susan, and so she squinted at him in confusion.
‘Peggy, you are hopeless,’ he said, unable to keep a smile from his face. ‘Nurse Bassett isn’t fond of men, you dimwit, it’s her friend Nina she likes.’
The penny dropped, and suddenly Peggy felt a whole lot happier, even though James’s description of the lovely Susan’s proclivities might have been found offensive in the eyes of some, although Peggy had never personally thought it so.
In her eyes, what he had said in essence about Susan was damn plumb perfect, and Peggy could completely see what Susan and Nina saw in each other. In fact they looked a match made in heaven.
Peggy inched imperceptibly closer to the doctor, and encouraged by the warm look James sent her, risked giving him a little bump on his hip with her own as she grinned sideways at him.
She had never, in her whole life, been so forward before to do something like bump her hip, and so she didn’t know whether it was this brave step into the unknown, or the fact that their bodies had just touched that jolted her so.
But maybe the precise why didn’t matter too much. For, quite simply, suddenly Peggy felt electrified in every cell and fibre of her being.
And it was a wonderful, wonderful feeling.
James’s eyes were bright, and he opened his mouth to say something.
But Holly stole his thunder by choosing that very moment to enunciate ‘Susan’ distinctly.
The irony of this wasn’t wasted on Peggy, and she laughed until her sides hurt.
