Dottie quickly reassured her.
‘My cousin Nelly was like that,’ said Peaches. ‘In the end she went to the doctor and he said she and her husband wasn’t doing it right.’
‘What the ’ell were they doing then?’ said Mary, agog.
‘Just touching navels.’
There was a moment of silence then Mary said, ‘Was that all?’
They all burst out laughing.
‘Perhaps your Reg needs some coaching,’ said Mary, giving Dottie a hefty nudge.
‘You volunteering?’ grinned Dottie and they all laughed a third time.
‘What about cousin Nelly?’ Mary asked.
‘Whatever the doc said to them worked,’ said Peaches. ‘They’ve got three kids now.’
‘All the spitting image of the doctor,’ roared Mary. Peaches enjoyed the joke, laughing heartily. Thank goodness they didn’t know about Doctor Fitzgerald, thought Dottie as she joined in. Thankfully the subject of babies, and the lack of them, didn’t come up again.
‘Here we are,’ said Mary as they found the shops.
They wandered around Woolworths and Peaches bought herself a bottle of Lily of the Valley. Mary got each of her brood and Gary a 3D stick of rock with ‘Littlehampton’ printed through it to take home. ‘Clever how they do that,’ she remarked.
Dottie bought a new comb for Reg.
Reg flipped through the pages of the Littlehampton Gazette. Nothing much there. He was just about to fold it up when Connie tottered towards him, a long candlestick of mucus and sand hanging from the end of her nose.
Alarmed, he cried, ‘Tom!’
‘Cor, love a duck,’ said Tom as he saw her.
Lifting her half-filled bucket towards her father, she said, ‘Eat tend cakey, Daddy.’
‘Hang on a minute, sweetheart, let Daddy clean you up first.’ With the practised hand of an expert, her father put one hand on the top of her blonde head to hold her steady while he fumbled in his pocket for his handkerchief. Connie sneezed and the candlestick grew longer.
Jack, who was cuddling Gary on his lap, laughed aloud. Reg shuddered with disgust.
‘Tend cakey, Daddy?’ Connie said as her face emerged from under the voluminous handkerchief.
‘I’d love to,’ said Tom, pretending to take a piece. ‘Ummm, delicious. Don’t forget your Uncle Jack and Uncle Reg.’
‘Yum, yum,’ said Jack obligingly.
Connie turned towards Reg. ‘Not for me,’ he said quickly.
Tom ruffled the child’s hair. ‘Uncle Reg is full up,’ he said. ‘But I could eat you up!’ He growled and, snatching her in his arms, he kissed her neck. Connie giggled happily and when he put her down again she wandered back to the area of sand which served as her kitchen.
‘Not up to sand pie, Reg?’ Tom said good-naturedly.
‘Looking after kids is woman’s work,’ Reg muttered.
‘Rubbish,’ said Tom. ‘I love being with all my kids. I’m a dab hand at changing a nappy too.’
Reg shook his paper disapprovingly and hid behind it again. Thank God Patsy was well past that stage. His lip curled at the thought of changing nappies, and as for dealing with snotty noses … You’d better keep well away from me, thought Reg sourly. But a couple of minutes later, the little brat was on her way back. Reg glanced around helplessly. The other two men were gone: Tom was doing something with Christopher and Jack was walking Gary towards the sea where the other kids were splashing about at the water’s edge.
‘Clear off,’ Reg hissed.
But Connie was on a mission. Holding out her bucket of sand, she struggled to steady herself, tottered and made a grab at his trousers. She stumbled against him and fell. At the same time, Reg noticed a wasp crawling along the sand nearby. As Connie pulled herself to her feet again, Reg glanced around to make sure nobody was watching him, and then gave Connie a good shove with his leg. She sat down heavily on top of the wasp. A few seconds later, her heart-rending screams brought the others running.
By the time the girls got back, the kids were sitting further down the beach, watching a Punch and Judy show. Billy had his arm around Connie who was sporting a large white bandage on her leg. Mary listened in horror as Tom explained about the wasp.
‘Good job the St John Ambulance people were so close,’ he said, pointing to the first aid post a little way along the beach.
‘Poor little mite,’ said Dottie. ‘Couldn’t you have stopped her?’
‘She fell,’ said Reg, re-arranging the knots in the handkerchief on the top of his head. ‘Couldn’t do a thing about it, love.’
The Punch and Judy show over, Gary was looking very listless again.
‘I think you’d better take him to see Dr Fitzgerald tomorrow, hen,’ Mary told Peaches.
Peaches nodded miserably.
‘Get Dottie to run over and fetch him when we get back,’ Reg suggested.
Dottie turned her head away. Oh God, she couldn’t possibly face Dr Fitzgerald again. Not after last Saturday night. Whatever was she going to do?
‘You’ll go and get the doc for Peaches, won’t you love?’ Reg insisted.
She turned her head and everyone was looking at her. ‘Yes, yes, of course I will.’
They arrived back in the village at six thirty. Jack dropped Reg off at the Jolly Farmer and then went on to Mary’s place. It took a while to get all her sleepy kids off the back of the lorry, but they all called out their goodbyes.
‘It’s been a wonderful day, hen,’ Mary told Peaches. ‘Now don’t you worry about your Gary. He’ll be all right.’
Jack took Dottie, Peaches and Gary home. The little boy kept whimpering as if he was in pain and Jack had to carry him indoors. As soon as they were safely inside, Dottie and Jack drove to the doctor’s.
‘You’ll wait for me?’ she asked.
‘Of course,’ he smiled.
Dottie was relieved. She’d been frantic with worry. She didn’t really want to face the doctor again. Not so soon. But she couldn’t refuse a friend, could she? Not when her child was so sick.
She drew some comfort from hearing the engine still running as she walked up the garden path to the big house. Dottie rang the doorbell and waved to Jack. All at once, he drove off. She almost panicked and ran after him, crying, ‘Come back …’ but then she realised he was only turning the lorry around. She turned to face the door. The glass panel grew dark and she knew someone was coming.
It
