‘Elsie, you know what I’ve said about doin’ that. One day your brains will fall out.’
Elsie removed her finger.
‘Wouldn’t be able to tell the difference anyway,’ scoffed Harry.
‘You can talk,’ cried Elsie, swinging round. ‘The only reason you’re in Mr Woods’ class is because Miss Ferguson couldn’t bear to have you for three years.’
He grinned in good humour and gave a careless shrug. ‘I don’t care.’
‘Oooooh, Ellen, listen to this,’ Win exclaimed.
Elsie and Harry’s mother lifted up her head from the ironing and gave her sister a tired smile.
‘Next Wednesday at St Andrew’s Parish Hall there’s a demonstration of electric cooking. It’s at 3 p.m. You ought to go.’
‘There’s nothin’ wrong with that range,’ said Ellen.
Joan looked up from the film magazine she was reading. ‘There’s nothing right with it, you mean.’
‘It’s keepin’ us warm.’
‘Mum, can we have the wireless on?’ interrupted Harry.
‘You’ve already had Dick Barton.’
‘I know but . . .’
‘After supper.’
‘I don’t see why we can’t eat ours before John and Ralph get home,’ said Win with meaning.
‘We spent enough time apart in the war,’ said Ellen. ‘We’re all eating together.’
‘All getting indigestion together,’ muttered Win.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You can cut the atmosphere with a knife, when those two come in. It’s a wonder they don’t kill each other on the way.’
‘Oh, go on, Win, give ’em a chance. It’s not easy for either of them. John’s missing his mates and his unit, and Ralph is missing his school pals.’
‘I’m missing my friends too. He ain’t the only person in the universe what’s got demobbed. I’m finding civvy street hard as well. I was treated with a bit of respect in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Now I have to put up with some chit of a girl who can’t be more than seventeen criticising the way I serve a customer or the way I organise cardigans on a shelf.’
Elsie and Harry gave each other a glance. ‘We’ve all got our crosses to bear,’ they mouthed as their aunt gave voice to it.
‘Just because someone’s seventeen don’t make them stupid, you know,’ protested Joan.
Winifred gave a sigh. ‘I weren’t casting no aspersions to you.’
‘I’ve been working three years,’ Joan pointed out. ‘Longer than Ralph. But you treat him with more respect just because he’s got a posh accent.’
‘Oh, no I don’t,’ said her aunt. ‘I treat no man with respect.’
‘There you are,’ said Joan. ‘You called him a man, and he’s only sixteen. But that seventeen-year-old, that one you called a . . . a . . .’
‘Chit?’ put in Elsie.
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ agreed Joan.
‘Are you sure it was chit?’ added Harry.
‘Yeah,’ said Joan. ‘Don’t interrupt.’
‘I thought she said something else,’ said Harry grinning.
‘Harry!’ said his mother in a warning tone.
Elsie and Harry began giggling uncontrollably.
‘Oh, none of you take me seriously. You never listen to me, ever.’
‘I didn’t mean to call him a man. It was a slip of the tongue,’ said Winifred flicking through the newspaper. ‘Oh listen, there is a murder, right here on page three. Huh! Another bigamist.’
‘Does that mean he’s got a big Mrs?’ asked Elsie. She and her brother collapsed into laughter again.
‘Don’t be cheeky to your aunt,’ said Ellen.
‘It’s hunger,’ choked Harry. ‘It’s making me go off me ’ead.’ Ellen took the iron over to the range and swapped it for a hot one.
‘Kay has an electric iron,’ said Joan. ‘Her kitchen is just like a film star’s kitchen. It’s even got a refrigerator and it’s filled with so much food, she says, some days it’s difficult to close the door.’
Ellen said nothing. She turned over the leg of the trousers she was ironing and proceeded to smooth a nice knife-edged crease on to them.
‘If I’d been allowed to go out with Chuck, I might have been in a kitchen in America with a refrigerator.’
‘With no family around you,’ Ellen remarked.
‘I’d have a new one, wouldn’t I?’
‘You was only fifteen,’ she said firmly.
‘The other girls were fifteen.’
‘I promised your parents that if anythin’ happened to you I’d make sure you and Kitty was all right.’
‘Kitty’s only three years older than me. You didn’t stop her from going out with Frank and marrying him.’
‘Kitty’s a sensible girl.’
‘And I’m not?’
‘I didn’t say that. But a spell in the ATS helped her grow up a bit faster, that’s all. She’s a bit more worldly wise than you are.’
‘I’ve got a job which is more than she has.’
‘Frank doesn’t want her to work.’
‘Couldn’t we have the wireless on?’ said Harry imploringly. ‘Please.’
‘Elsie’s got to do her homework.’
‘I’ve got all weekend,’ said Elsie.
‘If you keep leaving it all till Sunday night you won’t keep up with the work. You don’t want to risk being chucked out in your first term.’
‘But Dad might come in.’
‘That’s why I told you to start earlier.’
‘I wanted to hear Dick Barton.’
‘You always want to hear
