Home Front Girls

looked at Lucy and asked, ‘How about you?’
    Lucy smiled. ‘Really well, considering I was dreading it. I think I might like working here. One of the girls on my floor told me they do staff outings from time to time. They all went to Southend for the day in the summer apparently, and the store laid on the bus and everything.’
    Annabelle shrugged. It would take more than a promise of a day at the seaside to raise her enthusiasm. She had always been privileged to spend her holidays abroad with her parents, and after that a day out to Southend sounded positively dull, although Dotty, she noted, looked quite excited at the prospect.
    ‘I was actually allowed to serve my first customer today,’ Dotty told them now with a wide smile.
    Lucy grinned. ‘That’s nice,’ she said. ‘And the other girls on my floor have been really helpful. I’m sure we’ll get the hang of it eventually.’
    Annabelle wished she could be so optimistic but held her tongue while Lucy and Dotty rattled on. They seemed to be getting on like a house on fire but then she had to grudgingly admit that they were nice, even if they weren’t the types she usually mixed with.
    She noticed in the lift after lunch that some of the other girls spoke to both Lucy and Dotty, and wondered if perhaps she shouldn’t make more of an effort – but then why bother? she asked herself. She didn’t intend to come back here again.
    *
     
    ‘I have never been so bored in my whole life!’ Annabelle complained as she took a seat at the table in the canteen during the afternoon break and lit another cigarette. ‘I don’t think a day has ever passed so slowly.’
    ‘Actually, I’m still quite enjoying it,’ Lucy responded. Up until now she had spent her days cleaning the house and caring for Mary, so it was a pleasant change to have something different to focus on. She just hoped that caring for Mary would not be too much for Mrs P.
    ‘I like working here too,’ Dotty admitted shyly.
    ‘Then you must both be crackers!’
    Lucy and Dotty giggled. They had felt at ease with each other from the first moment, and seeing as both of them had led rather sheltered lives, they hoped that a friendship might develop between them.
    Observing that Annabelle had now lapsed into a fullyfledged sulk, Lucy asked Dotty, ‘Do you live with your parents?’
    ‘Oh no. I was brought up in an orphanage and I’ve just got my own little place in Hillfields. It isn’t much at the moment,’ she added hastily, ‘but I’m trying to do it up in my spare time. How about you?’
    ‘Well, my parents are gone too and until he was called up I lived with my older brother and my little sister in Tile Hill.’ Lucy sighed as she thought of her brother so far away. They had been very close and she missed him dreadfully. ‘A neighbour is looking after my little sister now so that I can come to work.’
    Even though Annabelle had appeared to be disinterested she had obviously been listening to the conversation because she now asked, ‘But why hasn’t your little sister been evacuated?’
    ‘Because she isn’t quite old enough, and anyway even if she was, Mary is . . . well, she is sort of special. You know, not quite as bright as other children her age.’
    ‘What – you mean she’s backward?’
    Lucy bristled. ‘No, she isn’t!’
    ‘Ah, poor little thing,’ Dotty said quickly, seeing that Lucy was offended. ‘It must be very hard on you having to care for her and keep a home going all on your own.’
    ‘Not really.’ Lucy glared at Annabelle as she answered Dotty politely. ‘Mary is a beautiful child and both Joel, that’s my brother, and I think the world of her.’
    This time it was Annabelle who rose from the table first, telling them, ‘Right, I’m off to the ladies before we have to go back to the treadmill. Bye for now.’ In fact, she doubted she would ever see either of them again because when she got home that evening and told her father how boring the work was, he would surely relent and not make her come here again.
    ‘I don’t think Annabelle is too happy to be here,’ Lucy remarked as they watched her totter away on her high heels.
    ‘Mm, I know what you mean, but needs must when there’s a war on. Personally I’d rather be here than stuck in my flat on my own. I’ve been a bit lonely since I left the orphanage, to be honest.’
    ‘Then you must come round to meet Mary one evening,’ Lucy said kindly.
    ‘I’d like that, thank you.’