Home Front Girls

Dotty blushed and Lucy thought how different she looked when she smiled. Dotty wasn’t pretty in a conventional sense but her skin was flawless, like peaches and cream, and when she smiled her eyes twinkled.
    Glancing at the clock, they both rose and hurried towards the lift feeling that a new friendship had just been born.

Chapter Five
     
    Annabelle arrived home to find her mother tackling a large pile of ironing. She looked as if she had been crying, which didn’t help Annabelle’s bad mood one little bit.
    ‘I’ve had the most awful day you could ever imagine,’ the girl complained bitterly as she kicked her shoes off and slouched into a chair. ‘Is there a cup of tea going, and what’s for dinner? The sandwiches they sold in the works canteen tasted like bloody sawdust.’
    ‘In answer to your questions, no, there isn’t any tea in the pot and I haven’t even thought of what we’re going to have for dinner yet,’ her mother replied. ‘And please don’t swear, Annabelle. It really doesn’t become you. Why don’t you put the kettle on? I could do with a hot drink too. I’ve been washing and ironing all day.’
    ‘Then you shouldn’t have let Daddy sack Mrs Fitton,’ Annabelle said nastily as she dragged herself out of the chair and headed for the sink.
    ‘Daddy didn’t have any choice. In fact, you may as well know, your father is joining up. It’s barely worth keeping the garage open the way things are at present, and he wants to feel he’s doing his bit towards the war.’
    Annabelle spun round on her heel and stared at her mother incredulously. ‘Daddy’s what? Joining up, did you say? But he can’t! Who will look after us?’
    ‘As most other women are having to do, we shall have to look after ourselves,’ her mother replied. She was obviously upset about the development but trying to put a brave face on. Deep inside, Miranda was terrified at the thought of her husband going to war. What if he was injured, or worse still – what if he never came back? But she didn’t say this to Annabelle, of course, and she admired him for his decision. And so if he was prepared to be brave she had decided that she would be too, and for the first time in her entire life Annabelle would have to accept that things were going to be different from now on. She was a little shocked that Annabelle’s first concern had been for herself when told of her father’s decision, rather than concern for his safety, but then Miranda knew she had only herself to blame for that. Annabelle had been allowed to become utterly selfish, and having to work for a living was not going to be easy for her.
    As she lifted the shirt she had been ironing to place it on a hanger, Miranda stifled the sob that rose in her throat. Soon there would be only her own and Annabelle’s ironing to do and it was hard to contemplate.
    Now Annabelle looked in danger of throwing one of her famous fully-fledged tantrums as she filled the kettle and slammed it on the gas-ring to boil.
    ‘I can’t believe that Daddy is just going to go away and abandon us,’ she wailed as if her father was going on holiday. ‘Isn’t he too old to join the war?’
    Miranda shook her head wearily. ‘Not at all. Admittedly they called up all the younger men first, but as long as he passes his medical there is no reason why your father shouldn’t join.’
    ‘And when he is going to have that?’ Annabelle snapped.
    ‘Next Monday, after he’s had time to put all his affairs at the garage in order. It will remain shut then until after the war. As your father rightly pointed out, there isn’t much call for prestigious cars when petrol will soon be rationed.’
    ‘So that means I shall have to carry on working then?’
    ‘I’m rather afraid it does. And furthermore, I intend to do something to make myself feel useful as well.’
    ‘Such as what?’ Annabelle was getting crosser by the minute. She couldn’t take much more of this.
    ‘Well, I haven’t really had much time to think about it, but drivers are in very short supply at the moment what with all the men being away. I could perhaps drive an ambulance or something.’
    ‘I can’t see Grandma and Grandpa being very pleased with that idea,’ Annabelle said churlishly.
    ‘Actually I’ve already told them what I intend to do and they think it’s a wonderful idea – and they’re also very proud of your father,’ Miranda answered as she swiped the iron over one of Annabelle’s silk