Home Front Girls

she took a seat and lit up her first cigarette of the day. ‘I was going to see my friend, Jessica, when this ARP warden appeared out of nowhere and asked me where I was going after dark! I mean, what business was it of his? Why shouldn’t we go out after dark if we wish to?’
    ‘I suppose he was only doing his job,’ Dotty said cautiously. She was actually longing to move the conversation on because only the night before she had finally allowed Lucy to take one of her short stories home to read, and she was waiting to hear what she thought of it.
    ‘Did you get time to look at my story?’ she questioned her when Annabelle eventually stopped complaining long enough to draw breath and take a puff of her cigarette.
    Lucy beamed from ear to ear. ‘I most certainly did – and I don’t mind telling you, Dotty, I thought it was brilliant. So good, in fact, that I think you should send it away to a magazine. I’m sure they’d want to publish it.’
    Dotty looked delighted and embarrassed all at the same time. Up until now, the only person she had ever allowed to look at her work was Miss Timms, who had always said much what Lucy was saying now.
    Her brush with the ARP warden forgotten, Annabelle leaned forward, her curiosity aroused. ‘I wouldn’t mind reading it too,’ she said. ‘I hardly ever go out any more and I get so bored in the evenings. Half of the dance halls have shut down and even when they’re open it’s mainly girls there, which isn’t much fun. All the decent chaps are away fighting this bloody war. Do you think you might let me see it too?’
    Lucy looked at Dotty questioningly and when she nodded she took the story out of her bag and handed it to Annabelle. ‘You’re in for a treat,’ she told her, and Annabelle quickly tucked it safely away.
    ‘So why don’t you both come round to my house after work this evening for supper?’ Lucy suggested now. Annabelle had visited Dotty’s flat, but up to now she had never been to Lucy’s house. ‘I got four lovely pork chops from the butcher’s on my way home last night and I need you girls to come and help me eat them.’
    Annabelle considered the invitation for a moment. Her mother was going out that evening to some voluntary thing she had got herself involved in, so she would be in on her own again with only the wireless for company. Miranda had kept herself busy since her husband had gone off for training some weeks previously, and even when she was in, she wasn’t much company, Annabelle thought. She was too busy worrying about Richard.
    ‘I suppose I could if you’re sure you don’t mind,’ she said. ‘But what about your little sister?’
    Dotty and Lucy chuckled. Annabelle had made no secret of the fact that she wasn’t that keen on children, and Lucy had a sneaky suspicion that was why she had turned down her invitations before.
    ‘Believe it or not, she doesn’t bite,’ she told Annabelle and the girl had the good grace to flush.
    Lucy had explained that Mary was ’special’ as she termed it, and Annabelle was envisaging some little monster with two heads or something equally as horrible.
    ‘Actually, Mary is a little sweetheart,’ Dotty chipped in. She had become very fond of the little girl during the time she had known Lucy, and was now a regular visitor to the house, as much to see Mary as Lucy, if truth be known. She had bought her a lovely rag doll, with yellow woollen plaits, for Christmas from the toy department, and could hardly wait to give it to her.
    And so it was decided, and after their break the girls went back to their departments with smiles on their faces.
    By the time the shop was due to close, all three of them were exhausted. Dotty had been measuring and cutting material all day for people who hoped to make themselves or a family member a new outfit in time for Christmas. She had also spent ages helping customers to choose patterns that would be compatible with the fabric they had bought, and her feet felt as if they were about ready to drop off. Her arms ached too from lugging the heavy bolts of material to the counter.
    Lucy had been equally busy as people rushed in to get their children new outfits to wear on Christmas Day and the sound of the big brass till opening and closing became like background noise by mid-afternoon. But it was Annabelle who made them giggle when she met them outside on the chilly pavement.
    ‘Good grief, I could smell you the minute you stepped out of the door,’