Home Front Girls

though I don’t think Annabelle needs much of an excuse to miss work,’ Lucy joked. ‘We’re lucky compared to most, according to the paper. Some villages are completely cut off and they’re having to drop food for the villagers and the livestock by plane.’
    ‘It must be awful for them,’ Dotty said sympathetically. ‘But anyway, are you still prepared to come and have a look for a typewriter with me during our lunch break? They should have cleared the main roads by then and I’ve seen a nice one in the window of a pawnshop a couple of streets away. It’s an Olivetti.’
    ‘Of course I’ll come with you,’ Lucy told her. ‘I’ve got to pick up a few more things for Mary as well to take with her next week.’ Her face fell. It was only a matter of days now before Mary was evacuated, and she could think of nothing else. It was like a great black cloud hanging over her as she fretted about how the child would cope. ‘I need to pick her up one of those little cardboard suitcases from Woolworths,’ she went on glumly. ‘The ones I have would be far too big and heavy for her.’
    Dotty patted her hand. She knew that there was nothing she could say that would make Lucy feel any better, and she felt sorry for her.
    ‘We’ll do that then. But now we’d better get to work. With so many staff off they’ll probably have us running from one department to another today.’
    By morning break-time both the girls were fed up.
    ‘Talk about going from one extreme to another,’ Dotty said as she paid for a cup of tea and headed towards their table. ‘There we were at Christmas and New Year run off our feet, and now the store is almost empty. It’s like a ghost town.’
    ‘That’s hardly surprising, is it?’ Lucy answered. ‘I mean, who is going to venture out in this weather unless they absolutely have to?’
    ‘I know what you mean, but I haven’t been idle although there aren’t many customers,’ Dotty said. ‘Mrs Broadstairs has had me tidying all morning. I think I’d sooner be serving.’
    ‘Me too,’ Lucy said despondently. ‘But at least we can get out for a while at lunchtime.’
     
    Once in the pawnbrokers, Dotty stroked the keys of the Olivetti typewriter with a wide smile on her face.
    ‘It’s almost brand new,’ the shopkeeper said persuasively. ‘And an absolute bargain at the price I’m asking for it.’
    ‘I’ll take it,’ she told him, and she and Lucy left the shop with the typewriter packed into a sturdy cardboard box.
    ‘We’ve still got time to get to Woolworth’s,’ Dotty said. ‘But we’ll have to take it in turns to carry this, if you don’t mind. It’s heavier than it looks.’
    Once Lucy had purchased the little cardboard suitcase from Woolworths they hurried back to Owen Owen. It had started to snow heavily again and Dotty cursed breathlessly, ‘Damn weather. When is it going to stop?’
    Once back in the staff cloakroom they put their purchases away in their lockers then hurried up to the staff dining room with just enough time left to snatch a cup of tea before they were due back at work.
    ‘Why don’t you come round tonight after work?’ Lucy suggested during their afternoon break. She was feeling very down in the dumps.
    Dotty shook her head. ‘I won’t tonight, if you don’t mind. I’ve got my typewriter to get home and if this snow keeps coming I might not be able to get back from your house later on.’
    ‘You could always stay the night and we could travel to work together in the morning then,’ Lucy suggested, but still Dotty refused. She wanted to get home and practise on her typewriter.
     
    That evening the buses were running very late, so it was gone seven o’clock by the time Lucy arrived to pick Mary up from Mrs P. It felt strange to think that this would be the last week she would need to do it.
    ‘Ah, yer look all in,’ Mrs P said as she stepped through the door. ‘Come an’ have a warm by the fire an’ a nice hot cuppa, eh?’
    Mary gratefully did as she was told, and noticing the package she was carrying Mrs P remarked, ‘You got her suitcase then?’
    ‘Mm, I did, but there were only two left.’ Lucy glanced towards Mary who was sitting staring into the flames in the fire and her heart ached as she wondered where she might be this time next week. They were going to make her a special tea on Saturday for her birthday and she had invited Dotty and Annabelle, but she doubted Mary would understand that it was her