Home Front Girls

for ten o’clock next Monday mornin’. They’ll take the little ’uns by coach to the station, and they’ll journey on by train from there.’
    Lucy had known it was coming, but the news still knocked her for six. She wondered again how the child would cope with being sent away, but of course she had no answer to that question and even if she had, there was nothing she could do about it.
    ‘Did they say where she might be going?’ she asked tearfully.
    Mrs P shook her head. ‘I don’t think they know till they get ’em to the station. Someone from the WVS travels with ’em from there an’ then you’ll get a postcard givin’ you the address. I’m so sorry, love.’
    Lucy shrugged. ‘It’s not your fault. We knew it was bound to happen, and if we do get raided, I dare say she’ll be safer out of the city.’
    Mrs P nodded sadly, too full of emotion to speak.
     
    The following Sunday evening, Lucy kept Mary up until the child’s eyelids were drooping with fatigue, aware that this would be the very last evening they would share together for possibly a very long time. She made the child her favourite jam sandwiches for supper and rocked her on her lap in front of the fire, then when they finally went to bed she wrapped the child in her arms and held her close as her heart ached. It was so hard to try and imagine the house without Mary in it, but she rightly guessed that many more women across the city would be suffering the exact same heartache. She had tried to be strong, but once Mary was asleep Lucy lay in bed savouring the feel of the warm little body in her arms and allowed the tears she had held back to slide down her cheeks as the hours ticked away.
    On Monday morning, Lucy dressed the little girl cosily in the smart red coat and tied her woollen bonnet beneath her chin, then with a heavy heart she placed the brown label with Mary’s name and address on it around her neck and lifted the child’s suitcase. It was almost time to go, but first she had promised Mrs P that she would call round so that she could say her goodbyes.
    The poor woman tried unsuccessfully not to cry as she kissed the child but it was useless, and soon both she and Lucy were sobbing, although Mary stood quite still showing no emotion whatsoever.
    ‘I’ve made her a couple o’ cakes to eat on the way,’ Mrs P said, thrusting them at Lucy in a brown paper bag. ‘Yer did remember to do her some sandwiches fer the journey, didn’t yer?’
    Lucy nodded as she turned for the door. There was no sense in prolonging the agony and Mrs P followed her out onto the pavement, her head covered in a headsquare, wrapped turban-like around her metal curlers.
    ‘Goodbye, luvvie, an’ may God go with yer,’ she called as the sisters set off along the cold street.
    Lucy clutched Mary with one hand and the case with the other; her feet felt as if they were made of lead and she wondered if she would be able to part with the little lass when the time came. She had both of their gas masks slung across her shoulder too, so it was hard going, but soon the school came into sight and Lucy saw a bus and a number of mothers with children already there. Lucy slowed her steps, hoping to delay the terrible moment when she would have to hand Mary into someone else’s care.
    A woman from the Red Cross was ticking names off a list on a clipboard and then ushering the children onto the bus, and everywhere seemed to be organised chaos. Older children were screaming as they clung to their mother’s skirts whilst the younger ones appeared to view it all as a big adventure and clambered aboard quite happily to wave from the windows. A man was loading the children’s cases into the hold in the side of the bus and all the mothers were clearly trying to control their tears in case they upset the children even more.
    There was only about half a bus full, the majority of the children having been evacuated the previous September, and in no time at all the woman with the clipboard approached Lucy and asked, ‘Child’s name?’
    Lucy had to lick her dry lips before a sound would come through them.
    ‘Mary Ford,’ she squeaked and the woman nodded as she crossed the name off.
    ‘Give her case to the gentleman over there and then get her onto the bus, please?’
    Lucy passed her case to the man then walked towards the steps of the bus where she stooped to wrap her arms tightly around Mary. There was a huge lump in her throat and she had to blink very fast