A Wartime Christmas (20 page)

‘And why should we believe you met Harry?’ demanded Vi.

‘It’s the God’s honest truth, ducks. I couldn’t believe me ears neither when he told me Alan Lewis was alive and kicking in Slater Street.’

‘We’ll see what Harry Sway says about that.’

‘Be my guest. He’ll only tell you the same.’ Dolly spilled ash from her cigarette into the ashtray. ‘Mind, I don’t blame you for being suspicious. It’s no
surprise to me that Alan had you fooled. He did the same to me when we first met.’

‘And when exactly was that?’ asked Kay.

‘It was the summer of 1936. Me and my pals was having a laugh at some of them nutters up Hyde Park. Them blokes who think they’ve got all the answers to the world’s
troubles.’

‘Speakers’ Corner, you mean?’

‘Yeah, soapbox corner, more like. Well, Alan had got himself quite an audience, some of ’em toffs an’ all. See, he had this way with him, sort of looked at you with them dark
eyes of his. Even if you didn’t understand a word he said, you was impressed. So when he came up to me, we started chatting.’ Dolly touched her hair. ‘We made a good-looking
couple, me and him. I liked walking out on his arm and being admired.’ Dolly’s smile faded. ‘But my summer of love didn’t last long. I fell with his kid and we tied the
knot.’

‘He married you?’ Vi asked.

‘And why shouldn’t he?’ Dolly Lewis looked insulted. ‘With me slap on I wasn’t a bad-looker.’

Kay’s attention slipped to the little scrap who stood at his mother’s side. Unlike Dolly who was dressed well, if tastelessly, in a figure-hugging two-piece suit and low-cut blouse,
the boy’s clothes were nearly falling off him. He was very thin. His arms and legs looked like sticks. His shirt was frayed and grubby at the collar. His short trousers were not the right
size, revealing the many cuts and grazes on his knees. The boots he wore were badly scuffed and down at heel.

‘Have you a photograph?’ asked Kay.

‘Not now. What about you?’

Kay went to the front room. She was shaking and she had to calm herself before she returned to the kitchen. ‘This is my husband,’ she said, offering the photograph that was a copy of
the one she had given to Doris. ‘Now you’ll see you’ve got the wrong man.’

Dolly stared at the photo in the wooden frame. ‘This bloke’s wearing a tin helmet.’

‘It was taken the day Alan was given his Heavy Rescue uniform.’

Dolly peered closer. ‘He’s the right height and build.’

‘But what about the face?’ Vi insisted.

‘I can only see half of it.’

‘Surely you’d know your own husband!’

‘Yes, course,’ agreed Dolly quickly, changing her position on the chair. ‘It’s just that I didn’t recognize him in all that clobber. Alan’s a smart dresser
usually. Likes the good things in life.’ Dolly handed back the photograph. ‘That’s my Alan all right.’

‘You wasn’t sure at first,’ protested Vi.

Dolly smirked. ‘Listen, it’s him. There’s no mistake. Now, is there a cup of tea going and a drink for the kid? I was chucked out of me lodgings and I’m brassic.
We’ve had nothing to eat all day.’

‘Thought you was in a pub,’ objected Vi. ‘You had enough money to buy booze.’

‘The drinks was bought for me. Ask Harry. Anyway, it’s not for myself I’m asking. It’s Sean I’m worried about. He ain’t had a decent meal in days. If you
ain’t willing to do a nipper a small kindness, I suppose we’ll have to go down the Sally Army.’

‘Are you hungry, Sean?’ Kay asked the boy.

He nodded silently, glancing at his mother. Kay noted how nervous he seemed, almost afraid to respond.

As Kay went to the larder, she didn’t miss the satisfaction on Dolly Lewis’s face. It was madness to think for a minute that Alan had ever known her, much less married her. If only
there had been another photo that would have proved conclusively that Dolly Lewis had accused the wrong man!

At last, Kay and Vi found themselves alone. Kay cleared away the dishes from the small meal she had given to the boy and his mother. The thick slices of bread and dripping
together with thin slices of Spam and cold mashed potato had vanished in minutes. Kay couldn’t forget how painfully thin the youngster was. He looked as though he hadn’t had a wash in
weeks and Kay had seen something crawling in his hair. She had calculated the dates that his mother had given them; if Sean was born in April 1937, he was only nineteen months older than Alfie. Kay
had met Alan in the autumn of 1937, on his return from Spain. She tried to think of how long Alan had said he’d spent fighting there. Was it six months or more? She couldn’t
remember.

‘Kay, are you all right?’ Vi asked as she helped her at the sink. ‘You don’t believe a word that woman says, I hope.’

‘No. But it was a coincidence that her Alan’s appearance was like my Alan’s.’

‘You’ve only got her word for that. There must be lots of Alan Lewises in London.’

‘Why choose us?’

Vi shook her head. ‘Dunno.’

‘I’m worried about that boy. I think he was afraid of her.’ Kay looked at the empty plates, remembering how he had pushed everything into his mouth as though he was starving.
‘I don’t know how she could see her son go hungry like that.’

‘Chances are, all she was after was a hand-out.’

‘She said she’d go to the police.’

‘Just an idle threat, mark my words. She’s not the type to have truck with the law.’

Kay’s thoughts were spinning. She wanted to sort them all out and feel normal again. But she couldn’t. She went back to the chair and sat down. Dolly’s cigarette butts were in
the ashtray, her red lipstick imprinted on them. Even the trace of her cheap perfume was still in the air. It was as if this woman had left her mark deliberately.

‘What’s up, flower?’ said Vi, joining her at the table.

‘She threatened to come back.’

‘If she calls again, we’ll fetch the rozzers ourselves. It’s her word against yours. And I know who I would choose to believe.’

Kay nodded slowly. ‘I’ll go round to Harry’s tomorrow. Find out if she really did speak to him.’

‘Watch out for his wife, Glad. She won’t like to think he’s been drinking with a woman.’

Kay gave this some thought. ‘I’ll go to the ARP depot next week.’

Vi gave a long sigh. ‘I was about to make some of Lenny’s fudge. But that woman has put me off my stroke.’

‘You can imagine how I felt when she walked into Babs’s.’

‘Did Babs overhear that nonsense?’

‘Paul did too,’ Kay admitted. ‘He even offered to throw her out.’

‘Why don’t he keep his nose out of other people’s business?’ Vi said with annoyance. ‘Sorry, but I don’t trust that bloke.’

‘Neither do I.’ Kay looked away. She had let slip a remark she would have preferred not to make.

‘Oh Gawd, Kay, do you mean—’

‘I hope Babs will put an end to the decorating,’ was the reply Kay chose to make.

‘So that’s what you call it!’ Vi went over to the open back door. Folding her arms across her chest, she sighed deeply. ‘This flamin’ war. If it ain’t one
thing it’s another. The men should be at home protecting their women and looking after their families. Didn’t we learn anything from 1914?’

Kay had no answer to that.

There was no sign of Harry Sway when Kay went to the depot the following week, and the month had ended before she finally managed to track him down.

‘Did you hear the news on the wireless this morning?’ Jenny Edwards said as she and Alice Tyler stopped to talk to Kay at the bus stop. Kay had left work early in order to catch
Harry at the depot. ‘The Luftwaffe’s on the loose again.’

‘Yes, I heard,’ said Kay. All week at the factory there had been talk about the attacks on Britain’s historic towns and cities. The renewed efforts of the Luftwaffe were making
everyone nervous again.

‘Jerry’s threatened to bomb every building in Britain that’s got three stars in this ’istoric tourist’s guide,’ said Alice. ‘Well, that’s bound to
be us soon. London’s got more ’istory than anyone.’

Jenny pushed back her headscarf. ‘You wanna get your Anderson kitted out again, Kay. And watch out for your Alfie in the street. If we get some of them hit-and-run attacks, he could be
shot down in the road.’

Kay felt a cold shiver run down her back. She was glad when the bus came along and put an end to the gloomy conversation.

‘Bye, gel. Take care of yourself,’ Jenny and Alice called as Kay jumped on the bus. She sat beside an elderly man who was reading from a newspaper. The headlines were all about the
raids taking place. Kay looked out of the window on the other side of the bus. Members of the civil defence were unrolling barbed wire in the street and others were piling up sandbags. Was this a
sign that they expected London to be bombed again too?

When the bus passed the Mudchute gun-site, Kay noticed the soldiers were inspecting the anti-aircraft machinery. She remembered when a high-explosive bomb had been dropped close by in December
1940. It had caused great devastation and the ack-ack gun had been put out of action. The activity going on there now was worrying. Were these more signs that London was next on the enemy’s
list?

The bus went very slowly because of the craters in the road. Kay held on to the seat in front of her as it swerved and bumped. Each time she looked from the window, she saw the ruins of
buildings. They brought back the memories of that first night of the Blitz in September 1940 when Surrey Docks had exploded in a crimson ball of fire. The eerie red glow in the sky had soon become
a common sight. Could all that happen again?

When Kay reached the depot ten minutes later, she was relieved to see Harry Sway standing outside. He was surrounded by a gathering of shoppers and workers, all of them talking about the same
subject: the Baedeker raids, as they were now called.

‘We’re on red alert,’ Harry was warning. ‘But this time, if Jerry has marked our card then we’ll be ready and waiting.’

Everyone was nodding and looking worried.

‘Harry, have you got a minute?’ Kay asked as she pushed her way through.

He ran his hand through his wiry, grey hair, replacing his helmet and pulling it down hard. ‘You come about yer Anderson, love? Do you want me to take a look at it before it gets
dark?’

‘Why?’

‘You wanna make sure it’s up to scratch.’

‘Yes, I know that, but—’

‘There could be a rough time ahead,’ Harry interrupted.

‘So everyone says. But Harry, I’ve got something else to ask you.’

Harry gave her a frown. ‘What’s that?’

Kay didn’t get a chance to ask as a big lorry with a canvas top pulled up next to them. One by one, members of the Home Guard climbed out.

‘Here’s me back-up,’ said Harry. ‘I’ll have to go.’

She caught his arm. ‘Harry, did you meet a blonde woman in a pub recently?’

He looked alarmed. ‘Could’ve. Why?’

‘I only want to know because someone named Dolly called at our house. She said she’d spoken to you and you sent her round.’

‘Matter of fact I remember her now,’ the warden acknowledged, looking a little uncomfortable. ‘I was drinking with me mates. She came up and asked a few questions. Said she was
an old friend of yours and Alan’s and wanted to look you up. Even bought her a Guinness as she said she was feeling poorly.’ He put a hand on Kay’s shoulder. ‘Listen, love,
don’t want to put the wind up you, but if you hear the siren tonight, don’t waste any time in getting the kid and Vi down the shelter. Now, I gotta go and get this sector
manned.’

Kay watched him hurry off. Soon he was surrounded by the volunteers, some of them old enough to be granddads. Dressed in old and crumpled uniforms and without any weapons, they gathered around
Harry, eager to do as he instructed. At least Dolly hadn’t told Harry who she claimed to be, Kay thought with relief.

Kay decided to walk home as she pieced her thoughts together. Harry had only bought Dolly a drink because she said she was unwell. Dolly had made their meeting sound intimate. She’d also
lied about being an old friend. So what other lies was she capable of telling?

‘Anyfink for us, missis?’ a voice called.

Kay stopped and looked at the cart in the road. Two young boys were pulling it along. They both reminded her of Sean with their neglected clothing and dirty faces. The notice on the side of the
cart said, ‘Salvage for the war effort’. The cart was piled up with newspapers, cardboard and rubbish.

‘No, sorry,’ Kay said with a smile. ‘But if you come to Slater Street I’ll have something for you.’

‘Fanks, we’ll do that.’

Kay continued her journey home. The sight of those poor children had made her angry. In dark times like these, when even the youngest were eager to help the country, Dolly Lewis – if that
was really her name – was trying a fast one.

As Harry had suggested, that evening Kay made a flask of tea and sandwiches for the Anderson. She also placed the old tin pail inside with a piece of board across the top. No
one wanted to go outside to the toilet in the middle of a raid. There was a general murmur of activity in the neighbourhood. Everyone had been thrown into a state of alarm again.

‘Do you think Jerry will fly over tonight, Kay?’ a familiar voice called as Kay was coming out of the shelter.

Kay joined Babs at the fence. ‘I saw Harry Sway at the depot. He said it’s best to be prepared.’

‘Yes, I heard that too. When I put the kids to bed tonight, I told them the siren might go and if it did, to get dressed right away. I told them not to be frightened, but they only laughed
and said it was exciting.’

‘That’s kids for you.’

Babs hesitated. ‘Kay, has that woman bothered you again?’

‘No, thank goodness.’

‘Did she really see Harry Sway?’

‘Yes. Dolly told Harry a different story altogether. Said that me and Alan were old friends and she wanted to look us up.’

Babs frowned. ‘You should have let Paul throw her out.’

Kay looked at her friend. ‘Is Paul still doing the decorating?’

‘No. Eddie’s coming home. I had a letter this morning. He writes he’s really looking forward to seeing us. As it’s a week’s leave, he’s going to take us up to
Lyons.’