The Lido Girls

by Allie Burns

‘Finally, young lady…’ Mr Mulberry chugged on his pipe ‘…you are speaking in a tongue I understand.’

  *

  Mr Mulberry escorted her up to Delphi’s room. He had a spare room key.

  ‘So this Prunella Stack might be able to advise the Fitness Council on methods of exercise for the adult population. This is a knowledge gap, you know…’

  He flung open the door. Delphi’s bed was crisp, pristine and empty. Her suitcase was gone. All that was left of her was the Chanel scent that hung in the air. Natalie checked the wardrobe.

  ‘She’s gone,’ she said. ‘I’ve lost her.’

  *

  She got back to the Lido at exactly two-thirty. She’d gone to the station with Mr and Mrs Mulberry. She’d even scoured the beach. In the time it had taken to look for her Delphi could have caught a charabanc, or a train. She could be anywhere by now. There was also the risk that she had had a fit somewhere and so Mrs Mulberry had agreed that they would check the Lido and then they would have to notify the police.

  For every person who had left after the beauty contest, Prunella and the League had attracted another three in their place. Natalie moved through the crowd with her hands by her sides, threading through the briefest of gaps.

  They had come, young and old, men, women and children. Hundreds of them all edged around the top deck ready for the demonstration. But where were the girls? What was the point in her being here without them?

  ‘Sid, I don’t suppose you’ve seen Delphi, have you? Or the girls?’ she asked, explaining what she had found at the Palm Court.

  ‘Oh my. I’ll look for her too,’ he said.

  Prunella had begun, repeating her speech from yesterday at the beach. On the poolside Toots – wearing her Miss St Darlstone 1935 sash and clutching her fountain pen prize – took a business card from a young man in a suit.

  ‘Have you seen Delphi or the girls?’ she asked.

  ‘You will find Yvonne quaffing champers somewhere. Cornelia Moon was very taken with her hairstyles.’

  ‘That’s wonderful, but where are they now?’ She was clinging to the idea that the girls were with Delphi, that she’d left the hotel to find them for their finale.

  ‘Sorry, not the faintest.’

  Jack came towards her whistling, his hands in the pockets of his white slouch trousers. The whistling came to an abrupt end when he saw the two women talking.

  ‘Hello, Toots. Hello, Natty.’

  Toots turned her back on him, and laughed along with the young man, even though he hadn’t said a word.

  ‘Delphi is missing. She’s run away. I can’t find the girls either. Betsy. Barnie. Yvonne. Edith. Hatty. All missing.’

  ‘Try the office.’ As she sprinted away he called after her, ‘Natty, it was him and he came and saw me and he liked what he saw.’ He gave her the thumbs up.

  *

  Several cool, heavy raindrops poked at her. First on top of her head, then her face, then they clattered down like rapiers. The sound of the rain breaking its fall grew into a crescendo as it hit the water behind them, the concrete, the spectators. Everyone at the demonstration yelped and complained and spun around in circles, with nothing but pitch-roofed newspapers and cloaks from their towels to shelter them. She thought that was it. She’d brought the Women’s League to the Lido for nothing. The rain was going to spoil it all anyway. Mrs Mulberry would say she was a dreamer for thinking she could take care of Delphi.

  But then the stopcock in the clouds turned and the rain’s pressure lightened. It eased and eased until it stopped just as suddenly as it had begun; only now it had washed away the mugginess, the air felt clear, crisp and fresh.

  *

  She opened the door so gently that against the din of the gala she was able to slip into the office unheard.

  Delphi sat alone with her back to her. Her suitcase by her feet. Leaning forwards, with her elbows resting on the desk, she watched everything going on in and around the bathing pool through the porthole window.

  ‘So, this is where you are hiding?’

  Delphi jumped and then turned her back on the window. ‘You did it, Natty. You brought the League here,’ she said.

  ‘I even convinced your father to come and meet Prunella to discuss how she might advise his Fitness Council.’

  ‘You did?’ She narrowed her eyes.

  ‘I did, except of course, he’s gone looking for you.’

  ‘I didn’t mean to cause a fuss. I just couldn’t miss the Lido’s big day. Obviously I didn’t know about Prunella coming; that was a surprise. But I wanted to see the girls. I wanted to see Yvonne smiling and Betsy in her bathing costume.’ She shone a fragile smile upon her. ‘I wanted to see you. Jack told me you’d come to a mutual understanding. I am sorry.’

  ‘Please don’t be. I wanted all of the things from life we were taught to expect, but you were right. I stayed at the college even though I didn’t fit there and I continued to dream of getting married because those things meant that I could be invisible, because I was afraid to stand up and say that I wanted a different life. Miss Lott knew it, but I didn’t listen. I had to find out for myself.’

  ‘Jack isn’t sore about it anyway,’ Delphi told her. ‘Quite the opposite now his coach chap has come back. Perhaps he’ll learn not to want what’s mine next time.’

  She took Delphi’s hand. There was no resistance. It was delicate, soft, and Delphi responded and wrapped her fingers around Natalie’s.

  ‘Delphi?’ She looked up from the hand, fearing that the heat of her own palm would betray her. ‘I’ve spoken with your mother and I proposed to her that you come and live with me. That we build a life together.’

  ‘Oh, you didn’t!’ Delphi snorted. ‘I wish I could have seen that. I’m surprised your head is still on your shoulders. Thank you; it means so much to know you did that. It’s a lovely dream, Natty.’

  ‘You’re wrong. You really did get through to her. I still think you were wrong to drag Sid into your scheme and to lie to us, but it did work. She heard you this time and she sees what she’s doing to you. I promised that I’d take care of you. You’ve proved you can do so much more than she believed.’

  Delphi took back her hand, pressed her fingers together and inspected her nails.

  ‘I’ll believe it when I hear it from Mother. And if it is true, what then? Are you brave enough for this?’

  ‘You’ll have to teach me. We have to be practical of course. I’m going to need a job first. Once I can put a roof over our heads, then I can send for you and you can find some work that you love too. Some instruction, part-time, not too strenuous.’

  They clasped hands again, and Natalie stood, pulling her out of her chair and towards the door.

  ‘It is a lovely dream. Do you think it will ever happen?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Natalie said honestly, ‘but just to say it out loud is a start. Isn’t it? Now, come on then.’ Natalie hurried her. ‘No more hiding away. Let’s get you out of here. We need to lead out those Lido girls for the finale.’

  ‘I thought you’d never ask. You know, I came prepared? I have my shorts on under my dress.’

  *

  Prunella’s slender legs stepped back into the centre of the deck. She smiled naturally, and waved. All heads followed her. Then came the instructors, tapping along the concrete in lace skirts and russet berets. Kicking their legs out straight, their smiles were not just painted on but clearly heartfelt. Natalie too raised her hands to the beat as the piano tiptoed through its notes. More spectators were drawn in. The display area contracted as more people piled up the stairs. At the end of the routine, the women all collapsed into laughter and hugs.

  ‘Now, you’re all to join in,’ Prunella called out.

  The crowd fell in to higgledy-piggledy lines, no discipline, no order, but everyone was happy and so she said nothing.

  Mr and Mrs Mulberry – pale with exertion – appeared.

  ‘Oh my girl!’ Mrs Mulberry exhaled. ‘She’s safe
.’ And they pulled Delphi from the line-up to talk with her.

  Natalie glared at the women giggling behind her, before she realised that they weren’t laughing at her, they were just having fun. With their powdered noses and freshly waved hair they were posing for their husbands on the edge.

  Jack leant on the wall, his legs crossed at the ankles, white trousers billowing in the gusts of drizzly wind that tore across the decks. Young George came alongside him, winking hello to Natalie and mimicking Jack’s posture to such a tee it made her smile.

  Then, under Prunella’s instruction, the jolly mass of several hundred simultaneously bent over and touched their toes. Unfortunately for her, Arthur was right in front of her, still dressed in the straining damp bathing suit. He reached his knees with a huge sigh.

  ‘Next of all we have star jumps.’ Prunella raised her voice above the music, her glossy lips peeling back to reveal her white teeth. ‘One-a, two-a, three-a, four,’ she sang. ‘Wonderful!’ She applauded.

  Natalie’s blood was moving and her heart knocked at her chest wall. As they all flapped their arms and jumped in and out she looked about her. Where on earth were the girls?

  ‘Now for the tin soldier.’ Prunella demonstrated, her bra proving inadequate for the bounce, as she alternated one leg and one arm forward and then the other.

  Prunella didn’t have the same aura as a games mistress. There was no sense that she’d give you short shrift if you fell out of sync, or that there was a threat of discipline hanging over her. But Natalie was smiling; so was everyone. These were ordinary women, none of them especially gifted, and yet here they were coming together to share a love of movement. Her heart leapt. Just as they began to warm down, she caught a glimpse of Yvonne in the crowd. Then they were down to the concrete, lowering their heads towards their knees, up, and then back down again. With every rise, she looked for the girls. She caught glimpses of Yvonne’s red head.

  Then the crowd in front of her cleared. It was time for the finale. Prunella led the applause; even with the low cloud her white teeth found some sunlight in which to gleam. Her hands outstretched as if to let the participants know that she applauded their efforts.

  So that was it; it was all over.

  ‘Where have you been?’ hissed Betsy, grabbing at her arm. ‘You haven’t even changed?’

  ‘Where have you been?’ she shot back.

  ‘We have one last special finale.’ Prunella beamed as she spoke into the microphone, as the instructors ushered everybody back to the edges of the deck.

  ‘We’ve been rehearsing of course,’ Betsy said, ‘in the underground car park. Without our leaders.’

  ‘The girls coming up next are proof that movement is indeed life,’ Prunella continued.

  ‘Will you lead us out?’ Betsy asked while Prunella continued with her introductions.

  ‘I’d love to. But I have a better idea. Wait here.’

  ‘I’d like to introduce a local group, very local in fact,’ continued Prunella.

  ‘Excuse us, Mrs Mulberry.’ Natalie took Delphi’s arm. ‘We need your daughter now.’

  ‘I can’t,’ Delphi said. ‘What if…’

  Prunella pointed her hand to the empty space in the demonstration area.

  ‘We’re all here for you, love,’ Betsy said.

  Delphi, her blond hair tidily swept back from her face to reveal a healthy glow, a huge white-toothed grin framed with red lipstick, strode out in her short shorts to an area in front of the podium. Betsy behind her.

  Arthur wolf-whistled. ‘Come on, girls. Show ’em what St Darlstone is made of.’

  They formed a perfect circle with Delphi the hub in the centre. Then the diminished jazz chords snapped into action and the saxophone wound its way through the melody. Delphi turned her head towards Natalie and winked. But before Natalie could reach out to her friend, she and the Lido girls were off. They were wafting. Lost to the music, their heads rolled, their arms floated and their legs skipped. Each of them following their own rhythm, in tune with their own bodies. Round and round they spun in their wheel.

  After a while, spectators around the edges began to feel the beat too and closed their eyes, leaving their bodies to blow about in the music’s breeze. Natalie joined them too, her arms at first stiff as she lifted them, and then she let her head roll and allowed the music to travel to the very ends of her body.

  ‘Your girls are certainly giving in to their artistic urges, aren’t they?’ Prunella joined in, straight away ebbing forwards and back with the grace of a wave.

  ‘They are. They’re having fun. That’s important. I see that now,’ Natalie admitted.

  Prunella linked her arm and they came to a stop.

  ‘But I know what you’re thinking.’

  ‘You do?’ Natalie leant back to get a better view of Prunella, whose gaze was following Yvonne’s veined legs, and they both noticed how she kept more weight on her left leg so that the right foot only touched the ground fleetingly.

  ‘I believe you’re thinking that artistry is one thing. But it needs to be balanced with remedial exercise if issues like those varicose veins are to be put right. Am I correct?’

  ‘You are indeed, Prunella. And Delphi and I have done just that. We’ve combined our thinking and here are the results.’

  ‘Would it surprise you to know that I think the same thing?’

  Delphi was leading the Lido girls into a straight line now. They all joined hands and bowed in response to the rippling applause.

  Natalie realised that she wasn’t surprised at all.

  *

  From the top diving board the holidaymakers on the promenade merged into one cloud. Today had gone better than she’d dared hope, but she couldn’t imagine what tomorrow might bring. The season would be over and she would have to start her life all over again. The two of them would need to earn a living and support themselves, without a man to prop them up, not even Mr Mulberry.

  It took her a moment to feel her feet had stopped itching, to notice the rewarding breeze at this height and to see that Delphi was actually there, next to her, holding on to the railings, releasing her hands periodically to tame her hair.

  Natalie lifted her spare hand to still the band and then the drumbeat began to roll.

  ‘Ready?’ Delphi asked.

  ‘As we’ll ever be.’ Edith and George went first, swooping down in parallel in arched-back swallow dives and entering with barely a ripple. Natalie was sure she could make out Yvonne’s cheers even from their height.

  ‘It’s you and I, then. Are you sure this is a good idea?’

  ‘I used to dive all the time you know. They said I had more talent than Jack when we were small.’

  She hadn’t known that. Her whole body went light and a tingle, like a delicate touch from a finger, or a cold breeze, climbed her neck. Delphi squeezed her hand. They picked their spot, bent their knees and counted down from three.

  ‘Off we go, Natty,’ Delphi called as she let go of her hand. They flung themselves from the board, up and out in a halo, free and weightless for the sweetest of seconds, before gravity won out and they were pulled down and down to the water below.

  *

  They hadn’t even emerged from the water when the League’s followers dived in en masse from all angles, many of them still in their uniforms: a collective, cooling sigh of relief.

  From the edge of the deep end she had a frog’s-eye view of the bombing, the splashing, the diving, the handstands, the turns under the surface, the laughter, the fun. If only she could stop the clock and just stay in this moment.

  ‘Miss Flacker.’ Arthur swam up beside her, almost unrecognisable with his bulk submerged and his thick hair flattened. ‘Well done,’ he gasped, clutching the bar for safety. ‘I’ve seen a different side to my wife, thanks to you. She’s answering back more than I might like, but you can’t have it all. Perhaps I should put you ladies in charge next summer. You’re really rather exceptional women, you know.’

 
; Above them loomed Jack, in his bathers, his arms folded across his chest. For a moment she forgot to breathe. He looked so very handsome.

  ‘Mr Whittle, I tell you something,’ Mr Mulberry interrupted, and called Arthur over to him at the water’s edge. ‘If you think this is busy, you just wait until we get the holidays with pay act through parliament. You mark my words; every worker will get one week’s paid holiday. St Darlstone will be this busy for the whole of August.’

  Arthur rubbed his hands together and clambered out of the pool with a wheeze to hear more. Jack meanwhile flipped his long tanned legs over the edge into the water and perched on the concrete lip.

  ‘She was never going to run away, you know,’ he said. ‘She had no intention of missing her chance to waft in front of Prunella.’

  She draped her wet arms on to the concrete next to him.

  ‘I think we’ve all been fools one way or another, haven’t we?’ He slipped into the water and pulled her around in front of him so that their arms formed two bridges between them in the water.

  She swallowed and looked him in those blue eyes. ‘We have,’ she said, her voice clouded, but she cleared her throat. Her eyes filled with tears, heart pumping.

  ‘Friends?’ he whispered in her ear as a group of children splashed past, chasing one another. He pulled back to look in her eyes. ‘It always was meant to be you and Delphi. I suppose I might have been jealous of what she has with you.’

  ‘And do you know I think I was already married anyway? To teaching. I just can’t give it up. I don’t know how but somehow I’ll fight to find my way back in. That has to be first and then everything else will follow.’

  She recalled the picture Miss Lott had painted of the wife waiting at home, and tried to imagine dancing alone to the gramophone in the living room, waiting for the sound of Jack’s car pulling into the driveway. And just as Miss Lott had known it wasn’t for her, Natalie knew without a doubt that she felt the same way.

  She lifted a palm full of water and splashed him. As he wiped his eyes clear, she snatched a glance at Delphi, trailing her toes in the water from the edge of the pontoon that stretched into the middle of the pool. She sat one side of Prunella; her mother sat the other.