Holidays at Home Omnibus

by Wait Till Summer; Swingboats On the Sand; Waiting for Yesterday; Day Trippers; Unwise Promises; Street Parties (retail) (epub)

  ‘Bleddyn has to close the café part so he can do the season with the boat trips, you know that.’

  ‘He could still do the boat trips, Granny Moll. All it would mean is that the man he employs to fry the fish would have to work a bit harder. I’d see to that.’ Olive smiled. ‘That café is popular with people coming out of the pictures and there’ll be extra people in the summer months, won’t there? The town is full of trippers and they all look for somewhere to eat that’s good and reasonably priced and quickly served.’

  ‘We’ve always closed the café part for the summer, Olive love. It’s tradition.’

  Moll’s arguments were becoming weaker, Olive noted. ‘Things are changing, Granny Moll, and we have to change with them. A lot of the cafés are staying open till nine o’clock for the busiest weeks. I heard them discussing it last week.’

  ‘They can’t do that!’

  ‘They can, Granny Moll. There’s a war on!’

  When Olive left to walk to the beach at two thirty, Moll had agreed to think about it and discuss it with Bleddyn. Her last words were, ‘Fair play, Olive, I can see the sense in it.’

  * * *

  Beth was waiting for five o’clock, when her brother Eynon and Freddy were due back from their swimming lesson. She had to find out what Freddy had to say about the non-existent engagement ring.

  She was serving three young girls with chips and bread and butter – a scrape of margarine, in fact, but butter sounded better – when Freddy arrived.

  ‘I passed with distinction,’ he told her as he walked in, fresh faced, his eyes glowing. ‘Fastest, calmest and with the highest marks in first aid; what do you think of that, then?’ he boasted happily.

  ‘How many marks did you lose for dishonesty, Freddy?’ she asked quietly. Then she turned to her brother and congratulated him, having been told that he too had passed the exam. ‘Well done, Eynon. You’ll be even more useful on the beach now, with a life-saving qualification.’

  ‘Wait a minute, Beth, you don’t think I cheated on the exam?’ Freddy demanded.

  ‘No, just on me.’

  His thoughts fled to Shirley Downs, but there had been nothing to that. A chat in the pictures, that was all. ‘Who’s been talking?’ He added quickly, ‘And what about? I haven’t cheated on anything.’ He stared at her, willing her not to have found out about the missing money in their savings account.

  ‘I went to the jeweller today,’ she said, taking the one shilling and sixpence for the servings of chips.

  ‘Oh, there’s been a bit of a mix-up. I should have told you. I’ve been meaning to, mind.’

  Taking off her apron, she went into the small kitchen and turned to him. ‘Well? I’m waiting.’

  ‘Truth is, Beth, I didn’t have enough money. I didn’t expect you to choose one that cost seven pounds, see, and I only had four pounds ten shillings.’

  ‘Only four pounds – but you’ve been saving for the ring for months and months.’

  ‘I am sorry, love. I didn’t know how to tell you, did I? Shall we go in next week and choose another one?’

  ‘No, Freddy. I’ve already chosen the ring I want. It’s up to you whether or not you buy it for me.’

  They were interrupted by Eynon. ‘Beth, I didn’t do the life-saving to help on the beach. I’ve been offered a job in the pool. Every afternoon. Not much money, mind, but I want to take it. Anything to get away from Granny Moll and our Mam.’

  ‘Ask Mam,’ Beth said irritably. Pushing Freddy unnecessarily out of the way, she went back into the café.

  The following day Freddy took his dinner hour early. The jeweller’s assistant was at lunch and the proprietor was not very understanding. He remembered the embarrassment the pretty, dark-haired girl, Miss Castle, had suffered. After a stilted discussion, it was agreed that Freddy could pay for the ring by instalments.

  ‘That will be two pounds ten shillings deposit, Mr Clements, and, er, five shillings a week?’

  Freddy agreed, wondering how he would manage to survive while it was being paid off. It also crossed his mind that the money could have paid for a weekend away with the easy-going Shirley Downs. He tried to push the thought away but as he handed over the two pound notes and the ten shillings in half-crowns, he begrudged every penny, paying as it did for a closer tie with Beth, whom he was no longer sure he wanted to marry.

  Unaware of Freddy’s feelings, Beth too felt a certain unease as he kissed her and slipped the pretty, sparkling ring on her finger that evening. He said all the usual loving words and promised everything she wanted to hear. But something was missing and she couldn’t explain, even to herself, what it was. Whatever the reason, the future as Mrs Fredrick Clements did not seem as rosy as it once had. The ring looked odd set on her finger, even cheap and garish, whereas in the shop and in her dreams it had glowed beautifully as a symbol of all she had ever wanted.

  * * *

  The young girl searching for food became a regular visitor to the café refuse bin, and although the food was well wrapped and left on the bin for only a short period, Beth wished she could help further. Granny Moll was so fussy about wrapping everything there wasn’t much risk of contamination, but it was a sad way for such a young girl to have to live.

  She wondered where she did actually live. It couldn’t be in any kind of home or food would be provided. She must be living outside society, probably in a derelict house or a barn. All right now, with the summer ahead of them, but what did she do in winter? Where did she find food then? And where did she find clothes?

  She said nothing to her parents, but she still had a few coats given to her for her famous rug. She took them to the café and left them draped across the bin afier putting the food where the girl could find it.

  Hiding in the kitchen, now spotlessly clean and ready for the following day, she looked through the window and saw the girl come, pick up one of the coats and examine it.

  It was tempting to shout, to tell her it was all right and she could take them all if she wished, but Beth knew that if she did the girl would run away and might not come back. The food must be keeping the girl alive and she couldn’t risk her losing it.

  As Beth watched, the girl tucked the coat under her arm and, taking the two packages of food, ran down from the headland and disappeared once again into the fields.

  * * *

  Olive was closing down the ice-cream stall on the sands. She scraped the last of the ice-cream from the tin, and piled it dangerously high on to a double cornet for a small boy.

  ‘Lucky you are, that’s the last of it and we’re just closing down.’

  Half of the boy’s face disappeared as he tucked into the soft, runny confection.

  ‘Ta, missis,’ he said as he came up for air.

  Olive was smiling as Moll and Marged walked towards her but the smile soon faded.

  ‘Have you asked Uncle Bleddyn about the fish-and-chip café?’ she asked, crossing two sticky fingers out of sight below the counter.

  ‘Sorry, Olive dear, but Bleddyn won’t change his mind about the café,’ Moll lied. In fact she hadn’t mentioned the suggestion. Bleddyn might have agreed and she couldn’t have that. The family dictating to her? That was something she couldn’t allow! ‘He thinks we’ll be spreading ourselves too thin if we keep it open,’ she told the disappointed girl.

  ‘That’s nonsense. We manage really well, plenty of people to help.’

  ‘We’d only need a bout of flu or summer colds to hit us and we’d be going round like headless chickens trying to keep it all going. No, love, he’s right, best we keep it closed and concentrate on the beach in the summer, like we always do. The Pipers have been here for a long time, we don’t want to risk losing our place, do we?’

  ‘If the family can’t manage, there’s a pool of casual workers looking for summer jobs,’ Olive pointed out.

  ‘We like to keep it in the family, you know that,’ Moll replied. ‘Good idea, mind, shows you’re thinking of the business now you’re
a part of the Piper family.’

  ‘I’m a Castle, Granny Moll. I married Ronnie Castle.’

  ‘But the business is called Piper’s and always will be, you know that. And we keep it in the family, so the café has to close. You understand, don’t you, dear?’

  Olive didn’t look convinced – in fact, Moll thought, she looked rebellious. ‘Now come on,’ she said in an effort to change the subject to a less contentious one, ‘it’s our Ronnie’s birthday next week; what shall we get for him? New shirt? That’s always handy, specially if the clothes rationing happens like they’re warning us.’

  Olive didn’t reply. She gathered the tools for serving ice-cream and dropped them into one of the empty ice-cream tins ready to be cleaned. The serving counter flap was wiped and closed for the night and Moll helped lock everything away before she followed her granddaughter-in-law over the sand and up on to the promenade to the café.

  Aware of the girl’s disappointment, Moll said, ‘Go on home, Olive, love. I’ll see to the rest.’

  Thankfully, Olive turned and went to stand at the bus stop. She saw Ronnie closing up the helter-skelter and flirting with a group of giggling girls. She didn’t wait for him; she was in no mood to talk to any of the family for a while, not even her husband.

  Marged watched her go and wondered if Ronnie would be wise to forget his dream of working alongside his wife during the summers.

  ‘I think we’ll lose Olive soon, Mam,’ she said to Moll as they approached the café high above the beach.

  ‘She ought to do what her husband wants, Marged. If she’d been brought up proper she’d know that, wouldn’t she?’

  ‘Olive isn’t a Piper, she married a Castle. I think we’re being unfair to expect her to feel the same as us.’

  ‘Nonsense, Marged. A woman has to do her duty and follow her husband’s wishes.’

  Marged wondered how much longer people would talk that way. The war, less than a year old, had already reminded women that they had choices. Factories paid better wages than shops and seaside stalls and Olive knew it. Who could blame her? she reasoned silently, as she walked into the café with the empty tins and utensils.

  When Ronnie had closed up the swingboats and helter-skelter, she took the keys from him and said, ‘Go home, Ronnie, and talk to your wife – or, more important, listen to her.’

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Ronnie stared at Marged in alarm.

  ‘Nothing’s the matter, boy, but she needs a bit of maldod, a bit of spoiling. Not happy working the beach? Wanting something different, perhaps?’

  ‘Oh, that old story. She knows what I do and she’s always known, so why is she being so awkward?’

  ‘She prefers working in the chip-shop café and Granny Moll won’t agree to it staying open. Fed up she is, bach, and needs a sympathetic ear, that’s all.’

  * * *

  Lilly, whose turn it was to stay and load up the van, had slipped out of the door while attention was distracted and it was Beth and a reluctant Freddy who were left to finish the day’s work. Beth closed the doors of the café, having watched the departure of her sister with dismay.

  ‘It’s not fair,’ Beth began, as Granny Moll tried to hush her. ‘Our Lilly gets away with it every time.’

  ‘Never does as good a job as you and me, Beth. Slapdash our Lilly is, and there’s her expecting to share the running of the business one day. What a hope, eh?’

  Huw stood looking up at the window they had replaced a few weeks before. A crack had appeared and was slowly moving down from the corner, and he knew that it would soon be unsafe. ‘One good storm and it’ll blow in,’ he said to Marged. ‘We must have cut the glass a fraction bigger than we should and it’s giving under the strain.’

  ‘We’ll ask our Ronnie to get a new piece and fix it, shall we?’ Moll said as Ronnie prepared to leave.

  ‘No, the boy needs more time to talk to that wife of his, not less. We’ll get it done tomorrow.’

  * * *

  ‘Ronnie, I don’t want to discuss it any more,’ Olive said irritably as she set the table for their evening meal. ‘I don’t want to work on the beach and you won’t accept it. There’s no point talking about it; you never listen! I asked Granny Moll if she’d consider keeping the chip-shop café open, but she said Uncle Bleddyn refused. I don’t believe she even mentioned it to him. She’s that strong, she always does things her way and I don’t know how you and the others stand it.’

  ‘What was her reason?’

  ‘The usual, we’ve always done it that way and there’s no reason to change.’

  ‘Is that all?’

  ‘Oh, she said we’d be overstretched.’

  ‘Perhaps she’s right. We do need you helping on the sands during the busiest weeks at least.’

  ‘Well, you’ll have to find a way to manage without me. I’m going to look for a job in another café or perhaps a shop.’

  ‘Olive, we can’t do without you. The family has to pull together; you know Granny Moll is against employing strangers. Piper’s is a family concern.’

  ‘What about Taff’s wife? Evelyn doesn’t work for the family. Everyone accepted that.’

  ‘She had a career before Taff married her and he didn’t expect her to give it up.’

  ‘Evelyn works as a clerk in a factory! Hardly “career”, Ronnie!’

  ‘It was different with Evelyn, she didn’t want to belong. And we have enough people, so long as you help. Granny Moll doesn’t want to employ strangers; you know how strongly she feels about that.’

  ‘What about the call-up? How will you Pipers manage when half of you are in the army? It’ll be down to your mam and dad and Beth and me. She’ll have to agree to strangers working for her then. Your Lilly isn’t keen on work, is she? Why won’t Granny Moll listen to reason? With food rationing already tight and threatening to get worse, people will depend on cafés to eke out their food. It’s bound to be a better investment.’

  ‘You’ve thought about this seriously, haven’t you?’

  ‘Ronnie, love, if you have to go into the forces, I don’t want to be stuck all day in a job I hate then come home to these empty rooms. Misery all day and loneliness all night, that isn’t much of a life, now is it?’

  ‘I’ll have another talk with Granny Moll.’

  ‘I mean it, mind. Tomorrow I’m starting to look for a job. There’s plenty of factory work now, and good pay too I’m told.’

  ‘Not a factory. If I have to go away, I’d feel happier knowing you’re with Mam and Dad and the rest. You’d be safer somehow than working in some factory.’

  ‘Munitions are part of the war effort and I might not have a choice.’ She hugged him, pressing her cheek against his. ‘I couldn’t bear it, Ronnie, and you might as well face it. I’m dreading you going away to face such danger, and the only way I can survive is by getting involved in something I enjoy.’

  ‘And you enjoy serving chips?’ He grinned at the stupidity and was rewarded by Olive returning his smile.

  ‘All right, I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s better than the Pipers and their “everyone having jolly fun” beach days. Uncle Bleddyn’s fish-and-chip café will do for now, until I find out what I really want to do.’

  Ronnie was concerned. Olive had never really taken to the family business, but he hadn’t realised just how strongly she resented having to be a part of it.

  * * *

  When the café closed the following day, Beth hid just inside the door while her mother and Auntie Audrey cleaned the oven and washed the floor. She didn’t have to wait long before the little girl came around the corner of the path and strolled nonchalantly towards the bins. Beth held her breath as if afraid the girl would hear her. She intended following the girl and finding out where she lived that made the theft of food so important.

  Meanwhile Huw collected putty and knife, pliers and tacks and a small hammer, all of which he stuffed into the pockets of his dungarees. Whistling cheerfully he climbed up the ladder to
replace the pane of glass he had removed earlier. To his relief the new piece of glass fitted perfectly and, after working around the frame to make the bed of putty which would hold it firm, he pressed the glass in place. He was feeling in his pocket for the tacks when a movement caught his eye and he turned to see his daughter creeping across the grass heading for the fields.

  ‘Where the ’ell’s she off to?’ he muttered. Stretching his neck and leaning away from the ladder, he saw the small figure just ahead of her. She was following someone, but why? Not a thief; everything would be locked up by now, surely.

  He stretched a bit further and to his alarm felt the ladder move sideways. ‘Ronnie, hang on to the the flamin’ ladder, boy!’

  He dared to look down and saw that Ronnie had abandoned his job of putting weight on the bottom of the ladder and was playing football with a group of children further down the beach on the wet sand. He swore loudly and with feeling as the ladder slid further and further to one side. He tried to make a jump for it as it increased speed after sliding past the corner, but his foot was stuck and he landed heavily with his hands still foolishly gripping the hammer.

  Marged was emptying a bucket of soapy water at the sink and saw the figure of her husband, his mouth in a rictus of fear, slide past the window. Calling the others with a scream of panic, she ran out.

  Beth was unaware of the accident as she hurried after the fleeing figure of the young girl. But the girl was perfectly aware of Beth. Knowing she was followed, she darted on through the back streets and lanes, past the overgrown path leading to the abandoned stable where she lived. Amused at the unexpected fun, she led Beth to a field further on. Hiding one precious package under her coat, she opened the other and fed the contents to the horses who stood hopefully at the hedge.