Towards a Dark Horizon

by Maureen Reynolds

  Joe seemed delighted that his predictions were coming true and, when he arrived at the shop every morning, he had long discussions with Connie about the latest developments.

  He said, ‘I hear the government is to issue air-raid shelters to the towns that would be the biggest target for enemy bombing.’

  My heart grew cold as Connie nodded and added, ‘Aye, it’s the youngest men that will be called up first and then the older ones later, I suppose.’

  I thought of Maddie and Danny. She had got a part-time job in a private nursing home. She loved the work and it kept her busy while Danny worked long hours in the shop. He was up for promotion to under manager and Maddie’s pride in him knew no bounds. I just hoped and prayed that their life together wouldn’t be cut short by a war.

  Hattie loved to visit them. She told Granny, ‘I just love walking through that lovely tiled close and the flat is such a delight.’

  Grandad, who had recovered from his chest infection but still refused to give up his pipe, butted in, ‘Aye, we know it is, Hattie. Your mother and I have been to visit them as well.’

  Although Hattie said nothing, I knew she wasn’t pleased by the fact that all the family had been invited since the wedding. Bella had gone with Granny and Grandad while Kit and her sisters and their families had also gone for a Sunday visit. They all knew it was an open door to them and that they were all welcome at any time as Maddie had no side to her. The only person who hadn’t gone so far was Ma but she enjoyed hearing about the news from Kit. As I said, this seemed to annoy Hattie who would have liked to keep the flat as somewhere only she was invited to go to. Granny had also voiced this view to me but had very sensibly remained silent about it to her daughter.

  Then, in April, the government planned to introduce conscription. A compulsory list of young men under the age of twenty-one was drawn up and Sammy’s name was on this list. As it was, Danny was really angry with Sammy because a rumour was going around Lochee that he was seeing another girl and that she was also expecting a baby.

  ‘Maybe it’s the best thing that can happen to him is to be in the army,’ said Danny one night when I was sitting in their lovely living room.

  The view from the window was spectacular as the setting sun cast a molten gold glow over the water. Maddie also gazed out at the scene with a faraway look in her eyes. When she spoke her voice was soft. ‘It seems so strange to be approaching a war on such a lovely night as this, doesn’t it?’

  Danny didn’t want her upset so he said, ‘Och, it’ll maybe not come to anything, Maddie.’

  I felt we were all wishing on the moon with this ostrich-like view. I also felt that, if war did come, then it would last a lot longer than the prophets were saying and, like all wars, it would be a nasty conflict with some people surviving and others who wouldn’t. But of course I couldn’t voice this to Maddie who was holding fast to the wish that it would all go away in some magical puff of smoke – if only.

  Sammy was called up and he went to a training camp near Perth. On the day of his departure, Maddie and Danny asked me to go with them to see Kathleen and Kitty.

  ‘She’ll need some support,’ Maddie said.

  We made our way up the narrow stair that led to Kathleen’s poky flat. We heard a baby crying before we reached the door. The thin wails echoing down the dark lobby. It had to be Kitty’s cries.

  Danny opened the door and the cries became louder. He shouted out, ‘Kathleen, it’s Danny!’

  The baby wailed even louder as we all crowded into the small room. Kathleen was lying on the bed and she looked really ill.

  Danny made a rush for her but Maddie held him back and she quietly approached the bed. Kathleen was crying softly and her hair and face were streaked with blood and sweat. Maddie smoothed her hair away from her face and lifted the slender body into her arms.

  ‘What’s happened, Kathleen? Have you had an accident?’

  Meanwhile, I lifted Kitty from her cot and, although she didn’t stop crying, her sobs weren’t quite so loud now.

  Maddie said quietly, ‘Tell us what happened, Kathleen?’

  She turned and we saw the bruises. Her face had a large black bruise down the left side and we could see other marks on her body. She was wearing just her vest and pants and her arms and legs were also a mass of bluish bruises.

  Danny was almost speechless with anger. He said, ‘Who did this to you, Kathleen? Was it Sammy?’

  She nodded tearfully. ‘He told me I’ve not to see any other man while he’s away so he gave me this beating to show me what would happen if I did.’

  At that moment, I swear that, if Danny could have got his hands on Sammy, he would surely have given him the beating of his life – just to let him see how he felt about a smashed face. But Sammy was in his training camp and away from Danny’s anger.

  Maddie got Kathleen dressed and I carried the toddler while Danny set about packing her things into a suitcase. We then made our way to Kit’s house where she would be looked after and would hopefully remain – even if Sammy did return.

  Like Danny, when George saw his daughter and his granddaughter, he went white with anger. ‘If that wee bugger has any sense, he’ll not come back here or I’ll sort him out once and for all.’ There was no doubt of that and, if Sammy should return, I knew he would be in big trouble. He must have hoped that Kathleen would cover her injuries up and say nothing. Just like countless women who took the beatings and said nothing, thinking it would bring shame to them if they told the community what their lives were like – as if the fault was somehow theirs.

  Kit was appalled by Kathleen’s injuries but Maddie thought most of them were superficial.

  ‘Thankfully her skin is so white and translucent that some of the bruising looks worse than it is.’

  Kit looked at her in astonishment.

  Flustered by now, Maddie explained, ‘Oh, don’t get me wrong, Kit. That brute certainly gave her a bad beating but I don’t think anything is broken and hopefully the bruises should subside in a week or two.’ She took Kit’s arm and led her over to where I stood, still clutching Kitty who had now fallen asleep in my arms.

  ‘Although the bruising will heal, Kit, I don’t know what damage has been done mentally and I strongly advise her to stay away from her husband. A brute like that never changes.’

  Kit’s eyes were blazing. ‘Don’t you worry about that, Maddie. If George or I ever set eyes on him … Well, he’d better watch out, that’s all I’m saying.’

  Although it was never voiced, we all still wondered why in heaven’s name she had married him. Maybe she had loved him but one thing was crystal clear – she didn’t love him now.

  The story of Sammy swept around Lochee at the speed of light. Even Maggie, his mother, was gunning for him. As she said, perhaps it would be better for him if Hitler got his hands on him first instead of her.

  Joe came rushing in one lovely day in May. ‘Have you heard that Hitler’s signed a pact with Mussolini?’

  Connie nodded. ‘Aye, it’s not far away now, this war.’

  It was a strange summer, that year of 1939. On the surface, everything looked normal. People strolled in the warm sunshine and went about their daily chores as usual but the underlying feeling was one of fear for the future. Wives worried about their husbands and mothers feared for their sons.

  Minnie wrote to me that summer. She was also worried about Peter, her husband. He was in his late twenties but the general rumour was that all the male population under the age of forty would be called up. Still she seemed reasonably cheerful in spite of this and she was determined to remain where she was. After all, as she said, young Peter was now at the primary school and he was loving it.

  I wrote back with my news which wasn’t much. I mentioned Maddie and Danny’s wedding but I couldn’t say much about Greg because I had only seen him twice since the wedding.

  I couldn’t help but think my life was in some sort of limbo. I did the same tasks each day – took Lily to school
then worked with Connie. Would this all stay the same if war was declared? I wondered.

  In August, it all changed. Greg was coming back to Dundee as his work in London was now over. Then we heard through Maddie’s father that Margot had sold her flat in Victoria Road. She had moved away from the town but Mr Pringle didn’t know her whereabouts which was a huge relief.

  However, Dad didn’t see it that way. ‘I’m still married to her,’ he said sadly.

  ‘Can you not get a divorce?’ I knew divorces were very rare and I had no knowledge of what they entailed but it sounded like a good idea, just to finally get rid of her.

  Then there was Rosie who had still not made up her mind to marry Albert. Granny told me in confidence that she wouldn’t marry him if she thought there was even the slimmest of chances with Dad. But he was still married and Rosie could see no possible end to the problem. It was getting her down and the fact that Alice kept harping on at her to seize her chance of happiness with Albert – that didn’t help.

  ‘You know,’ said Granny, ‘this is a strange time. We’re waiting for a war that never comes and, for the first time in years, people have got jobs. Look at Danny’s relations in Lochee. The men are all working at the foundry and Kit’s sisters are back in the mill. Kit’s looking after wee Kitty to let Kathleen go out to work and they’re all making some money for the first time in ages.’

  I agreed. It seemed as if prosperous times were just around the corner and it looked like the hard days of joblessness and the inquisition of the means test were now a relic of the past.

  Lily and I went to the railway station to meet Greg. He was coming back to his old job at the library and his lodgings in Victoria Road. At first I didn’t see him on the crowded platform but Lily spotted him. She ran forward. ‘Here we are, Greg – over here!’

  He heard her voice and smiled. ‘Hullo, Lily. My what a big girl you’re getting!’

  I stood quietly waiting. For some strange reason, I didn’t know what to say to him. I had only seen him on two very brief occasions since last October and, for all I knew, he could have met someone else when he was away. Then he grinned at me and I knew he hadn’t.

  We decided to go for our tea to the restaurant in Union Street. As usual, Lily was thrilled by all the attention from us both. We told each other all our news and what the families were doing.

  Lily was enthralled by all his talk of London – especially when he mentioned the underground trains. ‘Oh, I’d love to go on them, Greg – they sound super!’

  ‘Ann and I will take you there one day, Lily, and you can see the palace where the King and Queen live and lots of exciting places.’

  Lily gave him her wide-eyed look before tucking into her huge ice-cream sundae which he had ordered for her. As it turned out, it was fortunate her attention was taken up with demolishing the sundae because she wasn’t listening when his face became serious. ‘I have to tell you that I’m not back for good, Ann.’

  My face fell and I felt so depressed by this news.

  ‘I have to be honest with you, I know I won’t be one of the first men to be called up because they’re taking the youngest ones first. Then there’s the problem of my gammy leg. I don’t think I would pass a medical test for the forces.’

  My heart leapt and my depression lifted. He was telling me good news – not bad.

  Then he said, ‘I’ve made up my mind to join up when this war starts. Oh, I know I’ll not be fighting on the battlefront.’ He paused before continuing, ‘Well, at least I don’t think I will but you never can tell. One thing I do know is that I would be a great help with the administration side of things.’

  I was confused. ‘So you’re telling me that, even if you don’t get called up, you’re still going to join?’

  He nodded. ‘I hope you’re not angry?’

  What could I do? Being angry wouldn’t help. After all, if the war did start, then all the men would be away and Greg was just looking ahead.

  ‘But we’ll have some time before that happens?’

  ‘You bet we will!’ He looked at my hands. ‘Have you still got the ring?’

  I pulled it from under the neckline of my summer frock.

  He put it on my finger. ‘Now I’ll know that you’re thinking about me when I’m away.’

  Lily overheard this part of the conversation but only because the ice-cream dish was empty. ‘Ann’s aye thinking and speaking about you, Greg,’ she said seriously.

  He smiled at her. ‘Well, just make sure, Lily, that she doesn’t change her mind.’

  Lily just loved this sense of responsibility. She sat up straighter in her chair. ‘Oh, I’ll do that, Greg – you can count on me.’

  We both laughed. As we made our way home through the busy streets, I prayed that, should the war start, then please don’t let it happen soon. I had just got Greg back and I didn’t want to lose him again – at least not just yet although I admired his decision to join up in spite of his bad leg. He would feel he was doing his bit for his country and I was proud of him.

  As it turned out, we had barely three weeks together before the calamity burst upon us. Hitler invaded Poland and we were all told to tune our wirelesses to one wavelength. Chamberlain had issued an ultimatum to Hitler to withdraw his troops by the deadline of Sunday, third September. Hitler had ignored this and we were now, after months of speculation, at war with Germany.

  It was a brilliant weekend of sunshine and high temperatures but the weather didn’t register with us as we all had our own private thoughts.

  Greg and I went with Lily and Dad to the Overgate where we listened to the news along with my grandparents. It was so hard to believe that we were entering a period of hostilities in such lovely weather. The flowers were blooming in the parks and we had planned to spend the day at the beach at Broughty Ferry. Instead we all sat in Granny’s kitchen.

  Dad said, ‘It’s the same bloody caper as last time. We were told that the last war was the war to end all others and here we are again with that bloody megalomaniac, Hitler. We should have put his gas at a peep years ago instead of letting him march into any country he chose.’

  Still we were lucky that Lily was still with us as children were being evacuated from the schools. The scenes outside the railway station had been heartbreaking as queues of children lined up to say goodbye to their parents before being taken to a safer place. We were all told that Germany would invade from the skies and it was in the children’s interest to get them away from populated areas. But, as it was, Lily had taken a dose of chickenpox a few days earlier and I hadn’t wanted her to be evacuated just yet. Lily didn’t want to go at all but, if it meant her safety was at stake, then I would make her go. Greg suggested I could perhaps send her to his parents’ house and I was relieved to know I could always fall back on that if the going got too tough.

  Greg had been as good as his word. He had joined up and he hadn’t passed the medical but, because he had already done some war work in London, he was passed fit for administration duties. Three weeks before he had come back home and now he was on the verge of leaving again.

  The day after war was declared I was in the shop when Joe came in. ‘Have you heard what Hitler has done now? We thought he would arrive from the skies but his ships have sunk the Athenia.’

  Connie nodded, her face frowning deeply. ‘Aye it’s in today’s paper that a U-boat sunk it off the Hebrides and they didn’t give the ship any warning. It seemingly happened just a few hours after Chamberlain’s speech on the wireless.’

  ‘Aye,’ said Joe with disgust. ‘And it wasn’t even a navy ship. Just a liner going to Canada and those buggers go and torpedo it. I believe lots of folk drowned?’

  Connie said that they had. She had read that as well.

  This made me all the more determined to move Lily to a place of safety. She was still unhappy about this idea but I told her she should go after the blisters were better. I put calamine lotion on them every night but she wouldn’t stop scratching th
em and I feared they would never heal.

  Every night she would burst into tears. ‘I don’t want to be evacuated, Ann – I want to stay here with you and Dad.’

  Just to placate her, I told her about Greg’s plan for her to go to the Borlands’ farm but even this didn’t soothe her.

  ‘I’ll miss my pals at the school if I go away. I love going to see the farm on my holidays, Ann, but I don’t want to be there on my own.’

  ‘Well, lots of your pals at school will be evacuated too so, even if you do stay here, you won’t be able to see them, Lily. So it won’t do any harm to write to the Borlands, just in case you have to get away from Dundee.’

  That night I sat down and wrote to them and hoped they wouldn’t think I was lumbering them with my sister. Still, time would tell.

  As the weeks passed people began to call this the phoney war but there we were all in a state of readiness, with gas masks at the ready in case of a gas attack and Air-Raid Precautions Wardens and fire-fighters in place. Then there was the blackout. I had bought a length of black material to make a blind as it was an offence to show even the tiniest of lights. I had heard through Connie of some officious wardens telling people off in no uncertain language.

  Greg was leaving. At the beginning of October, almost on the date of Maddie and Danny’s wedding anniversary, I went with him to the railway station. The platform was heaving with hundreds of men being whisked away to camps all over the country. When the train arrived, it was also packed with people and it looked as if Greg would have to stand all the way to his training camp.

  I felt so sad at our parting but not entirely surprised. It seemed as if our relationship had been a series of goodbyes, ever since day one when we had met in the infirmary.

  ‘Keep wearing the ring,’ he called from the window. ‘I’ll write as soon as I arrive.’

  The steam train gave a mighty snort of black smoke as it moved slowly along the track and it drowned out the rest of his words. I saw his mouth open and close but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. I stayed on the platform for a long time, well after the train had disappeared from my view, then slowly made my way back to the Overgate to Lily and my grandparents.