Chapter 19
As Jeffrey left school with his friends a few days later, Roy, son of the family that managed the pub where Ginger had been billeted, stopped him. Ginger and Arthur stopped as well and Ginger glared angrily at the intruder.
"Can I talk to you," he said to Jeffrey. "Alone."
"I'll catch up," Jeffrey told the other two.
"Don't trust him," Ginger said as they walked away.
Jeffrey stared the boy in the eyes. "What do you want?"
"Here," the son said, holding out an envelope.
"What is it?"
"A letter for Ginger. I think it's from her mum. It came a couple of weeks ago. My mum and dad kept saying they were going to send it over to her, but they kept putting it off. I think they're still angry at her."
"Angry? Why?"
"They had to hire somebody to do her work."
"Why didn't you give it to her?"
"She doesn't like me. She'll be angry at its being kept back. She'll take it out on me. Please, you give it to her. She won't be able to blame you." He thrust the letter forward. "Take it. Please."
Jeffrey took the letter and turned it over in his hands. "There's no return address. How do you know it comes from her mum?"
"Got to be. Her dad's letters are those navy letter things without envelopes that get folded over and the sides stuck down, and her Gran puts a return address on the outside."
"Well it could be from somebody else."
The other boy shook his head. "She's never had no one else write to her, just her mum, dad and her Gran." He turned away. "Got to hurry." He threw the words over his shoulder. "They keep me busy, too. The devil makes work for idle hands. That's what they say. Fat chance the devil will get his hands on me 'cause they keep me too busy." And he was gone.
Jeffrey looked up from the letter he held. Ginger and Arthur were a long way ahead. Then Arthur broke off towards the mill and Ginger turned the other way to Mrs.Vaux's. He thought about running to catch her, but the next day was Saturday and Ginger would almost certainly turn up at the mill. He decided to wait, opting instead to run and catch up with Arthur.
"What did he want?" Arthur asked.
"Letter for Ginger from her mum. He was afraid to give it to her himself 'cause he knows she'll be angry."
"Why's that?"
"Letter's two weeks old. You know how Ginger's been worrying. She won't even be happy with me for not giving it to her tonight." He stopped. "Maybe I should go over later if the sirens don't go."
But the sirens did go and the hostel children were forbidden to go out. The next day, after he'd finished his work at Selkirk's farm, Jeffrey went to the mill. Arthur and Ginger were already there. Jeffrey gave her the letter. A big smile appeared on her face.
"Where did you get this?"
"Roy gave it to me yesterday."
The smile disappeared and she snapped, "Why did you keep it 'till now?"
"You were too far ahead. I was going to come over last night, but the sirens went and I wasn't allowed out."
"You should have run and caught up." But her smile returned and she tore the envelop open. The smile didn't last long. She gave a wail of anguish. The two boys looked worried.
"What's wrong?"
"It's from my mum. She says dad's destroyer was sunk. He's missing. Presumed dead."
Jeffrey didn't know what to say. He watched as she read more of the letter. Then she let out another wail. "She'd left him, anyway. She's going to have a baby and marry that other man. She says she don't know if we'll ever get back together." She crumpled the letter into a ball and threw it behind her. "What am I going to do?" she cried as tears streamed down her cheeks. "What am I going to do?"
Arthur bent over and picked up the letter, smoothing it out folding it and putting it back into the envelope.
"Don't worry, things will work out somehow," Jeffrey told her.
"It's all right for you," Ginger said, her voice high pitched and angry. "You'll have a mum and dad to go back to when this horrid war is over. I won't have nobody to go back to." Then she rushed over to the window, climbed down the tree and ran away.
Arthur gave Jeffrey the letter. "Here." he said. You keep it. She might want it later."
Events had left them both depressed.
"What would you do if your mum and dad was gone?" Arthur said.
"Don't know," Jeffrey answered. "Suppose the government would look after me. Then I might find myself living in a hostel until I grew up."
Not knowing what else to do, they began to sort through their souvenir and shrapnel collections. Arthur stroked his incendiary bomb. "Wonder if this would really work," he mused.
"Lots of haystacks," Jeffrey joked. "Find out."
This time Arthur smiled at the joke too. "Never going to let up on that, are you."
"Probably not," Jeffrey replied. "Let's go look for more souvenirs."
And that's what they did, although all crashed aircraft had been cleared away.
Bomber Overhead Page 22