The Girl From Mile End. Ch 1.

MILE END. EAST LONDON. 1939.

Chapter 1

"Will you two stop your fidgeting?” I said.

         “Tell her, Elsie," my sister Alice said. "Tell her, not me.”

         I reached up and looked towards the cinema ticket office. I wanted to see how we were in the queue so I could reassure my two younger companions that we were almost there. Maybe then they would stop their fidgeting.

         “Now that we are at war with Germany,” Alice's friend, Molly, said. “I’m going to join the army.”

         "You can’t,” Alice said. “Girls are not allowed to join the army.”

         “Yes, they are.”

         “No, they’re not.”

         “Yes, they are. Tell her Elsie.”

         “I don’t know,” I said. “But if they are you couldn’t join anyway; you’re only sixteen.”

         We moved along the queue and soon reached the pay booth for the cinema.

         “Well, I’ll wait till I’m seventeen then.”

         “You’re talking silly, Molly.”

         “No, I’m not, Alice, you cheeky bugger. What do you know anyway?”

         "I know that you have to be eighteen to join the army."

         “Pack it in you two. Let’s pay now and get in out of the cold.”

         “Should have gone to the dance hall. I’ve already seen this bloody Arthur Askey film.”

         “Stop you’re bleeding swearing, Molly." Alice said. "You’ll get us thrown out.”

         “And you stop yours, Alice.”

         “You can’t get in the dance hall at sixteen anyhow.”

         “That's little you know, clever clogs. I’ve been in there a few times.”

         “Yeah, all right, if you say so. Let’s get some sweets.”

         "Nobody listening to you two arguing all the time would think you were best friends," I said.

         It was getting late when Alice and I got home. I knocked on the door. Despite being almost eighteen I was not allowed to have my own door key. I thought it was our parents' idea of keeping control. The house was a Victorian terrace two up two down type house with a scullery addition to the rear. The front door opened directly onto the pavement.

         “What time do you call this, Elsie?” Our father shouted. “You know Alice has to get up for school.”

         "It doesn't matter," Alice said. "I'll be leaving school soon."

         "It does matter. At your age you should be home before now."

         “The film was longer than I thought,” I said.

         “Alice, get to bed. Elsie, make me a cup of tea.”

         “I want to go to bed as well. Where’s Mum anyway? ”

         “No business of yours. Now get in the scullery and make the tea, and hurry up or you’ll feel my belt across your rear.”

         When I was younger, I would often feel his belt savagely whacking the cheeks of my bum, causing me to scream and cry. I'm sure he enjoyed it. My mother always objected and it came to an end when she shouted at him and threatened to leave with Alice and me. But he still often threatens me.

*****

         As time passed we had an Andersen air-raid shelter erected in our garden. Air raid sirens often sounded but no air raids followed and we became a bit complacent; even ignoring the sirens. Alice left school and got a temporary job at a furniture factory which had started making aircraft propellers.

         The phoney war continued into the summer but after the fall of France a lot of people became jittery about the fear of a German invasion. I got home from my job at the bakers, had my tea and got ready to go out. I was hoping to get away before my father returned from the taxi firm that he ran. I was out of luck though and he walked in through the front door just as we were about to leave. “And where are you two going?” he said.

         “We are just going to the pictures.”

         “You want a bloody job,” he said. “Going to the pictures at night when there are bombs falling everywhere. What if the cinema gets hit?”

         “London is not being bombed.”

         “No, well what about those bombs that fell in West London the other night?”

         They probably just lost their way," I said. “There’s safe areas in the cinema for those who want to use them anyway.”

         “And taking your sister. If a German plane loses his way again and anything happens to her it will be your fault.”

         “If she stays at home and gets bombed, will it be your fault?”

         “You’d best watch your mouth, girl. Now get out of my sight before you get a walloping.”

         We set off down the street. “Why didn’t you tell him we were going to the dance hall, Elsie?”

         “He wouldn’t have let you out of the house if I did.”

         “I am so excited about going dancing. But are you sure they'll let me in?”

         “I think they will. Molly told you she was in there last week and she looks a lot younger than you.”

         We walked into the dance hall and noticed Molly straight away dancing with a soldier. Alice rushed over to join them. Yeah, just leave me on my own, I thought.

         Molly and her soldier friend were joined by another soldier when he saw Alice there. He put his arm around her and tried to kiss her. I was not having that and I hurried over to confront him. “Get your hands off,” I said.

         “Oh, a feisty one,” he said. “You’ll do for me, or I’ll do for you.” He gave a laugh and put both hands around the back of my waist. “Come on then, gis a kiss.”

         I tried to back away from him, but he held me tight and laughed again.

         I struggled to get away from him when another soldier came over. “Let the girl go, Richard,” he said.

         “There’s no rank in here sergeant,” Richard said.

         “I know,” the sergeant said. “And that means that I can knock you out with no consequences. Now let go of the girl and piss off.”

         Richard walked off but turned and said, “What, do you want to do her yourself, bloody rank puller?”

         “What did he mean, want to do her yourself?” I said. I asked the question, but thought I knew the answer.

         “Take no notice, he’s infantry.”

         “And you are not then?”

         “No, we are Sappers.”

         I laughed. “What are Sappers?”

         “Royal Engineers. We are called Sappers. Come on, come and sit at our table for a while." He motioned over to a table with a mixed group of soldiers and girls. I knew two of the girls, Martha and Pat, from my schooldays. They were always sensible girls so I had no concerns about joining them.

         We walked over and one of the soldiers pulled two tables together so there was plenty of room for us all to sit around. We had only just greeted each other when the air-raid siren sounded.

         Alice seemed scared and looked at me as a few of the group stood up.

         “After them bombing London the other night, we’re going down to the safety of the shelter in the basement,” one of them said. “Are you coming this time, Tom?”

         “No, I’ll take my chances here. It’ll probably only be a false alarm again anyway.”

         "Better to be safe than sorry," Martha said. "Don't want to be up here if it does get bombed."

         I could see that Alice and Molly were frightened by Martha's words. I looked at Tom. “Can your friends take the girls and look after them?”

         “Are you staying here then?”

         “Yes, I don’t mind staying with you. Tom, isn’t it?”

         “Come with us, Elsie,” Molly said.

         “No, Molly, I’ll be fine, but you two better get off.”

         The two girls didn’t have to be told twice and they followed the others down to the basement.

         “Are you not frightened? Elsie, isn’t it?” Tom said mimicking my earlier remark.

         “Of course I’m frightened. But when my times up, my times up. Anyway, I’m with a Sapper sergeant so I should be quite safe.”

         “I like you, Elsie, I really do.”

         “I like you too, Tom. And I haven’t thanked you for rescuing us from those two men.”

         “No thanks are needed. They did me a favour by giving me cause to go over and meet you.”

         I gave a smile. All his words seemed to give me a thrill somehow. Was this the special person I had often fantasised about? Could he fall in love with me? I felt as if I could easily fall for him.

         “So, is Molly your sister?”

         “No. Alice is my sister, Molly is her friend. They are only sixteen, that is why I was concerned about those other two soldiers.”

         “You don’t look like sisters.”

         “I say she is my sister but really she is my cousin. My mother and father are not my real parents either but my aunt and uncle. My real parents were killed in a train crash when I was a baby and my aunt and uncle being close relatives took me on as their own.”

         “That’s kind of them. They must be really nice folk.”

         He was looking at me, smiling and I felt that he was waiting for some kind of response from me. I didn’t really want to say I didn’t get on with my parents. I had to say something. “The air–raid siren is going off but the band is still playing.”

         “They won’t stop. Come on. Come and dance with me.”

         I was not surprised that so many people had remained on the dance floor after the siren sounded. Lots of areas in the country were being attacked by the enemy planes but despite that one exception, they seemed to be avoiding London. We had a couple of dances before sitting back at the table.

         “So, Elsie, are you courting at the moment?”

         “No, but I’m open to offers.” I laughed. “I can’t believe I just said that. What must you think of me?”

         “I think you’re smashing. Elsie, can I… Would you mind if I kissed you?”

         “I wouldn’t mind at all. In fact…” It was me who leaned over to kiss him. Our caress became a bit heated and after a short while I eased away. “Blimey, people are looking at us.”

         “Who cares?”

         “I do. There’s the all clear now. The others will be coming up from the basement.”

         “I knew it would be a false alarm.” He took hold of my hand. “Come on, let’s have another dance.”

         The others came in the dance hall and joined us. “You should have come down Elsie.” Molly said. “A man had a squeezebox and we all had a right good sing-song.”

         "It wasn't a squeezebox," Alice said. "It was an accordion, you moron."

         "They're both the same, idiot," Molly replied.

         It was soon time for the hall to close and I thought that the night had ended much too soon. I had taken a strong fancy to Tom and wished I could have spent a bit more time with him.

         We got outside. “Right,” Tom said. “Better get back to our billet. It has been a real treat being with you, Elsie. Listen, do you think you can meet me in here on Sunday night?”

         “I’ll think about it.” I gave a laugh. “Right, I've thought about it and of course I’ll meet you. But it will be after seven o’clock. I have to help with the dinner at home.”

         “That’s fine.” Tom reached over and kissed me. It was not like before, only being a brief kiss because the other two girls were giggling.

         “Ooo, I bobaree, we know you now, Elsie.”

         “Shut up, Molly.” I looked at Tom. “Good night then.”

         “Good night,” he replied. “You really are special, you know.” Just then the air-raid sirens sounded again.

         “I know, another false alarm.” I set off with a spring in my step and a fluttering in my heart. I had not felt like this since my schooldays when I had a crush on one of the older boys. We were nearly home and Molly said her goodbyes before setting off down the side street where she lived.

         "What a great time we had in there," Alice said. "I can't wait to go again. I love dancing, especially with good looking young men."

         "Is it worth the moaning and bad looks from father when we get home, though?"

         "Oh, yes, I'd say it is, every time."

         Saturday afternoon and my father told me to go to the shops to queue up for some groceries that Mother had forgot when she went earlier. He started shouting at me because I was taking Alice with me. "Too dangerous to be out in the streets for no good reason when the German's could bomb us any time," he said.

         "The enemy hasn't bombed us yet and would probably not after the pasting that their air force is getting from our RAF boys," I replied.

         He was getting paranoid about air-raids and over protective towards Alice. It didn't bother me that our parents seemed to care more about their real daughter than they did about me.

         As we were walking back from the shops I was thinking about Tom. "I'm really looking forward to seeing Tom again tomorrow night," I said.

         "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give it a break, Elsie. I'm fed up hearing about him."

         The air raid sirens started up. "Another false alarm," I said and we carried on walking towards home.

         "I might start going out with one of Tom's friends though," Alice said.

         "They're much too old for you."

         Alice looked to the sky. “Are you sure it’s a false alarm, Elsie? Only I can hear aeroplanes.”

         “It’s probably just our boys out on a patrol.” Moments later we heard the anti-aircraft guns popping off. I could see Alice was getting frightened. "Just the artillery testing the guns," I said. We looked up as aeroplanes began to fill the sky. There was a screeching sound and then a string of major explosions a few streets away.

         “Bloody hell, run for it, Alice.”

         It was not far to our house. We ran as fast as we could, terrified by the continuous explosions all around us.

         "Shouldn't we be taking cover?" Alice shouted.

         "Just bleeding run," I shouted back.

STATIC

The Girl From Mile End. Ch 2.  (18+) Evacuated to Surrey. #2291259 by Bruce.