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by Bruce.
Rated: 18+ · Chapter · Drama · #2292128
Elsie gets her demobilisation date.
Chapter 22


When Bobby saw me he displayed a huge smile. I couldn’t help but smile back. We did have history and I had some good times with him.

         “I’m so sorry about what happened," he said. "But when you didn’t turn up on our date and then I hadn’t seen you for over a week I thought you didn’t want to see me anymore.”

         “I was confined to camp for seven days.”

         “What for?”

         “Never mind. I’m not allowed to say.”

         “Elsie, can you give us another chance?”

         “What about your girl, Annette?”

         “She’s not my girl, she's just a friend.”

         “Yes, she looked quite friendly bouncing up and down on top of you with her bum winking at me.”

         “We just had too much drink. It won’t happen again.”

         “I don’t care if it does. I’ve got someone else now, Bobby.” I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him as he looked devastated.

         “Blimey, you didn’t hang about, Elsie.”

         “No, neither did you.”

         “Elsie, I thought you didn’t want to know me anymore. It was over a week with no meeting, no reason, and I thought you had finished with me because I went to the country and western dance with Annette. I was so depressed and missing you terribly.”

         “So you jumped on your bed with your housemate. How long has that been going on?”

         “We were both feeling depressed and had a few drinks.”

         “Oh, if you had a few drinks then it’s all right is it? And how many more times will you and Annette share a few drinks?”

         “I thought I had lost you and she thought her fiancée had been killed in France? She regrets it as much as I do, now that she has received a letter from him.”

         “Well, bully for her and the first bit was right. You have lost me.” Maybe not, if I had not met Tom again, who knows?

         “Please, Elsie. I love you so much. Please give me another chance.”

         “What, and then you think I would bounce up and down on you like Annette did?”

         “No, of course not. Please, let’s go and have a drink somewhere and talk this through.”

         “No, Bobby, like I said, I have found someone else.”

         “You can’t fall out of love that easily.”

         “Oh, yes I can. I fell out of love with you when I saw Annette’s bare bum.” I turned and walked off. It was a lie. I knew that despite everything I still had feelings for Bobby. How can I love two people at the same time?

         At the MT section things seemed to be getting quiet. There were less aircraft coming in for repairs. Because it was slack I went up to the wash bay to help Mick clean a coach.

         “The war’s over,” he said. “But still people are being killed.”

         “What do you mean?”

         “It was on the news. Some men were killed in Liverpool trying to defuse an unexploded bomb.”

         “Oh, no. Oh, no, Mick.” I turned and ran towards the control office.

         “Elsie,” Mick shouted. “What’s up?”

         I got to the office and looked through at the sergeant. “Please sergeant; may I be excused for the afternoon?”

         “Elsie, whatever is the matter?”

         “I think my boyfriend might have been killed. An unexploded bomb went off in Liverpool. I need to go and see his mother.”

         “Firstly, you need to calm down, there are many crews working on unexploded bombs. Second, you don’t need to panic. It won’t help.”

         “But I have a really bad feeling about it, please let me go?”

         “Okay, Elsie, I’ll sign you off for the day, but only because it’s you.”

         I rushed to the station and caught the train into the city. I hurried to Nellie’s house. I didn’t run. I didn’t want to fall again. Please be in, I thought. I rapped on the door and Nellie soon appeared. “Hello, Elsie. What are you doing here so early?”

         “I heard that a bomb had gone off in Liverpool and I am so worried.”

         “Whoa, calm down, Elsie. I heard the news and it is nothing to do with Tommy. It was a parachute mine and they are usually handled by the navy.”

         “Are you sure?”

         “Yes, if Tommy were involved I would know by now. Have you got to get back?”

         “No, I’ve been given the afternoon off.”

         “Good. I’ve got a new jigsaw puzzle and I am really struggling. You can come in and help me with it.”

         “I would love to. I am pretty good at jigsaws.” The relief swept through me like a wave and I suddenly felt elated at the news from Nellie. But it was short lived as I felt for the families of the men who had been killed.

         I was eager to see Tom again, especially after the fright I had. And when I called at Nellie’s house on Sunday I was pleased to see Tom’s car parked outside. Nellie let me in and when I walked into the room Tom walked over and gave me such a wonderful kiss that made me feel all tingly. We soon stopped because Tom’s mother was there and I felt embarrassed, but both Nellie and Tom did not seem bothered.

         “Right,” Tom said. “Let’s go for that drink.”

         “Don’t forget dinner’s ready at four o’clock,” Nellie said.

         We set off in Tom’s sporty car. “Where are we going?” I said.

         “We’ll go down to Tarvin. There is a nice hotel type pub what I would like to visit.”

         A hotel. I hope he is not going to try it on with me. Although on the other hand. No, no, no, stop it you rude girl, I thought and gave a laugh.

         “What’s funny?” Tom said.

         “I’m just happy.”

         We pulled up outside the hotel. “The George & Dragon,” I said. “I knew a George and he was not very nice.”

         “I knew a Dragon and she was not very nice either,” Tom said.

         We walked in the bar still laughing and holding hands. The sight of a Royal Engineer sergeant and a WAAF walking in holding hands seemed to please all the people in the bar and we were made very welcome. Tom got the drinks and we sat by the window. “You don’t know how happy I am to be back with you,” Tom said.

         “I think I do, Tom, because I feel the same. I fell in love with you the first time I saw you when you rescued us from those drunken soldiers at the dance.”

         “My Mother said that it is fate that brought us together again and I believe it was.”

         “So do I. I think that I would like to spend my whole life with you.”

         “You only think?”

         “All right I know I would.”

         “That is good, because I want to marry you.”

         “What?” The words seemed to whizz around in my head. The emotion was so intense that I thought I would burst into tears, but luckily I didn’t.

         “So, Elsie, will you marry me?”

         “Oh, yes, Tom. But when?” I didn’t want to appear too eager but I couldn’t help myself.

         “We will wait until my brother Billy comes home from the Navy and then we can all sit down and make the plans.”

         “I love you, Tom, and of course I would love to marry you, anytime.” In my excitement I said the words a little too loud.

         A woman at the next table called out, “He's just asked her to marry him and she said yes.”

         The people in the bar started clapping. “Congratulations,” the owner shouted across. He brought a half bottle of an imitated champagne over and put it on our table. “On the house,” he said. “But don’t ask where I got it.”

         We had a glass of the champagne and decided to take the rest home to share with Nellie at our dinner table. When we left the bar I felt as if we had made a whole new group of friends.

         We got home and were to tell Nellie our news after dinner. But I could not help myself and told her as soon as we walked through the door. She was delighted.

         When I told the girls in the barrack block they all went wild and seemed more excited than I had been.

         “Party,” Jane said. “We’ll have a party in the NAAFI bar tonight.”

         “Yes,” Eve said, “A sort of engagement party.”

         “A party, yes,” I said. “But it can’t be an engagement party if my Tom is not here.”

         “Oh, my, Tom is it? I bet the fornicator, Bobby, will be pissed off when he hears the news.”

         I laughed, but found myself feeling sorry for Bobby. I feel that I would like to remain friends with him despite what I saw him doing with Annette. After all, he thought I had abandoned him and how could I blame him. How was he to know that I was confined to camp for a week for punching someone on the nose? But Tom is the main man in my life now anyway so perhaps I should just forget about Bobby.

         The following day the sergeant called me into the control office. “I have some news for you, Elsie.”

         He had been calling me Elsie for a while now. It is so much nicer than calling me by my second name. It is noticeable how his attitude has changed now the war was over.

         “Your demobilisation date has come through,” he said. “Two months today and you will be a civilian.”

         “Oh, that is good news,” I said. But was it good news? I was happy with service life and the banter with all the driver’s and pals in the NAAFI. It will feel very strange to be out in civi’ street.

         “I must say, I will be sorry to see you go. You have been a good asset to the section.”

         “Thank you, sergeant.”

         “Will you be going back to London?”

         “No, there’s nothing for me there. I will be saying in Chester.”

         “Well, when the time comes for you to leave. Don’t forget that you can always look in to see us.”

         On Saturday I decided to go and give the news to Nellie and see if the offer of her spare room still stands, though I am sure it would. I knocked on the door and was surprised when it was opened by a Royal Navy sailor.

         “I’ve come to see, Nellie. I’m, Elsie.”

         “Oh, I’m Billy. You’d better come in.”

         I assume this is Tom’s brother. He does not look very happy to meet me. I walked into the parlour and Nellie looked up at me with a sad face and I feared the worst. She stood up, hurried over and gave me a tight hug.

         “I’m so sorry, Elsie. It’s the worst news.”

         It’s Tom, I know it is. Something has happened to Tom. Tears were welling up in my eyes, but I thought I must keep control. “What has happened?" I said.

 The Girl From Mile End. Ch 23.  (18+)
Elsie suffers another loss.
#2292269 by Bruce.
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