Down Daisy Street (25 page)
But these were depressing thoughts and Kathy was not sorry when Ruby dug her in the ribs and demanded to know what she was mooning about. ‘Are you still disappointed because they cancelled the trip to France?’ she demanded. ‘I know you said you didn’t think you’d be able to go because your mam couldn’t produce five pounds just like that, so why worry? Or are you worried because they said it was too dangerous?’
‘Oh, I didn’t really care about the French trip being cancelled because, as you say, I couldn’t have gone anyway,’ Kathy admitted. ‘It’s our lodgers that’s worrying me. I really thought that Mr Bracknell were fond of my mam, but fond or not, he’s going to join up as soon as war’s declared and Mam says Mr Philpott is goin’ to do the same. It’ll – it’ll make things even more difficult without their rent coming in, though Mam says we’ll be able to economise on food and laundry and such.’
‘They’re always tellin’ us we can economise on food, but I don’t see it myself,’ Ruby remarked, swinging her satchel energetically as she walked. ‘Though the papers say that farmers are in despair over foreign imports, it doesn’t seem to make food any cheaper, so far as I can see. When me mam sends me for the messages, I seem to get less for me money, not more.’
‘I quite agree. Why, Dorothy’s Tearooms have put their cream tea up to one and fourpence and though Mam thought it would put folk off they still fork out, though some of ’em grumble something awful,’ Kathy said. ‘The only thing that does worry me is me French accent. I got through the French oral at School Cert level by the skin of me teeth, and Mademoiselle keeps naggin’ on about pronunciation, though I’m sure I do my best to speak exactly like she does.’
‘I’m resigned to failing my mocks in French oral next month, but if I pass the written, then Mademoiselle says I can resit the oral in the autumn,’ Ruby remarked as they passed a greengrocer’s. She jerked Kathy’s sleeve. ‘Look, they’ve got damaged oranges for a ha’penny . . . real big ones! Shall we buy one and divide it between us? Only French verbs make me throat awful dry.’
The two girls had parted and Kathy was walking along the Stanley Road, sucking the last remnants of fruit left on her half of the orange. If she had been nearer school, she would not have dared to do such a thing, but here, on home ground, she seldom saw anyone from the high school and felt safe enough from detection and the inevitable order mark which would result from being caught eating anything in the street, let alone an orange.
Suddenly, a hand smote her in the middle of her shoulders, making her gasp and choke. She tried to turn to retaliate but someone tipped her straw hat forward over her eyes, nearly removing both ears as the elastic caught them, and plunged her, quite literally, into the dark. Kathy dropped her orange and snatched the hat off her head, then turned angrily towards her tormentor. ‘Jimmy bloody McCabe! I might have guessed it would be you,’ she said bitterly. ‘Why can’t you let me alone? I’ve never done you any harm, though I’d like to.’
Jimmy McCabe had grown tall and quite good looking but that didn’t make him any more likeable, so far as Kathy was concerned. She thought Jane was a complete idiot to be taken in by him, though she did realise that he behaved very differently towards her friend. The trouble was, he despised high school girls and thought them all terrible snobs, though she had no idea why. She tried to be pleasant to him when they met, never told Jane what she really thought of him and appreciated that he had a hard life. His parents were feckless and selfish, made him responsible for his younger brothers and sisters without a second thought, and, until recently, had taken every penny he earned. Now, however, Jane assured her friend that Jimmy was beginning to fight back. The previous winter he had told Mrs McCabe roundly that unless she wanted to see him move out she would accept half his wages and be thankful. He meant to save up so that he and his girl – that was Jane – could marry one of these days and he also meant to take Jane about a bit instead of ‘going Dutch’ as the saying went.
Mrs McCabe had seen all Jimmy’s lovely money disappearing into the wide blue yonder if she failed to agree to his terms, so now Jimmy did have money of his own and had begun to dress quite smartly. He had changed his job and now worked in a factory making wireless parts, and he had a second job as a projectionist in one of the local cinemas. He had not told his parents about his evening work, so he was able to keep all the money he earned from that and Kathy imagined that he spent most of it on clothes, and probably on little treats for Jane.
So if she admired him and was nice to him, why was he so horrible to her? She said as much as she rescued her orange peel – there was no orange left in it now – from the gutter, tucked her hair behind her ears and looked enquiringly up at him.
Rather to her surprise, Jimmy gave the matter serious thought. He frowned down at her, an arrested look in his dark blue eyes. At last he said slowly: ‘Now you’ve asked me, queen, I can’t say as I know why, unless it’s force of habit. But you’re right, you haven’t been horrible to me for months. Years, maybe. So what’ll we do about it? We’ve got two choices so far as I can see. You can start bein’ horrible to me again or I can start bein’ nice to you; which would you prefer, queen?’
He was laughing at her but Kathy found she no longer minded. There was warmth and even understanding in his face now, and a smile was quirking the corners of his mouth. She found herself smiling back and answering gaily, making it plain what her preference would be although she judged it safest to put it into words. ‘Well, since your girl is my best friend, I guess it’ll be a good deal easier if you’re nice to me, even if it goes against the grain! But what are you doing out at this time in the afternoon, Jimmy? Don’t say you’re sagging off work, the way you used to sag off school?’
She thought for a moment she might have overstepped the mark, because at one time Jimmy had been in constant trouble for truanting. It had not been his fault – his mother had simply left him in charge of the younger ones – but Kathy knew it had been a sore point and could have bitten her tongue out as the words escaped her lips. However, Jimmy grinned, clearly taking her remark in the jokey spirit she had intended. ‘I asked me boss for an afternoon off, and because I’m such an ideal employee there weren’t no arguments,’ he said grandly. ‘Jane knows what I wanted to do, but she don’t approve. She’ll be rare angry when she finds I’ve been and gone and dunnit anyway.’ He grinned again, looking half pleased and half shamefaced, and so like a small boy caught nicking apples from the fruit stall that Kathy had to laugh.
‘Just what have you done then?’ she enquired. ‘And why should Jane be annoyed? She’s an even-tempered girl, not the sort to ring a peal round your ears over a disagreement.’ He hesitated and Kathy wagged a reproving finger at him. ‘We’re going to be nice to one another, remember? Spill the beans, McCabe, or I’ll land you one.’
Jimmy laughed and heaved a deep sigh. ‘I’ve been and gone and joined the Royal Air Force, and it don’t pay nearly so well as me job at the factory,’ he told her. ‘But it’s about time I gorraway from me family and tried a bit of independent living. Besides, everyone knows there’s going to be a war – they’ve been diggin’ trenches in Hyde Park, so they tell me, and conscription is going to start any day, I’m sure, so I’d have to go anyway, mebbe in a few weeks. But the fellers say that if you join early, before you’re made to I mean, you’ll have a better choice of trades. I’d like to be a driver . . . no, I really want to fly . . . but anyroad, for better for worse I’ve done the deed, signed on the dotted line, took the King’s shilling, or whatever you want to call it. In two weeks’ time I’ll be in uniform an’ all the girls will be chasin’ me, but I reckon Jane will be ahead of the pack, wharrever she may have said.’
‘Oh, Jimmy, no wonder Jane was upset,’ Kathy said, her eyes rounding. ‘Why, you might get sent anywhere . . . abroad even. You certainly won’t stay in Liverpool.’
‘Yes, I know, that’s the worst thing really,’ Jimmy admitted, suddenly looking more serious. ‘But look at me, Kathy. I’m stuck in a bleedin’ groove at the factory. I work six evenings a week at the Commodore cinema. I have me work cut out to make sure any money I save don’t get nicked by – by some ’un who’s got no right to it, and though Jane’s a grand girl and her family are ever so good to me I want to be the one who’s good to her, if you get my meaning. When I join the air force, they’ll give me a real smart uniform, they’ll feed me – they clothe you from the skin up, you know; underclothes, socks, shoes, the lot – they’ll give me rail passes and the like so’s I can travel free and they’ll teach me a proper trade so when I come out I won’t have to go back to makin’ wireless parts but can do something I’ll be proud of.’
‘What?’ Kathy asked baldly. ‘What do you
want
to do, Jimmy? I thought, from what Jane told me, you were getting on grand at the factory and doing pretty well as a projectionist an’ all. What’ll the air force teach you that you couldn’t learn right here in Liverpool?’
want
to do, Jimmy? I thought, from what Jane told me, you were getting on grand at the factory and doing pretty well as a projectionist an’ all. What’ll the air force teach you that you couldn’t learn right here in Liverpool?’
The two had fallen into step beside one another and were rapidly approaching Daisy Street. Jimmy came to a halt, his eyes bright with excitement. ‘First, they’ll teach me to drive and it won’t cost a penny,’ he told her. ‘Then they’ll teach me all about engines because if you’re going to drive a vehicle, they reckon you’ve gorra know how the engine works. Then they’ll let me take exams so’s I can get on – I were always top of me class at Daisy Street, despite missing so many lessons – but best of all, I hope they’ll teach me to fly. When this war’s over, I reckon fellers who can fly will get the top jobs. Why, I might even stay in the air force and become a – a squadron leader, or even an Air Vice-Marshal!’
Kathy giggled. She knew very little about ranks in the Royal Air Force but had a suspicion that that of Air Vice-Marshal would be more than a little above Jimmy’s touch, even if he proved a competent driver and mechanic. ‘Well, if you tell Jane you’re aiming that high, I’m sure she’ll be delighted,’ she said encouragingly. ‘Just you tell her that conscription would mean you’d get called up anyway in a few months, and maybe she’ll forgive you. But thanks for telling me, Jimmy; I’ll do my best to make Jane see you’ve done the right thing. I don’t suppose you know, but Mr Bracknell and Mr Philpott – they are our lodgers – both mean to join up as soon as they’re able.’
She thought that this would impress Jimmy, but instead he sniffed disparagingly. ‘But they’re old fellers; none of the Forces are goin’ to want them. Why, the one with the walrus moustache must be all of forty, and the other couldn’t pop a paper bag without having a fainting fit. I can’t see the air force takin’ either of ’em.’ He laughed suddenly. ‘Mind you, if the one with the moustache held his arms out to the side and made his moustache whiz round and round, they might think he were a Spitfire and offer him a job as an aeroplane!’
Kathy tutted disapprovingly, though she could not help smiling. The thought of Mr Bracknell, moustache whirling like a propeller, was an amusing one. However, Jimmy was wrong to think their lodgers too old for military service. ‘Mr Bracknell’s thirty-six, or so he says, and Mr Philpott is no more’n twenty-seven or twenty-eight,’ she told him. ‘What’s more, Mr Bracknell used to drive heavy lorries and I think he’s sounded out someone in the army who told him they need experienced drivers desperately.’
‘Oh, the army,’ Jimmy said, dismissing the “brown jobs” with a flick of the fingers. ‘I dunno about them, they’re probably desperate for anyone they can get. But the air force, they’re different. Everyone wants to join the air force.’
‘I thought everyone wanted to join the Navy, it being the Senior Service,’ Kathy said severely, but with a twitching lip; Jimmy had signed up for the air force barely an hour ago and already it seemed his partisanship knew no bounds. ‘I suppose it’s because we’re a port, but all the lads down Daisy Street are talking about joining the Navy as soon as they’re old enough.’
‘Oh well, it takes all sorts,’ Jimmy said vaguely. ‘But I don’t fancy bein’ shut up in the steel hull of a ship while the enemy shoot them torpedo things at us.’ He glanced at Kathy out of the corner of his eye. ‘Tell the truth, I don’t much like bein’ shut up in small places. You wouldn’t catch me travelling in a lift when I can run up the stairs, an’ I’ve only gorra think about them submarines to break out in a cold sweat. No, I’ll leave the Navy for them as likes swimming.’
‘But I thought you said you wanted to fly an aeroplane. They’ve got little tiny cockpits,’ Kathy pointed out. ‘Or were you thinking of flying bombers? They’re a lot bigger, I believe.’
‘I’d rather fly fighters. But you aren’t closed in, the way you would be in a ship or a submarine,’ Jimmy said. ‘You can slide the perspex roof back, you know – that’s how the pilots get in and out – so I reckon you wouldn’t feel enclosed. But I don’t s’pose there’s much chance of bein’ taught to fly, really. I expect I’ll be ground crew, no matter how hard I work.’
They reached the corner of Daisy Street and Kathy slowed, beginning to say cheerio, wishing him luck, but Jimmy interrupted her. ‘I’m comin’ your way, queen,’ he said gruffly. ‘I’ve gorra face up to tellin’ Jane sooner or later and I reckon it ’ud better be sooner. She’ll get used to the idea, see if she doesn’t.’
‘I’m sure she will; and besides, it may never happen – the war, I mean,’ Kathy said, in what she hoped was a heartening tone. ‘Cheerio for now, Jimmy.’
‘Tarra for now, chuck, and thanks for your company,’ he said.
Continuing on her way down the street, Kathy reflected that Jimmy had never been so nice to her before and decided that she rather liked it. He had been horrible to her when they were both kids but she suspected that she had been pretty horrible to him, too. I believe I was jealous, she thought now, rather shocked at the realisation. The thing is, Jane and me have been friends all our lives and it was a bit of a shock when she started turning to Jimmy for companionship. It was wrong of me to be jealous, because I had Ruby and all the other girls at my new school, but once Jane had left the Daisy and started work she really had no one of her own age to go around with. Almost everyone in the market is old and, of course, I couldn’t be with her in the way I once was because of homework and school activities and that. If it hadn’t been for Jimmy, she’d have been terribly lonely.
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