Anne Bennett - Love Me Tender

‘We’d have to take Sheelagh and Matt too, at least,’ Carmel said.

‘Couldn’t we go on our own just once?’

‘You know full well we couldn’t.’ Carmel was older and wiser than her niece. ‘Sure, Bridie would play war if she found out.’

Suddenly Lizzie wasn’t sure if she wanted to go, and have Sheelagh goading and sneering at her. She wasn’t sure whether it wasn’t a better prospect to stay in the hot street and swelter. But in the end she went, and her mammy and Auntie Rose went too.

Kathy was also feeling restless and unsettled and a day out with the children was maybe just what she needed. Also she thought she’d ignored Rose’s baby daughter long enough; sure, it wasn’t Rose or Sean’s fault her baby had died.

They sat on a grassy incline overlooking the lake and watched the ducks and swans swimming between the circling rowing boats. The children had stripped to the bare minimum, as had many others, and were squealing and giggling as they played together. Nuala was practising the new art of walking and now and again would tumble over and chuckle to herself.

‘It’s hard to believe dreadful things are going on in other parts of the world on a day like this,’ Kathy remarked.

‘I know Sean’s really worried. Is Barry?’

‘Everyone’s worried. God, Rose, what if war comes and our husbands are called up and there are enemy planes in the sky?’

‘You don’t think it can be averted?’

‘Not now, it’s too late,’ Kathy said. ‘We heard it on the news, Hitler wants the town of Danzig, and if it’s given up to German control he has a corridor straight through to Prussia, cutting off Poland’s access to the sea. I don’t see them agreeing to it, do you?’

Rose shook her head sadly. She looked at her little boy Pete, now a sturdy three-year-old, and Nuala still a baby, and shivered, and yet she believed her sister-in-law. Sean said Barry had a better grasp of the world situation than many of the politicians, which came from all the reading he’d done while he was on the dole.

It was as the women and children made their way home that they came upon men digging trenches. ‘What are they doing?’ Danny asked.

Rose and Kathy exchanged glances. Everyone was aware of the policy of digging trenches in parks and other open spaces; it had been on the news, but to actually see it being done was dreadful.

‘What will they have us do? Cower in the mud like rats?’ Bridie had said scathingly.

‘Well, it will surely be better than nothing if you’re caught in a raid,’ Pat had retorted.

Kathy knew her brother was right and, as war was inevitable, and everyone knew that this time civilians everywhere would be targeted too, she should have felt reassured seeing the trenches being dug. Instead it filled her with dread. But she had to answer her small son. ‘They’re just digging,’ she said shortly.

Danny walked to the rim of the trench to look in. The two men digging were stripped to the waist, their backs gleaming with sweat. One of them grinned up at him and all the children began edging forward to see.

‘Come on now,’ Kathy snapped.

The children, even wee Pete, took no notice and edged closer to look in.

‘Pete,’ Rose called warningly. ‘Come on.’

Pete turned and looked but didn’t move, and when Carmel attempted to pull him towards his mother, he began to shout and struggle.

‘Come away out of that, the lot of you,’ Kathy yelled impatiently, and the children came reluctantly, all except Danny. He continued to stare at one of the men, who suddenly rubbed his dirty hand across his brow. Danny was very envious. He thought it would be great to do work like that – fancy being able to dig all day long!

‘Danny!’

Danny ignored his mother and rubbed his hand across his brow, imitating the man, who leant on his shovel and gave a bellow of laughter.

‘Just a minute, Mammy.’

‘I will not “just a minute”, my lad,’ Kathy said, marching over and grabbing her son by the arm. ‘For once in your life you’ll do as you’re bloody well told.’

‘Ah, missus,’ said the man in the trench, understanding Kathy’s mood far better than Danny did. ‘Let’s hope they’re not needed.’

‘Yes indeed,’ said Kathy, dragging her protesting son away. She couldn’t wait to get them home.

‘Mr Brady came from the school,’ Bridie told Kathy later that night. ‘While you were away at the park.’

‘They’re on holiday, what did he want anyway?’ she asked, surprised. The headmaster had called round: he’d never done such a thing before.

‘He was talking about the evacuation programme.’

‘They’re not being evacuated,’ Kathy said firmly. ‘I talked it over with Barry. I’ve got the cellar and I’m not sending my weans to live with strangers.’

‘Me neither. I told him I’d come into your cellar if there were air raids.’

Kathy knew she would, and however she felt about her sister-in-law, she couldn’t deny her shelter if the bombs came. ‘What did he say?’ she asked.

‘Well, he wasn’t pleased. He said the government wanted to empty the cities of children, but it had to be our decision.’

‘I wonder how many will go,’ Kathy said. ‘I mean, I wonder if they’ll close the school.’

‘Surely to God they can’t do that, they can’t leave our children running mad through the streets.’

‘We’ll have to wait and see,’ Kathy said.

It was Lizzie who brought it up next. ‘Mammy, Maura’s going to the country.’

‘I know.’

‘Can I go?’

‘No you can’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because, that’s why,’ Kathy snapped.

‘That’s not a proper answer, Mammy.’

‘Lizzie, do you want a slap?’

Lizzie looked at her mother reproachfully and Kathy reddened. She’d overreacted, surely. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘I don’t want you away with strangers. You’re only eight, and Danny’s just five.’

Lizzie looked at her mother and saw her fear, but didn’t fully understand it. She didn’t know what the country was, she’d never been, but Maura had made it sound fun, and she said that if Lizzie stayed at home, she’d be blown up. Lizzie wouldn’t have minded going away for a while – well, as long as it wasn’t for too long and she could look after Danny.

Suddenly she remembered her little brother Seamus; how her mammy had lost him and how ill she’d been over it, and she thought that must be it – she and Danny couldn’t leave their mammy because their baby brother had died. She was even more convinced of it when her mammy put an arm around her and said, ‘I don’t know what I’d do without the pair of you, and that’s God’s truth, especially if your daddy gets called up.’

Then Lizzie knew she had to stay with her mother, and she’d explain it to Danny, and if they were blown up at least they’d be blown up together.

The priest thought that was the reason too. Father Cunningham had been a regular visitor after Seamus died and had eventually encouraged Kathy back to mass. Father Flaherty was a different kind of man altogether, and he sat in the easy chair as if he owned the place, while Kathy ran round feeding him tea and biscuits.

‘I’m glad to see you’re over that other business at last,’ he said.

That other business! He was my son, Kathy thought, but the years of having manners drummed into her held firm, so she said nothing.

‘Now,’ Father Flaherty went on, ‘you must protect the children you have.’

‘I intend to, Father.’

‘Oh, then you’ve changed your mind about evacuation? I was talking to Mr Brady, and he…’

‘No, Father, no I haven’t,’ Kathy said. ‘But you see, I don’t understand how sending them off to live with strangers is any way to be looking after them.’