Nine

‘Katie – here, coo-ee!’

Katie stood by Lewis’s, looking round through the Christmas crowds, and only after a minute worked out where the voice was coming from. Ann’s plump figure was skipping up and down and waving, over by the airraid shelter.

‘Oh, there you are!’ Katie hurried over to her. ‘Sorry – couldn’t see you for looking!’

‘You had your head in the clouds as usual, I s’pose,’ Ann tutted, but she smiled fondly. Ever since they had been at the Commercial School together, Ann had cast Katie in the role of the clever one, while she was the one with the down-to-earth common sense. Katie knew that neither was quite true, but she played along with it.

‘Where d’you want to go: Lewis’s? We could go and see all the decorations.’

‘No,’ Katie said quickly. Vera was working there today and she wanted to keep well out of her way. She kept the peace at home, but at a price. All the time she was tiptoeing round. ‘Let’s go over to Lyons’s.’

Ann looked a bit disappointed, but didn’t argue. ‘She’s a bit of a tartar, your mom, isn’t she?’

Katie put on a bright smile. ‘Oh yes – a bit.’ She didn’t say any more. She never told anyone what it was really like. She smiled, looking round. It was a nice day, she’d had a good read on the bus coming in, her book tucked in her bag now, and it felt very nice to be out amid the bustle with someone of her own age.

The cafe was warm and steamy and, as they took their coats off, Ann said, ‘Ooh, look at you all dressed up as usual. Did your mom make that frock?’

‘No – I did,’ Katie said, looking down at her dress. ‘You must’ve seen it before? I’ve had it ages.’ It was a pretty, soft pink dress with buttons down the front and a white collar.

‘No, I don’t think so.’ Ann sighed, sitting down. ‘You always look so nice.’

It was true, Katie did feel rather elegant compared to Ann, who today was wearing a rather hectic green-and-brown checked skirt and a tight jumper the colour of broad beans. Nothing ever seemed to fit right on her, but none of this made any difference to her social life. With her blonde, buxom good looks and big smile, she was never without invitations. Where do my nice clothes ever get me? Katie thought rather wistfully as she sat down. Even without her difficulties at home, she was so shy of men.

The girls settled with their drinks and had a good natter about their friends. Pat was engaged to a lad in the navy. Ann chatted on in a torrent about her big family, in which there was always some drama going on; about how her mom’s two sisters had had a years-long feud and then Iris, the oldest, was killed when a bomb hit the factory she was working in, and how the other one couldn’t get over it and her nerves had gone; and a gruesome story about a lad in the factory who’d got his index finger snapped off in one of the machines; and finally about the new lad she’d met called Gordon, who was a fireman. Katie was always amazed by the sheer number of Ann’s boyfriends, who seemed to come and go like buses.