ROO: To hear you say it like you meant it—twice in five minutes. Yes.

EMMA: Well—fair enough. S’pose you got to know about it some time, anyway.

She moves into the room, not unwilling to disclose her triumph.

I went down today and got the proper promise of a telephone. That bloke Maurie at the GPO. [Preparing to enjoy herself] And once I got the phone on, I’ll be startin’ off a different line of business altogether. Me and them I’m in with—

OLIVE: Mister Bromige.

EMMA: Not just him, there’s others, too—a little ring of us’ve put our money in, and any luck, we stand to make a heap of profit—

ROO: Know what that means.

EMMA: —and it’s not black market either. Any day the guv’ment’s gunna start to sell off all the surplus stuff left over from the war. Everythin’ from trucks to tin trays, and it’s goin’ to go dirt cheap. [Stirred by an underlying excitement] We got inside information, there’s a place up near Wodonga—Kiewa Valley—they got twenty-three million pounds of war equipment stacked up there alone.

BARNEY: And your mob’s goin’ to make an offer?

EMMA: Clever dick—no. Mister Bromige got it all worked out. We start off very small, see, buyin’ ordinary kitchen stuff you can’t get nowadays—crockery, maybe—till we get a decent corner on the local market. Then we branch out on to somethin’ else—why we got to have the telephone—there’ll be lots of messages about the buyin’ and the sellin’. And Mister Bromige got to know that he can get in touch with everybody, day or night.

ROO: Sounds like then you’re gunna be a busy woman?

BARNEY: And the rest of us won’t ever get to use the telephone?

EMMA: [emphatically] Means a whole sight more than that. It means that I’ll have no time to be runnin’ any silly boardin’ house. So you are goin’ to have to organise yourselves, you lot. Decide just what we’re goin’ to do about this place.

A brief pause, before OLIVE gives voice in awakening joy.

OLIVE: You’re giving up the boarders? Oh, I can’t believe it. [Appealing to the others] You hear what Mum said? No more boardin’ house?

Gazing around in excited appraisal:

This will be our own place—Mum, that’s wonderful.

She moves to embrace her mother with a rare hug, and ROO leads the others in a warm pledge of support.

ROO: Should have done it years ago—

NANCY: I’ll say. Time you took it easy—

BARNEY: [crowing] ’Specially, if you’re gunna make a fortune doin’ it. How’s your tinny form, eh?

The three of them converge to join OLIVE in physically congratulating a somewhat startled EMMA.

SCENE THREE

Early evening, a week later.

BUBBA is seated at a table in the sitting room, schoolbooks before her, engaged with homework.