There was Violet opening the door, her expression welcoming and friendly to begin with, changing to stunned disbelief as the boy gave her the telegram. She held on to the doorframe and Rita could see her hands were shaking as she read the piece of paper. Rita waited no longer, but turned and ran to behind the counter where Ellen lay in her Moses basket. Scooping up the baby, she called through to the kitchen for Ruby to mind the shop. Then, baby on her shoulder, she dashed across the road to where Violet sat on the front step, telegram in her hand, face as still as a statue.

The boy on the bicycle rounded the corner at the bottom of the street and disappeared down the dock road.

Violet didn’t glance up as Rita sank down beside her. ‘Oh, Violet, I saw the telegram boy. What’s happened? What does it say?’ She reached across and took the telegram from her friend’s hand, which was stone cold, even though it was a warm and sunny morning. Although Rita feared the worst, she still harboured a tiny fragment of hope that it was a mistake, or something trivial, or that if she didn’t read the words then it wouldn’t be true. But even as she thought these things, she knew she was clutching at straws. There was only one piece of news that merited the telegram boy in such a hurry and which would have had this effect on the recipient.

There it was, in black and white. There was no room for doubt. Eddy was dead.

Her hand flew to her mouth. No, it couldn’t be true. Not Eddy. Not her beloved brother. He’d been here only a couple of months ago, laughing and joking and passing round the rum, playing the piano. How could someone so lively be dead? It wasn’t possible. They had to have got the wrong Eddy Feeny. He must have swapped his uniform or …

Beside her, Violet suddenly began to shudder. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. Rita put one arm around her friend’s shoulder as she held baby Ellen with the other. She was trembling herself, but knew she had to take charge. ‘Come on, let’s go inside. Is anybody else in?’

For a brief moment Violet looked at her as if she didn’t know her, as if she was speaking a foreign language. Her eyes were wide behind their horn-rimmed glasses. Then she shook her head. ‘Out. They’re all out.’