Read Online Pack Up Your Troubles by Pam Weaver - Free Book Online Page B

final big push. His regiment ended up in Holland supporting the Canadian troops who had surrounded Amsterdam. After VE Day, he was sent to Germany itself.
    ‘Do we know when he’s coming?’ Connie tried to sound casual but her voice was a little tremulous with excitement.
    Gwen shook her head. ‘“Soon”, that’s all he says.’
    Connie was aware of Ga’s eyes boring into the side of her face. ‘I can pick Mandy up from school when he comes, Mum,’ Connie said. ‘That way you can meet him at the station on your own.’
    ‘Thank you, darling. That would be nice.’
    ‘And what about the shop?’ said Ga.
    ‘We’ll manage,’ said Connie throwing her a look and Ga jutted her chin defiantly.
    ‘Perhaps when he gets back, you and Clifford could have a little holiday, Mum. A bit of time to yourselves. I could look after Mandy for you.’
    ‘I don’t know about that,’ said her mother coyly.
    ‘Well, think about it,’ said Connie. ‘Wait until you’ve talked to Clifford before you say no.’
    Ga stood up with a harrumph. ‘People never bothered with holidays in my day,’ she announced as she gathered her plate and cup and saucer and put them in the sink with a clatter. ‘They just got on with it.’ She didn’t see Connie and Gwen share a secret wink behind her back. ‘There’s plenty to do today,’ Ga said as she limped to the door. ‘Connie, you can plant the leeks and some winter cabbage in the plot by the fence and Gwen, we need to get the carrots up for winter storage.’
    The back door slammed as she left the room. ‘No rest for the wicked,’ Gwen sighed good-naturedly.
    At the weekend, the pattern of life at home was slightly different. The shop closed at noon on Saturday and normally on Sunday the whole family went to church in the morning. They were Anglicans but preferred to go to the Free Church which, because the war had interrupted their building programme, met in the local school. The services were bright and cheerful and it had a large Sunday school.
    ‘After Sunday school,’ Connie had told Mandy when she’d tucked her up the night before, ‘if you’re good, I’ll take you to see the gypsies.’
    They ate their Sunday roast, and while Gwen sat with her knitting listening to the radio and Ga sat at her writing desk, Connie and Mandy and just about every other child in Worthing set off for Sunday school. In the main it was fun and the hour was precious to parents because it was the one time that they could have an hour to themselves with no interruptions. Pip went along with them but Connie made him wait outside. The class was held in a small room at the back of the church. The teacher, Miss Jackson, was a little older than Connie but they had both gone to the same school.
    ‘Connie!’ Jane Jackson, an attractive brunette, was now a librarian. ‘How good to see you. Are you back for good?’
    ‘Looks like it,’ Connie smiled.
    ‘We must get together sometime,’ Jane smiled. ‘No, William, stop hitting Eddie with that hymn book. That’s no way to behave in church.’
    The children sat in a semi-circle on a large mat on the floor. There were about thirty of them in Jane’s class, nearly all of them the children of church members although there were a few who had been sent along by their parents so that they could have a bit of peace and quiet and a little time to themselves. They began with a prayer and then some choruses. Jane and her fellow teachers were ably assisted by Michael Cunningham, the son of the church treasurer, a pimply faced youth who was waiting to go to university. Michael hammered out the tune on the school piano.
    The choruses brought back memories of her own childhood. They were as timeless and as meaningless as they had ever been. ‘ Jesus wants me for a sunbeam …’ ‘ Bumble bee, bumble bee, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz …’ and ‘ I am H-A-P-P-Y …’ The Bible story was based around the woman with the issue of blood . Connie wondered if