Read Online Tin Hats and Gas Masks by Joan Moules - Free Book Online Page B

now and we’ve never been terribly poor like some kids are. We’ve always had enough to eat and decent clothes.’
    In the two years Johnny had lived with the Dovers he had grown much taller and lost some of what Annie called his ‘sloppy speech habits’. His natural accent was stillthere, and he spoke as quickly, but he didn’t swear as much and Annie had shown him the beauty of words.
    Although she was used to bucking authority, she had never done it with such joy until she met Johnny. Until then it had been a grim ‘I won’t let you beat me’ attitude. Now it was happy, shared excitement.
    Together they had taken several afternoons off school and gone to the pictures. Annie always had money sent to her by her parents. They spaced these visits out and had only been caught once. ‘And then we didn’t let on where we’d been,’ they enthused to each other later, for Annie had quickly said that she had hurt her foot and Johnny had stayed with her until she could walk on it again.
    ‘Mind, I don’t think they believed us,’ she said later, ‘but who cares. They couldn’t prove I wasn’t speaking the truth.’
    ‘You’re better at that than I am,’ he had answered then. ‘Me mum always says she knows when I’m telling a lie.’
    ‘So do I,’ she answered solemnly.
    ‘How? Come on – give.’
    ‘Ouch, let go, you’re hurting my arm.’
    Johnny stopped immediately. He couldn’t bear to hurt her. He had never felt like this about a girl before. Not about anyone really. ‘Tell me how you know, Annie. An’ – and I’ll tell you if you’re right,’ he finished triumphantly. ‘That’s fair.’
    ‘I suppose so.’ She put her head slightly to one side, a habit he had noticed before when she needed time to think. ‘Well, you lapse into cockney, but … it’s hard to say really – more than usual. Sort of emphasized.’
    ‘’Course I don’t,’ he answered loudly. ‘You just think I do. Why, I even sound my h’s properly now. It’s your imagination. You ought ter write stories, cor struth you did, Annie. You wouldn’t ’alf be good at it.’
    They were to leave for London early on Saturday morning and return to Winchurch on Sunday afternoon. Annie had by now met Mrs Bookman several times, when she had come down to Winchurch on her day off to see Johnny. She liked her.
    ‘She startled me at first she was so quick,’ she confided to Johnny, ‘but she’s definite, goes straight to the point and when she laughs I could laugh too without even knowing the joke.’
    Mrs Dover tried to persuade Johnny to borrow one of their suitcases, but he refused to be parted from his well-worn one.
    ‘I don’t know why. This is smarter and will hold more,’ she said.
    ‘Mine holds enough, thank you, Mrs Dover, and I like it.’
    ‘Hey, are you going to take your tin hat, Johnny? You might need it in London,’ Annie said when they were packing. He grabbed the nearest pillow and threw it at her.
    They left the house on Saturday morning with Mrs Dover’s voice following them down the garden path. ‘Be careful on the roads up there.’
    ‘That’s rich, that is,’ Johnny said when they had turned the corner, ‘worrying about the London traffic when there’s bombs blowing up all around you.’
    ‘Johnny, you do exaggerate. Come on, let’s run, I can’t wait to get there.’
    On the station waiting for the London train she said suddenly, ‘Does this sound absolutely awful to you? I’m hoping there will be a raid while we’re there. Just a little one, not people getting killed or injured, but German planes coming over and our guns shooting at them. Think how exciting it would be, Johnny?’
    Johnny, whose thoughts about the weekend at home had not been along those lines felt amazed for a few moments. Fancy wanting to go into danger like that just for the hell of it. Annie was quite a girl.
    Mrs Bookman was at Paddington station to meet them. She threw an arm round each very quickly, then